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Workforce Software Sees 121% Increase in In-Market Account Engagement Over a 6-month period

Workforce Software
  • Industry

    Software & Technology - Workforce Management

  • Company Size

    750 employees

  • Location

    Global company headquartered outside Detroit, MI, with operations in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada

  • Solution

    Demandbase One: abx, advertising and sales intelligence


The Head Scratcher

WorkForce Software, the first global provider of integrated employee experience and workforce management solutions, helps organizations with large teams of deskless and shift-based workers manage their time and attendance to optimize their spend on labor. When the Pandemic hit, their services became even more vital, because of their ability to help customers handle issues like plant shutdowns, COVID screening requirements, and covering shift work when employees were sick or in quarantine.

Sandra Moran joined WorkForce Software as CMO in the midst of this disruption and, despite WorkForce Software’s rapid growth during that time, she was set on transforming their go-to-market (GTM) from a traditional leads-based strategy to an account-based approach. Why? Because she wanted to create a better customer experience and focus their resources to maximize revenue growth.

When Sandra arrived on the scene, WorkForce Software had much of their content gated so they could get leads and email addresses. They then flooded these leads with unsolicited content. Cringe! It was not the kind of experience she wanted for them. Sandra wanted to, “create a different experience from the very first engagement, not hounding and calling prospective customers ad nauseum, when all they want to do is educate themselves.”

The other driving factor for change was revenue growth and Sandra aimed to achieve that by channeling their resources on the right companies — those that are in-market. Her plan involved taking a much more informed approach to not only move prospects into the pipeline, but through the pipeline.

The problem was they didn’t have the data they needed. As Linda Johnson, Global Director of Marketing Operations at WorkForce Software put it, “We didn’t properly target our customers. Didn’t know where they were along the buyer journey. We were just doing some very top level targeting and lacked the tools to reach the right decision-makers. The overall approach was too generic.”

121%

increase in in-market accounts reaching WorkForce Software over a 6-month period

24%

increase in pipeline momentum for in-market accounts

80%

solution engagement across sales and marketing

“The Demandbase platform is the perfect ABX engine to help companies understand intent and not just spam potential customers with unwanted emails — to really help you focus and look at where your buyers are along the journey and to support their education.”

Linda Johnson
Global Director of Marketing Operations

What’d They Do?

WorkForce Software already had Demandbase in place when Sandra arrived on the scene, but they were not using the Account Intelligence to its fullest. She and her team changed that. First step, they used it to identify their ideal customer profile (ICP) and then aligned their resources around those companies.

Next up, they ungated all of their content. The beauty of that decision is that they not only delivered a better customer experience, they also gained new insights by tapping into Demandbase One. They now see what their prospects are consuming and, combined with Demandbase intent signals, know where prospects are in the buying journey. With that knowledge, their first outreach is now about helping prospective customers buy versus pouncing on them, intent on getting a meeting.

Today they’re targeting buyers by industry and buying stage, varying the content they offer as the buyer moves through the pipeline. They place customized ads through Demandbase One, starting pre-funnel and continuing through the entire journey. They use Demandbase insights to trigger tailored Outreach sequences, as well, and everything feeds into Salesforce for a comprehensive view of all account activity.

Recently WorkForce Software made one further change. They replaced their previous sales intelligence / contacts vendor with Demandbase Sales Intelligence Cloud. Their business development teams were not able to find the right contacts easily or trust the data accuracy. Now they rely on Demandbase contact data, enough that they sync it to Salesforce to keep their CRM up-to-date.

Why Demandbase?

Even though Demandbase was already in place, Sandra and her team did a thorough evaluation to make sure Demandbase was the right solution for their new strategy. It was.

In her words, they chose Demandbase for, “Completeness of vision…the combination of the insights, and especially the intent data, along with the ability to act upon that data, differentiated Demandbase from other solutions.”

Sandra was also looking for a partnership to support the kind of transformation she was trying to drive. She didn’t want to be just another customer. “Demandbase’s collaboration, from senior leaders on down, set you apart,” enthused Sandra. “And while your support through the selling cycle was phenomenal, your support on the implementation side has been even better. The team helped us get up to speed faster and continues to show us how to take advantage of the insights to implement best practices. It has definitely surpassed my expectations.”

How’d They Do?

With Demandbase One, WorkForce Software is now a data-driven go-to-market machine.

  • Transformed from old-school demand generation to a modern account-based approach
    “This was not just a product implementation for me. This was about really driving a fundamental change in our go-to-market motion,” remarked Sandra. “For me, it’s been an absolute win!”

    WorkForce Software went from zero visibility and relying on hunches to operating from a deep understanding of their targets — what their prospects care about and where they are in the buyer journey. As a result, they increased the number of in-market accounts visiting their website and/or connecting with them by 121% over a 6-month period.

    Today 80% of their account execs, business development reps, and marketers are engaged with the platform and using Demandbase insights to personalize their outreach, resulting in a 24% increase in moving in-market accounts through the pipeline.
  • Surfacing potential issues to ward off churn
    In addition to growing new business, WorkForce Software account relationship managers are keeping their eyes on the Demandbase dashboards to spot potential churn, based on keywords their customers are searching. It gives them a chance to reach out proactively to help, while the marketing team uses the insights to build self-service content around, “Why us? Why stick with us? and What’s coming?” It all works together to improve customer retention.
  • Spotting market trends to inform global expansion, content strategy, and product development
    With the demand for WorkForce Software’s offerings booming around the globe, not surprisingly, they’re experiencing a lot of geographic expansion. They’re turning to Demandbase data to show them where they should grow, based on concentrations of intent signals from ideal prospects.

    Similarly, they’re using intent data to sharpen their content strategy. Are prospects consuming what they produce? Are they engaged? How and where are they searching? As Sandra pointed out, “We’re not here to create content that isn’t valuable to them.” The intent data is even informing the company’s product development based on topics their targets search for and the percentage of prospects in specific industries.

    In the past, WorkForce Software relied on hunches and some market research, but they still couldn’t see things like they can today. Now they have the actual data. As Linda described it, “When we implemented Demandbase Account Intelligence and especially the intent data, it changed the dynamic of everything!”

About WorkForce Software

WorkForce Software is the first global provider of workforce management solutions with integrated employee experience capabilities. The company’s WorkForce Suite adapts to each organization’s needs—no matter how unique their pay rules, labor regulations, and schedules—while delivering a breakthrough employee experience at the time and place work happens. Enterprise-grade and future-ready, WorkForce Software is helping some of the world’s most innovative organizations optimize their workforce, protect against compliance risks, and increase employee engagement to unlock new potential for resiliency and optimal performance. Whether your employees are deskless or office workers, unionized, full-time, part-time, or seasonal, WorkForce Software makes managing your global workforce easy, less costly, and more rewarding for everyone. For more information, please visit www.workforcesoftware.com.