Connex Partners Case Study – How We Generated Over 1400 Leads

By: Jack Reamer |
 February 28, 2022 |

Booking meetings with executives in human resources, health care, and employee benefits might seem like no easy task. 

And in truth, it takes a lot of research, expert list building, and well-written personalization to get your foot in the door. 

Was it easy? Not entirely… (A lot of work goes into finding qualified leads.)

But did we manage to book meetings with these executives and decision-makers?

Well, our stats speak for themselves.

In this case study, we will share with you in-depth, how we generated over 1400 leads for Connex Partners within a matter of weeks. 

And if you need an outbound agency to help you get 1 lead per day (even with executives of massive corporations), schedule a free 15-min call and talk “sales strategy” with the founder of SalesBread. 

NOTE: We have worked with over 17 team members at Connex. This has been one of our longest partnerships with a company, and have been with them for over a year.

Testimonial:

As the CEO of a company that sells to Fortune 500 HR & healthcare executives, I knew my sales team needed the right lead gen partner to help hit our monthly targets.

We’ve worked with SalesBread for 14 months and they’ve been sending 7 of my employees hundreds of qualified leads. (1400+ leads total so far!) In short, their highly personalized outreach messages get replies. 

I would highly recommend them — especially if you’re targeting “busy, high net worth execs”. 

Who is the Connex Group?

Connex Partners is a company that offers an invitation-only membership for those who are leaders in the field of Human Resources, Healthcare, and Employee Benefits. 

This is a knowledge-sharing network where problem-solving can be discussed amongst decision-makers and executives.

With their head office based in New York, this network of industry leaders was created with the idea of bringing great minds together, in order to find strategic solutions to challenges that executives might be facing in their businesses.

Connex offers an improved ROI from an executive network. 

Our Members are plugged into a cutting-edge community, gaining insights and advice in a relational, community-driven way. At Connex, you come with questions and leave with answers that grow your business and transform your career.

If you would like more information, or if Connex sounds like something you would be interested you can have a look at their website at:  http://www.connexpartners.com

Why Connex Partners approached Salesbread

Connex needed to generate leads in quite a challenging group of people. 

Why? 

Because Connex was only going after the top executives from the world’s biggest healthcare companies, as well as the most senior HR executives at fortune 500 companies in the United States.

Such as: 

  • Mayo Clinic Health Solutions
  • Merck
  • The University of Chicago Medicine

So the challenge was capturing the attention of very busy executives in HR, healthcare, and benefits. 

The ideal target customers were:   

  • Chief of Human Resources
  • Executives in HR and healthcare
  • CHRO
  • VP of Human resources
  • VP of benefits
  • And directors.
  • Chief nursing officer
  • CFO’s
  • Chief revenue officer

This is where our expertise in list building and personalization came in. Salesbread is known for obsessing about building the ideal list of the right target audience. 

And the reason why we do this is that, by narrowing down our list and making it super granular, we are able to get many more replies during our outreach campaigns. 

Personalization also plays a major role in our success because we write each and every prospect a personalized message just for them. This captures their attention.

Why?

Well, because it’s not just some random spam email or Linkedin message. It was something that was written specifically for them.

How do we do this? The simple answer? With a lot of research. In some cases, it can take up to 10 hours to research and write personalized messages per prospect. 

Is it worth it?

Yes! You will see some of the results and replies that we got from prospects a bit later in the article, so keep reading. 

What was our strategy?

This was our approach. 

1. ) First, find the correct companies. For our first segment, we had to find the top 2000 healthcare companies and hospitals in the US. For our second segment we had to make a list of CHRO’s, and HR VPs at the largest 500 companies in the US.

2.) Next, find the right people at those companies to connect with. Here it would be the decision-maker, the director of the company, executives, and the vice presidents of HR.  

3.)Then we would send them connection requests on LinkedIn. But not just any connection request, a personalized one. 

