UserGems x Meredith VandeBunte

Meet Meredith VandeBunte

🚀 Role: Account Executive at Tinuiti
📅 Years in Sales: 4+ years (previously Sr. BDR)

What she does best: Generating her own pipeline as an AE

🔹 Uses BDR-style prospecting to build her own pipeline, despite an AE workload
🔹 Stacks multiple buying signals to prioritize the highest-intent prospects and accounts
🔹 Automates research with Gem-E to stay proactive instead of reactive
🔹 Balances relationship-building with automation for highly personalized outreach

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How Meredith Uses UserGems to Automate Prospecting as an AE

<div class="pro-tip"> "As a closer, my biggest challenge is time. I love prospecting, but running a full sales cycle means I don’t have hours to manually prioritize who to reach out to and why. UserGems takes those tasks off my plate so I can focus on real conversations." </div>

The Signal Stacks:

✅ Job Changes + Website Visits → "If a past customer just changed jobs AND their new company is researching us, I know they’re likely evaluating vendors."
✅ Champion Referrals + Lost Deals → "If a lost opportunity has a former champion at their company, it’s the perfect chance to revisit."
✅ Marketing Engagement + Job Change → "If someone downloads our content after a job move, they’re probably setting up a new strategy and open to a conversation."

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💡 Why It Works:
✔️ Relevance & Timing – Outreach is always based on real-time intent signals
✔️ Automation – Saves hours of research while keeping her pipeline full
✔️ Higher Conversions – Prospects feel like she’s reaching out at the perfect moment

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Step 1: Stacking The Right Signals with Gem-E

Key Signals Used:

• Job Changes: Identifying past users or decision-makers who move to new companies.
• Closed Lost Opportunities: Re-engaging prospects who previously didn't convert.
• Customer Referrals: Leveraging current customers to introduce UserGems to new accounts.
• Website Visitors & Engagement: Tracking intent signals from Demandbase and Salesforce.
• Marketing Content Interactions: Identifying prospects who engage with blog posts and gated content.
• Partnership Referrals: Collaborating with partners to get high-quality inbound leads.

<div class="pro-tip"> 💡How Gem-E Automates This Process: These signals are automatically stacked, ranked, and surfaced to sales teams. Instead of manually combing through CRM and outreach tools, reps get a prioritized list of prospects along with pre-written AI-driven messaging. </div>

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Step 2: Building an Effective Sequence

Meredith categorizes her outreach into three main tiers:‍

1. Super Hot Leads

• Who: High Intent, Past Customers, Referrals
• Sequence Duration: 1 - 1.5 months
• Touches: 1-2 per week (higher frequency for key accounts)
• Channels: Calls (always twice in a row), Emails, LinkedIn Engagement
• Personalization Level: High (reference past relationship, specific intent signals)
• Example: If the lead was a past customer, reach out with a personalized message like:
  
  • "Hey [Name], saw that you were at [Previous Company] and now you're at [New Company]! How's the transition going? We loved working with you at [Previous Company]—let’s chat about how we can help you here as well!"
• Include relationship-based messaging and consider sending a small gift (e.g., Doordash gift card, champagne, flowers) for a warm reintroduction.

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2. Warm Leads

• Who: Engaged but not yet committed; Interested but not immediate buyers
• Sequence Duration: 1-2 months
• Touches: 1 per week
• Channels: Emails, Calls, LinkedIn
• Personalization Level: Medium (show genuine interest, reference previous engagement)
• Example:
  
  • Maintain a warm cadence, reminding them of your presence:
    
    • "Hey [Name], just checking in—thought this [case study, blog post, insight] might be valuable based on our last conversation. Let me know if you'd like to discuss further!"
• Keep them engaged over time without being too aggressive.

<div class="pro-tip"> 💡How Gem-E Automates This Process: Gem-E uses buying signals and CRM data to prioritize accounts and buyers. It then drafts email sequences, call scripts, LinkedIn messages for you. </div>

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3. Cold Prospects

• Who: No prior relationship with the company, no strong engagement signals
• Sequence Duration: 3 months
• Touches: 1 per week
• Channels: Emails, Calls, LinkedIn
• Personalization Level: Low-to-Medium (use industry insights, pain points, and content)
  
  • Example:‍
    • "Hey [Name], noticed you're leading [initiative] at [Company]. We recently worked with [Similar Company] to solve [pain point]—would love to share insights!"‍
    • Begin with informational outreach (blog posts, insights), and gradually move toward relationship-building.

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Step 4: Following Up & Staying Persistent

• Respectful Persistence: “I want to be respectfully overbearing” – Meredith follows up consistently without being pushy.
• Follow-Up Sequences for Warm Leads: If a prospect doesn’t engage, they are moved into a long-term nurture sequence.

<div class="pro-tip"> 💡Pro Tip: Always call twice in a row. Meredith finds that a second call immediately after the first gets higher pickup rates. </div>

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How this playbook is paying off:

• Bigger deal sizes and referrals: Meredith successfully re-engaged a past user who had moved to a new company.
• Customer Referrals: This resulted in a closed deal and a referral to another high-value opportunity.
• Time Saved: AI-driven prioritization allowed Meredith to spend more time closing and less time prospecting.

Key Takeaways for AEs

1. Use AI & Automation: Leverage AI and automation to offload routine tasks, so you can focus on the work that truly matters.
2. Stack Multiple Signals: Don’t rely on job changes alone: use a mix of intent data, CRM triggers, and other relationship signals.
3. Build Smart Sequences: Tailor sequences based on prospect temperature, mixing calls, emails, and LinkedIn.
4. Prioritize Relationship Selling: Re-engage past champions and make outreach feel human, even when using AI.

Final Thoughts

Outbound sales is evolving, and reps who leverage AI and automation will outperform those who rely on manual efforts. By using Gem-E to automate prospecting and stack key signals, AEs can build a predictable, scalable pipeline without adding extra hours to their workload.

Want to see Gem-E in action? Book a demo today!