Zintro

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a B2B ratings and reviews site. We focus on helping businesses looking for providers like ad agencies, app developers, or law firms to connect with them and find the one that better fits their needs.

I’m a senior growth operations manager, so I lead everything related to CRM and marketing automation. Additionally, I heavily support our launch into new service verticals.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zintro?

Whenever our company launches into a new research segment, one of our big challenges is figuring out how to kickstart our content. We needed to help more companies get listed on our site under a segment that people didn’t know we were building content yet. Thus, we wanted to access decision-makers who had worked with various verticals and talk to them about their experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We connected with Zintro to understand the size of their expert network. The function of most expert networks is to connect business professionals like me with business decision-makers who can weigh in on a given project or share their expertise. We were looking for Zintro’s experts to share with us what we were doing as a business but to share their insight into hiring service providers in several verticals we were exploring.

We initially approached them and talked about our needs. Then, they sent us a great questionnaire that helped us define our project’s scope. After defining the requirements, they went through a recruitment process where they sourced candidates since their existing expert network didn’t fit the bill.

Zintro found people who would be able to share their insights with us and provided us with the list of those candidates. Then, we had the opportunity to review those candidates and their answers to the screening questions that we had provided.

They also facilitated bookings so that our team could jump on the calls with the experts, and they later coordinated the incentive that was offered to them. From thereon, they’ve taken care of the communication.

What is the team composition?

I’ve mainly worked with two people from Zintro: Michael (Co-CEO) and a project manager who coordinates the recruitment process.

How did you come to work with Zintro?

I initially came across Zintro around a year ago. At the time, they weren’t the right fit for us, and we weren’t the right fit for them. However, I had enjoyed my initial conversations with them, and we were able to build a relationship with their leadership team.

When we started thinking about this project, they came to my mind. Our business strategies and the verticals that we were launching into were now a better fit for Zintro’s model, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this partnership in June 2021, and it is currently ongoing.

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

So far, Zintro has been able to connect us with almost 20 experts, including some great contacts who have spoken about multiple multiple experiences as a B2B services buyer. It has been really exciting to see.

We’ve also had a very good experience with Zintro’s work around preparing the experts. Most of them tend to know about our company already before we talk to them. On top of that, the quality of the insight that the contacts have shared with us is top-notch.

The experts have shared a wide range of perspectives about B2B services purchasing, which is exciting because, at our company, we focus on painting an accurate picture of a given market. Additionally, we’ve been able to talk directly with decision-makers who know how those services were hired and can speak about their quality, which is ideal for us.

How did Zintro perform from a project management standpoint?

Zintro is extremely communicative, and their project manager is also very accommodating. He hops on a call whenever we have questions despite the difference between our time zones.

Additionally, their turnaround time for sourcing profiles is impressive, especially since they have to do new recruitment into their expert network. I was also impressed with the handoff from the sales process into the project management. I was introduced to the project manager over the phone.

As we wrapped up an initial campaign with them and entered into a second one shortly after, their team hopped on a call with me to understand how the first campaign had gone and what improvements they could make to the collaboration with us. They’ve also joined us in a shared Slack channel, which helps them keep me accountable for giving them the insights they need to move forward with our project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Zintro’s willingness to collaborate and understand our needs is impressive. We’re using expert networks in ways that aren’t traditionally used, so it’s awesome to see them asking a lot of questions that help them understand how we can both benefit from this partnership.

Additionally, the quality of their collaboration and the details that they ask are amazing. They’re very organized when collecting project requirements and understanding their client’s needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the first campaign, it was a little challenging to understand exactly how fast they needed responses from me to take advantage of the different profiles they had recruited. The expectation setting for holding me accountable needed improvement for both sides. However, they’ve already solved that problem by introducing our shared Slack channel, and they’ve helped me be a successful partner to them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open with your project requirements and make sure you’ve thought through how Zintro plays into your business strategies. Their expert network model is generally most useful when you’re clear on the outcome and impact you want that effort to have in your business.