CIENCE Technologies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of marketing for Imagecraft Exhibits. We mainly create custom and rental exhibits for companies that are attending trade shows. We also build portable exhibits, museum displays, and permanent installations for residential homebuilders, sales officers, and design centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We wanted to increase sales, so we needed a way to generate more leads for our sales team to follow up on.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Leadware for an email-based lead generation service. CIENCE recently acquired them, but they still work specifically on outbound email campaigns. We provide them with the trade shows we want to target, and CIENCE then does data mining and crafts the outbound emails. Once they get a response from a potential client, they send it to our business development director who takes it from there.

What is the team composition?

We have a team manager, a data miner, and someone who creates the outbound emails. The team manager handles the whole process for me.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

They sent an email at the same time I was looking at expanding our lead generation efforts. I reached out to them, they pitched their methods and success metrics, and we started on a trial basis.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $4,400 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we first started, we weren’t getting the response that CIENCE had promised. We considered ending the relationship, but they discovered that the outbound email templates weren’t being managed properly by the team lead. Instead of being customized for each trade show, the emails were all exactly the same. CIENCE let the individual go who was in charge of that, and results started improving. We’re now at double-digit meetings per month, and I’m hoping for continued improvement.

They're much more effective than any account executive we could’ve hired and probably around the same price, too.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly phone calls with the team manager and sometimes the others. The manager and I maintain regular email communication, too. CIENCE is extremely responsive—I know exactly what’s going on at any given time.

I get a weekly list of all the leads they’ve mined, which I can review and provide feedback for. They also send an update on all the results from the previous week, including open rates and positive and negative responses. I’m able to monitor which trade shows are more appropriate for this type of marketing.

Once we got over the issue at the beginning of the relationship, it's been as good as you could expect. They're intent on delivering on and executing any requests.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The free trial they offered at the beginning gave us confidence in their skills. We didn’t look for a different company after seeing how effective they were.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During their pitch, they said they could generate 20–30 meetings per month. That’s probably possible in other industries, but our clients have to make a large investment, so we were hoping for 15–18. We haven’t reached that yet, but we’re on track to get there.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Closely monitor their work in the beginning. It will ensure you’re all on the same page and prevent any problems like what we had. After a while, you won’t need to watch as much.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Tri-Plex OSI is a small company that designs and produces point of purchase display signage, specialty packaging, and digital retailing tools. We are part of the larger company, One Source Industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

I wanted to create a lead generation program to develop a new customer base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE developed a prospect list for an email campaign, which would generate appointments from the replies. However, weren’t get getting the initial results I wanted. My team considered every aspect of the email campaign and how to fix our approach. After consulting with CIENCE over a year and a half, we decided to add more personalized follow-ups.

What is the team composition?

I started with a 10-person team, working with a research sales administrator and a supervisor. The members changed after new ownership took over.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

They solicited us by email. Their initial email was compelling and well-timed. CIENCE did a good job identifying as a prospect because I was interested in their services and receptive to their pricing and pitch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent approximately $67,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in November 2015 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The whole process was a valuable learning curve for me. Their approach helped me broaden the scope of companies I considered prospects; I had been too narrow at first. Invaluably, CIENCE also adjusted my expectations. They helped me realize that fewer prospects would need our services, much less read the email blast. That was a revelation to me.

I haven’t quite gotten my money’s worth yet, but I’m still optimistic. I hope that I have the right strategy and personnel in CIENCE.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

The company changed ownership since engagement began. Fortunately, that switch brought new and industrious team members that are doing a fantastic job. They’re a great improvement over the previous team. We have weekly phone calls and I try to keep the relationship as active as possible to get the most value from their services.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re better priced than other agencies I’ve spoken with, but I don’t have the previous experience to compare them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can do more to personalize service and understand their clients’ businesses. Most changes to our process were my recommendations. A customized messaging analysis would have made them more proactive in that respect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't expect overnight results and take ownership of the results. Even though the client pays them as a vendor, CIENCE shouldn’t do all the thinking. Experiment with their offerings as much as possible. Every client should approach engagement as an opportunity to learn more about their own company. The company will benefit from that introspection.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of BigBox Lighting. We’re a Lighting as-a-Service (LaaS) company and direct sales arm of Foreverlamp®. Our firm provides businesses like industrial warehouses, convention centers, and other large facilities, with lighting services that reduce their energy usage by 50%–60% percent with zero upfront costs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We initially engaged them purely for lead research in relevant fields like warehouse owners, aerospace, etc. Then, we got them to work on our outbound sales material and email campaigns.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

