Apollo.io Use Cases from Sales to Marketing

Imagine this scenario for a moment….

A sales representative is prospecting on LinkedIn. Hours pass as he manually enters individual names in LinkedIn, skims contacts to find those who fit his ideal customer profile and searches Google to hopefully find snippets of contact information. Finally, the information he gathered is manually entered into the CRM, stored away for future cold calls and emails.

Meanwhile, his sales manager is noticing how many of the team’s outbound prospects result in dead ends. She thinks, “If only there was a way to build a standardized system that generates a consistent amount of meetings set per month while decreasing the amount of time spent gathering data”. But, it feels out of reach….

Over in marketing, team members aren’t doing much better. They’ve taken the time to develop a perfect ideal customer profile (ICP), but they aren’t seeing any leads that fall within their target accounts. 

Now, chances are, at least some elements of this scenario are familiar to you.

The world of sales is relentless. It moves at breakneck speed, and without the proper tools to keep you afloat, you’ll drift behind.

Here’s how Apollo can provide support for each of these struggling team members.

How can a sales rep use Apollo?

There are endless ways that Apollo can support sales reps during all stages of the sales funnel.

Studies have shown that companies who effectively use and support their CRM have improved sales by 29%! The same sales rep that previously spent countless hours on manual research and data entry decides to sync Apollo to their CRM.  Now, information in both Apollo and their CRM auto-syncs with each other, saving time and ultimately nurturing a more accurate database!

Next, our trusty sales rep downloads the Apollo LinkedIn Chrome Extension. 

With the Chrome Extension, the sales rep can now target qualified leads, request contact information, save contacts to Apollo and their CRM, AND add contacts to an email sequence, all within their LinkedIn window. He has gone from switching between multiple platforms in dozens of separate tabs to getting all the lead data he needs at the click of a button.

With Apollo prospecting tools now in place, our sales rep wants to elevate the speed and scale of his outbound messaging. So, he sets up Job Change alerts.

People are constantly changing positions and companies and contacting a prospect within the first few weeks of their new role is crucial! It’s when they are choosing all the new tools and services they want to use to perform their new job.

Apollo’s Job Change alerts pull from information published on LinkedIn, company directories, and many other social platforms. Now, the sales rep can identify exactly which of his contacts have changed jobs and when. He can trust that his CRM is not only fresh and up-to-date but that Apollo will alert him of new business opportunities at the perfect time.

For sales reps, Apollo has the ability to disrupt their entire sales process. 

By integrating CRM syncing, a LinkedIn Extension for prospecting, and instant Job Change alerts, our sales rep has gone from spending over 64% of his time performing tasks unrelated to selling to using his time and skills more efficiently than any other sales rep in his industry!

How can a sales manager use Apollo?

Remember our hopeless and unhappy sales manager?

Apollo can help her, too.

With Automated Sequences, she now has the ability to standardize her sales team’s outbound system from end to end. Think of Sequences as a personalized outreach campaign, fully equipped with any number of sequential contact points and tasks.

Using Apollo, our sales manager goes in and creates sales sequences for each of her business’ ideal customer profiles. She wants her sales reps to have a different outbound messaging strategy when contacting business leaders with less than 50 employees than they do for marketers at enterprise companies, for example. Using the Sequences tool, she strategically organizes timed steps (i.e. automatic emails, phone calls, action items), establishes step triggers, and defines the permissions for her sequences.

Now, her sales reps can add contacts to these sequences and send them down a personalized and pre-design sales funnel to maximize those conversion rates!

All sequences will provide sales managers with statistics, as well. This way, our sales manager is not only creating blueprints for her team but is testing and optimizing their success along the way.

Finally, a way she can make sure metrics are being met!

(Click here to learn more about reading and analyzing your sequences statistics)

And Apollo offers the sales manager even more…

Similar to Sequences, Rules Engine is a feature that opens up endless automation opportunities. Our sales manager can now define actions for Apollo to automatically carry out based on conditions set by her. These automated actions can take place after a “trigger” event or on a recurring schedule.

Let’s say she wants to continue focusing on improving those meeting metrics. 

Using Rules Engine, she sets up a rule to send out an automatic “meeting request” email every time a contact is added to a sequence (this last part being the “trigger”). By implementing this new rule, she is not only saving her team valuable time, but she’s using Apollo to pinpoint exact areas where she wants to see growth.

How awesome is that?

With these dynamic and standardized data tools, Apollo can support sales managers in leading their teams to new heights!

How can a marketer use Apollo?

Apollo’s tools help more than sales reps and sales managers. Marketers have a lot to gain from using Apollo, as well!

We know that marketing teams face unique challenges in today’s competitive markets. Marketing goals and target personas should never be stunted by insufficient data tools and unorganized prospecting.

The first thing a marketer should utilize is Apollo Analytics. 

When the struggling marketer team integrates the Analytics feature into their workflow, they now have access to a whole world of actionable reporting and data. With hundreds of metrics and dimensions on their interface, marketers will be able to view the exact data they are looking for in just a few clicks!

Here’s an example of a beautifully customized, and easy-to-read dashboard that a marketer might want to set up:

With Analytics they will also be able to:

• Use dozens of pre-built reports or customize their own
• Track message effectiveness (by audience, timing, etc.), activities, individual & team performance, ROI, and more!
• Fully customize data ranges and displays to see exactly when, what, and who they want to see reports on
• View reports in clear data tables and easily share them with members of their team

Tracking campaigns and measuring success has never been easier for marketers! With Apollo Analytics, our frustrated marketing team can now identify exactly where and why leads aren’t aligning with those ICPs and make the changes they need to find success.

Apollo also provides marketers with customer look-alikes.

With the most comprehensive database in the industry, Apollo can find customers that are similar to those you have just closed deals with (aka. a huge part of a marketer’s job!). Now, the marketing team is able to successfully target messaging to prospects that are the most likely to convert into customers.

Apollo’s AI is truly a pot of gold for modern marketers. Rather than making important decisions based only on their gut, marketers now have all the data and reporting they need to make smarter, more informed decisions.

Don’t miss out on a tool that is as multidimensional and functional as Apollo. Sign up today for a free plan and give all members of your team the tools they need for success!