A fast-growing software company used Cognism’s sales intelligence platform to:
- Book 60% of their overall demos
- Generate $125k in pipeline
- Close a $50k deal from direct dials
- Get more results from fewer calls with phone-verified contacts
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The company
Keboola is a fast-growing $5 million ARR software company. For the last 8 years, they have been servicing clients such as BNP Paribas, Home Credit and DXC. They pride themselves on being an automated data-stack-as-a-service.
The platform allows businesses to connect any data source in less than 20 minutes by helping them combine, enhance and publish crucial information for their internal analytics projects and data products.
The challenge
We interviewed Paul Donnachie, Sales Manager of EMEA at Keboola, about his experience using the platform.
How did they find out about Cognism?
At Paul’s previous company, his sales team were tasked with evaluating B2B lead generation platforms for their sales reps to use. Cognism was a recommendation from a contact and upon evaluation, they signed with us.
"We did an evaluation and Cognism’s EMEA data was 10x better than ZoomInfo’s. Secondly, Cognism’s highly compliant B2B data saved us a lot of hassle when explaining to prospects where we obtained their contact details from."
Paul joined Keboola in August 2021 and was hired to build a sales team from 0 to 15 members.
"After achieving success with Cognism at my previous company, I knew the platform would be integral for my new sales reps to use. Keboola is entering a brand new market in EMEA and North America and our aim is to come across as fresh, new players. I knew that Cognism would play a huge part in this."
The solution
What were their initial impressions of Cognism’s sales intelligence platform?
"It was very quick and easy to ramp up. Our target market is CTOs, CDOs, Data and BI Teams in any company. Our sweet spot client is a young, cloud-ready company."
"We have two approaches to targeting these prospects. An account-based approach and a persona-based approach. With the account-based approach, we select a contact who has a phone-verified mobile and individually contact them. In the persona-based approach, myself and some of the senior sales reps create personas via Bombora’s intent data, generate the leads and sync them into our SalesForce CRM."
Paul told us more about their workflows with Diamond Data® and Intent Data.
"We use Bombora’s intent data in addition to Diamond Data® and we are winning clients as a result. We choose an intent topic and target 20 companies per week."
"My sales reps will phone the selected decision-makers using Cognism’s verified direct dials and on average, 2 people are interested in hearing more. That’s 2 demos out of 20 that would not have been made possible without intent data. It’s taken us to a whole new level knowing that we are not wasting our time speaking to dead numbers."
"I believe Cognism is unique in providing the full package of intent data and Diamond Verified Data®. It’s a game changer."
What features of the platform are most impactful to generating a qualified lead?
"We use technographic filters a lot. Rather than my reps researching the selected account for half a day, they can find the company, research their tech stack and within 10 minutes, they either have a lead or it’s disqualified."
Overall, has Cognism helped Keboola reach a new audience?
"Yes absolutely, because we don’t have a large market presence in our target markets yet, it’s our secret weapon. Brand awareness takes a long time to build through marketing so by using Cognism’s premium data, my reps can have conversations with different businesses and over time our name becomes more and more prominent."
"Cognism enables us to enter new markets as efficiently as possible because we now have the right tools armed with the right data in order to make the biggest impact. The success snowballs from there."
The results
Paul explained that Keboola’s B2B sales cycle can vary from 3-6 months.
How many meetings have they booked on average from Cognism’s data?
"In October 2021, 50% of all demos booked were via Cognism ($50k pipeline to date). In November 2021, 58% of all demos booked were via Cognism ($75k pipeline to date). In December 2021, 34% of all demos booked were via Cognism (too early to state the pipeline for December)."
"Our exact pipeline from Cognism’s data is $125k."
"A great example of the accuracy of Cognism’s data is a $50k deal we won. I simply rang the prospect, booked a demo and now they are a client."
"In EMEA, we need to hit $1.75 million in FY 2022. It’s about 300-400k per rep depending on their ability. I expect Cognism is going to be supporting at least 40% of that number."
Beyond the ROI achieved, what other benefits have they seen from Cognism?
"Saving time. I’m a great believer in a phone-first approach. Remote work has empowered people to ring mobiles. I see the benefit of a multi-channel approach but if I can get 100 verified mobile numbers then that’s a day's work per sales rep. It’s hard to quantify time saved, it’s more what we get from that time and 60% of demos come from Cognism."
"Cognism also aids my sales reps' learning capabilities. Now they can get in front of different prospects and discover which revenue and markets resonate best with our product."
What advice would Paul give to other sales managers considering Cognism?
"With Cognism, you cut away the noise. The noise is sales reps wasting time, phoning dead numbers and calling switchboards they won’t get through to. The accuracy of Cognism’s direct dials allows you to work with laser focus and cut through the negativity."
Why would Paul recommend Cognism?
"You have to get it, particularly in the world of remote working. Being able to contact your prospects on their mobile at home is absolutely invaluable. During my six years in sales, I don’t know how I worked before without Cognism. It’s definitely a tool I'm going to continue to rely on."
Keboola’s CEO shared high praise about Cognism.
"Cognism is essential to our outbound strategy and is a key part in helping us spread Keboola’s message as a unified, data stack as a service."
Try Cognism’s sales intelligence solution
Over 1,000 revenue teams around the world trust Cognism to:
✅ Build qualified B2B contact databases
✅ Plan and launch their outbound campaigns
✅ Power up their social selling
✅ Meet and beat their revenue targets
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