EBQuickstart

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an independent P&C insurance agency located in Kansas City. I am the Executive Vice President for Strategy.

For what projects/services did your company hire EBQuickstart?

Lead generation to assist us with our M&A strategy.

What were your goals for this project?

Annually generate 5,000 qualified leads; make initial contact with 100; complete discovery with 15 - close 4.

How did you select EBQuickstart?

We went through an extensive interview process with 15 firms. We selected two firms as finalists. The decision came down to my relationship with Donte and the quality of the generated leads.

Describe the project in detail.

The project is simple - EBQ provides qualified domestic leads based on my ideal customer profile for M&A activity and we solicit the lead to determine interest.

What was the team composition?

The team is also simple - Donte is my main contact, Chris manages Karim who researches all the perspective leads. It's a close knit team, we meet weekly to discuss progress, expectations, quality and overall status.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have generated over 4,000 qualified leads and we're concluding our due diligence with 2. These will hopefully close over the next few months. We're expanding the project to now include a scoring model to prioritize the leads on a standardized scale. This will help my team surgically focus on the leads with the highest close probability.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There is no distinction between "them" and "us" — it's just "we". All the work is collaborative. In fact, an outsider listening in to one of our calls would believe we all work for the same company.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

1. Professional People
2. Quality of Work
3. Value Proposition

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of a software company. We provide software that helps enterprises find information within their organizations and space.

What challenge were you trying to address with EBQuickstart?

We were trying to find ways to fill our pipeline with top of the funnel opportunities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

EBQuickstart has done a few things for us. They built out a contact list using our target market criteria. Then, they helped develop scripts — both written and verbal — to reach out to the contacts with. They also implemented an outreach campaign and reached out to the contact list they’d built, via both voice and email. The key deliverable is scheduling meetings with key contacts at companies within our target market.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people: an overall strategy manager, an operations manager, and a BDR (business development representative), who is actually doing the outreach every day. 

How did you come to work with EBQuickstart?

Initially, they reached out to us. They did exactly what they do for their customers: they sent us a soliciting email. The timing worked out because we were considering outsourcing some business development. I responded to the email and scheduled a meeting with them. We had a number of conversations and then decided to give them a try.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in mid-March 2020, and it’s ongoing.

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

One key metric is that they’ve handed a number of opportunities to us that have made it to our pipeline. One of those opportunities is on our forecast for next year, and then five others have potential. We plan to keep working on and nurturing those.

Another key metric is that they’re getting us meetings with the right people at the right companies. Now, it’s just a matter of whether or not these organizations are willing to move forward with or have an initiative, but it’s really up to us by that point.

How did EBQuickstart perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform really well. One thing that I really like about EBQ is that they’re proactive in coming forth with ideas on how they feel they could better impact the business, get more qualified meetings, and reach our market. They try to come up with different ideas, whether it’s focusing on a particular segment, trying different messaging, or finding different contacts. 

The other thing I really like about them is that they do a good job qualifying the opportunity, so we have really good notes about an organization’s needs and challenges, as well as a little background on the contact that they scheduled the meeting with. This helps us to be better prepared going into these meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They proactively come forth with ideas on how they feel they can get better results for us. Not a lot of organizations do that, so that’s something that differentiates EBQ. I also feel that they do a lot of phone outreach, whereas many of these firms tend to focus on email. EBQ is very phone-centric, and I think that also sets them apart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have a very wide audience and a lot of potential industries we could go after. With only one rep, it is challenging to cover it all, but they could perhaps do a bit of a better job balancing breadth versus depth of our audience segments to see if opportunities exist in places they haven’t explored deeply.

Any advice for potential customers?

Training is key. Make sure you give them plenty of examples because they really absorb the information. Keep in close contact and do a lot of information sharing, whether that be customer wins you’ve had in the past or examples of the types of contacts you’re targeting and why. They really leverage any information that you provide in their day-to-day activities. Work very closely with them and treat them as if they’re an extension of your team. The more information you give them, the more successful they will be.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Centripetal. My responsibilities include all global marketing and PR functions as well as spearheading the lead generation programs to create awareness, qualified leads, and expand the sales pipeline.

