How BairesDev Accelerated Prospect Engagement by 540% using Apollo

The only thing more impressive than Blair de Jong's handlebar mustache is his performance as Director of Growth at BairesDev, the world's leader in nearshore software development.

He leads the charge in lead generation for the sales team. He not only runs paid ads for inbound campaigns but builds and optimizes high-performing sequences to feed their team of 100+ sales folks the best opportunities.

For that, accurate data and robust testing capabilities aren't a “nice to have”. They’re a must.

Here’s how Blair and the BairesDev team implemented Apollo and how they’ve used it to transform the way they go outbound as a generational company.

When Pipeline Slowed Down and Answers Ran Out

BairesDev has been shaping the tech landscape for over 15 years.

Drawing on the top 1% of tech talent from across the Americas, they build software for clients ranging from disruptive start-ups up to Google and other technology behemoths.

“Our software outsourcing services are for pretty much anyone,” Blair says.

BairesDev has built a massive client base over the years doing outbound using their in-house email system.

But, economic recession coincided with a downturn in lead gen performance, particularly across outbound email. Net new leads were slowing down and fewer high-value opportunities were coming through the pipe.

And their ESP tool couldn’t tell them why. 

They had limited ability to split test their messages. They were unable to set up automated sequences. Not to mention, some of their audience data wasn’t updating accurately.

How do you know where to pivot if you don’t know what it is that isn’t working?

Blair, perhaps thoughtfully stroking his mustache, considered his options.

BairesDev needed a tool that pinpointed the gaps in revenue. They needed to rethink the way they approached outbound by testing new templates, trying new sequences, and experimenting with different audiences.

Finding Messages that Convert with A/B Tests

Blair and the team implemented Apollo and they didn’t waste any time. They had a new ABM campaign up and running in a matter of days, sidestepping a lot of the obstacles they expected to come with a new tool.

“Apollo’s ease-of-use with its interface made it super easy to navigate, search for audiences, set up sequences, and draft our new messages.”

Blair’s first sequences weren’t flawless. But the goal of the first attempt wasn’t perfection; it was to establish a baseline they weren’t able to establish with their previous tools.

Using A/B tests, he tweaked messaging with different subject lines, body copy, and personalization variables. Cycling through a few variations, they eventually landed on messaging that drastically increased positive replies in a few short weeks. 

“Speed-to-value and gaining new learnings is an important outcome we need from our outbound email strategies, and that’s what Apollo gives us,” said Blair, “Our team can now get a sequence up and running in a matter of hours and see, in somewhat real-time, what’s working and what’s not and make changes on the fly.”

They were launching 4x as many outbound tests and were doing it 7x faster. 

And their tests told them something about their audience that completely transformed their sales engagement strategy: the faster they followed up with them, the better they responded.

With this learning, outbound at BairesDev became a lead generation machine.

Now, outbound emails fire automatically within 2-3 days from the first touchpoint with customized messaging personalized for each of their ICPs, shortening their sales cycle by 540%.

“To get a sequence start to finish from idea to deployment probably took weeks, maybe even months in a past life. Now, we can turn out a sequence in a matter of days…it’s saved us a ton of time.”

Better Outbound Strategy + Better Data = Magic ✨

Ultimately, what makes BairesDev’s new tech stack so impactful is the relationship between how they go to market and the data they use to drive it.

BairesDev’s ESP tool and ERP tool (which serves as their CRM) are tightly integrated to easily attribute all lead gen activities and then Apollo comes in to auto-enrich, updating millions of BairesDev’s contacts since implementation!

“Our own internal databases can’t always reflect updates with 100% accuracy,” Blair says, “Apollo enriches our audience data with recent job changes, funding milestones, etc.”

When Blair loads a new audience into Apollo, his team’s existing contact data is automatically enriched with a verified database of 260M+ contacts, ensuring that every email lands in the right inboxes with accurate and personalized information.

In their pursuit to push the boundaries of software outsourcing, BairesDev invested in a data-driven sales system to help them get there.