CIENCE Technologies

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a business services company

For what projects/services did your company hire CIENCE Technologies, and what were your goals?

To setup sales demo meetings for us

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After looking at online reviews

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

They had to contact prospect customers, and setup demos.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Like 10 to 20, it was very chaotic keeping track of who is who.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Sure. They delivered zero demos. Worst vendor ever! They will charge you $18,000 and deliver NEGATIVE value. That’s right, negative. How can it be negative? Because they will ask you to invest about 30 hours of your time in pointless meetings, scenario planning meetings, weekly updates that are basically a regurgitation of numbers. Complete and utter garbage. Their sales person (initials HS) promised the heavens. Their project manager (initial SG) promised tons of “strategic analysis” — before you sign a contract and send them money they will tell you anything you need to hear.

After you send the initial set of funds — complete opposite. Funny scenario, for our “kickoff” meeting our project manager (SG) came to a zoom meeting with a t-shirt, and not a nice t-shirt, more like the type of t-shirt that is all used up (kinda like a pajama) shirt. His insights were completely useless. In his last email to us he send us a copy-pasted email that assumed they at least schedule a demo for us. I had to correct him that he in fact scheduled ZERO demos.

They claim to email 30-40 people a day and start them on a “magical” battle-tested funnel. But after THREE MONTHS they delivered ZERO demos. It takes me five hours to close a new client, it took them about 100 days and 30 hours of my time to deliver zero demos, not even a client, but a demo. Zero demos… let that sink in for a second. Someone should make a parody of this company and use it as the perfect playbook to run a scam.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Terrible, lots of requested meetings, about 30 hours worth of wasted time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Nothing. They are a scam as far as I am concerned.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Yes, the entire company needs to change.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO at a small fintech company that creates a marketplace of service providers that offer high-value services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our goal is to make it easier for SMEs to find service providers.

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We hired them for a call center service. We’re a small company, so we needed a partner to help us scale up our outreach operations to create alliances with bigger companies.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE built an omnichannel outreach campaign for us; they identified potential partners and reached out to them to book appointments with us. We started with a discovery phase involving working sessions to talk through the project and prime their team for the outreach by sharing information about our business. That process took several weeks. 

From there, their team reached out to executives at other firms through phone calls, email, and social media messaging. They scripted the messages for each medium to get potential partners interested in our business. 

What is the team composition?

Two key resources from CIENCE were our primary contacts, and around 8–10 teammates in total touched our project.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

We found them through a reference from a trusted friend of our company. We’d worked with this friend on a previous project, and they advised that we needed to outsource an outreach program and recommended CIENCE for the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2021–January 2022.

We had to pause the engagement for reasons related to our budget. When we can resume the project, CIENCE will continue to be our go-to solution.

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

We have two new partners thanks to CIENCE’s efforts, and we have at least three other potential partners in our pipeline. A partner is not a small unit for us; each new partner helps our business grow. Throughout our engagement, the CIENCE team booked 15–20 meetings for us.

Since the start of this project, I’ve learned more about the extent of learning required for this kind of outreach campaign. Factoring in that learning curve and the fact that we had to pause the project when it was at its maximum functionality, CIENCE exceeded my expectations. 

Looking back at our goals when the project started, we’re now 90% there. I trust that if we hadn’t paused the project, CIENCE’S results would have kept improving. They know more about our company than anyone, besides us.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

The integration of their services into our business was efficient. The only challenge we faced was a personnel change on their end during the first six weeks of the process. Once their team stabilized, the project took off, though.

We worked remotely and communicated via Slack and biweekly Zoom meetings. CIENCE stayed within our budget and performed well on the schedule we set. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated that CIENCE’s sales team was accurate and honest, and they delivered the services they promised. Though this has been my only omnichannel outreach project, CIENCE’s transparent pricing was a strength compared to projects of other types I’ve worked on. Their team also had a mature view of feedback. When we asked them to change or refine something, they never got defensive, and they worked at it with a quick turnaround time. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve off the top of my head.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

CIENCE’s job is to create interest in your business and get you potential customers, and for that, they have to know your company. My advice would be to prepare an easy-to-understand document or video for them explaining what your product is, why it’s beneficial, and who your target client is.  

