Results of our partnership: 5 closed deals in 4 months
In 4 months, the client booked 48 appointments with executives at large companies and closed 5 deals, a 10% close rate. Monthly volume doubled once the right approach was in place: about 10 appointments per month for the first 3 months, then up to 20 in the fourth.
- 48 appointments in 4 months
- 5 closed deals, a 10% appointment-to-deal rate
- $900K in new project revenue
- Up to 20 appointments in month 4, after about 10 per month in months 1–3
- 40% open rate and 7% reply rate on campaigns to midsize companies
Software development outsourcing is one of the most crowded B2B markets, and target executives receive similar pitches every week. The first stage fell short of KPIs while the team tested templates. Results came from the approach found through that testing, not from volume.
Client’s challenge
The client competed in a market full of software development firms offering similar services. Its target executives received many comparable requests, so a standard cold email would land in a crowded inbox and be ignored. To win new business, the client needed outreach that stood clearly apart from competitors’ messages. To achieve this, they wanted appointments with C-level executives at companies with 200–500 employees and more than $200M in revenue, and enough of them to turn into new development projects.
Our strategy and implementation
The campaign ran on cold email. It started with template testing to get past crowded inboxes, then expanded the targeting and added industry-specific case studies to turn opens into appointments.
Testing standard and creative templates
The target executives’ inboxes were full of similar requests. The team tested classic cold email templates against non-standard, creative ones until it found an approach that broke through.
Expanding industries, titles, and regions
The creative templates brought high open rates, but conversion to appointments stayed below target. The team widened the ideal customer profile (ICP) to more titles and industries and expanded the geography, which raised the appointment rate.
Adding case studies to follow-ups
Follow-up emails included the client’s case studies matched to each prospect’s industry and title. The industries covered were IT services and consulting, education, retail, and manufacturing. Seeing relevant proof from their own sector moved more prospects to book an appointment.
This approach fits service firms in crowded markets that have strong case studies across several industries. A firm without sector-specific proof should expect the follow-up stage to convert less well.
"Their creative approach to breaking through the clutter of digital marketing is impressive. Also, their problem solving skills when making sure our message is being received. They have this stuff dialed in.”
— Senior Director of Technology, on-demand software development company
Challenges Belkins encountered
- Competitive industry. Since the software development market is saturated and highly competitive, the lead generation process turned out to be quite lengthy. This was no problem as we were testing various templates. Despite the fact that in the first stage, we didn’t fulfill KPIs, our team eventually applied the right approach, allowing us to overexceed expected results in the long run.
- Target size. The client’s requirement was targeting entities consisting of 200–500 employees with over 200 million in revenue. We took it upon ourselves to test a variety of effective approaches until we found the one that almost guaranteed a reply and eventually helped us achieve the expected conversion rate.
