How one SDR + AI scored a 242% increase in interest for Thrive Learning

Thrive Learning’s story so far

• 2 hours saved per rep per day on prospecting research
• 200% increase in opens and replies with Amplemarket
• 242% increase in interested responses with Duo AI Copilot

‍

Background

Thrive Learning is an all-in-one, AI-powered Learning Management System (LMS) designed to accelerate and streamline team onboarding, upskilling, and continuous learning. Founded in 2019, the company was recently ranked 43rd on the Sunday Times list of Top 100 fastest-growing UK tech companies. This is the story of how Thrive Learning leveraged Amplemarket's AI Sales Copilot, Duo, to improve their outreach effectiveness despite significant restructuring changes and the challenge of having to do more with less.

‍

The challenge

When Jack Lindsay joined Thrive Learning as their only Sales Development Representative (SDR), he faced what seemed like an impossible task: maintaining a competitive outbound pipeline without the resources of billion-dollar competitors.

“We underwent significant restructuring across the sales team that left me having to handle all our outbound motions.”

‍

To make things even more difficult, Jack inherited very little in the way of tools to expedite his prospecting and outreach work.

“We only had HubSpot when I first joined, so naturally we wanted to get something a little bit more advanced.

“We were then introduced to Outreach, and then we used Cognism as well for our data. We saw some success but it was a bit clunky and not too user friendly. It wasn't as easy and slick as what we were used to with HubSpot, and moving forward we really wanted to consolidate platforms to streamline everything.”

‍

These disconnected systems created daily frustrations for Jack, who wasted hours toggling between platforms instead of engaging with prospects. 

Meanwhile, Thrive Learning needed to go beyond their traditional inbound strategy to reach new market segments. As well as making efficiency gains, the Thrive Learning team were keen to start expanding their outbound business strategy:

“Our Account Executives (AEs) were used to relying on inbound leads, and we’ve seen from our success at trade shows that we’ve got a good positioning against other vendors thanks to our marketing. 

“But we couldn’t just rely on inbound if we wanted to reach new audiences and different company sizes. We had to improve our outbound game too.” 

It didn’t take long for Jack to realize that he couldn’t spray and pray his way out of being a lone SDR:

“Believe me, I tried to do high volume, I was trying to keep up the volume that our competitors were doing, but it's like everyone says: spraying and praying doesn’t work any more. You’ve got to do a lot more targeted outreach. It's got to be more personalized.”

‍

The solution

In looking for a more streamlined sales solution, the Thrive Learning team hoped they would be able maximize Jack’s impact without compromising on the quality of his efforts.

The company found its ideal match in Amplemarket's all-in-one platform, particularly its AI Copilot, Duo. Jack recalled his first impressions of Duo:

“I remember our Customer Success Manager, Samantha, telling me about it and we just thought that we had to give it a go. 

Though initially cautious about AI, Jack's perspective quickly shifted:

“At first I was a little bit worried because everyone was saying that AI is going to replace the SDR – that was the early reaction to AI. But I think as people get a bit more educated on it and they realize that it won't replace SDRs; it just helps SDRs become more efficient.”

What set Amplemarket apart was its ability to deliver personalization at scale through a unified platform. Rather than patching together multiple tools, Jack could now execute his entire workflow—from prospecting to personalized outreach across channels—in one place.

‍

The results

Working with Duo was the answer to Jack’s efficiency challenges because it instantly helped him scale his most effective sales plays whilst saving him two hours a day on manual tasks:

‍“It was just perfect for me in that position of trying
to compete with billion-dollar cap competitors as  just one SDR! It's definitely helped me keep
up the pace.”

‍

Key results include:

• ‍+200% increase in opens and replies (compared to pre-Amplemarket outreach)
• ‍7x increase in interest for Duo leads (compared to average across all leads)
• ‍3.5x replies on Duo leads (compared to average across all leads)
• ‍10.7x increase in interest on top Duo signal (top signal: Company Post Engagement)
• ‍2 hrs saved per day on manual prospecting (compared to pre-Amplemarket outreach)

Best of all, Jack no longer had to worry about falling into the ‘spray and pray’ trap. Thanks to Duo’s intuitive copywriting and sequence generation, he could expand his outbound volumes safe in the knowledge that every touch was personalized and relevant to each prospect. “It's just amazing knowing that you have that personalized touch at the click of your fingers,” he tells us, “It almost makes you feel lazy!”

Duo’s built-in signals have also allowed Jack to leverage new, hyper-targeted prospecting approaches that he didn’t previously have the capability or time to access.

“With Duo, I spend about an hour each day just reviewing the signals it’s brought me and I can’t imagine how long it would take me to find them otherwise.”

‍

“We use the ‘company LinkedIn followers’ signal a lot, and I also like the G2 reviews of competitors’. That latter one tends to be lower volume but it brings us really promising prospects.”

As Jack explains, his company gives him full autonomy over which channels he uses to build pipeline, and Duo effortlessly adapts to his approaches:

“We’re very results-driven, and I happen to prefer my multichannel approaches, so Duo gives me great visibility and flexibility over that.

“One thing I was wishing for was the ability to send LinkedIn InMails too, but Amplemarket didn’t support it – it was the one piece of outreach I had to do outside the platform. But I mentioned it to Samantha and in just a couple of weeks it was in our hands. The way Amplemarket responds to our needs is just great!”

Since implementing Amplemarket, Thrive Learning has successfully maintained their sales operations despite the dramatic reduction in team size. They've achieved this all while shifting from high-volume approaches to more targeted, effective outreach strategies.

The platform's streamlined workflow features were equally important: 

"The search function, ease of list creation and sequence enrolment, and automated task management have been game-changers for us. These features have allowed us to maintain our output levels even with a significantly smaller team."

‍

Conclusion

Thrive Learning's success story demonstrates how even a single SDR can maintain—and even improve—pipeline generation when equipped with Amplemarket's AI-powered platform. Despite their small sales development team, they've achieved higher engagement rates and more qualified opportunities.

"We're constantly looking for ways to improve our AI implementation," Jack notes. "We’re always on top of the latest news, and we're excited to evolve with the technology – not just for our customers, but for our own operations, too.”

In Jack’s particular case, having a personal AI Sales Copilot has helped him succeed in an incredibly challenging position.

“It feels like Amplemarket's always one step ahead. They’ve thought about where there could be human error and have taken care of that for you.” 

‍

As for next steps? Jack is keen to encourage his AE colleagues to experiment with the platform. 

“It’s such a powerful tool, and if we can multiply all our outbound efforts with it, it could really transform our impact on the market.”

‍

Learn more about Thrive Learning here and follow them on LinkedIn here.

Facing the same struggle to do more with less? Trial Duo today to see how our AI Sales Copilot can turn individual reps into pipeline powerhouses!