Results first: 97 appointments and a client-rated quality score
Over 10 months, Celerway booked 97 appointments with prospects across four regions. The client rated 56 of them as a very good or perfect fit, close to 6 in 10. Some of these conversations went on to negotiations and closed deals.
- 97 appointments in 10 months
- 56 appointments rated a very good or perfect fit by Celerway
- 137% average KPI over 6 months, reaching 144% in the final quarter
- 10 appointments from 200 leads in a single event campaign, a 5% lead-to-appointment rate
- 20 tailored outreach campaigns launched
- 60%+ average open rate, peaking at 65%, and a peak reply rate of 14%
Celerway’s products are technical and serve a narrow set of buyers, so the qualifying criteria changed as feedback came in. That’s why the client’s own fit ratings matter as much as the appointment count: they show how well the targeting matched what Celerway’s sales team actually needed.
“Belkins provided a professional service and met most of our objectives. I’m highly satisfied with their qualification system that ensures not just a flow of calls but an increase in quality.”
— Laurent Mahieu, Chief Commercial Officer, Celerway Communication
Client’s challenges: More dream accounts than time to reach them
Celerway wanted to bring its portable router, GO, to new markets, but the company had little experience with market expansion. Its pipeline relied on referrals and industry events. Celerway also had more dream accounts than its team could work, and little time to contact their decision-makers. To add outbound as a new acquisition channel, the company started looking for an agency to run it.
Why Celerway chose Belkins
Celerway compared several lead generation agencies. Belkins won on two points:
- A lead sample within scope. Before signing, Celerway reviewed sample leads and found they matched its target profile.
- A transparent process. The onboarding steps and campaign timelines were clear from the start.
Partnership objectives
Celerway wanted to add outbound to its referral and event channels, reach decision-makers at its dream accounts, and open new markets for its routers worldwide.
What did Belkins’s strategy look like?
The campaign ran on cold email and moved through two phases: broad outreach for the 4G product line, then account-based marketing (ABM) once Celerway trusted Belkins with its more complex 5G products.
Learning a technical product
The Belkins team had worked with telecom companies before, but Celerway’s products required a deeper technical understanding. The team studied the product details with Celerway to filter leads accurately and write messages that made sense to technical buyers.
Running cold outreach for 4G routers
For the 4G products, the team used proven outbound approaches:
- The referral approach: emails that asked whether the prospect was the right contact or mentioned a colleague who might be
- Partnership campaigns: outreach positioned around working together
- Event campaigns: outreach timed around industry events, one of which booked 10 appointments from 200 leads
Switching to ABM for 5G products
When Celerway asked Belkins to promote its 5G products, the team moved from mass mailings to account-based outreach. Messaging was written for each target company, reflecting how a more complex product needed a more specific case for each account.
Refining the target market
The campaign started with media and broadcast companies and NGOs, then expanded to system integrators. As the market widened, the team adjusted its search and qualification criteria to match.
Covering four regions
Outreach covered countries in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Prospects in several of these regions moved into negotiations, and some became closed deals.
Aligning through regular sync-ups
Belkins and Celerway set up fast, two-way communication through regular sync-ups. These kept the client’s expectations and the campaign aligned, which helped the team move faster and book more qualified appointments.
Challenges Belkins encountered
- Highly specific niche. Though we worked with multiple telecom companies before, we had to dive deep into specific technical details with Celerway to be able to filter potential leads and craft tailored, resonating messages.
- Tough research. Over time, it became more difficult to find relevant leads, even with sophisticated research, as the requirements were rather vague. Such research required a lot of manual operations, which made it time-consuming and slowed down the process. To overcome this challenge, our team picked companies that were potential fits based on previous feedback and then jumped on calls with the client to review them. Unfortunately, sometimes even suitable companies weren’t qualified as they didn’t have enough B2B services and had limited need for Celerway solutions.
What we learned from this partnership
- Let the client grade the appointments. Celerway’s fit ratings gave both teams a shared measure of quality, which mattered more than volume in a narrow market.
- Match the outreach model to the product’s complexity. Standard campaigns worked for 4G routers; 5G products needed account-based messaging.
- Review shortlists with the client when criteria are broad. Joint reviews before outreach cut wasted research in a hard-to-define market.
- Use events as a hook. One event campaign turned 200 leads into 10 appointments.
This approach fits technical hardware or software companies with a defined product line, a global market, and a team willing to review account lists and rate appointments. When qualifying criteria can’t be pinned down, expect research to slow as the easiest accounts are worked through.
