CIENCE Technologies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of operations for the United States at Lexplore. We offer Software as a Service (SaaS). 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We needed lead generation services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE Technologies did customized research for us to identify target customers. Then, they worked with us to develop email and phone scripts. They reached out to those approved potential customers. The team also ran statistical analysis on the number of emails sent and phone calls made; whether there was a positive, negative, or neutral response; and whether there were details in regard to that response. They delivered that information to us on a weekly basis.

If there was a positive response in terms of a potential customer that wanted to learn more information about our company and service, CIENCE booked the demo appointment directly on my calendar. Then, I took it from there.

What is the team composition?

In total, we probably worked with 10 team members. We had about six resources dedicated to us.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I got one of their inbound marketing emails. Their sales rep reached out to me; he happened to be from San Diego, which is where I live. We set up a call, and he walked me through their different services. They seemed to be transparent and had a good customer base. I also liked what the deliverables were. We’re a smaller company, so to hire, ramp up, and leverage six resources is a tremendous investment.

How much have you invested with them?

It was about $4,800 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in June 2020 and ended that December.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were able to measure the success of their work through data because they were so transparent. Every week, they showed us how many calls were being made and the responses. Our KPI was how many demos we wanted to book, and they exceeded that goal in the first month. We shifted our strategy multiple times, which made the KPIs a little more complicated, but they did a great job pivoting every time to meet our business needs.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We initially met weekly, but that became excessive. Also, they were just going through the slide deck of stats, which was a bit repetitive. We had a conversation and decided to meet every other week and just look at the high points rather than every stat. Once we had that conversation, the workflow became really effective. They had a tendency to over-communicate, which I appreciated — it’s just a matter of how much communication the customer wants. They’re a very transparent company, so they’ll share with you as much information as you want to know. 

They used Basecamp, where we could find all of our documents and data analysis. They also used Google Sheets and Docs. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by how quicky they learned. It was really remarkable how they felt like a part of our team within a very short period of time. They not only met our KPIs quickly but were also able to understand our product and who we are. We’re a smaller company based in the US and all over the world, and they were flexible to those intricacies and matched them really quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No — they were fantastic. 

Any advice for potential customers?

There is a significant amount of work that the customer needs to do in the beginning to make sure that they’re very clear on what they want CIENCE to research, in terms of the profile of the potential customer, as well as all of the scripting.

Also, CIENCE is very careful about making sure that they don’t get blocked from email servers, so even though they have a list of 200 potential customers, they only send out small batches each week. Customers should be aware that it’s an accumulation process, and in order to get the benefit of CIENCE, you really need to be with them for a minimum of three months. Understanding that as a customer going into the process is important, as is making that initial investment of time in the first week. Delaying any of the scripts or information that CIENCE needs to get going will delay the entire process. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of sales and marketing for a company that provides outsourced managed IT services to small and mid-sized companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We hired them for lead generation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They generate targeted leads lists and created lead generation campaigns through digital marketing efforts such as email, social media, cold calls, Google Ads, and more. Their ultimate job is to set discovery appointments for us with prospective customers.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with about seven teammates, including a program manager, project manager, and sales call lead. We also have a high-level account manager and someone managing digital marketing web pages. 

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I know a salesperson there who recommended their services. One of their partners is in the same CEO group as our CEO.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $22,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Their service has been excellent so far. They’ve generated about five appointments so far, and we’ve only been engaged with them for about 60 days. We’re still working out the details for scripting on emails, calls, and LinkedIn messaging.

At this point, we’re still in the onboarding phase, but I’m impressed with their work so far. As long as we apply our improvements, we should start seeing some new customers and revenue.  

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through email and a recurring phone call twice each month. Our teams have also connected through conference calls and ad hoc meetings when needed. They were great with project management and meeting deadlines. They haven’t missed any deadlines at this point. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re amazing at creating leads lists. I  haven’t seen a more accurate list that better targets the demographics I provided. They continue to deliver on that, which is stellar. 

My main contact takes my suggestions and critiques the right way, and applies them quickly. She also takes time to explain their strategy behind their decisions, so it’s always a productive conversation. These types of campaigns are delicate, so I appreciate that attention to detail. They’re reaching out to people more efficiently and in greater volumes. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are some small fine-tuning challenges we’re facing in terms of getting the messaging better aligned with the brand and reducing the level of aggressive sales-driven language in communications with prospective customers.

