How SAP LeanIX drove $800K in pipeline within 6 weeks of adopting UserGems

Watch this video to learn what success has looked like with UserGems for Erik Taylor, Head of Global Business Development, LeanIX, and the rest of the team. Or keep reading for the full story.

So, what brought LeanIX to UserGems?

Here’s the short and sweet version:

Challenge: LeanIX recognized the value of reconnecting with customers familiar with their SaaS solution when they joined new companies that fit their target criteria. But tracking and reconnecting with these former customers on the move manually on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and spreadsheets was challenging.

Solution: After the UserGem’s data test, LeanIX discovered the need for a systematic approach to tracking former buyer job changes had resulted in missing out on thousands of ideal personas. LeanIX went ahead to adopt UserGems buyer job change software immediately.

Results: “We paid off most of our full investment in the first six weeks. The next 11 months will be pure profit,” Erik says.

The problem

LeanIX, an enterprise software architecture tool, needed a more efficient and automated process for tracking former customers on the move to new companies.

“It’s a massive task to manage 50,000 contacts manually. The challenge amplifies as the number of contacts increases. We attempted to build a manual solution using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and spreadsheets,” Erik recounts.

“The process was you go into Salesforce, find each individual reps territory, export those accounts into a spreadsheet. And then you import that list into Sales Navigator. You do the same for all your customer accounts. And you keep checking these lists on a regular basis,” he continues.

This solution meant LeanIX reps had to act as forensic accountants and pore through thousands of contacts on Excel.

Erik adds, “It was literally an impossible thing to do at scale manually. So we kind of just gave up. And I'm not someone that gives up easily.”

LeanIX’s manual process meant:

They missed numerous potential contacts
And it was difficult to scale and handle their growing database of contacts

Asides from these challenges, LeanIX’s BDR program was already successful. But Erik had a lingering suspicion they were leaving a lot on the table. And could generate much more pipeline.

Why track buyer job changes with UserGems?

“For almost every SaaS company (including us), we have tens of thousands of happy customers and people who know us. They’ve worked with us before, maybe they’ve evaluated us before. And we know they’re always moving around to new companies,” he explains.

Erik continues, “Additionally, using a pipeline generation tool like UserGems enables us to fill in the whitespaces in accounts. This gives the BDRs a full account map of everyone they should be reaching out to on a deal.”

So, it made sense for the LeanIX team to adopt the UserGems tool.

Fun fact: Erik got UserGem’d because he used UserGems at his last company. “When the UserGems ADR team reached out to me as I started my new role, I knew there was value in the solution,” Erik quips.

Onboarding & implementation

LeanIX was up and running within ten business days.

“We had a dedicated and highly responsive Customer Success Manager (CSM) And within day one of the Sales training, we had a booked meeting,” Erik says.

He continues, “That was funny to see. I shared my screen during the training and showed an ideal UserGems generated contact based in Belgium to our EMEA team. And said, ‘This is the kind of information coming. So, be ready for launch day.’”

“Rather than waiting, the rep responsible for that territory took a screenshot and, unbeknownst to me, booked a meeting with that prospect even before we sent the data. So, technically, we started building pipeline with UserGems even before we went live.”

UserGems integrates directly into Salesforce. And this made it easier for the BDR team to adopt as they didn’t need to learn a separate platform.

“Reps just log into Salesforce. And the new leads are right there for them to work. We built a custom component on our existing Salesforce team dashboards. And everyone knows exactly where to look to start reaching out to UserGems prospects,” Erik explains.

Results

Using UserGems, Erik’s team made great strides with its former buyer job changes program within the first six weeks.

✅ $800K in UserGems influenced pipeline

✅ $120K in forecastable revenue with a close rate of 15%

✅ One closed won opp. for $33K

✅ 200% ROI based on their initial investment of $65K

Erik says,” We’ve almost paid off our full investment in UserGems in the first six weeks.”

The early success meant LeanIX was confident UserGems was the right solution. But that’s not the only reason Erik and the LeanIX team can’t stop purring about UserGems.

“It’s so easy to implement. The direct integration to Salesforce means ‘UserGems isn't shelfware. It integrates so perfectly into our existing processes,” Erik quips.

He continues, “Plus with UserGems, we:

Now automate the job change tracking process, allowing our reps to focus on outreach and building relationships
Are able to scale more effectively and manage contact data across the organization
Now see engagement rates three or four times higher than our traditional outbound methods.”

How LeanIX runs their buyer job change playbook

To get the best out of its buyer job change program, LeanIX set its sights on the following persona:

Closed Lost
Closed Won & Open opportunities
And champions within customer accounts.

Once any persona from these groups changes jobs to a target account, the LeanIX BDR immediately reaches out.

“We have 32 global reps. And UserGems syncs with LeanData and makes sure each UserGems opp is put in the correct territory. From there, everybody knows the process for reaching out with the right messaging and tone,” Erik explains.

From there, the messaging is slightly customized according to the type of UserGems opp.

He says, “The first email is customized depending on whether it was a Closed Won, Closed Lost, or Customer Champion . We then have one more email that's semi customized. Typically, it's the fourth email. So throughout the cadence, it reads naturally because most of the emails and cadences are follow ups. Or a bump — a reply to your previous email if you haven't gotten a response yet.”

Erik continues, “Usually most of our cadences are three or four weeks and they'll have six or seven emails, 10 or 11 phone calls and a LinkedIn message somewhere in there. And it works really well for us.”

One UserGems tip

Erik’s one tip for anyone looking to invest in the UserGems buyer job change tool:

“Think about who you want to track before you start implementing. Who are your real champions? The UserGems CSM team can be helpful during this period by giving you multiple sample sets of what your data looks like.”

One Business Development tip

We ask every customer we interview for a tip for someone in a similar role.

Here’s Erik’s tip for Business Development leaders:

“In sales, you've gotta take big swings. Initially we were only going to invest in the first use case, job tracking. We were able to justify the second investment in account mapping, UserGems second functionality. Both use cases provide a ton of ROI. Don't make the mistake of thinking that all UserGems can do for you is job tracking. We're already considering even further investment in account mapping.”