Outbound Lead Generation Case Study: Partnership Campaign

In this article, we pull back the curtain and talk about how MDxBlocks partnered up with SalesBread to generate 1.5 leads a day in 12 weeks for their partnership campaigns.  

Keep reading to find out exactly how we helped them connect with leads that took their business to the next level. 

Campaign 1

MDxBlocks.com

MDxBlocks provides blockchain development solutions. 

“MDxBlocks is a pioneer in using enterprise blockchain as the core data repository in digitalization projects, positioning our clients years ahead of the competition.”

Problem is… if nobody knows about their pioneering work with enterprise blockchain, their business will grind to a halt. 

So, MDx came to us and told us that they work with a couple of really big IT consulting companies, and these companies refer work to them whenever they are helping a company out with blockchain.

Therefore what they wanted SalesBread to do was find more partners that would lead to repeat referrals for their business.  

SalesBread then set up a partnership campaign and went after the top 1000 consulting companies in the U.S. and Canada.

Our approach was simple:

• First, find the correct companies.
• Next, find the right people at those companies to connect with.
• Then, send them connection requests on LinkedIn.
• And finally, send them messages to set up appointments with them for MDxBlocks.

These are our stats below:

We had a connection acceptance rate of over 50% that helped us secured over 136 unique, qualified leads within 3 months. 

To break it down:

• We had 1125 total prospects in the campaign
• We sent out 1063 connection requests sent on Linkedin
• Out of 1063 prospects, 540 connected with us with translates to a connection request acceptance rate of 50.8%
• Out of these accepted invites, we had more than 136 prospects reply to our messages and turned into qualified leads that secured meetings. This is a lead rate of 24% 

How we generated 1.5 leads per day for 12 weeks

SalesBread believes in a super personalized approach to outbound sales. We have perfected the science of lead generation after 12 years of trying various strategies and channels. Turns out, personalization is the key to lead generation success nowadays. (Just check your spam folder for generic “templates” that you’d never reply to.) 

 (If you would like to see how we developed the perfect Linkedin lead gen strategy, read this) 

This is the step by step strategy we used:

Step 1: We built a list of the best prospects

We first had to build a list of the top 1000 consulting companies in the USA and Canada. 

You might wonder how we got the top 1000 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:

• Clutch.com

Clutch.com is a directory. We used it to narrow down our list of development agencies that could potentially become partners for our client.

We prefer Clutch as it allows us to find accurate data on agencies and companies that serve other businesses.

• Zoominfo

We used Zoom info to help build a list of more development agencies that were in the blockchain and consulting work. 

(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.)

• Google

We used google to find companies that had “blockchain” and “consulting” on their services pages. It helps to use this search engine when you need to build a list around certain key service keywords.

Once we had a list, we then had to refine it so that we would get the best results for MDxBlock. We needed to ensure that the companies we targeted were working on blockchain projects at an enterprise level. 

In other words, we targeted companies that did not do the actual development but rather advising and consulting. This was a really defined group. We also used certain keyword filters in the Sales Navigator search to get the best results. 

To make sure that the list is perfect, after using Zoominfo, Clutch, and Google, we manually double and triple-checked the company’s websites to ensure that they were the correct kind of account to target.

Once we arrived at the perfect list, we use Sales Navigator to find the right job titles of the accounts that would be great partners for our clients. 

These are founders primarily that we were going after, highly sought-after individuals that are bombarded with messages every day. 

So the next step is where we’ll show you how we got more than half of them to accept the invite.

Step 2: We then sent out connection request invitations

Once we had our list of the personalized consulting firms in the world, we started without second-degree connections and sent them personalized invites via Linkedin messaging.

The exciting part is that because our messages were written in the prospect’s interests and personalized, 50.8% of prospects accepted our invitation requests. 

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 IT consulting space. 

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.

Here is an example of personalization:

“Heard the interview you gave on NPR about creating sustainable technology. I appreciated your insights on choosing the best project based on Total Happiness Delivered.”

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. 

Below are some of the replies from prospects that we received after our follow-up messages:

Campaign 2:

Hyperledger Fabric Professionals 

We ran a second campaign, MDxBlocks, looking for leads in the hyper ledger professionals space.  The results were impressive, with a connection request rate of 51.3% and a reply rate of 26.5%. 

To break it down:

• We had 1764 total prospects in the campaign
• We sent out 732 connection requests sent on Linkedin
• Out of 732 prospects, 373 connected with us with translates to a connection request acceptance rate of 51.3%
• Out of these accepted invites, we had more than 99 prospects reply to our messages and turn into genuine leads who secured meetings, which equals a lead rate of 26.5%. 

 A bit more about this campaign

With this second campaign, we followed the exact same strategy that we mentioned above. We also used similar messages, but they were more personalized to those in the hyper ledger fabric field. 

To recap, this is how we did it : 

Step 1:

Find professionals on Linkedin that were working on hyper ledger fabric. We used the keyword tool on Sales Navigator, but you’re going to want to double-check it manually to make sure that it’s accurate because the keyword tool, as mentioned earlier, is not a hundred percent perfect. 

You could use an X-Ray search to find the right professional, and you would do it this way:

In your Google search bar, type:  inurl:linkedin.com/in/ AND “hyper ledger fabric.” 

 If you do this, Google brings up all people who actually have this keyword with 100% accuracy.

The reason for this is that Google is allowed to crawl and index all Linkedin profiles, and Google’s crawling technology is FAR better than Linkedin’s. 

 So if you would like to read up more about it, click here.

Step 2: 

We wrote personalized connection request messages that were FPC – Friendly, professional, and confident. 

Step 3: 

We then sent follow-up messages to those who accepted and asked for a meeting. 

Want the same results?

If you would like the same results and want qualified leads that become sales, Contact us below. 

Our numbers speak for themselves. 

1.5 leads per day on average for 3 months is certainly a stand-out campaign, but you can expect at least a lead or appointment per day when teaming up with SalesBead

Set up a meeting with us here, and let’s get you those leads.