How Kinaxis Generates More MQLs With Cognism

Kinaxis, the leading supply chain management software firm, uses Cognism’s B2B data to:

• Obtain 5.7% of its MQLs. 
• Supplement existing provider’s data in the EMEA region. 
• Use Cognism’s Chrome Extension in tandem with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. 
• Seamlessly integrate with Salesforce.

Website: www.kinaxis.com 
Number of employees: 1,800
Industry: Software Development 
HQ: Ottawa, Canada
Teams using: Marketing Operations & Sales

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The company

Kinaxis provides agile supply chain planning for companies across all industries and sizes, including working with innovative brands like Honeywell, P&G and Cisco.

A recognised leader by Gartner, the platform revolutionises planning by delivering the agility businesses need to make fast, confident decisions in an unpredictable world for integrated business planning and digital supply chain. The platform combines human intelligence with AI so companies can plan, live better and change the world.

The challenge

We interviewed Barbara Collins, Marketing Database Manager at Kinaxis, about her experience with Cognism. 

Kinaxis has experience in working with a variety of lead generation tools. She told us more:

“We’re a Canadian headquartered business. For the last few years, we’ve been working with various vendors to source new leads as they are well-known sales intelligence players this side of the pond.” 

What data gaps did they intend to fill with Cognism? 

“While we had success in North America and Canada with these providers, we struggled to find accurate data in EMEA and APAC in their databases. Cognism is the key player in EMEA for sales intelligence, so we signed and never looked back!” 

Barbara explained how Kinaxis uses Cognism together with multiple B2B data providers to complement their lead generation providers.

“We use Cognism and other data providers interchangeably to ensure that we supply our marketing and sales teams with the highest standard of data at all times. Different providers will have their own pros and cons, so for this reason, we’ve opted for a multiple-vendor play.” 

The solution

The marketing operations and BDRs both use Cognism. 

What is Kinaxis’ demographic? 

“We typically target supply chain, planning, logistics, strategy and technology leaders in the automotive, aerospace, industrial, life sciences and retail industries worldwide.” 

The marketing operations team manages the accounts for Kinaxis’ sales team. Firstly, Barbara explained her workflows with Cognism’s Chrome Extension: 

“We’ve been using Cognism for over a year now. When we were first onboarded with the platform, we had a different workflow to now. Previously, I’d be on LinkedIn Sales Navigator, search for a contact in EMEA related to a specific vertical, open the Chrome Extension and manually upload the contact details to our Salesforce CRM.” 

“We’ve now integrated Cognism with our Salesforce CRM. I simply find the suitable contacts in the Chrome Extension and automatically sync them to our CRM. The integration between the two works seamlessly.” 

“In addition, I go back and forth between each of our data providers to supplement data points, for instance, if a phone number or email address is missing in either platform.” 

“The BDRs also use the Chrome Extension daily to find new contacts, sync them to the Salesforce CRM followed by Outreach ready for prospecting.” 

What are Barbara’s workflows with Cognism’s Sales Prospector? 

“Occasionally, I use the platform to extract verified Diamond Data® and bulk export the list to our CRM."

"Diamond Data® is a game-changer because Cognism’s data team manually checks and validates the mobile numbers on our behalf."  

"It’s reassuring to know that the data I’m exporting to our internal database is on point."

How is the data used for marketing campaigns? 

“We have a direct CRM integration with Eloqua, a marketing automation tool. All the Cognism-generated contacts that have opted into our communications are entered into Eloqua for nurture campaigns.” 

Once the data is in the database, how do the BDRs action the leads? 

“The BDRs are measured on MQLs and SALs. The SALs are associated with the opportunities and MQLs are based on job title seniority. Some contacts will automatically become MQLs based on their position.” 

“Once the marketing operations team has added new MQLs to their target accounts, the BDRs will reach out to them via Outreach by cold calling and emailing.” 

The results

We asked Barbara what success they’d seen with the tool. 

“As you can see below, Cognism’s percentage of MQLs is higher than our other vendors A and B:  

• Cognism MQLs - 5.70%
• Vendor A MQLs - 3.43% 
• Vendor B MQLs - 0.58% 

“Overall, we yield fewer contacts in Cognism but they’re of better quality. I’m very pleased with the overall strength of the contact data accuracy.” 

"We’ve renewed with Cognism because the results speak for themselves. The database is right on the benchmark and produces great results."