Item: Outreach
Rating: 7
Author: Scott Mackinnon

Overall Satisfaction with Outreach

Usability

The adoption of Outreach was most definitely not an easy process... Although like in any sales role it is important to adapt to new changes and embrace them for the better. Once that mindset has been taken getting used to Outreach really is not that difficult. It's important to ensure things like your Outlook and Outreach are synced and l check this frequently. But in terms of learning how to make templates and sequences, this is something that was taught to me once and I was able to do on my own no problem. Bravo.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Outreach is currently being used by our inside sales team as a tool to help increase our conversion rate for inbound leads. A big value-add that Outreach has brought is the ability to measure metrics on the effectiveness of emails. We can see when prospects open them, click on links, etc. Furthermore, it allows us to create templates and sequences which expedite our outreach process to prospects. Currently, it is only used by our inside sales team.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Creating templates or sequences that can put a prospect through.. this automates the process and makes us more efficient.
Allows us to see when prospects have read emails which indicates a possible good time to reach out over the phone.
Outreach allows me to send bulk emails to prospects at the same firm while still allowing each email to be tailored to the particular person. LOVE this function.

Cons

The scheduling of when to send emails. It is confusing and often times when you try to remove the schedule to send, you have to do it twice.
Problems with random logging out of Outreach... seems to happen once every two weeks.
Setting up Outreach so it automatically integrates all Salesforce contacts and there is no need to manually add to Outreach.

Reports Used with Outreach

I personally have not generated too many reports thus far. That being said I have taken some time to look at the effectiveness of certain emails. For example, the introduction email to new clients I have sent out. I will run a report to see how many of the attempted prospects actually take the time to open the email.

Return on Investment

Has allowed me to reach out to more prospects in less time
Has allowed me to convert more leads by indicating when prospects have read my emails and when to give them a call
Has freed up more time to work on other things significantly with the automation of email processes

Working with the Outreach CSM Team

Overall I personally have not spent too much time working with the Outreach customer success team. We have had a few meetings as a sales team where we have spoken with an Outreach rep and been walked through certain things such as the templates and the sequences, but overall the interaction with the CS team has been more done by my manager.

Alternatives Considered

Base CRM

Outreach overall has been one of the strong UI systems that I have worked with overall. In the past, I have worked with Salesforce extensively as well as Base CRM. Albeit the artificial intelligence integration at Base was and currently is far superior to Outreach... I think that Outreach and their integration process make them a much more adoptable tool.

Other Software Used

Base CRM, Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Likelihood to Recommend

Outreach is a tool that works incredibly well with sales and account management. With sales it allows you to stay in front of every prospect and ensure you can convert as many prospects as possible. With account management, it serves as an incredible organization tool and keeps you up to date with informing your current clients and identifying scenarios or opportunities when there is a chance for an up or cross-sell of products or solutions.

Comments

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Outreach: Pros, Cons, and Constructive Criticisms