Being in the trenches, we’ve witnessed how the outbound landscape has changed drastically over the years. As marketing channels become saturated and economic uncertainty looms, agencies worldwide have been forced to adapt and compete. These competitors mirrored (and improved) CIENCE’s early model.
Interestingly, instead of competing on service delivery, CIENCE pivoted to its proprietary AI-powered platform.
But the reality is that technology alone doesn’t solve pipeline generation challenges. While CIENCE’s platform helps companies scale their go-to-market (GTM) motion, it struggles with lead quality and targeting precision — problems that require human expertise and industry knowledge to crack.
The more effective approach today is to partner with specialized service providers that combine strategic expertise with hands-on execution. These partners understand the nuances of your industry and can reach the right decision-makers successfully. This makes your pipeline sustainable regardless of the business climate.
In this guide, we examine CIENCE’s model and the causes of its inconsistent lead quality. We also offer top alternatives to consider.
Belkins ranks 2nd on the Clutch Lead Generation Leaders Matrix. Since 2017, we’ve driven 400+ appointments for over 1,000 companies annually. Our human-led team anticipates the challenges of both today and the future, providing strategic insights you can act on to increase your pipeline value. Book a call today to get started.
❗Disclaimer: This review is based on industry knowledge, open-source research, and conversations with prospects.
CIENCE's pricing plans include a one-time ecosystem setup, ongoing campaign engagement, and SDRs as add-ons. Many clients are unhappy with their ROI, citing poor lead quality, an insufficient number of meetings, and high turnover.
Let's dig deeper.
How much does CIENCE cost?
CIENCE costs $5,000 for a go-to-market (GTM) setup and $2,499+ per month for full-scale campaign management.
CIENCE also offers SDRs as an optional add-on. Each SDR costs from $1,500 to $5,500 monthly, depending on location and experience. Additional charges include per-meeting fees, a one-time $1,000/SDR onboarding fee, and performance commissions.
What services are covered under CIENCE’s managed service fees?
CIENCE's managed service fees cover a one-time GTM system setup and a monthly growth plan — the latter includes the same setup alongside strategy deployment and access to graph8, its proprietary platform that powers your GTM motion.
Let's examine both services.
The GTM system setup ($5,000 flat rate) covers a fully integrated GTM solution with AI automation and orchestrated campaigns. This option is ideal for companies looking to unify fragmented data or incapable of handling campaign deployment themselves.
The monthly growth plan covers campaign management ($2,000/month) and graph8 ($499/month), a credit-based GTM suite that unifies your channels, data, workflows, and AI agents. This option is ideal for expertise-strapped companies scaling their sales pipeline.
CIENCE also offers SDRs as an optional add-on that suits companies seeking human outreach at scale while avoiding recruiting and training SDRs internally.
For each CIENCE SDR, expect to pay a $1,000 onboarding fee, a $1,500 to $5,500 monthly salary, a per-meeting rate based on your ROI goal, and commission fees based on a percentage of the salary.
SDRs are contracted and managed through graph8, so you can monitor their payouts, activities, and performance directly on the marketplace.
What are the typical contract lengths and cancellation terms for mid-market plans at CIENCE?
CIENCE doesn't share its contract length and cancellation terms, but client reviews show mid-market plans typically span 3–12 months. However, various clients terminated early due to dissatisfaction.
After failing to book a single meeting during their 6-month partnership, one IT services company ended the annual term early.
📌 Belkins tip: Negotiate contractual terms to maximize your plan. For example, if you're concerned about your product's steep learning curve, negotiate for biweekly workshops instead of weekly ones to coach your outsourced SDRs.
What are some common complaints about CIENCE's lead quality?
Common complaints about CIENCE's lead quality concern accuracy and authenticity.
Despite agreeing on 10 weekly appointments with a mid-market client, CIENCE booked only 2 after 7 months. The frustrated client wasted $80,000 and lamented the database’s extreme inaccuracy.
With 23% of email lists decaying annually, it's common for lead databases to be flooded with invalid email addresses. In this mid-market client's case, CIENCE likely didn't scrub its data on time, leading to inaccurate leads and a low appointment quota.
Of course, even a 100% accurate database doesn't guarantee qualified leads. Your outsourced sales team still needs to nurture, follow up, and further qualify them — incidentally, this is also one of CIENCE's troubling issues.
