How SeekOut uses UserGems to generate net new pipeline

TL;DR:

Or watch this video to learn how Lance Thompson, Technical Sales Operations Manager, SeekOut, and the rest of the SeekOut revenue team measure the success of their UserGems program.

Keep reading below for the whole story.

So, what brought SeekOut to UserGems?

Here’s the condensed version:

Challenge: Before UserGems, SeekOut found it challenging to take advantage of its massive database of recruiters. A well-known recruitment platform within the recruiting community, they had many recruiter users who had changed jobs (“Gems”) in the past few years.

Solution: SeekOut turned to UserGems - a buyer job change solution for revenue teams with aggressive targets - to enable the revenue team to capture recruiter job changes and automate outreach.

Results: With UserGems, SeekOut has seen 5X ROI in the first year. By keeping tabs on their recruiter users who changed jobs, SeekOut’s revenue team also unlocked pipeline opportunities in companies that were previously off their radar.

The problem

Founded in 2016 out of a need to help companies create a holistic recruiting strategy, SeekOut hardly needs an introduction. More than just a strategic recruiting platform, the brand is known as an excellent database for sourcing underrepresented talent.

But they had hit a snag.

This isn’t discussed enough, but recruiters change jobs often. And being a well-known recruiting platform meant SeekOut had a vast database of recruiter users who had moved companies in recent years. But they had no process for tracking this buyer job changes effectively.

As Lance, SeekOut’s Technical Sales Ops Manager, says, “We weren’t proactive about this pipeline channel. We only reacted if/when a former customer at a new role came to us. So it was untapped potential.”

“This wasn’t effective. And we weren’t top of mind with these new companies where we had a great shot at getting new business,” he continues.

Meghan Foley, SeekOut’s VP of Sales Development, adds, “In the past we did try to track users who changed organizations via LinkedIn SalesNav. But it wasn’t scalable. It just didn’t work.”

Here’s how UserGems helped SeekOut solve these issues.

The solution

“We first heard of UserGems through a friend of our Chief Revenue Officer, Kristin Scott, who recommended the buyer job change software due to the success they had using it for pipeline generation,” Meghan recounts.

With a favorable recommendation and a nagging need to take advantage of a burgeoning pipeline channel, SeekOut set its sights on two use cases after onboarding UserGems:

End users
Decision makers on Closed Won deals

Meghan explains, “We started with these two groups. We’ve since gone on to add decision makers on Closed Lost deals. And have started testing tracking ideal contacts at key customers and target accounts that we’re missing in our database.”

UserGems' value proposition made it easier to get team buy-in.

“Derek Wang, Sales Manager at UserGems and Jordan Kilmer, our UserGems Customer Success Manager did a great job with the initial training and explaining how the use case works. But the core value of these are people that already know us, have purchased SeekOut before and seen success already makes immediate sense,” Lance recalled. “So, we made sure to make it as easy as possible for the team to see these UserGems opportunities in Salesforce and action them.”

The results?

Real growth.

“We created healthy pipeline right away. We saw an ROI of 5x what we paid in the first year,” says Lance.

Within one year, SeekOut…

Created $1.5M worth of UserGems influenced-pipeline right away
Generated directly-attributable revenue worth 5X the cost of UserGems
And saw a 15 -25% reply rate on their email outreach

“This is our best outbound pipeline generation tool. Within the first quarter of rollout, it was obvious we would at least get back our investment. And by the following quarter, sales were already on a decent run,” Lance recalls.

But that’s not all of it.

The SDR team was palpably excited.

“When the SDRs get excited about a certain day of the month because it’s UserGems day, and they jump on the leads when they come in because they know they’re getting meetings, you know the engagement is worth it,” says Meghan.

She continues,”When we review the Opportunities and pipeline created directly from people who came from UserGems, I am confident our decision to purchase the buyer job change tool was the right one.”

How SeekOut runs the buyer job change play

SeekOut treats UserGems as an evergreen outbound campaign that runs monthly. The leads are delivered directly to the SDR team instead of going through their MQL process.

“Our MQLs are surfaced when they request a demo, or reach a scoring threshold. But UserGems acts as an Outbound source. UserGems leads that don’t respond right away do become MQLs. But most of our success with these Gems have come from Outbound efforts towards them,” explains Lance.

“We identify these leads with Salesforce reports showing Opportunity Contact Roles to surface the decision makers on deals we’ve won or lost. And have information on Assets.Contacts who are previous users,” he continues.

As one of SeekOut’s high-priority Outbound programs, SDRs are expected to action and follow up with all of their Gems.

“We use LeanData for routing. This depends on whether the Gem are already customers or in an Opportunity already. Our SDRs have a view in SFDC to sequence these leads each month,” Lance recounts.

SeekOut has specific messaging aimed at each audience the lead qualified from.

“We’ve setup specific Outreach sequences to place them in for follow up. For example, we have one for users that went to a new organization and we use the UserGems information from the contacts to personalize the emails,” explains Lance.

“We are a lean organization. So we use automated email sequences for our SMBs. When someone responds, a rep follows up. For target accounts, these get more personalized calls and emails.”

“Our messaging is geared around utilizing SeekOut in their new roles/companies. And we use the information we get from UserGems to determine who gets automated and who doesn’t. From an ease of use perspective, it took 10 minutes to set up the automation for the SMB audience on UserGems,” he continues.

SeekOut’s approach ensures their SDRs spend time in places that yield the best results without missing out on opportunities.

The UserGems - SeekOut future

Most of SeekOut’s success with Gems has come from the SDR team. But the larger sales team is also angling to take advantage of the buyer job change program.

“We plan to begin tracking key contacts within target accounts and see how this can help break into key accounts faster, hopefully with more substantial solutions,” says Lance.

One UserGems tip

Meghan’s number one tip for anyone looking to invest in UserGems:

“This can be an excellent resource for new business and staying on top of job changes at your existing customers. But you need a good plan for how you will surface them to your team. And how they will be followed up on.”

Lance adds, “UserGems is an excellent pipeline generation program. So, take advantage of the opportunity to surface the key information to help your sales team increase their chances of reaching your buyers at their new roles.”