Client’s challenges
- Narrow total addressable market (TAM). The client’s outreach was restricted to a specific area, making scaling difficult for us as well.
- Low lead engagement. Previous efforts didn’t bring much of a result — Burch Energy found it hard to book leads as most of their emails weren’t even opened.
- No established process. Leads management was disorganized, the pipeline was stagnant, and contact information was outdated.
Solutions
- Setting up the process. First, we analyzed the current company’s outreach efforts and mapped an optimal way to revive the sales pipeline. We brought in lead qualification and follow-ups and established transparent collaboration between SDRs and sales executives. Finally, we automated some routine operations to speed up lead management.
- Applying referral approach. Based on our previous experience with the utilities sector, we’ve chosen a referral approach for cold email templates. We addressed a specific person in the targeted company and asked if they were the right point of contact or if we should contact their colleague. At the same time, each email contained an industry-tailored value proposition — unique for restaurants, healthcare, and non-profit organizations. This approach was highly successful, resulting in open rates exceeding 60% and reply rates of 15%.
- Narrowing down job titles. We started with a bunch of titles in C-level management (like COOs and owners) and engineering (facilities managers, energy managers, etc.). But in nearly 2 weeks we’ve switched to top-management only, as they showed better engagement.
- Targeting niche industries. We focused on libraries, museums, railway stations, churches, and police stations — all large organizations that may have HVAC equipment issues and a desire to save energy. Religious institutions demonstrated the highest interest, resulting in 30% of overall appointments booked.