4.)And finally, send them personalized messages to get replies and set up appointments with them for Connex Partners.  We would follow up 3 times and always ask for a meeting. 

Step 1: We built a list of the best prospects

We first had to build a list of the top HR, health care, and employee benefits companies in the USA.

You might wonder how we got the top companies to begin with, as Sales Navigator’s Filters are not always accurate;

Well, the answer is that we went off Sales Navigator and used these programs:

Zoominfo

We used Zoom info to help build a list of hospitals with at least 200 beds that we needed to target. Plus we used certain hospital directories on the internet in order to start with our list.

(On a side note:  Historically, Sales Navigator has poor data when it comes to finding the correct accounts you want to target.

Sure, you can narrow it down by “technology” and company size, but the industry tag is incorrect more than 40% of the time. (Industry is user selected.)

This is why we prefer to use Zoominfo instead of Sales Navigator, as it allows us to find accurate data when targeting specific industries.)

We also used Linkedin Sales Navigator to find our CHRO’s and HR executives. 

Step 2: We then sent out connection request invitations

Once we had our list, we started without second-degree connections and sent them personalized invites via Linkedin messaging.

You might be wondering what we included in our messages that got more than half of them to take action? 

Well, firstly, we made sure that the message was addressed to the specific person. We used their first name in the message.

We also included something personal about the prospect.

For example, we mentioned that we share the same connections in the HR and healthcare space; or we asked newly promoted executives how they are enjoying their new roles.

This usually sparks people’s curiosity, and people enjoy responding to others who show an interest in them. (If you would like connection request templates from SalesBread, click here.)

Step 3: Send hyper follow-up messages to every new connection. 

Once they accept our invite, our personalization team goes to work looking up their profile, Googling information, finding out if they’ve been in any interviews; 

We look for something specific that we can say to them so that our message stands out and interrupts the pattern that most people are seeing from typical lame Linkedin replies.

 Pro Tip:  Make 90% of the message ALL ABOUT THE prospect and 10% about the “pitch.”  Also, keep your tone FPC — friendly, professional, and confident. 

Here are our stats:

We ran campaigns for various people at Connex and our prospect list amounted to 2744. 

Out of these executives, directors, and decision-makers, we had  1 419 POSITIVE replies to our messages. 

Leaving us with a lead rate of 51.7%

 

Prospects

Positive Replies

%

Lead Rate

These are the replies we got

Please note that we have removed names and contact information to maintain the privacy of our clients and prospects.

Hi. I hope you’re doing well.
The Exec Resources Director and I look forward to meeting with you.Just wanted to check to see if you had happened to try to email me as we have been having server issues.
Hope to chat soon. Take care.

XXXX

Interested in learning more about the think tank
That is the best email and the best number is my cell..(number)

XXXX

Give my cell a call and we can discuss (number)
Would you have time tomorrow after 2:30 CST to review quickly?

XXXX

Yes, we can schedule time for next week.

XXXX

Hi, thanks for reaching out. I love my role as the CFO and working with the CEO in rolling out innovative changes that benefits our healthcare team and our beneficiaries.

Most days, I’m booked solid. I’m on my 2nd month as the CFO and I’m purposefully meeting with each department chief and director to understand each of their needs, learn about their successes and listen to their concerns.

I am generally free during lunch, I eat only once a day and can chat with you for a few minutes around noon. Let me know if you’re free. My cell is Have a great evening.

XXXX

Hi. I have some time Wednesday at 1. Does that work for you? Let me know other times you may have available this week.

XXXX

Thanks, my cell is(number). Let’s connect.

Salesbread CAN get the same results for you.

If you are looking for an outbound agency to get you the same amount of qualified leads, and more prospects in your sales pipeline, let’s get in touch. 

We offer done-for-you lead generation that includes Linkedin outreach and cold email services. 

With 7 years of experience in generating leads for many different industries, we really do get our clients results… No matter who the target is. Even high-profile executives.