Project Piñata influence $33 million in B2B pipeline

KEY POINTS

• Challenge: This B2B company needed gain the attention of enterprise decision-makers.
• Solution: The account-based marketing team used Sendoso to target specific accounts with a memorable corporate gift, created and designed around holidays.
• Results: Automated gifting helped source $5.5 million in pipeline and increased conversion rates by 14%.

See Why Sendoso Works

We found that the piñatas not only provided that ‘surprise and delight’ moment but they helped us break down the vendor/buyer dynamic and invest in these really human relationships with key prospects for the long term.

Determined to cut through an overload of digital communications, one company turned to Sendoso to make sure their sends would stand out.

“The average B2B buyer is inundated with digital ads and outbound prospecting emails every day,” said Vice President of Marketing Russell B. “In order to capture the attention of buyers and create raving fans from the beginning, you have to get creative.”

Their creativity turned into a big hit.

Memorable unboxing experience with Sendoso

A leader in revenue intelligence, this platform enables clients to adapt their strategies using real-time insights from sales conversations. Marketing managers were looking for creative ways to generate pipeline among enterprise accounts.

They decided to create a memorable unboxing experience by sending piñatas. Available in Sendoso Direct, the piñata campaign enabled the marketing team to manage fast and accessible sends.

Ahead of the 2020 holiday season, the team added reindeer piñatas to the sales development representatives Sendoso Direct offerings. Managers knew that the piñatas would inspire fun messaging, so they crowdsourced ideas from the SDR team.

The messaging explained that a piñata is just like customer-facing interactions, where the real value is inside.

The message played right into the company’s impact on customer interactions—cracking them open to help clients understand what’s really going on. The result allows clients to make impactful, data-driven business decisions.

All follow-up messaging was completely personalized to the prospect’s business, with a few additional piñata puns sprinkled throughout.

The campaign was so successful, the team launched it again for Valentine’s Day, this time with pink unicorn piñatas.

“We’re myth-busting that enterprise sales has to be boring by proving CROs at the largest organizations in the world love unicorn piñatas,” said ABM Manager Laura V. “We’ve had multiple enterprise prospects—who were totally cold—send photos of their kids playing with the piñatas! We’re all human, and a piñata can help brighten anyone’s day, including executives.”

Finding $33M in influenced pipeline inside

In Q2 of 2021, marketing managers worked with the sales team to formalize “Project Piñata.”

SDRs and account executives paired up to identify target contacts by using recommendations from the marketing team and Demandbase, as well as heavily customizable Outreach sequences based on what was working in past piñata campaigns.

“With each batch, we’ve seen improved conversion rates since we’re applying new learnings with each iteration,” said Laura, adding that SDRs were begging for additional piñatas to send via Sendoso.

The piñata campaign generated a 14% increase in conversion rates, and some individual SDRs were booking up to 40% of the piñatas they sent.

Overall, “Project Piñata” sourced $5.5M in pipeline and influenced nearly $33M in pipeline.

An added bonus of the campaign was that it underscored two of the company’s core values. The first was “win as a team,” as the messaging for the piñata and Outreach sequence came from SDRs who knew what resonated with this audience.

Additionally, the team continued to adapt to what was working in the field and what wasn’t—adding additional Outreach touchpoints and adjusting the messaging based on SDR feedback.

The second core value that the team incorporated was their operating principle of “challenge conventional wisdom” by not relying on traditional gifts for enterprise decision-makers, such as golf, whiskey, or sales collateral.

Cut through the noise with a unique sound

Successful B2B companies make a little noise to grab the attention of prospective customers.

“In today’s climate, it’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell it,” said Russell. “When thinking about  door opening campaigns, we like to differentiate [ourselves] in a crowded market. And Sendoso allows us to cut through all of the SaaS noise.”

The gong is a well-known motivational tool used in nearly every sales office, so the team launched a “mini gong” direct mail campaign. Their goal? To break into critical accounts, create brand awareness, and embed themselves within their prospects’ company culture.

Through Sendoso’s Salesforce integration, reps were notified when the package was delivered and coordinated follow-up cadences in Outreach. They used the message, “I saw the gong landed, who did you give it to?” to further the conversation and schedule a meeting.

Then, to tackle the historical problem of people not showing up to meetings, the team added another layer. One hour before the scheduled meeting, sales reps sent $5 coffee eGift cards, increasing show rates by 50%.

“Not only did the campaign give our prospects a tangible piece of our brand, but it also linked our value propositions with a creative message that immediately brought joy and got people excited to talk to us,” added Russell.

The mini gong bundle and subsequent Outreach sequences influenced more than 400 new opportunities and influenced tens of millions in pipeline.