Case Studies

Their bet paid off – Activation Systems grew steadily for years, based entirely on attendance at select trade shows and some really impressive word-of-mouth referrals. Their work was so good, clients came to them. It was a beautiful thing.

While that hard-won success supported that initial phase of the company, Activation Systems’ leadership knew their growth method wouldn’t sustain them into the future. They needed to scale, but they needed help.

They needed Predictable Revenue.

Robert Howell, Vice-President and Partner at Activation Systems, had read Predictable Revenue while pursuing his MBA, and figured he’d reach out to the people behind the book. If anyone could help them establish an outbound program, he thought Predictable Revenue could.

Because they were just dipping their toe into outbound, Activation Systems had fairly conservative expectations, and no real context for how long it takes to build an outbound machine. So, they figured if they could just sign one outbound deal over the course of a year, the experiment would have been worth it.

“We went in saying ‘let’s just try to break even on the investment,'” says Howell.

“It can take years to close a deal in our industry. But we started seeing positive responses in our second month working with Predictable Revenue. By month four we knew that we could expect meetings every single week.”

“At the end of the day, we’re a somewhat small business and, for us, if we can break even on it than that would have been good enough for an experiment. I mean, if we can’t land one client, then we have bigger problems with our company.”

What they got far exceeded their expectations.

The Predictable Revenue Accelerate Team took the time to educate Activation Systems on the ins and outs of outbound, intimately learned their niche, refined their messaging, and, ultimately, delivered results that blew just “breaking even” out of the water.

Since starting with Predictable Revenue, Activation Systems has received 377 handoffs, signed a $50,000 deal (less than a year into the partnership), and just recently closed a deal for $1,275,000.

That’s right, $1,275,000.

“It became predictable – meetings were just arriving to our inbox.”

And there’s plenty more where that came from. Activation Systems’ current pipeline from Predictable Revenue sourced opportunities sits at a whopping $17,000,000.

“It’s massive right now,” says Howell.

“Of course, we know that’s not all those are going to close. But even if 10% of those closed, we’ll be in an absolutely great position.”

Not too bad for a company that just wanted to break even in their first year. But that’s the thing with outbound sales – it can provide incremental revenue like no other revenue source. It just takes time to get the wheels in motion. Once it gets moving, though, it just doesn’t stop.

“You just have to trust the process, because it works.”

“Imagine being introduced to 377 potential clients in a year and a half. It’s huge. We’ve looked at our other lead sources – trade shows and word-of-mouth referrals. Those are all great sources, but Predictable Revenue blows it out of the water by long shot,” says Howell.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

  • 377 Handoffs
  • $50,000 First deal with less than a year into the partnership
  • $1,275,000  Recently closed deal

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No matter how much we wish that wasn’t the case (who wouldn’t want to sprint to new revenue if they could choose, right?).

This is the situation growing healthcare technology provider Kemberton found itself in summer 2017. Growth was the mandate – 20% – 25%, year over year for four years was the target – but hiring a network of high-priced outside sales reps with deep rolodexes wasn’t an option. That route was too expensive and too slow.

They had grown to an $8,000,000 company with one salesperson and the founders doing predominately relationship selling. Impressive numbers, to be sure. But what Kemberton needed now was to generate consistent pipeline, at scale.

Kemberton needed outbound prospectors.

The only trouble was, no one at the company had ever built an outbound team before. So in his quest to learn the sales development ropes, Bob Donnelly, Chief Revenue Officer at Kemberton, picked up a copy of Predictable Revenue. He shared it with George Abatjoglou, Kemberton’s Chief Executive Officer, and the two figured “why not reach out to the guy who wrote the book?”

Starting from scratch…and stumbling out of the gate

Before contacting Aaron and The Predictable Revenue Team, Kemberton had no sales development infrastructure in place – no team, no tools, no methodology. It was a blank slate.

“Everything was based on relationships. All $8 million in revenue up until that point,” says Bob.

“Do your homework. It takes a lot of time, and trial and error to nail your niche and sharpen your messaging.”

“You are not going to get this overnight. But, you have to stick to the process and it will work out.”

“And that, in a way, was good because we could set out to build the team we wanted to. We had this lump of clay and we wanted to mold it. And Aaron’s book gave us the template for how to mold it.”

So, the Kemberton team signed up for a Predictable University boot camp, to learn the outbound blueprint, and worked with Aaron and the Predictable Revenue Group Coaching Team directly to refine their messaging, their cadence, and general outbound sales process.

And although that coaching helped establish a solid foundation to work from, Kemberton stumbled when they first launched their outbound team. Things just didn’t click.

