Overview
ON24, which Forrester has called “the best webcasting technology for marketers,” was growing quickly. But there was a recognition that the business could scale even faster with more efficient lead management.
- Industry
- Internet
- Location
- San Francisco, CA
- Interview with
- David Dugan, Senior Marketing Operations Manager, Joe Hyland, Chief Marketing Officer and Sam Shin, Senior Sales Operations Analyst
Solutions
LeanData Matching
LeanData Routing
Results
The automation of lead routing freed up one full-time Sales Ops position to focus on more strategic efforts.
Routing leads in real-time also accelerated the buyers’ journey – thus shortening the sales cycle by 2-3 weeks.
Ability to change routing flows quickly allowed ON24 to stay ahead of the competition.
David Dugan knew that ON24 was struggling with lead management even before he joined the webinar marketing company.
“During the interview process, the team couldn’t talk to me one day because they had just had an event and needed to route all of their leads,” recalled Dugan, the Senior Marketing Operations Manager. “That just seemed crazy to me. But I came to learn that routing leads at ON24 was a complex process due to multiple legacy systems.”
Salesforce assignment rules weren’t up to the challenge. Manually assigning leads wasted valuable time. Delays in routing meant hot leads sometimes grew cold before reps had a chance to follow-up, resulting in frustration among the sales team. ON24, which Forrester has called “the best webcasting technology for marketers,” was growing quickly. But there was a recognition that the business could scale even faster with more efficient lead management.
The LeanData Solution
ON24 stopped leveraging Salesforce assignment rules and turned over lead routing to LeanData automation. That has solved the challenges presented by ON24’s rapid expansion and global reach. “A process that was so messy when I arrived is now running smoothly,” Dugan said. “That’s why I was so grateful for LeanData to come in and figure out lead routing for us.”
Accuracy
LeanData brought order to a chaotic process by ensuring that leads, once they reach MQL status, are matched to the proper accounts and assigned to the correct sales reps. “We work with businesses that have offices in the U.S., India and Asia-Pacific,” said Sam Shin, Senior Sales Operations Analyst. “LeanData has been very good about routing to the specific office. That’s a huge benefit when you’re selling into international companies.”
Productivity and ROI
Shin said that without LeanData, ON24 would need to devote one Sales Ops team member just to route leads, full-time. Also getting marketingqualified leads in the hands of Account Executives as fast as possible is crucial in a competitive business environment for ON24. “If it’s left to humans, those MQLs might not be routed immediately,” he added. “But they are with LeanData automation. Routing leads to our AEs right away provides an immeasurable amount of value for us.”
Customer Support
Dugan said LeanData has the best customer service he has seen from a vendor. LeanData initially mapped out ON24’s complete routing flow. Now, as the business evolves, the Customer Success team quickly makes changes when needed. “The technology is fantastic,” Shin added. “But the reason why we like LeanData most is because of the customer support. It has been phenomenal. They always go out of their way to solve problems.”
Audrey Phillips, the Sales Support Specialist, recalled once needing a routing change completed by Monday morning. LeanData delivered it on Sunday.
ON24 is growing at a pace of 43 percent, year over year. LeanData has been an integral part of that expansion. Joe Hyland, the Chief Marketing Officer, noted that B2B marketing has been completely disrupted by what he calls the modern buyer – the 65 percent of buyers who self-educate before talking to sales. This means the responsibilities of marketers are moving deeper down the funnel. As a result, ON24 has built an integrated MarTech stack that gives the business the ability to generate better leads that fill the sales pipeline.
“LeanData plays a core role in our engagement-driven marketing strategy because we can seamlessly route our hottest leads in real-time, accelerate the buying journey and understand which of our tactics are having the greatest impact,” Hyland explained. “After adding LeanData to our MarTech stack, we’ve improved the efficiency of our team by 10x and alleviated an average of two-to-three weeks off the sales cycle. More importantly, innovative technologies like LeanData enable us to get back to the human side of marketing – engaging with our customers, building their trust and earning their loyalty.”
About ON24
ON24 is on a mission to redefine how organizations engage with their audiences, powering interactive, data-rich webinars and content experiences that help people connect on a more human level and make smarter business decisions. Through the ON24 Platform, marketers can create Live, always on, and personalized digital experiences, understand audience behavior and turn that intelligence into action. Informed by more than a billion engagement minutes – including 12 million polls, 1.3 million surveys, 1.5 million conversations, and conversion of over 17 million resources – marketers drive more revenue from ON24 Webinars than any other digital channel. Headquartered in San Francisco, ON24 has a wide global footprint with eight offices in key regions, including London, Munich, Singapore, Stockholm and Sydney.
