Sonnecto

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a SaaS company that specializes in obtaining, collecting, and distributing government tenders to private companies throughout Europe. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Sonnecto?

We didn’t have a lot of experience working with international B2B companies. We hired Sonnecto to help generate leads, find new clients, and provide development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They led two campaigns for us – one was focused on cold calling, and the other was done through online ad networks like Facebook. They managed the entire lifecycle of the campaigns from generating leads to converting them to users and managing our budget. 

They also made updates and changes to our platform based on user feedback. Before our backend was built in PHP, but they switched it to React and Python. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team ranging from 5–8 people depending on the phase of the project.

How did you come to work with Sonnecto?

We were referred to them through an acquaintance and partner of ours. 

How much have you invested in them? 

We’ve invested upwards of $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May or June of 2018. We’re still working together and will be starting a new project with them in October 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a significant improvement in the number of leads coming in. We’ve created a pipeline, and it’s going very smoothly. They’ve also taught us a lot about how lead generation works. 

On the development side, we’ve also seen significant improvements. They integrated the latest technologies to make our system run more efficiently. 

Their team also provides excellent customer support. 

How did Sonnecto perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Slack and email to communicate. If there is something urgent, I call them on the phone. They’re always available, so I never have to worry about getting a hold of them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is young, ambitious, and motivated. I like that they have a lot of energy and want to achieve. They don’t shy away from trying new technologies. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that I can think of. I hold them in high regard. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

They have a highly qualified workforce that is dedicated to helping their international customers. Even though they’re located in Kosovo, they have a lot of experience working with companies in Europe and the United States.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run operations for a coding school. We have two physical campuses, but the majority of our students attend our online programs. Our boot camp is a fully intensive seven-month program that attracts students from over 20 countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sonnecto?

Our school is in investment and scaling mode and we were looking to expand our programs and maintain growth. Sonnecto will help us scale a lot of our business operations. For a coding school that means an admissions team, a student support team, IT support teams, customer service representatives, and sales pipeline management teams. The goal was to take some burden off our instructors and local teams to facilitate the learning process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have dedicated teams available 24/7 based in Kosovo including an enrollment team (sales), a student support team (includes IT support), an application and software development team, and a team of technical mentors with backgrounds in specific technologies we teach. Additionally, we use them to help on the back-office side doing accounting, bookkeeping, and accounts receivable. There’s also a digital marketing team that works hand-in-hand with the customer support team to increase our social media and direct marketing presence.

We’ve embraced the idea of using them as our extended team. Every person on each of our teams has a smaller team at our company locally that they report to.

What is the team composition?

We’re using over 50 resources.

How did you come to work with Sonnecto?

We found them online. There were a lot of things in the outsourcing space we weren’t sure of but the majority of the team was educated here in the United States and had chosen to go back to their home country and build something. Their cultural affinity and communication, as well as their understanding of how we do business here in the U.S. drew us to them. That’s been consistent throughout our experience with them. Every person has matched the same communication and skills standards. Additionally, they walked through our needs and explained what they thought would and wouldn’t work before we signed on as a customer. Most companies will put you through a lot of steps and have you sign forms before they start delivering value.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve reduced the burden on our team locally by creating an extension of our team with Sonnecto. The sales and customer support team is helping realize the conversions of potential students into our program. Originally, we grew by word of mouth, but now we’ve been able to leverage other channels.

One of the most profound things is we’re able to look at how to increase sales beyond basic, word-of-mouth conversions. They survey potential students that choose not to come to our school about why they made that choice, whether it was a lack of information or the cost or another factor. We’ve also gathered feedback from our current students. Sonnecto has given us a sheer number of resources we never would have been able to afford on our own.

Every student that joins our program has to be interviewed, so if we’re starting a 300 person cohort that means we have to interview 300 people. And that’s just one step in the sales pipeline. That’s why Sonnecto has been so critical to our growth.

How did Sonnecto perform from a project management standpoint?

They always have a process that we go through. There’s a series of meetings whenever we kick off a new project or want to put together a new team. From our perspective, the way they handle our project has been very specific to dedicated teams, and there’s always been a process of discovery as to what we’re looking to achieve now and in the future. They’re really methodical when it comes to that approach.

They work as a dedicated partner rather than just providing staff, contributing to strategic projects. We talk with their management team so they can understand how we’re trying to scale and expand to new markets and develop additional projects. Then, they can pivot their teams. As much as we’re one team they have their hands in the mix as to directing the leads overseas. Everyone is well-aligned with high-level priorities.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to adapt to and solve problems via new solutions is great. When you’re trying to do business process outsourcing and augmentation, a lot of issues come up related to structure. At the beginning, it’s always in flux. People have lives and schedules and commitments outside their jobs but their team really embraced what we were trying to do and worked through every single problem that came up. They were at the forefront of solving problems and made sure the experience went smoothly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d love for them to add additional services and teams. They’re good at responding to specific qualifications in people but they could develop additional methodologies or approaches with specific technology areas or customer support. I’d love to see their in-house, proprietary solutions would be for specific types of work, much like you’d receive from a boutique consulting firm. We do a lot of work with the Salesforce CRM but they may not be a Salesforce shop, so it would be good to identify what business areas they focus on and then develop in-house capabilities based on those areas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be an open book. If you’re trying to grow with an outsourcing partner it’s important to get to know each other through the process of revealing all of your pain points. As a result of opening up to them, they gave us strategic advice and multiple options on how to do things.