To assist with lead generation, I’d communicate an industry, specific company, or the job titles of contacts we wished to target. CIENCE would come up with well-researched lists of people within organizations that are either decision makers or influencers of decision makers for our particular pitch. Using those lists, they’d draft email content that we’d further edit. The campaigns would go out and they’d report the results back to us. They consistency updated a campaign data spreadsheet to track progress in real-time.

What is the team composition?

Their business development manager and customer team lead were my primary contacts, respectively.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

My business partner found them and we had a couple of calls to discuss the process. We were happy with what they offered, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

The engagement cost around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place June 2017–February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t find our market-base to be responsive to this type of outreach. We’re pleased with the quality of CIENCE’s work and their implementation process, but we didn’t see the results we needed from the project. We offer a unique product, but our market is inundated with similar proposal-based campaigns. While the content is well-crafted, we found it difficult to stand out in that medium.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve found their level of service to be excellent throughout the whole process. They’re very responsive and get in touch immediately.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our main point of contact quickly understood the product and the message we wanted to communicate. That adaptability was remarkable considering they likely have to switch mindsets frequently when working on different projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The e-mail quality was inconsistent between copywriters. Sometimes the drafts were quite good and required little editing, but other times the content was sloppy, possessed syntax errors, and was unprofessional. However, I complained about that and they were responsive to the feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It's best to be as specific as possible with your target market. Additionally, this kind of strategy is a good way to expand outreach for a more established brand. It may not be as useful for a company in the startup phase. However, that might be different depending on the market. If we had better direction early-on, we could have had a more successful outcome.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Director of Business Development at Second Genome, an early-stage biotech company based in San Francisco. We do research and use microbiome science to identify new therapeutic targets to treat human chronic conditions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We developed a platform of data and studies that is ultimately used to develop drugs. We found that this platform is quite unique to us. There were a lot of external groups in academic and industry, such as pharma and other biotech companies, that were interested in this type of technology but didn’t know how to do it themselves. We started working with them as a fee-for-service model to allow access to certain parts of our platform.

I reached out to CIENCE to help us find new potential partners and clients with whom to promote our research services. We wanted to explore a methodology for proactive lead generation, which was new to us. We had been reactive and opportunistic in the past but wanted to accelerate our sales and build our client base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We took a two-pronged approach: first, they did discovery and built leads and, second, they reached out to those leads.

Initially, we identified customer profiles that we thought would benefit from our services, considering what the ideal partner client would look like including name, title, demographics, and contact information. CIENCE started to build a list of potential leads with this information, doing the research to find the contacts.

Next, they started to systematically reach out to these potential leads with customized messages. They sent emails to try to contact people, to gauge their interest, and to start to arrange meetings for my sales team. They integrated into our system of emails and calendars so that the process was seamless. We ran various both parallel and serial campaigns with different kinds of clients and different market segments, like pharma or academia.

We just pivoted at our company. This effort was a parallel side business and not the primary focus. Ultimately, we’re a pharmaceutical discovery and development company and we decided to internalize our efforts on more of our own R&D. We asked CIENCE to put things on hold for now.

What is the team composition?

We always had a main point of contact. There was a whole team there, with folks working on the lead research side and a separate group doing the outreach.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I think it was us reaching out to them based on a little bit of online searching. We didn’t know anyone there so in that sense it was a fortunate discovery.

We are an early-stage biotech company in that we are resource- and time-limited. That's when we heard about CIENCE and their capabilities. We saw strong synergies with working with someone like CIENCE to help us accelerate our sales and marketing, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel ourselves. It was a nice fit.

We had used other companies before. What we liked about CIENCE in our evaluation of them was the human-touch aspect they brought. It felt scalable. You could imagine a tradeoff between a hands-on approach and a scaled one where the throughput gets diminished. But in their case, I felt like they were reaching a sufficient number of individuals on a routine, weekly basis while also customizing their messaging.