For what projects/services did your company hire EBQuickstart?

We were looking for a multi-faceted lead generation program that included outbound calling and email. The EBQuickstart offering met all our needs.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to create sales opportunities and grow the sales pipeline without placing a burden on internal sales resources.

How did you select this vendor?

I knew of EBQuickstart for years and decided to use their services.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They create a target list based on our criteria and start the calling/email process. We also supply them with an additional intent list that they work on as well. Once the prospect agrees to a call/meeting, they will contact the respective internal sales manager and make the introduction to move forward.

What was the team composition?

We work directly with the team leads to determine targets and have bi-weekly calls to share any issues, updates, etc.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have had great success with EBQuickstart and they have booked several meetings that have lead to POCs and eventually closed deals.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They are excellent, our calls address any concerns, etc. to which there were very few and minor. They are extremely proactive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team is easy to work with and ensure that we are satisfied.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at the moment, they are one of the best lead generation firms I have worked with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a web services company. I’m a partner development manager.

What challenge were you trying to address with EBQuickstart?

I was working on a lead generation program for partners that I work with in Canada. The specific challenge was generating quality contact lists for lead generation campaigns. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

EBQ provided us with a contact list specific to a particular vertical in public sector for our partner’s solution.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people. Paul C. (Client Success Manager) was our primary contact and liaison with EBQ. We also worked with Chris V. (Director of Data Operations), our project manager, as well as someone who did the work gathering the contacts. 

How much have you invested with them?

It was approximately $2,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from May–June 2020.

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

We’re in progress with lead generation campaigns, so the metric we have is how many warm leads will come back to a specific partner based upon that contact list. It’s still early, but I can tell you that one of the contacts we called asked us to present on the specific solution to their membership, which includes over 400 active members. We gathered about 300 contacts with a 95% accuracy rate in under 30 days.

How did EBQuickstart perform from a project management standpoint?

They were beyond exceptional. I’ve never worked with a company that was so on top of their game yet non-irritating. They maintained regular cadence and kept everybody on task from our company, the partner company, and their side. They adhered to the very strict format of contact gathering that we required. They were just a pleasure to work with. We communicated through a web conference platform.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their speed was impressive. They not only turned around quotes for getting the work done very quickly, but the actual completion of the work was incredibly quick. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly can’t think of anything they could’ve done better. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Just do it. It was the single most effective thing that I’ve done in my current role.

Please describe your company and your position there.

E-commerce leader in international shipping. Head of Sales and Marketing.

For what projects/services did your company hire EBQuickstart?

Manage outbound inside sales team to schedule demonstrations of our technology and solutions to prospects.

What were your goals for this project?

Increase the number clients through the prospecting efforts.

How did you select this vendor?

RFQ with several organization that provide similar solutions.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we select EBQ we set up discovery calls to discuss the typical buyer profile as well as challenges in closing the deal. We also provided leads via SFDC integration for easy access and tracking.

What was the team composition?

Inside Sales Rep, Inside Sales Supervisor, Project Manager.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our organization is in a growth strategy. With EBQ, we are able to focus our efforts so that our prospecting and sales strategy is messaged to the right people, the right way, and at the right cadence.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Worklow has been great. They believe in high touch and being readily available when needed.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their collaborative approach to being an extension of our organization is impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of an early-stage technology startup called Mixtroz.

What challenge were you trying to address with EBQuickstart?

We needed to drive more qualified leads into our funnel so that we could get more demos booked in our calendar.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave EBQuickstart a target list of leads, which they called methodically and followed up with on with emails. They’re taking all sorts of day-to-day actions that we, as founders, don’t have time to do. 

Once they get someone interested in a demo, they’ll set up an appointment and hand it over to me. I’m actually the one performing the demos, and I give them feedback through our Slack channel, letting them know whether that was a good lead or not.

What is the team composition?