According to one client complaint, they spent $10,000 on fabricated leads. These individuals provided affidavits declaring that they've never heard of or requested information from the client's company.
According to users, the low quality of CIENCE's leads stemmed from high SDR turnover and poor targeting.
An IT services client changed its team 3 times at the start of the project. While the project manager was good, said the client, CIENCE couldn't book a meeting in the first 6 months.
Plus, the team members didn't show up on calls, leading the client to end the partnership early.
Internal team health affects productivity and performance. CIENCE's high staff turnover likely contributed to the poor meeting outcomes.
According to a mid-market financial services company, CIENCE's biggest mistake is poor targeting. Despite clear instructions on target buyers, the SDRs focused on irrelevant leads, time that could've been spent on high-intent prospects.
Even though CIENCE graciously offered to extend the partnership, it failed to deliver the 10–15 monthly appointments promised. In the end, CIENCE booked only 2 meetings after over 3,500 calls.
How do CIENCE’s results compare with those of other lead gen firms?
CIENCE's results no longer match other lead gen firms like Belkins, Callbox, and Martal Group.
In its prime, CIENCE ranked first on the Clutch Leaders Matrix — it set the golden standard for other lead gen firms. The agency was known for its innovative outbound playbooks, often demonstrating its groundbreaking approach in the lead gen space.
While the graph8 platform certainly eliminates GTM friction, it overlooks a bigger problem troubling most businesses today: driving enough qualified opportunities to close deals.
Heavy reliance on automation doesn't maintain a healthy pipeline. You still need human specialists to diagnose bottlenecks, rethink strategies, verify leads, and make nuanced decisions during unpredictable market shifts — these are tasks only specialized agencies with hard-won knowledge can accomplish.
💡 Case in point: Initially, Belkins struggled to identify the right ICP for Peregrine Renewable Energy, a company that sells solar panels to commercial properties. One of the unorthodox methods we used? Google Earth. We measured the square footage of each prospect’s roof to estimate the monthly electricity bill, project costs, and payback period. With specific metrics tailored to each prospect, email response rates increased. After 6 months, Peregrine booked 55 appointments, qualified 23 prospects, and closed 2 deals.
Data sourcing, enrichment, and accuracy
CIENCE sources, enriches, and verifies the accuracy of its database through AI and human research. Here's a detailed examination.
How does CIENCE validate contact emails and phone numbers?
CIENCE validates contact emails and phone numbers through AI and machine learning algorithms. The agency also hires researchers for deeper accuracy.
📌 Belkins tip: Use a 3-level screening system to validate leads. Start with the company's activity level and ICP compliance. Next, check technical compatibility and buying signals. Finally, review each buyer persona and choose the ones that meet your lead criteria.
What data sources does CIENCE rely on for firmographics?
CIENCE relies on multiple data sources for firmographics: AI and machine learning, custom lead lists based on the client's ideal customer profile (ICP), third-party enrichment providers, and a database of over 30 million company records.
📌 Belkins tip: Beyond firmographics, identify the prospect's technographics, compliance, and intent signals to tailor a value proposition that resonates with decision-makers. Using this approach, we helped a startup investment platform book 346 appointments in 15 months.
Lead quality and qualification
CIENCE uses AI-assisted and human qualification to determine if leads fit the solution. Its qualification system has garnered mixed reviews, with negative feedback primarily citing low-quality leads.
What are CIENCE's lead qualification criteria and scoring methods?
CIENCE uses BANT or custom lead qualification criteria determined by the client, according to the SDR services terms. All qualified leads undergo a multi-level quality control process.
The agency doesn't share its scoring methods, but a quick analysis of graph8 shows it offers AI-powered scoring models based on 200M+ contacts and companies.
📌Belkins tip: Update the lead criteria as your outreach campaign progresses. As the economy changes, so does buying behavior. Test, refine, and update based on meeting outcomes, sales team feedback, and market landscape.
When Belkins partnered with Driveline, we experimented with different titles and departments in our 10k+ leads list. Through iterations, we narrowed the scope and messaging. We booked 109 meetings and generated $4.9M in revenue in 16 months.
What metrics does CIENCE use to measure campaign success?
CIENCE measures the number of leads, meetings, signed contracts, and pipeline revenue to gauge campaign success. It also updates clients on activity metrics like campaigns deployed and emails sent.
How does CIENCE handle lead quality for mid-market targets?
