Sales Development

DigitalChalk Case Study

About Client

DigitalChalk is a platform that provides e-learning solutions to business managers willing to train their employees and training experts selling their courses online. Platform users are able to create courses using the industry-leading suite of course authoring tools, fully manage the training process through the platform itself, and engage others in the learning process fast and efficiently. 

DigitalChalk has been on the market for over fourteen years, offering sustainable and powerful learning solutions to higher education institutions, users in the e-commerce space, and corporations that are training students. Throughout these years, they have helped to create, sell, and deliver millions of dollars of online courses to thousands of their clients. 

Dave Tinker

VP of eCommerce Solutions

Industry

Computer Software

Website

www.digitalchalk.com

Challenges & Scope

Challenge: DigitalChalk’s ambition was to become a leading e-learning platform and out-compete other businesses in the industry offering similar services. To achieve this goal, they primarily needed to develop a precise understanding of who their target audience is and then create a strong prospecting strategy that would fully resonate with them. 

Need: Before CIENCE, DigitalChalk was mostly relying on inbound tactics and word-of-mouth marketing. However, this strategy wasn’t bringing enough opportunities to the sales pipeline. Thus, their internal team needed a fresh start with outbound prospecting to help develop a solid outside sales strategy. 

Opportunity: DigitalChalk had tried outsourcing outbound sales to other companies before, but it was never successful. That was until their consulting CMO referred CIENCE, with whom he had an excellent working experience in the past. 

CIENCE offered great solutions to DigitalChalk’s main challenges by supporting them with five outbound experts fully dedicated to this case. The outbound campaign included four channels: email, phone, LinkedIn, and a custom landing page. CIENCE’s personalization outreach approach helped to establish better connections with the prospects.

CIENCE also conducted an in-depth study of the market to help DigitalChalk identify their ideal customer profile (ICP). Dave Tinker, VP of eCommerce Solutions at DigitalChalk describes the positive experience: “It took us several days and revisions to get through the process. They have some great templates that ask some difficult questions to help us identify the right audience.”

Why CIENCE

CIENCE has demonstrated outstanding performance throughout the whole period of collaboration with DigitalTalk. “Their methodology is the most impressive aspect of working with them,” says Tinker. “They come prepared and know how to connect with the consumer. They take direction well and listen to what we are trying to accomplish.”

Every week CIENCE was sharing the latest achievements on the project with the client, keeping them in the loop of events, and constantly improving the outreach methodology. 

“Their process is really robust and they follow a scientific approach to outside sales. They don’t just pick up the phone and call; there’s a whole process to finding the leads,” shares Tinker.

CIENCE brought some fresh ideas that DigitalChalk had not thought of before. They were friendly and helpful, making everyone feel like they were part of the internal team, diligently working side by side for the sake of good results. 

Results

During the four-month engagement, CIENCE has successfully booked ninety-seven appointments for DigitalChalk sales executives. Besides that, they overperformed the expected response and open rate industry averages by two times, establishing them at up to 45% and 16% respectively. They demonstrated high consistency in finding at least five meetings per week. 

After this outbound campaign, DigitalChalk took a pause to work on the initial sales pipeline and close the opportunities CIENCE managed to set. In the nearest future, the CIENCE and DigitalChalk outbound campaign will go from pause to restart, with a slightly shifted ICP.

Dave Tinker sums up the success of this business collaboration: “It’s worth it. As a manager, overseeing a sales organization, creating a strategy, and managing it can be very difficult. Hiring an outside partner can save you a lot of time and it’s a worthwhile investment.”

Frequently Asked Questions

How many appointments did DigitalChalk book with CIENCE?

CIENCE booked 97 sales appointments for DigitalChalk over a four-month engagement, consistently delivering at least five confirmed meetings per week. This gave DigitalChalk’s sales executives a full pipeline of qualified opportunities to work through.

What email and response rates did DigitalChalk achieve through CIENCE’s outbound campaign?

The CIENCE outbound campaign achieved an email open rate of up to 45% and a response rate of 16% — approximately double the industry averages for both metrics. These results were driven by CIENCE’s personalized, research-backed outreach methodology rather than generic mass prospecting.

What outbound channels did CIENCE use for DigitalChalk’s campaign?

CIENCE ran a four-channel outbound campaign for DigitalChalk covering email, phone, LinkedIn, and a custom landing page. Five dedicated outbound experts managed the campaign and reported weekly progress updates to keep DigitalChalk aligned on results and strategy adjustments.

Why did DigitalChalk choose CIENCE for outbound sales development?

DigitalChalk had previously tried outsourcing outbound sales without success before a consulting CMO who had worked with CIENCE referred them. CIENCE stood out for its structured ICP development process and scientific approach to prospecting — methodologies that DigitalChalk’s VP of eCommerce Solutions described as their most impressive aspect of the engagement.

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