I’m working with three people from EBQuickstart, including a day-to-day point of contact.

How did you come to work with EBQuickstart?

They reached out to us and happened to have really good timing.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve paid them around $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with EBQuickstart in February 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

EBQuickstart has increased our demo appointments, and that’s what we were looking for.

How did EBQuickstart perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate with their team through email and Slack, and they’re also onboarded on our HubSpot to record the demos as they’re setting them up. They’re very buttoned up in terms of project management. 

The process is methodical, and their project manager is there to give us advice, guide us, and report on what’s going on. All of that is above expectations. They over-communicate about where they are on things and about any challenges they may be facing. 

The team is very easy to get in touch with. I’ve never had to spend an inordinate amount of time getting in touch with them when I needed quick feedback on something. Being early-stage isn’t cheap, and we would’ve cut the deal with EBQuickstart a long time ago if it hadn’t worked.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s their know-how in what they do. We can tell that they’ve been doing this for a long time because they’re a well-oiled machine. The benefit of doing something like this as an early-stage startup is cost because we don’t have to take on in-house employees. 

Secondly, we’re getting a well-oiled machine with good processes in place. EBQuickstart feels like an extension of my team, and it’s been a really seamless process. They definitely don’t feel like a third party calling on our behalf.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there are no areas of improvement. Like any business, we want our conversions to speed up, but that really doesn’t have to do with them. In fact, we’re raising another round of funding right now. When that happens, it’s our plan to expand the collaboration with EBQuickstart. I’d spend more with them if I could.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If the client company isn’t buttoned up and doesn’t have materials for them to work with, it might be difficult to work with an agency like EBQuickstart. Had they come to us in 2019 instead of 2020, it would’ve been too early.

We were still in the building phase, making sure we had collateral and case studies that an agency like theirs could direct an interested party to.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a marketing manager for a security company.

What challenge were you trying to address with EBQuickstart?

We hired them to generate qualified sales leads to feed our sales funnel.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have a team of development reps that call on our target audience, qualify them, and find interested prospects who are interested in purchasing our product to send over to us. They work with our sales reps to find qualified leads. They do 100% of our lead generation each quarter and are an integral part of our team.

What is the team composition?

Michael (VP) is my main contact, but I’ve worked with a few others.

How did you come to work with EBQuickstart?

When I started, the process was already in motion. I’ve worked with other similar groups and they’re the best.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began work in January 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

The process was seamless. They’re experts on Salesforce, the CRM we use, call lists, and more. They’re the subject matter experts and are very easy to do business with. We’ve grown with them, generating an ROI of 10+.

How did EBQuickstart perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. We’d have weekly meetings, and if we ever needed to get in touch with them they’d respond incredibly quickly. They actually adopted an email on our domain which made them fully integrated with our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand our product and our audience very well, know how to pitch our product, and are very Salesforce savvy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re very good overall.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of business development and marketing at Liveoak Technologies, Inc. an enterprise cloud platform that creates new ways for financial institutions to do business with their customers without having to do so in person.

What challenge were you trying to address with EBQuickstart?

We’re a very small nimble group, so we don’t have a giant sales team or a large number of prospective customers. We brought EBQuickstart on to augment our personal prospecting and up-funnel activities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The EBQuickstart team serves as our business development representative. 

What is the team composition?

We work with account managers and sales leads. 

How did you come to work with EBQuickstart?

We had a job rec out and we were struggling to find someone who wasn’t entry-level. Another company told us that we should talk to EBQuickstart. The second we finished our conversation with them, we knew that they would solve our problem. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with EBQuickstart in January 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

They bring to the table a proven process and the ability to start small, hire fractional support, and scale as needed. I’ve been impressed with EBQuickstart’s level of industry knowledge and how quickly they’ve been able to set appointments with qualified leads.

In a matter of months, we doubled our qualified leads. We have a long sales cycle, about 18 months, but EBQuickstart shortened our cycle to about six months for one of our leads. 