CIENCE handles lead quality for mid-market targets through AI-assisted and human qualification. After the AI SDR agents filter leads in the initial qualification stage, human SDRs step in to assess their challenges and requirements.
Methodology and process
CIENCE uses the NOTE methodology to engage prospects throughout the buying journey. Its sales ecosystem is supported by graph8, which lets you manage AI and human SDRs directly.
Here's a deeper look.
What are the core components of CIENCE's methodology?
The core components of CIENCE's methodology are Need, Opportunity, Team, and Effect — these initials make up the acronym NOTE, a popular sales framework.
The NOTE methodology is ideal for larger companies because the Team and Effect components map well to multi-threaded cycles.
For example, the Team component involves all the stakeholders in the buying committee. By engaging with the end user, influencer, decision-maker, buyer, and initiator — common players in an enterprise B2B buying process — you accelerate decision-making and the ales cycle.
📌 Belkins tip: Your ideal sales methodology depends on factors like target buyer, deal size, and sales cycle.
The NOTE methodology may work well for multi-stakeholder cycles but is insufficient for complex deals because it ignores granular details like legal processes. In this case, layer it with another sales methodology like MEDDIC — the "D" (Decision process) looks at the legal steps required.
At Belkins, we use BANT and MEDDIC for clients and ourselves. BANT qualifies leads in the discovery stage, while MEDDIC analyzes the decision-driving factors.
How does CIENCE combine people, process, and technology in delivery?
CIENCE combines its trained people and standardized sales process in a proprietary technology platform, graph8.
Here's a closer look:
People: Human SDRs validate, qualify, and nurture high-intent leads. You can hire them directly on graph8's CIENCE Talent Cloud.
Process: The structured, repeatable process lets you engage with top-of-funnel leads at scale. Automatically assign an AI or human SDR to each sales activity. Qualified prospects are automatically delivered to the sales executives (SEs).
Technology: CIENCE's proprietary GTM system, graph8, automates repetitive tasks like initial qualification, follow-ups, and appointment scheduling. Human SDRs step in to review, validate, and nurture high-value leads.
How long does CIENCE take to ramp an SDR up to full productivity?
CIENCE doesn't disclose the ramp-up time for an SDR to full productivity, but reviews indicated months of effort and frequent team turnover without results.
Below, a security guard company said CIENCE failed to generate a single lead during their 6-month partnership, citing poorly trained SDRs.
SDR training requires more than a 2-hour onboarding call. In the first month of partnership, allocate a few hours weekly to onboard and train the SDRs on your product.
💡 Case in point: When Belkins partnered with Get Well, our SDRs spent 20+ hours mastering its care plans, patient engagement workflows, and software integrations. After 5.5 months, we booked 44 meetings and generated 39% in pipeline conversion.
How does CIENCE use AI in SDR workflows?
CIENCE uses AI in SDR workflows to identify prospects, connect through email and voice messages, qualify and nurture leads, and schedule appointments within the graph8 platform.
Here's how the AI agents work on graph8:
Prospect research: Gather data points to build a lead list that matches your ICP.
Initial outreach: Run high-volume conversations through personalized email and voice messages.
Engagement and nurturing: Automate follow-ups through emails and calls for ongoing engagement.
Lead qualification: Collect basic information and assess interest levels based on your lead criteria.
Appointment setting: Coordinate with prospects on the best time to meet through appointment reminders and confirmations.
Industry experience and team expertise
CIENCE specializes in technology and services, particularly with long-term deals and high-ACV products. The SDR team is trained on graph8 and managed by department heads or clients directly.
What industries does CIENCE specialize in?
CIENCE specializes in IT, business services, advertising and marketing, financial services, hospitality, and manufacturing, according to its customer composition data.
Based on the data chart, CIENCE focuses on high-ACV sectors with long sales cycles — it also explains why the agency uses the NOTE methodology in prospecting.
💡 Case in point: By using the NOTE framework in a multi-channel outbound strategy, CIENCE increased GROW's quarterly meetings by at least 150%.
How does CIENCE manage its SDR teams?
CIENCE manages its SDR teams by assigning them to department heads and customer success managers. If you purchased graph8 as a standalone product, you'll manage the SDRs independently.
How does CIENCE train its SDRs for complex B2B sales?
CIENCE trains its SDRs for complex B2B sales using simulated conversations on graph8. The agency also trains its SDRs in specialized programs on demand generation, customer response times, and account-based methodologies.
graph8's built-in AI training deserves a closer look.