How much have you invested with them?

On average, we spent around $2,000 a month over 24 months.

What is the status of this engagement?

I reached out to them in January 2016. As of last week, we put things on hold for now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can say qualitatively that by working with them we gained new clients and partners that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Two years is pretty short in the scheme of things. They really helped expand that reach that we didn’t have before. For us, success is based on the investment and the kind and size of the deals we get from each of these customers – the value we get from each opportunity that’s won. We definitely got our return on investment in that sense.

The ultimate success is that they’re gaining meetings for us and that these communications turn into revenue generating sales for ROI. But there are additional incremental indicators in terms of the number of qualified leads we get and how productive those conversations are – particularly because what we were selling is fairly unique. There’s a lot of education required to educate the clients. CIENCE was very thorough in that aspect.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We would have weekly calls with their entire team to go over what was done in the last week. We mostly communicated via email or phone. We never interacted face-to-face but it felt like they were definitely part of the team. They were a great team to work with on a personal level, which is important.

Overall, I think the project management is one of their key assets. Right off the bat, they were organized and good on following up with potential clients. They were able to take feedback and apply it in real-time. We’re selling a heavy, complicated scientific research-based offering that they were able to pick up really quickly and manage accordingly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to offer a customized, hands-on experience both for us and for our clients, the people that they’re reaching out to. Their messaging wasn’t mass, blanket emails but came from a real person representing our company. They could respond if there were any questions. It didn’t feel automated or like you were talking to a robot. They provided a concierge-type approach.

A little anecdote to share is that with clients and partners that I’ve had an opportunity to meet face-to-face, they always ask about the CIENCE colleagues by name. The CIENCE folks that were doing the outreach really provided a personal touch and our clients expected to interact with them in a greater way. In essence, being asked for by name was a true testament to how involved they were in the whole process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think it’s hard for anybody with that type of offering to be a domain expert in every field. They tend to be generalists rather than industry specific. It’s hard for us to find anyone that specializes specifically in biotech or the life sciences. It’s not really a ding against them, it’s just one of the trade-offs. When someone asks them a very technical question, they ultimately have to punt it to us. But that’s probably a good thing since we have the domain area expertise.

One of the things I brought up to them in feedback, and that I think they addressed, was meeting reminders. When you set up client meetings 2 weeks or a month out, you want to follow-up with a reminder 24, or 48, hours before the call or meeting. That sort of follow-up was initially lack. When I brought it up to them, they implemented it right away. Hopefully it has been globally implemented across their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very involved at least in the early stages because it's such a customized, personalized solution. Provide as much detail as you can. Be involved in the process of how you define your target segment and the profile of your customers. They’ll do a good job on their own; they’re savvy enough to do their own research. But it’s helpful to be involved in that process.

Secondly, and related to this, be involved in designing the messaging. The email template becomes your voice, and it’s the first point of contact with potential clients. CIENCE can put it together on their own but it’s worth your initial investment. You’ll reap the rewards on the backend.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the vice president of partnerships at a business that specializes in technology designed for on-demand companies. Specifically, the technology relates to an on-demand company's workforce of independent contractors: background checks, payments, sourcing labor, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

My responsibility was to create a pipeline, determine our marketing strategy, and begin creating the sales funnel and groundwork for our first 10–15 customers. I wanted an external partner to help meet those demands.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I initially partnered with CIENCE to support our lead generation effort. We'd identified a core audience (on-demand companies) and began segmenting them relative to the amount of fundraising they'd done. Using that as our key criterion, CIENCE identified and generated new leads and determined how to cater to key stakeholders in those businesses. They gathered rich contact information (emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn pages, etc.) and found about 150 new companies that weren’t in our original pipeline. With that information and insight, coupled with our outreach, we were able to generate a lot of interest and move people from awareness to education and ultimately to a partner that's in production.

Our process includes several iterations, which speaks to the collaboration in our partnership. I’m able to transfer my knowledge of the terrain to CIENCE and then they scale that and begin their side of the work. We’re actually about to begin another iteration within the next couple of weeks.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with my lead researcher. I’ve also been introduced to CIENCE’s VP of Sales, and it’s been great to have senior-level leadership on our project.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

I did online research.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent under $5,000.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially started working together in November, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen about a 10% conversion rate, which is fantastic in our business.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I communicate with the lead researcher almost daily via Slack. When I first got started, I was having weekly or biweekly phone calls, but that’s dwindled down.

