Plandek, a software development analytics platform that optimises software delivery processes, uses Cognism’s B2B data to:
- Improve their data quality and enrichment by 85%.
- Hyper-target and connect to their ICP using the Chrome Extension.
- Gain a consistent 95% email deliverability rate.
- Remove previous manual workflows.
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The company
Plandek was founded in 2017 as an intelligent analytics and performance platform to help delivery teams deliver valuable software faster and more predictably. Gartner and Forrester recognise it as a global leader in the DevOps Value Stream Management Platforms space.
Enterprise clients in the public and private sectors use Plandek to optimise their technology delivery and accelerate R&D ROI.
The challenge
We interviewed Michael Wong, Head of Marketing at Plandek, about his experience with Cognism.
How did Michael discover Cognism?
“I used Cognism at my previous company. Then, when I moved to Plandek, the previous Head of Sales had already bought it, so it was a familiar tool that I already knew how to use.”
What prompted Plandek to explore a sales intelligence tool like Cognism?
“They wanted to do more outbound activities, and at the time, they were trying to set up a team for this. While they reviewed Cognism, they also looked at tools like Lusha, Seamless.AI and ZoomInfo.”
What drawbacks did they experience with other software?
“I think from the outside, your competitors look very advanced and fancy. They claim to be a 5-in-1 solution, or they can do anything we want to do.”
“But we had a trial for one and discovered that the database was not very up to date. Compared to Cognism, it’s very old. The European database is not as strong as Cognism.”
“In terms of pricing, they were very expensive, and everything is an ‘add-on’, so the packages alone are very limited. For example, you’d have to spend double the amount to get something as simple as a new filter.”
The solution
Michael runs the Marketing function and is the main end-user of Cognism.
What is Plandek’s target market?
“We typically approach decision-makers in companies with over 50 software engineers or developers in-house. The spectrum of industries we target is broad; we have a wide variety, and it’s global, too.”
“We prospect in the UK, Scandinavia, France, Germany, the US and Canada.”
How does Plandek’s sales team use Cognism’s Chrome Extension?
“Our sales team frequently uses the Cognism Chrome extension during daily sales operations. They use Cognism to analyse new leads profiles and enhance the data before adding them to a sales cadence.”
“In the past, exporting 25 contacts at a time was an arduous and time-consuming task. However, with the bulk credit option, I can now export up to 5,000 contacts with just a few clicks.”
How does Plandek’s marketing team use Cognism??
“We’ve been using Cognism to drive our marketing efforts, particularly webinars.”
“We use Pardot for our email marketing campaigns. So Cognism helps us gather a targeted database, and we can distribute email invitations with the integration. This has really increased our webinar turnout.”
The top reasons why Plandek would recommend Cognism
1. Exceptional data quality
“I think number one is providing a reliable source of data.”
“We had an initial database of around 10,000 contacts, which we enriched using Cognism to leave us with 8,500 contacts with the correct contact information, and got rid of the other rubbish. So we’d see that as an 85% improvement in data quality and enrichment.”
“Having better quality data has increased our email deliverability rates to 95%.”
“With other software we trialled, they all looked great on the surface, but I’d search for employees of my company, and there’d be three of me, for example, and the details were incorrect as well. So straight away, we could see the difference.”
“We were offered a lot of add-ons, but the one thing that we needed was reliable data. You can add on so many things, but if the data is not up to date and high quality, it defeats the whole purpose.”
2. Optimised sales processes
“The second thing is that Cognism helps us to optimise our sales processes with intent data. We can use the information and insights we pull from Cognism to prioritise accounts, which improves the efficiency and effectiveness of our sales and marketing activities.”
Michael explains the results Plandek has seen from this.
“We’ve had a 52% increase in conversion rates, which can be put down to knowing more about our prospects and what stage of the buying journey they’re in.”
3. Accelerated prospecting
“What I like about Cognism is it’s not a dead tool. It’s refreshing all the time. I like to go in every Monday to export the high-intent data for the sales team. So we have new data to use constantly, which really enhances our lead generation capability.”
“It’s also proven to be a game changer when dealing with the task of exporting a sizable contact list of 5,000 individuals. Cognism allows for a weekly export of high-intent accounts and contacts directly to our CRM, so it’s significantly freed up my time. Previously, I would have to export 25 contacts at a time, which got pretty tedious after about 200 contacts.”
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