RFPIO is a business that really understands how important it is to streamline any process — it’s an RFP automation solution that streamlines the RFP process. 

So, it's not surprising that Bobby Chapman, Director of Global Business Development, and Clarice Groendal, Marketing Operations Manager, have used UserGems to streamline and grow RFPIO over the past 11 months. 

RFPIO’s business development team has had some great successes in a short while using UserGem’s automated pipeline generation playbooks. They’ve improved outbound sales, team productivity, sales and marketing alignment, and more.

We’ve shared their team’s successes, learnings, and how your revenue team can use UserGems to achieve similar outcomes below.

Get everyone singing the same song

RFPIO had gone from focusing primarily on inbound marketing to expanding its outbound initiatives to reach new customers. 

“RFPIO has a ton of inbound interest with a great marketing organization and demand generation team — they generate tons of leads for us. So, we have a very healthy inbound pipeline. But we needed to grow even further through outbound,” Bobby explains. 

But expanding an outbound program puts pressure on operations and processes. 

“From an operations standpoint, that brings challenges both in our systems and with our processes with our staff in ramping them up and learning how to do outbound,” Clarice adds. 

Bobby had just joined RFPIO. And the first thing he did was take inventory of the tech stack. 

“When I first joined RFPIO, I found out the team hadn’t been working UserGems leads properly. The BDRs didn't understand where these leads were coming from or how to use them. So we immediately engaged our Customer Success Manager, Justine Wares,” Bobby says.

“Justine set up training sessions to help us better understand what the UserGems leads are, how to use them to accelerate our outbound sales process, and how companies similar to us have been successful with these leads.” he continues. “Her training was amazing! We took it a step further. And internally, we did some real-life plays as a team.”

Clarice adds, “We rolled out UserGems during a time of turnover on our SDR and leadership team. These turnovers resulted in communication breakdowns in addition to SDRs who had previously solely focused on working on inbound leads now having to start the new outbound motion. It was a rocky period. But Justine is so generous with her time, always willing to jump in and share best practices with the team.”

BONUS: Justine’s training sessions and RFPIO’s internal sessions helped two SDRs get promoted due to their success with the UserGems outbound campaigns. 

The early days: RFPIO’s first UserGems initiative

Having improved their understanding of buyer job movements and how to use them in their outbound campaigns, Bobby and the team’s first task was revisiting UserGems leads they had received in the last few months. 

“The great thing about a UserGems lead is there's no timeline.” Says Bobby. “There's no urgency to reach out to the lead because they're not expecting your phone call. We can take our time. We can do full research. We can work up customized messaging.”

“We can make it very direct (like laser-focused)on what we're trying to accomplish by reaching out to that customer individually. We took a full month preparing for the first UserGem campaign because there was no emergency. And we could actually be strategic in our outreach. And as the numbers state, it yielded results,” he continues.

“The technical end of things was one piece of the outbound program launch that went seamlessly. The Salesforce integration works better than most. And the documentation UserGems provided was very helpful,” Clarice adds with a smile.

Turning RFPIO’s automated pipeline generation engine into a high ROI playbook

RFPIO operates within a highly competitive industry. So, they needed to ensure UserGems was set up and optimized for long-term success.

Bobby and his team held weekly UserGem review meetings to understand:

• Where they saw success
• What sort of messaging was the team using in their outbound sequences
• And the level of research that went into each UserGems lead. 

“Research is the most critical part of the UserGems lead engagement process,” says Bobby. “The very first email is 100% blank; SDRs are expected to write a fully crafted custom email. The second email is the exact same way. It's 100% blank. We automate some of the middle steps because we do want to keep the messaging going as the SDRs only have so much time in the day.”

“There are several phone calls throughout the process that are built upon the notes they gathered during the research stage. These notes ensure the SDRS are laser-focused on that one customer. And can have an intelligent conversation when they do make the connection.”

Sales teams who use UserGems get a monthly batch of pipeline opportunities. So Bobby ensured the team understood that these customer job change leads were high priority and needed special attention. 

“There’s no SLA with our UserGems leads. If an SDR gets 30 UserGems on July 7th, they don’t have to work through all 30 by July 8th. We do our normal day of inbound and other outbound leads. Then we get to our UserGems leads. And that’s where we really take our time,” Bobby explains. 

“We have to be diligent in our research, take good notes, and have great talking points. We also have to fully understand what's going on with the customer by understanding their journey, their responsibilities at their last company and the new company, and relate that to our messaging as we're doing our outreach,” he continues.

Triple outbound performance, increased team efficiency

RFPIO’s use of UserGems tripled their outbound performance in one quarter.

“Our goal for 2022 is 80% inbound and 20% outbound,” says Bobby. “By the beginning of Q2 this year, we were at 3% globally for outbound. By the end of Q2, we were at 9% globally! We tripled our entire outbound in one quarter. And we’re looking to double it in Q3.”

The results speak for themselves: “We’ve seen a 500% increase in North American outbound performance in Q2. And a 350% increase in EMEA and APAC. Plus, 50% of those new outbound leads that contributed to the phenomenal growth were generated through UserGems,” Bobby continues. 

Imagine the impact these numbers would have on any business. 

Bobby adds, “Our SDRs were also excited to get up and running. With UserGems, the SDRs feel like they have a little more control over their destiny with the leads once they are put into the sequences, and they can start to work on them.”

Incredible white-glove service from the UserGems Customer Success team

For Bobby, going from underutilized to a top-performing tool has been the best part of working with UserGems (asides from the ROI 😉).

“We have a big tech stack. And sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get people on a call to do enablement or answer a couple of quick questions. With UserGems, all we need to do is email Justine, and she’ll send something back immediately or offers to jump on a call and talk about it. So it's fantastic communication with the UserGems team,” says Bobby.

 Clarice adds, “Justine also knows how to use the tool. It’s frustrating when I'm working with a CSM who doesn’t understand the technical aspects of the tool.”

Pointers for anyone looking to implement UserGems

Bobby firmly believes UserGems is a smart way to automate outbound pipeline generation.

“UserGem leads, in my opinion, are fully outbound. So what I would tell teams is, if you're looking to strategically bring new companies in your portfolio from an outbound perspective, UserGems is a fantastic tool.”

Are you ready to get a sales pipeline boost that’s zero effort and always on? Book a demo.