Event-Based Sales Development

How CIENCE Filled Biotechnology Company’s Schedule With Appointments And Increased Awareness At Genomics Conferences

About Phase Genomics

Phase Genomics offers a comprehensive portfolio of laboratory and computational services and products, including Hi-C kits for plants, animals, microbes, and human samples as well as industry-leading genome and metagenome assembly and analysis software. Based in Seattle, WA, the company was founded in 2015 by a team of genome scientists, software engineers, and entrepreneurs.

The company’s mission is to empower scientists with genomic tools that accelerate breakthrough discoveries.

Dr. Kayla Young

Director of Operations

Industry

Biotechnology

Website

phasegenomics.com/

Challenges & Scope

ICP: Particular type of research institutions

Product: Proximo Hi-C (Scaffolding large genomes). ProxiMeta Hi-C (assembling genomes from microbiome samples without having to culture the individual microbes).

Outreach: Appointment-setting for events.

Due to the specifics of the industry, the primary lead generation activities of Phase Genomics are an aggressive conference schedule. To fortify their presence and to maximize time with potential customers at their booth, the company hired CIENCE to set up qualified appointments at each event.

“We were at a point where we didn’t need to hire a significant sales and marketing team,” said Dr. Kayla Young, Director of Operations at Phase Genomics. “As a startup, we weren’t necessarily able to, either, so we hired CIENCE to provide these services. Our primary goals were to drive more traffic to our booths at conferences, expand our brand awareness, and meet potential new clients. We needed help with identifying new sales leads in our space.”

Challenge for CIENCE: The products and services of Phase Genomics are complex and foreign to those who have never studied genetics. To succeed in outbound prospecting, an SDR (Sales Development Rep) needs to know the specifics of a product, how it differs from competing for offers on the market, and conversational pain points solved for potential buyers.

Solution

“We used CIENCE on a more general scale for research. In addition to that, they wrote content and created templates for our email campaigns.”

CIENCE did meticulous research on conference attendees. The task was to find people who fit the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and then reach out to them, offering to meet at events. Our copywriters created templates for each sequence and the SDR was in charge of sending and communicating with leads who responded or opened emails.

“CIENCE ran massive email campaigns leading up to conferences we planned to attend. The booths we host at these events are our main form of marketing. They found attendee lists and conducted research to parse guests down to our most qualified leads. Anywhere from 4–6 weeks out, they’d generated a three-part email campaign to ping these people and set up our meetings ahead of time.”

Why CIENCE

Event campaigns aren’t new to CIENCE. We have many clients who’ve hired us to set appointments at the upcoming events as a key lead gen methodology. Outreach for conference attendees is a classic example of empowering inbound marketing with outbound techniques. CIENCE has mastered this approach over the past 3 years.

“CIENCE Technologies was very open to the ideas we came up with. They were always willing to work with us. Whenever we asked them for something, they’d figure out how to make it work to the best of their abilities before returning with a solution. It was a very collaborative experience.”

Needless to say, CIENCE SDRs invest considerable time learning, “ProxiMeta Hi-C metagenomic deconvolution”. CIENCE is proud to have Sales Development Representatives who are capable of running high-level campaigns for such complex technological products and services.

Flexibility and great service are the core values of CIENCE. We treat every client carefully and we want to provide the best solutions for their unique situation.

Results

CIENCE conducts the best research on the market because we combine human and artificial intelligence. We use the latter to automate the processes and the former for control and fresh thinking on trigger events or target audience criteria. If there’s a lead that fits your ICP, rest assured that our researchers will find him or her.

“CIENCE conducted successful, highly accurate research on a very fast turnaround. The amount of this research was huge. It would have taken us a considerable amount of time to find all of those emails. Even when we told them we needed 1,000 emails, they had a high success rate. Showing us how they ran email campaigns was educational for our team. Now, we can replicate this success.”

There’s always a positive side effect of outbound prospecting campaigns: awareness about your company across your target audience increases. Even if “now” isn’t the best time for the prospect, in the future, they can return for a solution.

“CIENCE spurred a noticeable, significant increase in the number of attendees who visited our booths. Based on these results, we used them at six different conferences. Having them set up meetings kept everyone from our company very busy at conferences. Our improved brand awareness is also apparent. More people are definitely starting to know about our business.”

“Having them set up meetings kept everyone from our company very busy at conferences.”

Frequently Asked Questions

How did CIENCE help Phase Genomics generate leads at genomics conferences?

CIENCE researched conference attendee lists to identify individuals matching Phase Genomics’ Ideal Customer Profile. Beginning 4-6 weeks before each event, CIENCE launched three-part email campaigns targeting qualified attendees and set up face-to-face meetings at the booth ahead of time.

How many conferences did Phase Genomics use CIENCE for?

Based on the success of the initial campaigns, Phase Genomics engaged CIENCE across six different genomics conferences. The appointment-setting results were strong enough that the company returned to CIENCE repeatedly rather than building an in-house sales development team.

What results did Phase Genomics achieve with CIENCE’s outbound campaigns?

Phase Genomics experienced a noticeable, significant increase in booth visitors at each conference and reported improved brand awareness within their target market. CIENCE also delivered high-accuracy research at fast turnaround, successfully sourcing batches of 1,000 qualified contacts with a high email deliverability rate.

Why did Phase Genomics choose CIENCE instead of hiring an internal sales team?

As an early-stage startup, Phase Genomics did not yet need — or have the budget for — a full sales and marketing team. CIENCE provided on-demand SDR services, including contact research, email copywriting, and outbound outreach, allowing Phase Genomics to scale conference lead generation without the overhead of full-time headcount.

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