We’re hoping that our adjustments establish relationships and position us as a thought leader. At this point, we’re working together to achieve this balance as they onboard.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen in on their calls and work hard on the script to make sure the message reflects your brand. Ask to hear and see their communication. Be involved, engaged, and patient.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of a compressed air testing company. We examine dirt, oil, and gas concentrations in compressed air. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We needed a company to help us with leads and sales generation through marketing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re responsible for researching and finding potential leads that are qualified for compressed air testing. When they’ve located a strong lead, they reach out and set up appointments for our team to speak with them.

What is the team composition?

I work with a team of about three of them on a weekly basis. 

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

One of my subsidiaries was working with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $30,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s been a good relationship so far, and our team has seen a ton of leads from their team. Prior to hiring them for these services, we were trying to manage this process in-house. Their help has made a big difference.  

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated through email and Slack. They were usually holding me to my deadlines, which was impressive. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very good at sourcing leads that qualified for our specific certifications and requirements. Their team also provided statistics weekly on their performance. It was a very strong report. On average, we’re seeing 3–5 phone calls each week from new customers. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re great. I don’t have any complaints. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a skilled team with very competitive prices. I’d recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a professional services firm that builds custom online learning experiences for nonprofit training companies and higher education. As the director of marketing, I head our marketing strategy initiatives, working closely with our salesperson to generate qualified leads and new prospects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We typically sign most of our clients within the higher education space, but that wasn’t sustainable given the challenges the sector was facing due to COVID-19. We decided to focus on our nonprofit market instead. At the time, we’d spent less than 15% of our marketing resources on the nonprofit. We had very little data but needed to fill our prospect pipeline quickly.

Our goal was to find a company that could help us book sales meetings while helping us learn about and refine the nonprofit segment over time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

CIENCE Technologies has developed playbooks for us to grow our market research into the nonprofit sector.

We kicked off the project by outlining our knowledge of nonprofits through a comprehensive deck, which included key messaging, sales assets, buying signals, titles, and types of organizations that we wanted to go after. Their team took that information and did a contact list building exercise to capture as much contact data as possible for potential prospects. 

They also scripted two playbooks: one that was based on a salesperson reaching out, and the other was as if our founder were reaching out. The playbooks included display ads, landing pages, email drafts, and LinkedIn messaging drafts. 

Then, they wrote call scripts and came up with an outreach cadence for each individual lead. We ended up disliking the call services because it felt too off-brand for us, so CIENCE Technologies rerouted that effort into more research. 

The deliverables to date are a data set of contacts with defined criteria for the organizations we're interested in capturing, two playbooks (one of which we ended up scrapping), and a data report for Google Data Studio, which gives us all of the analytics we need to evaluate CIENCE Technologies’ services. They’re still working with us to refine our outreach list so that we can continue to narrow in on our target market and identify buying signals.

What is the team composition? 

In total, it’s between 5–7 employees. We started off with an initial salesperson before transitioning over to our account manager. Then, there’s the head of service delivery who manages our team of assigned researchers. They’ve also looped in a copywriter and designer who’ve handled our landing page.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I found CIENCE Technologies through a referral. At the time, I was looking for a B2B marketing agency and contacted someone in my personal network for support. Her agency was at capacity, so she suggested that I look into CIENCE Technologies based on my goals, which was to increase sales meetings. 

After hearing an overview of what CIENCE Technologies did and how they helped her company with generating business, I decided that they were obviously a good fit, given that all they did was book sales meetings. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $7,000 per month, which totals $30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2020 and still are.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The first measurement of success is the quantity of sales meetings booked. They’ve delivered well on that front with a goal of about 10 sales meetings per month, and that has been the average to date. We’ll see what December brings because things tend to slow down during the holidays.

The second measurement of success is the quality of those sales meetings. That’s partly on us to make sure that we’re employing the right people and giving them the right guidance to target organizations that might be a good fit.