“We didn’t get ramped up as quickly as I thought. We thought we could jam a square peg in a round hole by having different people try outbound here and there, and it didn’t work,” says Bob.

“But then we realized that that was in our company, in operations, that was perfect. They’re used to being on the phone, and they know our organization. That turned out to be where we really landed, and that’s when things ever took off.”

Trusting the process

Stumbling out of the gate can be a tough pill to swallow for any organization. Building an outbound team is an investment, and recouping that investment – and, hopefully, much more – is always a priority for a company building an outbound team.

But, again, a marathon takes time. At a minimum, you’re looking at 6 months of building your outbound team before results start to come in. Realistically, it could take twice that long.

“Aaron told us it could take 6 – 12 months. I was hoping it wasn’t going to be 12 months. I was hoping we would be the ones to get it right. I thought: ‘how hard can this be?’ But to refine the technique, the message, and the approach – there is just attention to details that I had no idea was needed,” says Bob.

“The devil is in the details. And we looked at every detail when we started building this thing.”

So, despite the number of animated rocket ships used to illustrate revenue growth, building an outbound team is more akin to learning to ride a bike rather than blasting off to the moon.

Moving the needle

Whatever tweaks Alex and his team of two SDRs have been making…it’s working. Since taking over the outbound team in early 2018 (more than 6 months after Kemberton began building its outbound team in August 2017), the company has seen tremendous results:

Increasing their outbound investment

The success of Kemberton’s outbound team has forced the company to completely rethink its sales model. To continue fueling its growth, Kemberton plans to hire 2 more SDRs in 2019 and focus its marketing department on creating engaging content that Alex’s team can use to improve their prospecting.

“We will only hire additional outside sales people when the existing reps can’t keep up with the demand of leads generated by our SDRs. And we will add another 2 SDRs in 2019,” says Bob.

“We are committed to adding to Alex’s team. This is going to be the command center of the sales organization.”

Advice to others

Although the struggles to get their outbound team up and running tested the patience of the Kemberton team, it was that experience that helped them see the value of investing in outbound, having a dedicated team own the process, and, ultimately, the power of effective prospecting.

“Do your homework. It takes a lot of time, and trial and error to nail your niche and sharpen your messaging,” says Alex.

“You are not going to get this overnight. But, you have to stick to the process and it will work out.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

  •  Closed $1,000,000 annual deal

  •  Closed $350,000 annual deal, on 2-year commitment

  •  Have 2 Vendor-Of-Choice contracts on the precipice of closing, totaling $415,000 annually

  •  Executed 133 AWAF calls

  •  Passed 39 SQLs to Kemberton AEs

  •  Created 10 opportunities

  •  Generated $3,600,000 in pipeline

Kemberton’s HIGHLIGHTS

  • 100 cadence starts (accounts)

  • 500 dials

  • 100 call connects (in which Kemberton reps learn something about the prospect)

  • 12 AWAF calls

  • 4  SQLs

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Brian Neman, CEO of Sanguine Biosciences was looking for growth.  His SDR team wasn’t producing meetings and so his sales reps were trying to find prospects for themselves. Unfortunately, these were highly trained pharma reps that were used to closing and not prospecting so their results were mixed.

“I knew that we could close deals if I, or another team member, did the presentation. But, we needed a machine that could turn over quality leads to us,” says Neman.

Predictable Revenue’s Accelerate team turned about to be the machine he needed.

“My recommendation for early stage companies, where the best sales person on the team is a co-founder or CEO, is don’t hire any SDRS. Just go with Predictable Revenue, save yourself the time and the money,” says Neman.

“Using mobile technology to solve complex clinical trial challenges and make lives better for patients is at the heart of everything we do. We are passionate about empowering patients to help advance medical research.”

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the most critical component for any business looking to increase revenue and scale their team is qualified leads.

A never ending stream of qualified leads.

Acquiring those leads, however, requires a specific skill set and complete devotion to prospecting. A sales team of Account Executives, however skilled, isn’t enough.

They’re trained to close, not hunt.

This is the situation Brian Neman, Co-Founder and CEO of Los Angeles based Sanguine, found himself in just one year ago. He had small company, with a small but-highly skilled group of Account Executives. They knew their niche well, Sanguine connects patients to appropriate clinical trials, and sells specifically to scientists at large pharma companies.

The only trouble was those AEs didn’t have enough leads to close. They weren’t doing enough prospecting. As a result, Sanguine was starting to feel the pinch and Neman needed to do something about it.

The company needed to increase its pipeline, and fast. Sanguine needed Predictable Revenue.

“I knew that we could close deals if I, or another team member, did the presentation. But, we needed a machine that could turn over quality leads to us,” says Neman.