Whatever capacity your partnership is, you get 100% of their attention. They’re responsive and responsible, letting me know when my contacts would be out of office and making sure I was taken care of. They provide complete support for our project. It’s like having an expert internal sales team without having to onboard; they come already prepared.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their biggest value is their human relationship. The technology and commodities are fantastic, but it’s the one-to-one relationship that makes everything work so well. For example, if they found a company that wasn’t actually a good fit, they were favorable and negotiable in exchanging it free of cost. They made sure the active leads were good quality and exactly what we wanted. The reliability and fidelity of their data are incredibly high, relative to some incumbent or legacy type technologies. With other companies, we would get out-of-order phone numbers or incorrect emails that would bounce back, but that’s not the case with CIENCE.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be transparent with your business and over-communicate. It's important to ask questions and be clear about what you expect. Let them know when a lead is wrong because it helps them do their job better.

Try to share as much information with them as you can. The more they understand your pipeline, the better they’ll find potential clients that fit it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a financial technology firm that helps companies automate their billing and payment services. I’m a founder and CRO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We launched over a year ago, and at that time we needed help generating leads and scheduling appointments with potential clients. We wanted to outsource the work to save costs in hiring an in-house team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve worked on a number of projects for us, all centered around leads and appointments. CIENCE helps identify our ideal customers and finds potential clients who fit the profile. They then contact these individuals through phone or email and schedule meetings.

Our ideal customer changes constantly and varies widely from industry to industry. CIENCE recommended that we take note of companies that recently placed ads for an accounts-feasible assistant as a means of identifying clients potentially interested in our services. They carry out that strategy for us, contacting individuals within those companies.

What is the team composition?

We've used them for over a year, so I've worked with different people as our needs have evolved. We sometimes place more focus on lead generation and sometimes place more focus on identifying specific types of contacts, so we’ve worked with a number of different individuals as these priorities shift.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

As a startup, we needed to get the word out about our company in a cost-efficient way and there are a lot of risks associated with hiring an in-house team. CIENCE was recommended to us, so I decided to reach out to them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We entered discussions in June 2016 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Over 60% of sales during our first six months came as a result of CIENCE. Still, it’s difficult to calculate tangible results for a lot of the work they do for us.

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

This is one of their strongest assets. We communicate through Slack and they’re very prompt with their responses. They provide quality feedback that you don’t typically receive from an outsourcing partner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

You have two choices with these kinds of projects; you can outsource it or you can bring it in-house. CIENCE is the best of both worlds, combining the cost-saving benefits of outsourcing with the insight and personal relationships that come with in-house employees. They also provide the expertise that comes from specializing in their field.

I’ve worked with their competitors in the past and found that CIENCE is unique in that they provide detailed feedback about which strategies are working. Others don’t provide that level of attention and care.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more forthcoming with recommendations. They’re very experienced in their field, so I would encourage them to be more open about marketing strategies they’ve seen implemented in other companies.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them just as you would an in-house employee. Run CIENCE through as much of your standard employee onboarding as possible. The more they know about your company, the easier their job will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of Strategic Accounts at a company called Direct Care Innovations, also known as DCI software. We are a purpose-built SAS offering technology for direct care agencies that care for individuals with developmental intellectual disabilities. We operate in the government Medicaid-funded industries and sector as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE?

Demand generation is arguably the most important part of any SAS company. As a startup, the ability to hire on a team of SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) to generate that new pipeline isn't always an available option. We needed a remote third party SDR team to address this need, and CIENCE was the only company we found that met our requirements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our engagement began with an extensive “Researcher” phase, where CIENCE learned about our organization, our target audience, and the challenges we seek to address. We then worked together to identify potential buyers and build out a preliminary list, and from there, they started on outreach. We have a dedicated SDR with CIENCE that’s been reaching out to prospects on our behalf, with the goal of booking initial sales meetings for us.

What is the team dynamic?

We started off working with Michael Maynes (VP of Sales, CIENCE), and then transitioned to working with an account manager that oversaw all our relationships, a dedicated SDR that conducted outreach and planned meetings, and a lead generator that helped us build the lists.