The most challenging part of this type of engagement is the beginning when you have to embed your product and brand attributes into the vendor's side. Your partnership will go better if you have the artifacts, preparation, and planning to complete that onboarding quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a construction software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We wanted to try out sales development reps, or the idea of outbound prospecting, to generate meetings and a pipeline of leads.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to increase our pipeline by securing more meetings with prospective clients for our software. Our goal was to have an outsourced group that could use a combination of calls, emails, and LinkedIn messaging to set demonstration meetings for our sales teams.

Based on that requirement, CIENCE provided prospecting services via phone, email, and social media. We gave them a bit of coaching, but they were the ones who did the research, developed the script, and applied their best practices in the process. 

What is the team composition?

There are multiple people working on our account, but we’re actively in contact with three people, including Matt (Account Manager).

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I did an extensive search on the internet as well as talked to personal connections in the industry. We had evaluated 10 different outsourced sales development firms, and we ultimately selected CIENCE due to the amount of prep work that we had already done with them prior to us being their formal customer. We saw this diligence of theirs as a good look into the amount of work that they would actually put into the project once it has begun.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed a contract with them in June 2021, and our partnership is ongoing.

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

There has been an easy integration of CIENCE’s services into our business operations. They’re a very flexible team and they work with us very seamlessly. With their participation, we’ve closed thousands of dollars’ worth of business and have generated a copious amount in the pipeline as well. 

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

CIENCE has been really good on this front. They’ve managed the turnover well, and the only time they’ve had a shortcoming, they made sure to own up to and rectify their mistake. It’s been a really good partnership. 

We have biweekly check-in meetings with their team over Zoom and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing that really distinguishes CIENCE from other providers is their attention to detail. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of at this time. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a well-defined ideal customer profile as well as background information to help CIENCE put together an appropriate email or call script. They do have an initial interview process to help extract necessary information from you, but it would be good to have everything at the ready in order to hit the ground running. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of business development for an organization that provides outsourced healthcare technology management solutions.

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We were looking to improve our digital presence and generate more sales opportunities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE Technologies is providing us with digital marketing solutions that include outbound telemarketing, email marketing, and LinkedIn lead generation and networking.

What is the team composition?

I work with Nate (Account Manager) and three other people I routinely converse with.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

A partner and colleague recommended CIENCE Technologies, but they were also already implementing solutions for our sister company prior to engaging with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership with CIENCE Technologies started in June 2021.

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

The activity we’ve experienced from an enrollment standpoint has been solid, and we’re seeing a lot of positive results from our digital outreach efforts. As we got more efficient, we hope that we identify more opportunities and book more discovery calls that will lead to our proposal engagement. 

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

There were some rocky bumps in the initial kickoff meeting such as delays from both sides, but the team was able to work through those and extend the program at no cost. We’re in a good trajectory at the moment, as we look to increase our efficiency and volume for quality engagement.

We typically communicate through Zoom and Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m very impressed by the quality, accuracy, and legitimacy of the results they’re delivering — it gives us more confidence in the data we’re receiving.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One aspect of the project they could improve on is the turnover rate, so I’m hoping we gain more stability in the team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In order to get the most out of the engagement, you need to provide their team with the best and most simplified information possible so they can get the core messaging quickly.

It’s a critical step in the more advanced phases of the partnership because it will shorten the ramp-up time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of innovation at a software company that offers a low code development platform. I oversee all demand generation, marketing, and inside sales.

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We were trying to generate demands and leads for our software product. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE started by developing our ideal customer profile. After that, they used criteria that we created together to pull target names and contacts for an outbound marketing and demand generation campaign. 

They then contacted leads and implemented our marketing strategies. They drove prospects to discovery calls with our team so we could talk about what we do and how we might be a fit for their companies. 

Additionally, CIENCE prepared our sales playbook, messaging for emails, and scripts for phone calls. They also developed our landing page for retargeting campaigns. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, an account manager, a strategist, a research analyst, a business development representative, and another resource.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

We had been on their email campaign, and I looked them up on Google. From what I saw, I thought they would be a good fit for us and could provide good service. I was also impressed with their broad package that included refining the ideal customer profile and content writing. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–December 2021.

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

We measured the project’s success with the number of meetings they could set up for us. We also looked into the quality of the prospects and analyzed how good a fit they were for our product. Other performance metrics were email opens, clicks, and LinkedIn connections. Overall, we’ve seen a minor increase in our leads. 

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, our project manager was doing well. However, we started making some changes, but they weren’t implemented. 