Since becoming a client just one year ago, Sanguine has already seen a positive return on its investment, with plenty more deals in the pipeline. And Neman predicts that return could be as high as 3-5X, once the sales cycles on the deals in the pipeline close.

And although it was an immediate need for qualified leads that led Neman to Predictable Revenue, the benefits of the company’s expertise and its team of skilled Account Strategists has extended well beyond Sanguine’s bottom line.

Predictable Revenue’s team has kept Neman and his colleagues motivated, worked tirelessly to nail down the right messaging for each outbound campaign, and led brainstorming sessions anytime new ideas were needed.

“Jason (Sanguine’s Account Strategist at Predictable Revenue) knows what he has to deliver to us 5 – 10 leads per week. And, we come up with different strategies to tweak that each week,” says Neman.

“Overall, our experience has been very focused. The good thing about having an account manager is that they can tailor the campaign. They can bring you back to center. We work with a very conservative group of individuals. They aren’t okay, for example, with ‘hey, what’s up?’ in emails. Much more formal introductions and conversations is needed. The verbiage has to be that way.”

The mentorship and focus that Predictable Revenue provides is a boon to any growth minded company, Neman adds. In fact, he believes every small company eager to grow should take advantage their services.

Predictable Revenue has the experience, the tools and the resources necessary to get you the leads you, sometimes desperately, need.

“My recommendation for early stage companies, where the best sales person on the team is a co-founder or CEO, is don’t hire any SDRS. Just go with Predictable Revenue, save yourself the time and the money,” says Neman.

“The logistical aspect of sending 100s of emails per day isn’t the best use of CEO time. You need a machine to do that, and Predictable Revenue is our machine.”

SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

  • FROM 0 ⇢ 10 MEETINGS PER WEEK
  • 5x ROI ⇢  PORTFOLIO COMPANIES IMPLEMENTING PREDICTABLE REVENUE AS AN OUTBOUND SALES BEST PRACTICE 

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Selling into the construction industry is a different challenge than most of our customers face. It’s heavily relationship driven, requires highly specialized salespeople, and tends to have very long sales cycles. It’s also reliant, heavily so, on knowing who has a project coming down the pipeline and when we’ll be able to bid on it.

When AMG Engineering first approached us, I was skeptical because my previous experience of prospecting into this industry (as an Account Executive) was challenging due to the technical nature of the products we sold.

But the more I looked at our customer base, the more I realized that the prospectors didn’t need to possesss this specialized sales knowledge as long as we had someone to guide them. 10 months later, AMG has made the leap from waiting for projects to proactively hunting for new business and the results have been impressive.

In just 10 months, Predictable Revenue’s Accelerate Team supported AMG Engineering with:

94 Handoffs (leads)

$415,000 Pipeline Value

$151,124 Closed Deal Value

 

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: your company, like every company, wants to grow.

But, it relies on almost entirely on repeat business and the occasional referral. Compounding the issue is no formalized outbound sales process, and no resources devoted to designing one (let alone actually getting on the phone and drumming up business).

And so, that desired growth never happens.

Sure, some quarters, and some years, will be great. Repeat business will do that. But at other times, your clients won’t have new projects on the horizon. Your sales, as a result,  just won’t be there. And you’ll be forced to ride the ups and downs of that process. There’s just no predictability.

Life Before Predictable Revenue

This is the place AMG Engineering, an Ohio-based full service engineering firm, found itself in April last year. And they were looking for a change.

“We knew for a long time that we were not doing a lot of the right things when it came to our business development efforts. We didn’t really have an organized and documented system for pursuing leads outside of our existing client set,” says Julieta Mendez Davis, Chief Financial Officer at AMG Engineering.

“We realized if we want to grow on the trajectory we intended, there is no way that 100% of that growth is going to come from that existing client set. So, we knew that both our inbound marketing as well as our outbound sales strategy would have to contribute towards bringing in a stable pipeline flow of new clients.”

AMG had, here and there, dabbled in outbound sales, but to no success. The company had purchased lists from data providers, but never actively worked those leads. Some got called, most didn’t. There was no process to adhere to; no guiding outbound sales principles to set the foundation.

“It wasn’t very methodical,” adds Davis.

“The change needed was creating a method, and knowing we have to take it as seriously as we take our inbound leads.”

Life With Predictable Revenue

Enter the Predictable Revenue Accelerate Team.

Since signing on with Predictable Revenue last April, AMG has, with the guidance of a dedicated Predictable Revenue strategist, established an air-tight outbound sales process, refined its messaging, and, most importantly, had brand new pipeline to work.

“It’s all about having a process, having a method,” says Davis.

