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Intercom is the leader in customer service with over 25,000 customers trusting them to help deliver customer service solutions and insights via in-app chat, email and other platforms.
Intercom’s GTM motion has long been a hybrid of self-serve and sales-led. This combination has enabled the potential for a Product Led Sales motion but Intercom has lacked the tools and organizational buy-in to make that happen.
This is why Lauren Silvers, Director of GTM Programs at Intercom, tapped Correlated to help build out GTM playbooks that leveraged product usage trends as well as firmographic data and other intent signals to proactively drive revenue expansion.
In this case study you’ll learn:
- When it’s the right time to evaluate Product Led Sales tools
- How to think about requirements for the right products to leverage
- Example playbooks to leverage that drive expansion revenue
- Key results to track that measure the impact of GTM playbooks
This case study was originally aired as a webinar with Intercom and ZoomInfo. You can watch the full recording here.
GTM challenges faced by Intercom in 2023
Intercom faced three key challenges as they entered 2023:
- There was a need to deliver more expansion pipeline and protect NRR. This was primarily due to the continued headwinds for software purchasing based on the macroeconomic slowdown.
- The sales culture at Intercom has typically been more reactive vs proactive. To drive expansion revenue, there was a need to proactively prospect into existing customers.
- There was a shift in culture to be more customer centric and take into account how customers are using Intercom products when driving sales conversations.
They decided to work with Correlated to help confront these challenges head on. Continue reading to learn how!
Core requirements to meet these challenges
Intercom wanted to find a platform that assisted in solving the challenges listed above. There were a few key requirements for that platform as they set out to evaluate potential solutions:
- They wanted a way to promote proactive vs. reactive behaviors via an alerting system, ideally using Slack.
- They wanted to be able to build flexible Playbooks based on a mix of product usage, CRM and firmographic signals. This platform had to connect to their Data Warehouse which contained the core data around their customers.
- Their reps didn't want to learn a new tool so they wanted the platform they chose to be "headless" and power alerts and workflow in the products they use every day.
- They wanted to encourage action that was tied to insights. When reps received an alert they wanted to make sure they had a platform that helped provide them with clear next steps on what to do.
Enter Correlated. Lauren evaluated her options and realize Correlated checked all of these boxes. Here's how she used the platform to drive substantial results in just a few short weeks.
Overview of Correlated and how Intercom used it to generate pipeline
To accomplish their goals of driving proactive sales plays, Intercom leveraged Correlated + ZoomInfo to target the right accounts that were showing propensity for expansion.
Here’s an overview of two of the playbooks Intercom ran with Correlated:
Playbook #1: VBP Plan Upgrade
In this example, accounts that hit specific thresholds around seats and usage trigger a Slack alert to the right Relationship Manager (RM) at Intercom.
The RM is enabled to determine what the right next steps are as soon as they receive the alert.
Playbook #2: Resbot
In this example, the triggers are based on product usage indicators that would dictate cross-sell potential to Intercom’s Resolution Bot as well as firmographic indicators around the support team size from ZoomInfo.
These triggers provide very clear next steps for the RM to use in their outreach to the account.
Key results Intercom saw working with Correlated
As the video at the top of the case study indicated, just two weeks after rolling out these campaigns Intercom saw an increase of 218% in generated pipeline for expansion opportunities.
Intercom is continuing to see great results through the quarter running these campaigns as their RM team is able to proactively address accounts that are primed for upsell, expansion and cross-sell.
What’s next for Intercom and Correlated?
One of the benefits of Correlated is the flexibility the platform provides to allow you to run any number of GTM Playbooks that you can dream up. Lauren has a number of other ideas for driving KPIs at Intercom including supporting their new AI product launch, building automated scaled CS plays and building bespoke health scores to drive retention. With Correlated connected to your data warehouse, the sky is the limit!
How to leverage Correlated at your company
If you’re interested in learning more about Correlated can help drive results like this for your sales or account management team, we’re happy to schedule a 30 minute call to walk through the platform and learn more about your business. Drop us a line!