It’s also partly on them to make sure their playbook is refined enough so that they’re engaging the right contacts. For example, we only talk with chief experience officers (CXOs), which is a competitive space. We’re assuming that CIENCE Technologies is able to engage those CXOs without being passed on to someone else. We have a three-month sales cycle, so we haven’t hit the mark yet to determine the quality of their bookings.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re awesome when it comes to project management. As a single-person marketing team, I never have to worry about keeping track of them. If I tell the team to do something, I know it’s going to happen. They’re amenable and quick to make changes whenever I want to modify our criteria or see a different view in Data Studio.

That’s been a huge relief for me, especially with a process like ours. Booking sales meetings looks simple on the surface, but it’s complicated underneath. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The process is pretty straightforward, and they’re on top of the research. Compared to service providers in the past, they’ve built quality contact lists for us based on the criteria that we want to look at. That’s because they’re able to conduct such deep research.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re booking sales meetings based on data across a lot of clients, but I don’t think they do a deep enough dive on the client’s company to make actionable recommendations. They don’t step back with us to look at our results on a strategic level.

We might ask them questions like why do you think this click rate was higher? Or why do you think the female demographic performed better? However, they don’t really know our business well enough to say what we should do. That means I’m doing the analysis on my own.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be hands-on with the work because there’s a lot to learn from what they’re doing and they’re not necessarily going to do the strategic-level work for you. They give you so much data — it’s really nice. So, if you can spend the time to look at the data and understand how your results are impacting the overarching performance of your campaign, you’ll get a lot out of the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing and strategic partnerships for a financial services company. We create payment processing technology. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We engaged CIENCE Technologies to help expand our outreach into the professional services space. At the time, we were already a dominant player in some key industries like legal, but we wanted to grow into other areas.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We’re currently in our pilot program with CIENCE Technologies. The scope of work includes outbound calling, research data validation, and outbound ad strategy. It’s a proven process that has already shown potential, so we’re looking to explore additional projects with them for outbound calling and research into other industries.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve communicated with multiple people, from our project manager and sales development rep (SDR) to our outreach caller and email communications rep. There’s also the head of research, a content creator, and an account manager.

Our project manager is especially fantastic. If we have any questions or need to course-correct, she’s there with us every step of the way. And, I appreciate that she’s taken the time to understand our business and target market so that she can help us reach our goals.

With our account manager, we go over our ROI to gauge how successful we are. We might tell them that we need to hit a certain ROI to make a project worthwhile, and they’ll work with the data to see how to make it work.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

We were referred to CIENCE Technologies by a marketing agency that we’d worked with, though we also considered other companies in our network. CIENCE Technologies had raving reviews, so we decided to reach out and get more information on them.

A huge deciding factor for us was how impressive their data suite was. We’re a data-driven company that prefers to do everything that we can with data first before making decisions. So, knowing that they’re all about the numbers was really great.

It also seemed like their team knew what they were doing when it came to outreach and outbound marketing. To get to a similar level of scale in-house, we would’ve had to hire more people, and we just didn’t have the resources to do it all in-house.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2020, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

It’s only been a month into the engagement, so I don’t have any trends to report. But I will say that their communication is the key to their success. The fact that we’re so aligned in the process has paid off for us because brand integrity is everything. We want to make sure that all communication done through a partner feels authentic to us, so it’s great that CIENCE Technologies can stay true to our brand.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done a fantastic job of keeping us in the loop through our Slack channel. We communicate all day long and can approve or update things as they come in. As for meeting deadlines, they’re a 10 out of 10.

What did you find most impressive about them?

CIENCE Technologies really understands their capacity and internal resources. Unlike other agencies that say yes to everything just to have the work, CIENCE Technologies doesn’t take on more than they can handle. They make sure that their team is proportionate to their contracts so that they can really give us their full attention.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re really excited about the partnership. Whenever we have feedback, they take it to heart and change right away.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should really have an understanding of your target market and ideal customer profile (ICP) going into the project. For us, it took some time to figure that out. But they taught us a lot throughout that process, so we’re applying it to our emerging markets.