I became unhappy, so CIENCE changed their product team. The team ended up being very responsive, and we had a good project manager — they were able to achieve the results we wanted. That said, we still had a late start, as we only had the right team later on in the engagement. 

We had biweekly meetings, and we communicated through Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

CIENCE cared about us and wanted us to succeed. They would do what was necessary to ensure that they were delivering for their customers. They were willing to step up, and they listened to our complaints. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should’ve made sure that their project managers had a manageable workload. It would make them inefficient if they were juggling too many projects. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ensure that you have the right team and that you stay in close contact with your project manager and account representative to get the service you want. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior manager at a SaaS company in the CRM space. 

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

Our company needed sales development support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

People could sign up for a 14-day free trial of our product on our website. We collected user data from our site, and we sent the smaller segment sign-ups to CIENCE’s sales development representatives (SDR). 

Their SDRs would then reach out to those leads through calls and emails. Their goal was to schedule a meeting with their leads and our sales team during that 14-day free trial. We collaborated on the script, and we had a mutual understanding of what they should be sending out. 

What is the team composition?

We had two SDRs and a team leader. I also worked with two account managers. 

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

Our company had hired them before I stepped in and took over the project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We paid them about $5,000–$10,000 a month.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2020–December 2021.  

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

They had one SDR that was better than the others, and that affected our end-of-month performance. One teammate carried other peoples’ loads, and there was a gap in conversion. In my six months here, only one teammate hit their quota.

That said, I’m not putting the entire blame on them. The lead information they had was not always good. We tried workarounds and offered suggestions to improve their numbers, but I do think there was a gap in their SDRs’ training.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent, and we didn’t encounter any issues on that front. Their team was great to work with, and their communication was awesome. They were organized and on-point. We integrated them on our Slack channel, and we also communicated through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were friendly, responsive, and easy to work with. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve trained their SDRs more. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand that there might be additional tools and workarounds that you as a company should be willing to provide for them to truly optimize and help your business. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a co-founder and the chief revenue officer of a compliance software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We needed someone to help us find and reach out to potential prospects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE Technologies first did some research on our company and target market. We also shared our value proposition and what differentiated us from our competitors. Additionally, they compiled a list of potential leads, which we then validated.

Next, the CIENCE Technologies team wrote a playbook detailing the sales cadence they'd follow for our outreach efforts via email and phone calls. They ended up with a step-by-step process and a database of prospects.

Finally, they started reaching out to these potential clients. In each call, they describe our services and set appointments on behalf of our sales team. The CIENCE Technologies team has access to our calendars and directly inputs meeting details into them.

Aside from conducting outreach, the team also creates landing pages, banner ads, and marketing collateral for us.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with six teammates, including an account manager, a researcher, a marketing specialist, a team lead, and two sales representatives.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I did some research and interviewed a bunch of companies. Out of all of them, I liked CIENCE Technologies' approach the best, so I hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in May 2021, and it's ongoing.

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

We're happy with the amount of research they've done. The database has been effective at helping us find and validate our prospects' contact details.

The CIENCE Technologies team has done a great job of building our messaging — they've successfully reached out to our prospects and found great leads for us.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

The CIENCE Technologies team is super organized, and the process has gone incredibly smoothly. We primarily communicate via email and Slack. 

Additionally, we have biweekly meetings over Zoom. They present us with metrics and statistics and let us know what they're working on. The team lets us know if something isn't working, and they're quick to adjust accordingly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

CIENCE Technologies isn't a one-dimensional team — they've made an effort to build a comprehensive lead generation program. They do a lot of in-depth research and data analysis. Furthermore, they consider the marketing aspect of the strategy and provide effective messaging.

We genuinely feel that the whole team is working on our project; we have yet to find that level of dedication anywhere else. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We did have some messaging that fell flat at some point, and they were afraid to tell us that it might not work out. I've since asked them to be more direct about giving us feedback on our suggestions. Overall, they've done a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much information as you can and work closely with them on the playbook. Make sure to be clear about your messaging, content, and ideal prospects. 

If you have to shift your strategy, talk to the team about it and make changes as soon as possible. You don't want to take shortcuts in the process and waste your money.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the President of a website development and marketing firm.

For what projects/services did your company hire CIENCE Technologies, and what were your goals??