How did you come to work with CIENCE?

I had worked with CIENCE when they were called Leadware at a previous job and had a very positive experience. I haven’t found another marketing system or technology that offers remote SDR prospecting and demand generation.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial “Researcher” phase was a significant portion of the cost, at $12,000 over three months. From there, they price out based on performance, i.e. conversion rates and total meetings booked, and we are in the process of calculating this now.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April of 2017, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re currently booking enough meetings for us to where we’re considering hiring additional sales reps on our end to compensate. They’ve been getting us at minimum three meetings a week, and the engagement has led to almost a million dollars in potential opportunities.

How did CIENCE perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily interact via phone and email, but have several shared web documents that are regularly updated as well. They set the bar high. In fact, we have considered their strategies in implementing our own, in terms of quality, follow up, and transparency. We're always up to date with what they're doing, and I can't say that for most of the vendors that I've worked with in my past.

With CIENCE, they're always putting their best foot forward, and you know that they've got your back. They hit monthly touch points with us, deliver weekly reports, and send sales summaries whenever we request them. Any time you have a question you get a response back, typically same day. So again, there's no smoke and mirrors. Everything is very clear. Everything has gone through well, customer service has been great, and they're very appreciative people that I've enjoyed working with them very much.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide a very specific service that in my experience has been disruptive. It's a great business model that every company needs to really embrace if they want to have that constant influx of net new pipeline opportunity creation. Without it, you have a very unpredictable business model. From a value proposition standpoint, I haven't been able to find anybody that offers what CIENCE offers. The work that they're doing isn't for the faint of heart; they're doing the nitty-gritty work for your company. It's a very disruptive service and they do a great job.

Qualitatively I couldn't be happier. I love these guys. Again, if you're in sales, or you're a growing business, having a constant, steady influx of opportunities and engagements to sell your product to is a big deal. When the pipeline slows down, it may not seem to affect that given day or week or month, it will ultimately affect you down the road. CIENCE provides more value than they may know. It's been a tremendous advantage for us, and they take some of the heavy lifting off my plate. They also continue to develop our pipeline while I'm attending trade shows or other meetings. It's very consistent and very predictable. I'm very confident with their services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It's hard to tell at this point. We sell to a unique buyer, and identifying those agencies is somewhat difficult. As of now, we're completely satisfied. We're continuing to build a relationship together, and hone in on our ideal customer profile based on the meetings they get us.

Advice for potential customers?

They've been very easy to work with. It's a very tangible idea: If you don't have an effective, dedicated SDR team, you'll fall behind on net new pipeline generations. If you don't have the revenue to hire an internal SDR staff, you should absolutely look at CIENCE, because this is what they do. If you don’t have it, you need it. They're experts that basically become another arm of your company, and uphold the highest standard of respect.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a tech company in the hospitality vertical, and we primarily provide solutions for independent, non-flagged, non-branded hotels. Our target audience is the independent sector, and I run the sales team which consists of 3 other members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CIENCE Technologies?

We needed help with lead generation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CIENCE is responsible for identifying prospect companies for the customer, enriching data elements, and conducting custom or on-demand research. They’re also responsible for calling or emailing prospects on customers’ behalf, managing drip nurture campaigns, delivering templates and scripts for approval, and scheduling meetings through various mediums.

They also provide follow-up work from trade-shows, conduct phone-related research, and qualify prospects. In terms of administrative support, they provide data cleansing for our Salesforce CRM [customer relationship management], sales funnel reporting and organization, sales data entry and review, internal scheduling and organization, and gathering and reporting KPIs [key performance indicators].

We assign projects to them on a weekly basis during meetings with our marketing director, our representatives from CIENCE, and my colleague in the U.K. We do a review of the prior week’s work, and then give and receive feedback. This includes looking at how calls worked out in terms of appointments and campaign metrics, bounce rates, open rates, and confirmed appointments. We then figure out next week’ strategy, and, if we’re attending a trade show, we try to provide CIENCE with lists as far in advance as possible.

What is the team dynamic?

We have daily contact with 1 team member, and she’s involved with most of the work involving lists and campaigns, as well as follow-ups and outreaches. There’s also 1 team lead who is accessible to us, but we don’t speak to him very often outside of our weekly meeting.