Using this platform, you can quickly launch data-backed training scenarios. Unifying its adaptive AI, GTM research, and 10+ years of campaign data in one place, graph8 tailors each scenario to your company's unique situation. This lets SDRs practice real-world calls with AI personas resembling actual prospects.
CIENCE built its AI training program to prepare new SDRs for B2B sales calls — but does it work?
📌 Belkins tip: AI is useful for repetitive tasks, but don't depend on it for sales calls. Complex B2B sales involve high-stakes conversations with multiple stakeholders — no matter how much data you feed into AI, it can't predict buyers' behavior in a changing business environment.
At Belkins, new recruits don't immediately manage client accounts. Instead, they undergo a rigorous training program and shadow senior SDRs on campaigns. Once they master the workflow, tasks, processes, and industry nuances, the SDRs graduate to handling the accounts independently.
What are the top alternatives to CIENCE for B2B lead generation?
The top alternatives to CIENCE for B2B lead generation include Belkins, a human-powered agency with specialized expertise across the sales cycle; Revit, a vendor offering low-commitment terms; and Outbound Consulting, an agency that understands SMBs' unique challenges.
Belkins
Belkins (that's us 👋🏻) is a top B2B lead generation and appointment setting firm. For more than 8 years, we've helped 1,000+ companies secure meetings with inaccessible decision-makers and beaten the industry average for pipeline conversions.
World-class team: Access specialists with focused expertise across the funnel. Belkins handpicks the SDRs, lead researcher, copywriter, and tech email expert to orchestrate your campaign. Each SDR is assigned a set number of prospects to prevent burnout.
Rigorous audience profiling: Pinpoint prospects right down to their preferred channels and communication styles. With a multilayered research process, you'll connect with high-fit leads ready for conversions.
DNA of excellence: Experimental excellence is embedded in our DNA. Besides scaling what works, explore new ways to keep your brand ahead in changing markets. Belkins scheduled 31 meetings and increased pipeline by $2.7M after experimenting with new offers and personas for a signage manufacturing client.
Ongoing strategy refinement: Anticipate current and future challenges. Belkins monitors market shifts and refines your campaign to maintain (or increase) your lead flow.
Tailored omnichannel strategies: Interconnect your channels for a cohesive buying experience. According to our cold outreach research, adopting an omnichannel strategy increased our appointment count by 30%. We saw similar results in clients’ omnichannel campaigns. For an investment platform, Belkins booked 346 appointments and forecasted $434K in new revenue.
In contrast to CIENCE, we're setting the pace. At Belkins, our human-led team constantly brainstorms new ways to accelerate your pipeline growth — even after hitting the agreed-upon goal. We never rest on our laurels.
Every year, Belkins books 400+ qualified meetings for 1,000+ companies in 50+ industries. In these partnerships, businesses achieve 50–200% pipeline growth, making outreach one of their top acquisition channels.
Thefounding team at Revit has years of experience in lead generation. If you're seeking similar high-end support at a lower scale and affordable rate, add it to your shortlist.
Outbound Consulting
SMBs over-rely on referrals, often limiting their pipeline growth. Outbound Consulting aims to fill this gap by handling your inside sales process and securing 1–3 new deals monthly.
AI agents alone won’t cut it
CIENCE is no longer leading in lead generation. Its core team pivoted to graph8, causing service delivery to take a back seat.
If you want to unify your tech stack and have the in-house sales expertise needed to run your GTM motion at scale, CIENCE ticks those boxes.
However, if you aim to drive meaningful pipeline value — especially when buyer engagement fluctuates unpredictably — consider partnering with specialized agencies like Belkins.
Our specialists have accumulated extensive knowledge through years of in-house work.
These skilled professionals have refined product positioning in new markets, expanded narrow ICPs, and connected with unreachable C-suite decision-makers in 50+ industries — no AI agent has gone deeper.
Book a call today to get started.
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Priscilla writes topics that lie at the intersection of marketing and sales. She specializes in product-led content, comparison posts, and narrative-led pieces. Her current and past clients include Belkins, Breadcrumbs, DashThis, and Ahrefs.
Expert
Michael Maximoff
Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Belkins
Michael is the сo-founder of Belkins, serial entrepreneur, and investor. With a decade of experience in B2B Sales and Marketing, he has a passion for building world-class teams and implementing efficient processes to drive the success of his ventures and clients.
