Timea Szabo, Head of Demand Generation at Blink, is in charge of generating qualified opportunities for the sales team, working closely with their Head of Sales, Peter Durkin. Timea looks after the performance marketing department and the sales development reps from a processes and systems perspective while Peter looks after the team from a management perspective. Blink came to Predictable Revenue for an Outbound Consultation designed to answer key questions, solve key issues, and help them achieve their goals around the outbound sales development function.

Before Predictable Revenue

The number one priority for Blink in 2021 was “to enter the US market and really make a splash there.” To do so, the Blink team needed to know if the outbound function would work as their go-to-market mechanism. They had recently hired four SDRs in the UK, one in Australia, and were looking to hire more in the US. As they continued to scale the organization and bring it into the US, they wanted to ensure that “the processes and the successes that [they] put in place didn’t break.” Timea and Peter also wanted to learn how to appropriately adapt and optimize their past strategies, understand “the type of personas and the type of copy and messaging that [they] should be using to enter that market,” Additionally they also wanted to get “more clarity on how to make sure inbound SDRs are hitting their targets and following best practices too.”

Timea and Peter wanted to understand “the type of personas and the type of copy and messaging that [they] should be using to enter that market,” and get “more clarity on how to make sure inbound SDRs are hitting their targets and following best practices too.”

Goals

To ensure the engagement was as efficient as possible, we asked them to come up with 3 clear questions they wanted answered by the Predictable Revenue team.

Blink’s questions were as follows:

1. How do we make outbound work as a GTM mechanism in the US?
2. What is an inbound SDR role at Blink?
3. How do we get clarity around our funnel and metrics?

We also asked Blink to come up with 3 goals that they were aiming to achieve in 3, 6, and 9 months respectively. Those goals were:

1. 3 months: Hire outbound SDRs that live in the US
2. 6 months: Optimize inbound and have clearer metrics and reporting
3. 9 months: Achieve predictable revenue

“We have now hired and onboarded 2 USA SDRs and our first US-only campaign was a huge success with 88% response rate.”

The Result

Looking back at the first question for the engagement, how do we make outbound work as a GTM mechanism in the US? Timea says Blink can check that one off the list. “We have now hired and onboarded 2 USA SDRs and our first US-only campaign was a huge success with 88% response rate, 3 closed won customers and an estimated $134,600.00 qualified sales pipeline from one campaign alone. We’re successfully cornered our “niche” in a sector, thanks to Predictable Revenue, and looking to expand from there.”

The second question, what is an inbound SDR at Blink? is answered and on its way to being implemented. Blink now has a clear idea of what targets a rep should have, and reps are on track to hit those targets for the second quarter in a row. Timea shared that Blink has clarity on this and that activity from inbound has just brought in one of the largest deals Blink has ever signed. “Our inbound SDR is focused not only on getting in touch with prospects who have dropped off before booking a demo, but also building out accounts from business intent data and prospecting them similar to an outbound outreach.”

As for the last question, how do we get clarity around our funnel and metrics? Predictable Revenue “has steered [Blink] in a direction where [they] now have better clarity on the important KPIs [they] should be tracking. We are using funnel metrics from activity metrics and tracking how they translate from calls/emails to meaningful conversations, disco/demos booked, and sales qualified opportunities. We are also tracking how each deal is pacing towards getting qualified by the AEs and understand where the bottlenecks are in the qualification process.”

3 months after the initial engagement, Blink’s 3-month goal of having outbound SDRs live in the US has already been met. Their 6-month goal of having inbound optimized and having clearer metrics and reporting is right on track and with the implementation of the expert advice received during the Outbound Consultation, achieving the 9-month goal of having Predictable Revenue is within reach.

Conclusion

Blink had a lofty goal for 2021: to expand into the US market and do it well.

Timea and Peter knew that they had many of the pieces in place to achieve this goal, but they needed some help to make sure that when they scaled their go-to-market organization, they could continue on a successful path. This involved figuring out how to increase headcount effectively (they are still hiring for AE roles and SDRs roles!), understanding their funnel and which metrics they should be tracking, and how the inbound function would dovetail with the outbound one.

After the outbound consultation with Predictable Revenue, Blink is confident that all their questions are answered and that their goals are well on their way to being achieved. The 4 deals that have closed as a result of implementing our advice certainly back up that claim.