We hired CIENCE to help expand our capacity for phone and email sales. Our team in house was busy with client work and they were recommended as a vendor that could help fill the gap in our sales team.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose CIENCE because they spoke of their strong track record, support, and case studies. In addition, they had strong presentation materials and seemed to be confident in our needs.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package, including any calling tools used.

CIENCE used a variety of tools between phone lines, email, LinkedIn, etc. Their reporting dashboards seemed to be quite robust at filtering data.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

I'm not even sure. Our account had so many different account managers and CIENCE employees cycling through it immediately confused us and our feedback wasn't able to be clearly communicated due to the rapid turnover they had. The feedback process was confusing and they had no preparation or agenda's for anything.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the service?

CIENCE was probably one of the biggest mistakes we've ever made. From the poor timelines and onboarding to the high turnover of staff. Even more concerning, many of the leads they were emailing turned out to be random Gmail users, many without real names, and not actual business contacts. It all made sense as to why we didn't see a single dollar of return.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Their project management, communication, and timeliness were some of the biggest reasons for our dissatisfaction. After we signed their contract there was very little communication and almost every deliverable was late by days or even weeks.

We had multiple people from their team on calls with no agenda or direction of who is who and the rapid turnover meant it was a new group every time. This meant starting over-explaining concerns all while quality continued to go down.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their reporting dashboards and presentation materials seemed to have some nice templates. However, the more impressive issue was the lack of care for our account.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

It's possible that we were a victim of being in the right place at the wrong time. We had high hopes but ultimately we were let down at almost every turn once we signed their contract. I understand results are not guaranteed but the mismanagement of our account is the biggest issue that leaves us uncomfortable with the investment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a fully outsouced Payroll and HRIS organization supporting businesses with their payroll and HR technology needs. I am the President of the business.

For what projects/services did your company hire CIENCE Technologies, and what were your goals??

We do not have an internal outreach team that works to setup sales appointments.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We researched multiple organizations in this space. We ultimately chose Cience based on the detail in which they managed the program and preferred their methodology.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package, including any calling tools used.

They would research target markets for us, including the appropriate contacts to assure that all contacts were up to date. They would use multiple outreach methods such as email, phone and Linkedin to gain interest and setup discovery calls.

Who did you work with and what was the feedback process like?

We worked with the outreach and research team to find the right market, develop the messaging strategy and then work in tandem to manage the program on a weekly basis.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the service?

Cience was able to generate more appointments that we had managed to prior, even during a down period of time as well as creating multiple levels of exposure that will help with long-term marketing plans.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Cience managed the program through standard weekly meetings, as well as weekly updates on all stats related to outreach efforts.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were very consistent and thorough in their process. They constantly tweak the program based on where we were seeing success or lack of success.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior e-commerce strategist at Dataweave, a digital SaaS analytics company.

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We needed to get the word out about our business through digital marketing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE Technologies supports our digital marketing pipeline by organizing our email marketing and LinkedIn outreach campaigns. We coordinate with their team to strategize these campaigns and plot out the content of our messages. Additionally, they take direct discovery calls to expand our network through phone call campaigns.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with their account manager, and a team of 5–6 resources from CIENCE Technologies regularly cooperates with our team to execute our campaigns.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

CIENCE Technologies was first onboarded when I wasn’t in our company yet. We then reached out to them again when we needed a marketing agency to take on this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent under $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with CIENCE Technologies commenced in March 2021.

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

CIENCE Technologies has met our expectations by working hard to deliver polished and cost-effective results. They have a dependable framework, and they proactively follow this to reward us with an average of 4–6 appointments each month. Overall, we can definitely tell that they’re experts in their field through the feedback we’ve been receiving.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate via Slack and email. They’re a highly collaborative team with an organized approach. We have bi-weekly meetings to discuss the progress of our campaigns, and their well-allocated resources are always keen on contributing to our discussions and guiding us throughout the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with their field expertise and their in-depth understanding of our customers’ needs. CIENCE Technologies’ framework helps us meet our current benchmarks, and their team always ensures that we’re operating as professionally and effectively as possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

CIENCE Technologies brings productive ideas to the table, but we can benefit from newer ideas to help shape up our upcoming campaigns. Any minor delays we’ve encountered have been due to the pandemic, and that’s something that both parties can’t control.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be as collaborative as their team from the get-go. If you work with their team with an open mind and trust their expertise and strategies, you’ll be able to make the most of your working relationship.