IT Leader Replaces Rainking with Clodura, Sees 80% Inside Sales Growth
Amitabh Bose, COO of a Mumbai-based leading IT services provider with a team of 1,000 employees, shares his testimony of how moving from Rainking to Clodura propelled the productivity of his inside sales team and made a positive impact on the quarterly bottom line by bringing down costs. Let’s learn how this smart move helped sales automation to his team and his company in his own words.
As a business leader, I not only want to have a winning inside sales team but also equip them with the right technology to succeed. We were very eager to find and implement a perfect inside sales automation tool that would help us in boosting lead generation and sales efficiency. We explored and even spoke to several business leaders and asked them which products are good for inside sales.
A Huge Investment on Rainking
After much research and brainstorming, we decided to go with Rainking in September, 2017. The annual licensing costs were considerably high at $125,000, but we went ahead thinking the ROI will justify our investment. I hate to admit this, but we were utterly wrong. Just 4 months into using Rainking, we realized we had the wrong product in our hands and had made a huge investment in something that was not going to work for us.
Static vs. Dynamic Database
The problem with Rainking was that it had a static database with limited contacts and companies. Our sales team was spending valuable time searching for companies and validating them rather than reaching out to prospects. Though we had already taken the plunge, there was still time for course correction. One of our sales managers suggested why not give Clodura a try as they were very affordable (Annual license fees: $15,000) and some of the features were quite impressive.
I remember in September 2017, when we decided to go for Rainking, sales reps from Clodura had approached us and the annual licensing fees for their inside sales automation tool was 90% less than Rainking. We thought it was too good to be true. We laugh at that thought now and also at the business leaders who recommended us the product (Rainking). The funny thing about technology is that you don’t always end up getting the best product by paying through your nose.
Clodura: Cost Effective But Game Changing
So, in February 2018, we went for a 30-day trial with Clodura. We’ll remember that as one of the best business decisions we ever made. Clodura had a dynamic search engine that could find every single company in the “universe” with validated and relevant contacts and email ids. The sales team was not wasting time searching for companies anymore; just adding a sample company would show a worldwide list of similar companies. Unlike Rainking, there were no limitations in adding contacts and email addresses. And the best part was, Clodura supported our email campaigns, which is one of our most effective tools for reaching out to new prospects when we launch new products. The average read receipt rate was a whopping 38%. All this at almost 90% less than what we were paying for Rainking. [Comparing Annual License Fees: Rainking $125,000; Clodura $15,000] Both our insides sales team and leaders were ecstatic (also because they could spend more time with their family now rather than endlessly searching for leads without success).
Clodura Inside Sales Automation: Beats the Competition By Miles
The Clodura team was very supportive, proactive, and went out of their way to help us implement the system and train the sales team. Once the trial period was over, they did a lot of hand-holding to help the team get comfortable with the tool. Now each member of our sales team is trained and licensed to use Clodura. In the last 3 months of the implementation, we have witnessed productivity, response time, and conversion going through the roof. We are looking at 25% increase in revenue per sales rep per day and 30% increase in the number of qualified opportunities; that too, in just 3 months. I think the most meaningful impact has been on sales team productivity, which has increased by 80%. Clodura has breathed new life into our inside sales team and made a positive impact on our quarterly revenues. To let you into a secret: I became quite popular and liked by the sales team after I replaced Rainking with Clodura.