Hitting the ground running with ICPs will help make your project the most successful it can be. CIENCE Technologies can use that information to validate your research and expand your outbound efforts.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at a veterinary services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We offer our service through business partners and found our pipeline was too empty. We needed to dig into the next level of pet companies. We tried but couldn’t find the right contacts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE dedicated an SDR (sales development representative) team to our account. We know the markets that we want to target and give CIENCE parameters. They then spend a couple of weeks researching companies and contacts within those markets. Their team then creates long lists of top decision-makers and target them via email outreach. They collect leads and then schedule appointments for our sales team. Their team also manages drift campaigns that follow each other if a contact doesn’t respond. They also created a landing page and directed LinkedIn outreach.

We contracted them to aim at one industry that we first wanted to target. After we had success in the first outreach, we picked a second and third industry for them to target.

What is the team composition?

My main contacts are a project manager, an SDR manager, a research lead, and an SDR representative. The research lead has a team behind her conducting research. A developer was on a couple of our calls too. We also work with a copywriter and a person who manages LinkedIn outreach.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I searched Google and interviewed a bunch of companies. In the beginning, I liked CIENCE because they were sharp and fit within our price range.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably invested about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with CIENCE in April 2020, and our partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We had a target to load our pipeline with at least 20 companies in the quarter that we started. CIENCE hit that target within the first weeks of our engagement. They continue to grow the pipeline, which sits at about 70 companies now. Their team’s hugely valuable to our company. They’ve grown our pipeline by 700%.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly meetings, so their team’s able to pivot and make corrections. CIENCE uses a live dashboard that shows the status of every contact. Their research team uses Google Sheets to post leads that I can easily edit. They also use Google Docs to build scripts, so it’s easy for me to edit and comment.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team’s sharp, well-spoken, and understands their roles, which allows them to bring us a lot of feedback. When we’re not sure about our direction, we ask them for insight. They understand their own business flow and how customers react to outreach.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we only had issues on our side. Our challenge has been to keep up with all of the leads CIENCE generates

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’ll guide you through the process, so fully participate. You should know your target industries and be clear with your messaging. We were specific, so our scripts were specific. That’s one reason why we saw such great results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of global sales at LICAP Technologies Incorporated. The primary products that we sell are energy storage devices known as ultra-capacitors. We’re a global business.

Earlier this year, one of our executives decided to purchase a mask production line in response to the increasing demand for facemasks due to COVID. We set up the production line in Sacramento, California — which is where our US headquarters is — with the intention of becoming a US supplier of facemasks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

When we set up our facemask production line, we engaged CIENCE to do some outbound activity to generate leads.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with me completing what they call an ‘ideal customer profile,’ which included who I think we should target. To find the appropriate contacts, I identified job titles, company types, company sizes, and industries they should look at.

We had some discussion at the beginning about this ideal customer profile. Once we settled on that, CIENCE’s team did research to find the right contacts that fit the profile. They found their LinkedIn information, phone number, email, and mailing address. 

Each week, they supplied me with an updated list of new leads. I could even tell them what geography to focus on. They focused on what we asked them to do. They then did an outbound call campaign and attempted various ways to contact people, such as through email or LinkedIn. They helped create the communication content, whether that was a phone script or email template. 

What is the team composition?

I mostly communicated with Oksana (Research Team Captain), and she was in Ukraine. They utilized foreign staff to do some of their outbound campaigns. Oksana was very reachable and responsive. We had a weekly status call with everyone involved. We used their Philippines-based call center; they do have a US-based call center, but it’s a bit pricier.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I did my own research on the internet. I’m in San Diego and they’re in Solana Beach, so we’re in the same county. I also reached out to some marketing contacts I have from past jobs and asked for their advice on how to generate leads using an outbound company. CIENCE came back as a recommendation from a couple of contacts.

How much have you invested with them?

It was about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I initially contacted them in June 2020 and had some interaction with their sales person. I had to get the budget for the program approved internally, and then we started the program in mid–late-July.

We wrapped up about 1–2 weeks ago, in October 2020. We decided to discontinue working with them because we weren’t selling as many masks as we’d hoped; it had nothing to do with them. The challenge is that the facemask market is flooded.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I had a very good experience working with them. If they weren’t making the progress we’d hoped for, they adapted. They made changes and suggested things they could do differently to try and get more leads. Over time, it worked; we started to get more leads based on some of the things they suggested. 