How did EBQuickstart perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is fantastic. We have weekly touchpoints with account management and sales leadership. When we add them to Salesforce, they drop in their process right away. With EBQuickstart, you get the process with the people. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team has a unique formula that works and is scalable. Their speed of ramping up and the effectiveness of their formula is impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Invest time in the weekly call to give them feedback, because they take it and apply it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

LYRASIS is a non-profit organization that serves libraries, archives and museums in the United States

For what projects/services did your company hire EBQuickstart?

EBQ was a recommendation from another not-for-profit organization that LYRASIS is partnered with. LYRASIS was in need of some market research and business development in the museum field for an open source collection management software

What were your goals for this project?

Increase awareness of the software, increase awareness of the benefits of open source vs closed/proprietary software that is prevalent in the field and ultimately to increase adoption.

How did you select this vendor?

EBQ was referred to us by another organization that had used the EBQ services for projects in the past for similar work with museums. After interviewing leadership at EQB and receiving a comprehensive proposal, we moved forward.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

EBQ provided lead generation, contact, and account management and turned over active conversations to our in-house interviews and opportunity development.

What was the team composition?

The EBQ team was comprised of a success Specialist and a Project/Success Manager

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

I would highly recommend EBQ as a partner, both long term project-based and short-term. The organization is very process-oriented, professional and I was very impressed with how quickly our EBQ team - from top to bottom - picked up the nuances of a complex industry and service need. This is likely an indication that this organization can tackle projects in many industries, as a result of their methodology.

While we came with contact lists, EBQ used our business case requirements to also build out a universe of prospective contacts. Communication was open, transparent and frequent. Success metrics are part of the deliverables. EBQ helped us achieve all goals we set out to accomplish on a project-based deadline and I hope that another project comes along that allows me to engage EBQ again. Highly recommend.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent process, excellent communication, flexible platforms - theirs, yours - they will accommodate or adapt.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their process and professionalism set them apart.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None at all.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the head of new client sales and marketing. In that capacity, I oversee our efforts to create and convert leads for our discount marketplaces and voluntary employee benefits.

For what projects/services did your company hire EBQuickstart?

We had some effective BDRs who had received great promotions to other companies, and replacing them was a challenge in the Austin market. We couldn't get interviewees in fast enough before they took other jobs. We began looking to an outsourced firm to see if they could do the work of staffing the role and managing the resources better than we could.

What were your goals for this project?

We actually ran them against another group to see which of the two would perform better in a head to head competition on setting meetings. I was hoping to see approximately 8 appointments per month from each group for the summer months.

How did you select this vendor?

I selected EBQ after starting with a list of 10 highly rated groups. I narrowed it to two finalists we decided to run in a bakeoff. It was actually EBQ's suggestion to run a bakeoff, as they are so confident in their ability to perform. What's more, they bill month to month and don't require longer contracts: all the risk is on them to get it done. The other groups didn't have that confidence.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was simple: we'd help them with messaging, and provide them with lists of prospects, including contact info. We just wanted them to book meetings. Both groups got the same amount of information and we equally split the list among the two groups.

What was the team composition?

They assigned, effectively, an SDR, a project manager, and a team lead.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They crushed it. Let me say this: they dominated the other team, and the other team insisted on having weekly calls with 4 people from their team every time. It wasn't even close. EBQ got started faster, required less of us, and put 3 times the meetings up. When EBQ's meetings didn't show, they tracked the prospects down and rescheduled. The other group had 1 out of 7 show. And we had to tell them to go reschedule the meetings. The worst part about it was the other team's sales guy was pushing my accounting department to get him a check the next day so he could get his commission. My fault for not cutting bait there.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was great. No point in saying a lot because Liz and Jordan there made it so easy on us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their professionalism. Like I said, the other team had a pushy sales guy who would drag his feet on answering questions; their project manager blamed us about taking too long for them to send emails; when we said we didn't want to work together anymore, they pointed to a contract that insisted on more notice even though they weren't performing at all. EBQ kept rescheduling meetings that needed to move things around AFTER the project ended. They provided great handoffs.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None.