“And we knew we didn’t have any know how on how to begin that process, how to standardize it, and make it into something that we could incorporate as a real workflow.”

And the results? Predictable Revenue’s Accelerate Team provided AMG with nearly 100 handoffs. Of those, almost 70% engaged in discussions with AMG, a dozen expressed interest in pursuing projects in the near-term future, and one $125,000 deal closed within the first few months.

Oh, and AMG also has $415,000 generated from Predictable Revenue-led prospecting still to close.

“We looked at everything when we started evaluating companies to help us. And, we came to the conclusion that, after seeing a demo, that Predictable Revenue was the choice,” says Davis.

“There was process, and a guarantee of the volume that Predictable Revenue will execute on. We really like that Predictable Revenue had measurable targets, and measurable results that will be followed through on.”

Needless to say: the days of up and down, unpredictable growth that used to plague AMG are a thing of the past.

AMG has since transitioned to using Predictable Revenue’s software, and their success has even allowed them to bring on an internal rep to handle leads part-time.

Simply put, AMG got the standardized, predictable sales machine it needed.

“The biggest impact is having a new lead channel that we can rely on,” says Davis.

“Before I wouldn’t even call outbound a lead channel. It was the occasional, accidental outbound sale.”

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Part of their magic comes from the Growth Factors team where each member has built and scaled multiple sales teams to record breaking sales growth and eventual business exit.

If there is one thing – one critical, utterly unavoidable thing – that ties all growth minded companies together regardless of size, revenue or vertical it’s a need for leads.

Targeted, qualified, ready-to-talk leads.

The fast-growing portfolio companies of Bregal Sagemount, a $2 billion private equity firm based in new York City, are no exception to this rule.

In fact, with an ever-growing roster of investments in soon-to-be vertical-defining SaaS companies of all stripes, the need for consistent outbound leads for the Bregal Sagemount portfolio is crucial. The goal is an ambitious one: triple digit revenue growth for each of their portfolio companies.

Bregal Sagemount needs its portfolio companies to grow, and they need them to grow now.  Headed by Curt Witte, their Growth Factors team embeds a small team into each of their companies to bring best practices, proven vendors, and an unrelenting drive to push each other to grow faster.

They turned to Predictable Revenue’s Accelerate team because we could drive results quickly without them having to invest in standing up a large SDR team.

Within just three months of Bregal Sagemount and Predictable Revenue working together, those impressive targets have already been hit. Predictable Revenue not only delivers on aggressive growth targets, but produces them immediately.

For example, MOBI, a Bregal Sagemount portfolio company focused on centralizing wireless mobility programs for enterprise clients, has already seen a 10X jump in booked meetings with Predictable Revenue.

“The team was booking between 3 to 5 meetings per month before Predictable Revenue. Now, we’re over 30,” says Brian Wilson, Portfolio Operations Associate at Bregal Sagemount.

“And we did that in the first 90 days. It was a pretty tight timeframe. It was awesome.”

“To date, they’ve booked 43 opportunities for MOBI. But, wait, it gets better. MOBI sells to the enterprise – each of these opportunities is worth at least $250,000 per year.”

“Most deals are early stage, but some have already made it to proposal,” adds Wilson.

“We’re hoping to see revenue from those shortly.”

And the impact from Predictable Revenue hasn’t stopped there. Predictable Revenue’s expert Account Strategists have worked closely with the Bregal Sagemount team to share best practices, continuously expand and adjust outbound programs, and respond to the needs of their clients whenever called upon.

“The iterative nature of working with Predictable Revenue to continuously improve the nature of the outbound contacts that are made has been terrific,” says Witte.

“We’ve seen tremendous results.”

And for the future? Well, Bregal Sagemount is banking on more of the same. Predictable Revenue is already working Connectria, RDX, & MOBI, and Bregal Sagemount plans to have each of its 20 portfolio companies partner with Predictable Revenue for its sales development function.

After all, growth minded companies always need leads. And that’s what Predictable Revenue does.

“We are super excited and super grateful to be partnered with Collin [Stewart] and Meena [Sandhu] and all of the folks at Predictable Revenue that we work with that generate huge results for our portfolio companies,” says Casey Kerr,

“We can’t say enough good things about Predictable Revenue. We are now scaling it to all 20 of our companies and making it a best practice.”

 SOME HIGHLIGHTS:

10x

43

20

 Jump in monthly booked meetings, from 3 to more than 30, for Bregal Sagemount portfolio company, MOBI

Enterprise opportunities, each valued a minimum of $250,000 per year, in the MOBI pipeline

 

Portfolio companies implementing Predictable Revenue as an outbound sales best practice.

 

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