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

CIENCE was very good at meeting deadlines and communicating with us; I’d give them a 10/10. They were on it. They had a team that provided updates and maintained regular communication. They kept me informed throughout the whole process, and they always asked for my input on what they were doing. It was well thought out and complete. From my point, it was very well run.

What did you find most impressive about them?

That was the first time I’ve worked with a company that provided this service, so I can’t provide feedback on that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I was generally very pleased with the activity. They continued to work hard, even though the results weren’t always what we were hoping for. They were persistent and always had a positive attitude, so they were very good to work with. 

Any advice for potential customers?

I think I could’ve been more engaged or communicative. I’m just so busy with all of the other business we have. It would be good to assign a person at the company who actually has the time to commit themselves to CIENCE. I only had time to sit down with them once a week for 30 minutes to go over the latest numbers. I’d recommend assigning a project manager that has the time to work with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a packaging innovation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We hired CIENCE because we didn’t have the resources to research new target businesses and contacts, nor do we have the facility to manage multi-touch campaigns through multiple channels.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE is involved in a lead generation program that not only researchers those target companies, but generates contacts as well. They also market to those companies and get appointments for us.

What is the team composition?

There are a lot of people working in the background, but we’re generally in touch with about four people. Natalia (Customer Success Manager) is my day-to-contact for our project, and Alexis (Sales Development Representative) is our account manager. I’m also in contact with Marvin (Senior Lead Researcher), our QA lead.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

We did a lot of web searching and research on lead generation companies specializing in the B2B space before finding CIENCE.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The quality of CIENCE’s service has been excellent. If anything, they wait for us, and we’re the ones who slow things down. The team is very detail-oriented, they’re forward-thinking, and they get results.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re pleased with their project management. We use Basecamp to track the project, so it’s very organized in terms of tasks and deadlines. We also use Trello. For the most part, we correspond through email, but we have regular Zoom meetings as well. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

CIENCE has a really good system down. Their process works: they know how to collect background information and track progress, and they have lots of good metrics in place to produce. 

Also, the team gives great feedback on the quality of the campaigns in terms of open rates, bounce rates, and quality of leads. When we need to make things better, CIENCE is also proactive at responding to and making those changes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wanted more organization upfront with the launch, including more details on our timeline and steps, as well as who on their team would be engaged. However, those issues worked themselves out as we got started. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The biggest thing is to make sure you have a market size that’s big enough. Also, think in advance of at least 12-18 months, to make sure you can keep CIENCE busy, because they’ll work through things faster than you probably can internally. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a company that is a gateway to employment records. We make it easy for businesses to pull information out of their systems on behalf of their users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We hired CIENCE to drive outbound leads and get meetings scheduled with prospective customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had a number of phone calls with their customer success team, talking about the people we wanted to be reaching out to and the profiles of interest, and the types of messages we wanted to send them. We then put together copy against that and started sending emails. We have a daily cadence where they provide me with their list of leads, and I help redirect them if they’re not on the right track. They run email, LinkedIn, and phone call sequencing to get those meetings scheduled. 

What is the team composition?

I work with about half a dozen people from their team. I interact the most with Oksana (Research Team Captain), and she’s a project manager. We also work with someone who manages the leads and Melanie (Account Manager). We’ve had a couple of SDRs switch off who do the actual emailing and client communication.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I knew somebody who had worked in marketing, and I asked him who the three best firms were in this space. CIENCE was one of them. I vetted 3–4 companies, and CIENCE seemed to have the most comprehensive database of businesses, which is what I was most interested in. Because they’re larger, I think they have subscriptions to some of the largest US-based business databases. I ran tests upfront about how many companies they had in certain profiles, and they seemed to do the best on that front.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them about $7,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in August 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quality of service is pretty good. I’m very happy with their responsiveness and the amount of meetings that they’re setting on my calendar, which is the main objective. They seem to do a very good job targeting the types of people I want to be talking to. Across the priority dimensions, I’m pretty happy with them so far.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They do well in terms of scheduling and meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have too many points of contact, so there are too many people I’m interacting with.

Any advice for potential customers?