We switched our client services manager halfway through, so we’re now having to get used to another person.

How did you come to work with CIENCE Technologies?

We’ve faced many challenges since we moved to Salesforce over a year ago. Our organization is small, so the amount of data, leads, contacts, etc., that Salesforce produces is quite overwhelming. We felt we weren’t responding in a timely fashion to the number of leads we were generating.

It became an urgency for us, and we tried for a long time to find the right company to help us. We looked at a couple of different firms and ended up choosing CIENCE because their price was attractive. The first part of our engagement was more of a test to see whether or not we could work with and trust a remote, third-party vendor with our information.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay them between $2,000–$2,500 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April or May of this year and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve been reasonably happy so far with what I’ve seen from them. We’ve generated a fair amount of interest, and have also closed some business as a result of their engagement. Their work has paid for itself. We’ve closed around $50,000 worth of business, and probably have about another $150,000 coming through that we can attribute to CIENCE. If we consider a close rate of about 25%, by the end of the year, they’ll have helped us close at least $100,000 worth of business.

We’ve worked with them to refine the process over time by analyzing which campaigns worked and which ones didn’t. They’ve been really forthcoming in providing us with data in these areas, and it ends up being a collaborative effort. I feel as though we’re on the same team, and I’m happy with the service I receive from them.  

How did CIENCE Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent, and we’ve had no issues with project management. We communicate via email and a new platform, which hasn’t been a smooth process because everyone isn’t on board with it. I preferred using Slack with them much more.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don’t have anyone to compare them to because we’ve never used anybody else. My favorite thing that they bring to our relationship is qualified leads.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m happy with what they’ve done so far, but there is always room for improvement. Their reporting could be more detailed in terms of weekly efforts. When we first started working together, they showed us 4–5 slides showing people we called, who answered, bounce rates, etc.

We’ve had to ask for much more of the recent reporting. I would like for them to come to us with this information as experts, instead of us having to ask for it.

I’ve also noticed the volume of appointments has decreased. We would like to see this increase because, at one point, we were receiving 5 appointments per week. This may be a seasonal issue or the fact that they’re working with different lists for different geographies. I plan to discuss this with them at our next meeting.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to keep this kind of service focused, and to have a clear objective or goal of what needs to be accomplished. It’s important to actively engage with CIENCE, even though they’re on the other side of the world. If they aren’t engaged with on this level, opportunities may be missed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Operations of Apollo Protection Agency

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Security Guard Company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CIENCE Technologies to accomplish?

• Security Guard company hired CIENCE to identify and contact potential new clients

SOLUTION

How did you find CIENCE Technologies?

Online Search

Why did you select CIENCE Technologies over others?

Pricing fit our budget

How many teammates from CIENCE Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

CIENCE Technologies was hired by a Security Guard company to provide lead generation services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Never got off the ground because CIENCE could not deliver

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Not good

What was your primary form of communication with CIENCE Technologies?

Virtual Meeting

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

They appeared to have good systems internally, just could not deliver on their agreement.

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

We were extremely disappointed with the services provided by CIENCE. Despite months of interactions and continuous meetings, they did not generated a single new lead for our business. Their call center representatives are poorly trained, and lack basic sales knowledge. Overall, this company failed to deliver on every promise, wasting both time and money. I would not recommend them to anyone looking for reliable lead generation services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director B2B Programs and Sales of GreatWater Garages

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a regional vehicle repair company with 130 locations and counting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CIENCE Technologies to accomplish?

Provide Leads to our stores

SOLUTION

How did you find CIENCE Technologies?

Online Search

Why did you select CIENCE Technologies over others?

Company values aligned

How many teammates from CIENCE Technologies were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We worked together to create a targeted group of prospects we were after, we provided them the content we wanted shared and that is generating the leads. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Number of leads, revenue generated from the leads.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They did deliver on time. 

What was your primary form of communication with CIENCE Technologies?

Virtual Meeting

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

I liked the way they approached getting the leads. Knowing these were not going to be hot leads but luke warm, it still is providing us the proper contacts on the products we sell so we can reach out.

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

The content creation was weak, I don't know if that was because we are in an industry they are less familiar with, but we ended up just providing our own.