SaasLeads Book 80% of Demos With Cognism’s Diamond Data®

SaaSLeads, a disruptive high-growth, EdTech company, uses Cognism’s sales intelligence platform to:

• Book 80% of demos from Cognism data 
• Contribute over £0.8 million of new business in Q1 2022
• Increase mobile phone number accuracy by 50% 
• Create hyper-personalised sales cadences

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The company

Cognism’s customer and partner, SaaSLeads, are on a mission to change the sales industry through education. At the SaaSLeads Academy, expert sales coaches, under the stewardship of Chris Ritson (COO and Co-Founder; ex-Peakon and Tessian), train future sales stars for innovative B2B companies looking to ramp up their commercial team performance, whilst providing a platform for ambitious individuals to kickstart their careers.

Working with dozens of SaaS sales and tech companies, including SalesLoft, Elliptic and Talkwalker, they have some remarkable success stories with over 100 Academy Graduations to date and a roadmap for thousands each year. A long-standing, repeat customer, Omnipresent, has promoted three SaaSLeads Academy SDRs to Account Executive roles within 12 months, signalling the effectiveness of the education that students receive.

The business was only founded in 2019 and continues to grow at an incredible pace. Recent appointments include double Olympic Silver Medallist, Jazz Carlin, as a SDR Coach and Alex Walker, former Head of Talent Acquisition at Reed.co.uk, to head up the Admissions department.

The challenge

We interviewed David Burgess-Bellay, Head of Partnerships, and Jack Vesztrocy, Sales Development Representative, about their experiences with Cognism. 

Initially, David was tasked by the CEO to find a B2B data provider.

What lead generation platforms were SaaS Leads using prior to Cognism? 

“Previously, we were using two other data providers which were working for us but the issue was mobile phone quality. We had a 25-30% accuracy on direct dials; this created inefficiencies among the sales team. Additionally, the customer support was unreactive.” 

“We noticed gaps when trying to find certain target audiences. Consequently, our CEO, Will Koning, tasked me to search for the best data providers on the market to alleviate these issues and bridge the gaps.” 

How did David discover Cognism? 

“I know of Cognism from my previous job and have worked with Cognism in previous roles at leading technology companies. Cognism has a renowned customer support desk in the UK. As well as this, Cognism has received an impressive amount of investment.”

“Additionally, Cognism has a fantastic partnership programme. There is a lot of synergy between our two organisations and our business values really align. Emotionally and practically, it made a lot of sense for us to explore Cognism.”

How did they assess Cognism in the vendor evaluation process? 

“Prior to signing, our sales team conducted an initial trial to test the data against the competition and they loved it!” 

What results from the trial convinced SaaSLeads to switch to Cognism? 

“Despite the fantastic synergy between the two organisations, it wasn’t just an emotional decision but also a data-driven decision. During the initial trial with Cognism, the connect-to-dial ratio beat anything we’ve ever seen before.”

“We saw mobile phone accuracy percentage more than double when we tested Cognism. The sales team were thrilled. We chose Cognism as our data partner of choice and haven't looked back!”

The solution

Firstly, we interviewed Jack about his sales workflows with Cognism. 

Jack’s ICP at SaaSLeads is reaching out to sales leaders in the UK and Europe, with a large focus on high-growth technology companies looking to expand their sales teams. 

Jack told us about his day-to-day workflows with Cognism.

“I use Cognism’s Chrome Extension and the Web App for my prospecting. Our CSM is phenomenal, proactive and instrumental to helping myself and the wider team get to grips with Cognism.” 

He told us more about his use of the Chrome Extension. 

“I use the API every day. Firstly, I find a desired prospect on LinkedIn using Cognism’s granular search filters. At the click of a button, Cognism reveals the contact’s email address and mobile number. I then sync these details into my SalesLoft cadence so I’m ready for outreach.” 

“I use the Web App for larger campaign lists. The Cognism event triggers in the Web App are really helpful. In particular, the company hiring and job change filters allow me to personalise and change my SalesLoft cadence to fit that specific trigger.”

“Not only do the event triggers create hyper-personalisation but they save me a considerable amount of time.”  

“As a sales rep, to spend more time calling and less time manually prospecting is a real game-changer to my output.” 

Jack told us more about the results he’s seen from Cognism’s highly-accurate data. 

“Overall, 80% of my meetings are booked from Cognism leads.” 

What’s the biggest reason Jack would recommend Cognism?

“Direct phone number quality. Cognism’s Diamond Data® phone-verifies the identity and number of the prospect. As a sales rep, I don’t have to worry about the quality of data affecting my ability to hit quota. This in turn, saves a huge amount of time and enables me to book more meetings.”

The results

We asked David about the quality of leads they’ve seen from Cognism. 

“All of our students in the SaaSLeads Academy are using Cognism for their own businesses. Over 85% of our students are hired by the client and they’re using Cognism to book meetings every day. Cognism’s data plays an immense part in their sales performance and job placement decision.” 

What ROI has SaasLeads seen from Cognism? 

“We have only been a Cognism client since January 2022 and have a sales cycle of approximately 45 days.

“In Q1 2022, we closed £0.8 million. I don’t know exact figures but many of the closed won deals are attributable to Cognism’s premium data.”

David told us the additional advantages they have experienced from the partnership. 

“Our core tech partners are Cognism, LeadIQ, SalesLoft and LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Cognism is a key strategic partner for us. As the partnerships manager, I regularly refer Cognism to businesses struggling to find high-quality contact details.”

“Our two organisations both have mutual referrals going back and forth. We’re really benefiting from referrals from the Cognism sales team. The partnership scheme is an excellent additional perk!” 

What’s the biggest reason David would recommend us to other businesses considering a lead generation platform? 

1. Cost savings

“Some companies are still manually researching contact details at a 10x slower rate, reducing output and increasing overhead costs. Cognism is half an employee's cost but is saving your business the equivalent of 2.5 employees’ worth of effort. With Cognism, sales reps are working with credible data, speeding up prospecting and overall output.” 

2. World-class data quality 

“Many of our clients are early-stage tech companies and they will often have the sales objection of cost. If you’re building a business at scale, you need enterprise technology from the get-go. When you have exceptional data then it’s almost a no-brainer for them to choose a market leader like Cognism.”

“Cognism is the best global B2B data tool on the market and is pivotal to helping us scale as a business. It’s a very easy recommendation.”