From manual to AI-assisted outreach: How icCube hit 10.6x higher interest with Duo signals

icCube’s AI copilot transformation at a glance

• 6.3x increase in reply rates using Duo
• 10.6x interested rates with top Duo signal
• 50% increase in meetings bookings for Duo leads

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Background

Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, icCube was founded in 2009 but has had a relatively limited presence beyond its domestic market. This is the story of how, with the help of Amplemarket Duo, icCube are expanding their target market penetration whilst bringing more precision to their outreach.

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The challenge

Although icCube’s product had evolved over 14+ years, its sales approach was lagging behind. VP of New Initiatives Walter Wartenweiler shared with us: 

“The company is over 10 years old, we have 25 primary clients — and 21 or two of those came to Google search!”

The team had found it difficult to break out beyond the domestic SaaS market in Switzerland, where the majority of their big customers were based. On top of this was the challenge of positioning themselves in a highly competitive space, where buyers were prone to opt for industry incumbents, and well-known names — such as Microsoft — tended to dominate.

“Larger companies with bigger budgets will naturally choose the big names because they’re seen as safe bets. The problem is that many of those solutions aren’t built to be embeddable and end up being expensive in the long run as applications scale. That’s where our product is ideal.”

As Walter explained, the icCube team recognized that differentiating themselves from their competitors and winning over their ICP came down to one key thing: timing.

“What we’ve learned over the years is that if we’re too early with our outreach, people think analytics is something they can build themselves and they don’t appreciate the full value of our product. But if we’re too late, they’ve already gone with some big name, even if it's not the best fit for them.

“Our current customer base is very happy with us. It's just that reaching that new client base has been very difficult.”

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To tackle this, the team started to make a more concerted effort in their outbound motions a few years ago, but Walter explains that results were disappointing. Evidently, there was a lot of room for improvement:

“We hired an internal team and a sales rep in the US to focus on outbound, but our net result was three clients in three years. We were targeting about 5x more leads via outbound than inbound, but the conversion rate was about the same.

“The problem was they were going for volume and not that much for targeting and customization of the messaging, so we realized we needed to change our approach.”

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Clearly, icCube needed a smarter, AI-driven sales strategy to reach the right people at the right time with precision.

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The solution

At SaaStock 2024, icCube discovered Amplemarket Duo — the first AI copilot built for B2B sellers.

“I was very impressed. By that time we were spending our budget on outsourcing our outbound, so we reasoned this would be a better investment. It had to be better than what we were currently doing, which was sending the same thing a thousand times to a lot of people with just the name and the company names changing!”

Walter was able to demo Duo Copilot and was immediately struck by the sophistication and precision of its automated outbound capabilities:

“As soon as we saw what Amplemarket can do in terms of signals, in terms of AI, copywriting and things like that, we knew we had to try it.

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The results

Within weeks of using Amplemarket Duo, icCube saw a dramatic improvement in outbound engagement:

• +24% open rates for Duo leads (compared to non-Duo leads)
• 6.3x more replies for Duo leads (compared to non-Duo leads)
• +50% higher interested rates for Duo leads (compared to non-Duo leads)
• +50% more meeting bookings for Duo (compared to non-Duo leads)
• 10.6x more interest with top-performing Duo signal (LinkedIn Company Post Engagement)

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“Aside from the setting up time, it took me maybe 15 minutes a day to go through the leads and signals — and the alternative would be getting three people to do all that lead research and personalization manually, full-time.”

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Strategically speaking, the AI agent’s diverse intent signals are helping the team tackle their critical pain point around timing using insights and personalization opportunities they’d otherwise miss. Signals such as the G2 Reviews of Competitors allow Walter to tap into lead opportunities they’d otherwise miss.

Walter explains that thanks to the AI copilot’s lead insights and multi-lingual copywriting across both LinkedIn and email, he has been able to scale his outbound reach whilst adding personal touches that would be extremely difficult to replicate manually:

“Except for one sales rep, no one in our team is a native English speaker, so our judgment is that the AI is writing much better stuff than we would ourselves."

"I really like what the Duo Copywriter comes up with in terms of messaging to make the outreach more relevant depending on the lead’s situation."

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“For example, a few weeks ago I changed our tone of voice prompts to ask Duo to create first touches in the prospect’s native language. So I ended up sending a Russian email and actually getting a response!”

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Conclusion

The bottom line? Walter explains that smooth AI implementation and seamless customer support has taken the hassle out of transforming the way icCube outbounds.

“It’s simple and easy to use without too many surprises, and when there are surprises, your support is amazing.”

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More specifically, Amplemarket Duo is helping icCube expand their potential customer base across new international markets while ditching the one-size-fits-all approach to outbound. 

“Internally, we’re already seeing more meetings booked using Amplemarket’s AI than with our traditional, old-school approaches — and we’re looking forward to see more results like that!”

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Learn more about icCube here and follow them on LinkedIn here.

Tired of outdated outreach that doesn’t convert? Trial Amplemarket Duo Copilot today and experience AI-powered outbound done right.