You need to have a very clear articulation of your product and the value prop. You also need to target long-tailed businesses, because I think where they spike is having a long list of people they can send this to.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of business development at Ori, a robotic furniture company. We developed smart-based solutions for dense urban environments and the multi-family housing sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We’re a small company that has only been around for about five years. There was no brand awareness around the company or our product, so our challenge was generating enough interest in the company and product to sustain and grow the business.

Our team is too small to allocate its time toward prospecting, and we didn’t have the systems in place to execute good, meaningful campaigns. Additionally, I let go of our sales reps and turned to CIENCE Technologies to do campaigns, content creation, and sales development rep (SDR) outreach.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE Technologies does lead collection and management. They went out into the field to find prospects that we identified through mutually agreed ideal customer profiles. They do that on a weekly basis and follow up with campaigns. 

The team has also done visual and written content creation for a microsite, for ads, and for content in the copy format. They’ve done this for both phone and email, as well as LinkedIn. They've been able to do campaigns through multiple channels including ads, microsites, calls, and LinkedIn.

Additionally, CIENCE Technologies has created messaging documentation, and they’ve worked with our marketing team to create collateral that’s agreed upon between the two groups, both from the copy and visualization perspectives to represent the brand properly. 

The ideal customer profile exercise was important in terms of being aligned on who exactly our target consumer is, where they're located, what their problems are, and how our products solve that.  

The team does everything necessary to have the tools to do outreach, they do the outreach and the prospecting, and then they bring people through the funnel and hand them over to us and create appointments for our internal teams to the presentation, pitch, and conversion. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with 8–10 people, including content creators, copywriters, SDR agents, project managers, account managers, a data analyst, and the CMO.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I had worked with SDR agents that were business-to-consumer (B2C), but I was looking for a B2B SDR agency, so I did some research and cross-referencing. After going through two or three rounds of conversations and exercises with CIENCE Technologies, it just made sense to go with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend $4,900 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started the evaluation process in February 2020 and finalized everything with CIENCE Technologies in March 2020. We’ve done three 90-day agreements so far, which is a testament to how well they’re doing. We’re still working with them, but we will continue to review them every 90 days because we’re a startup. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

From March until now, they’ve generated 75 appointments for us, which is substantial for B2B work, especially considering that we’re working with multi-family housing developers.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They're fantastic. We have a project manager who runs the team and leads our weekly calls. We also work with a data analyst who goes through our weekly reports, and different team members speak individually about what they’re working on. 

Additionally, we’re able to change the presentation material on a weekly basis. If we want further insights or want to postpone a campaign, CIENCE Technologies has the insights and capabilities to give us that data so we can evaluate it for ourselves and compare it with what we’re doing on our side.

My only hesitation in hiring was that their team wasn’t US-based which could cause problems from communication, timezone, and tone perspectives. However, everyone on their team is polished and professional, so my hesitation was alleviated rather quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are the complete package. They take the time to understand our brand, define a customer, build a strategy around that, and execute the strategy. They then evaluate on a weekly basis, make changes as necessary. The team communicates our message well, and it feels like they’re a part of our company.

I don't have the desire or the urgency to bring on additional sales reps because CIENCE Technologies as a team, for a fraction of the cost, can actually do what probably double the team would have to do here.

They sound like us and feel like us. They don’t feel like an SDR agency; they feel like a part of our company. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I wouldn’t ask them to change anything. It’s a collaborative enough effort to where, if a company wanted to change something, they have the flexibility to that and CIENCE Technologies will execute the changes. I’ve not run into problems with CIENCE Technologies not being able to accommodate our needs.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come prepared, don’t assume that CIENCE Technologies is just going to do everything you want, and know what you’re bringing to the table. We went into the engagement assuming that the team would do everything, but we had to tweak some things.

Be patient because you’re learning them, and they’re learning you. Don’t come thinking that it’s going to be an immediate success; you’re going to iterate a lot, and that’s not on CIENCE Technologies. You’re going to have to evolve over time, so believe in the process.

In addition, be comfortable deferring to them as a team that is an expert in outreach. I’ve changed how I do outreach based on the data CIENCE Technologies has on what works. Check your ego at the door because even if you have plenty of data, they’re going to have more, so you should listen to their recommendations.