Twice the Impact: Smartling's Journey To Doubling Their Meetings Booked With Regie.ai

In the fast-paced world of B2B sales, the ability to quickly adapt and respond to client needs is paramount.

‍‍At a time when, according to McKinsey, 71% of consumers are demanding more personalized experiences — and 76% are getting frustrated when it doesn’t happen, personalization has become a cornerstone of superior customer experience and unlocking pipeline goals.

But how can the expectation for personalized buying experiences be reconciled with ever-rising quotas for meetings booked and outbound-sourced business?

For the team at Smartling, finding the answer was a top priority to hit their revenue targets.

A leader in the localization and translation services industry, the Smartling SDR team grappled with maximizing their reach and capturing as many conversations as possible, without compromising on the quality of their sales messages.

This case study explores how Smartling moved away from the conventional trade-off between quality and quantity in sales outreach and moved toward the AI-powered efficiencies offered by Regie.ai to book more meetings and increase pipeline.

Translating the power of Smartling_‍

Smartling is an innovator in translation and localization services

Smartling is a translation technology and services company that many of the world’s largest and most trusted brands rely on to translate and localize their website content, software, apps and documents. The company has been recognized by CSA Research as the No. 1 language-oriented Translation Management System (TMS) and as the leading translation management system according to G2 user reviews.

The dilemma: 15-minute emails and template dependency

_{The Smartling team's options were limited: either spend up to 15 minutes crafting a single personalized email or rely on templates from leadership, that don't stay fresh for long}

At the heart of Smartling's outbound motion is Grace Feeney, the Sales Development Representative (SDR) Manager overseeing the Americas and EMEA regions. Managing a diverse team of 12 SDRs and 12 BDRs across multiple time zones, Grace knew that to mirror the personalization Smartling offered in its services, the same level of bespoke communication was needed in her team's prospecting emails.

"At Smartling, we're really passionate about personalizing our customers' websites and apps to their client's or prospects' needs and expectations. Therefore, we have to be able to send prospecting emails that uphold that standard as well. We wanted to move away from just sending emails for the sake of meeting goals or numbers and toward informing this prospect about how we can do things better for them, with messaging that actually recognizes what they care about. Our prospecting needed to be more about the prospect, not just about our product."_‍

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

However, enabling her team to personalize efficiently without getting bogged down in the process was a challenge. The team's reliance on manually crafting each email or waiting for Grace's templates was creating a significant bottleneck in their workflow. This approach limited their reach as well as put undue pressure on Grace, who was already juggling extensive managerial responsibilities.

"Creating content used to be a massive challenge for us. On my end, the first hurdle was developing thought-provoking content for our top-of-funnel templates. The real crunch was finding the time to do it. For my team, crafting one email could eat up to 15 minutes. We knew we needed the content, we just didn't have the time to create it at the pace we wanted."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

Feeling the impact of the inefficiencies, Grace recognized that without tackling the tedious, manual aspects of creating sales content, her objective of instilling scalable and consistent prospecting habits in her team's workflow was unattainable. Neither manual research nor templated emails were going to take her team to the scalability heights that Grace knew they needed to reach.

It starts with an email

When Grace received an email from a Regie.ai SDR, she was intrigued and ready to hear more

Grace’s commitment to scaling best-in-class sales outreach made an email about Regie.ai, an AI-powered sales platform known for bringing predictability and reliability to prospecting, stand out in her inbox.

"Working with Regie.ai's initial sales team, who really understood these challenges, helped alleviate this burden. Their tool not only served as a cool instance of technology but also provided practical solutions to everyday issues. For instance, I booked a meeting from a Regie.ai email, proving its effectiveness."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

The platform seemed like a promising fit for the content and prospecting challenges she and her team were experiencing. After seeing Regie.ai in action, and learning that it could integrate with Outreach, her existing Sales Engagement Platform (SEP), Grace was ready to bring it to her team.

Smartling after Regie.ai

_{The adoption of Regie.ai marked a significant turning point for Smartling's outbound motion}

Double the meetings booked

In less than a year, the team experienced a remarkable 2x increase in their outbound meetings, a result that speaks volumes about their improved engagement capabilities due to Regie.ai.

"Our outbound meetings booked from January to now have doubled."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

How did Regie.ai make it possible?

‍Faster email production doubled the number of prospects the Smartling team adds to sequence, and an increase in personalization means more of those messages are resonating.

Accelerated email production

Email creation, previously a time-consuming task marked by either a lack of standardization or an overwhelming need for Grace's involvement in writing, editing, and monitoring, transformed dramatically with Regie.ai. The process became swift and efficient, freeing the team to concentrate more on fostering quality interactions with clients.

"We had a goal of 35 personalized emails per day. That's super easy for my team now. Some are even sending up to 50 in an hour. They get their tabs opened and lined up, then power through the emails with the Regie Chrome extension."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

What once took some Smartling reps 15 minutes now takes less than 1 minute on an average team wide. Their speedy emailing is due to an impressive adoption of Regie.ai Rapid Writer. Built to automate prospect research and use that data to write relevant messages instantly, Rapid Writer is a go-to for Smartling SDRs. In the last 30 days alone, Rapid Writer generated 90% of Smartling's total messages sent.

Despite the faster prospecting, Grace's reps aren't losing out on personalization either.

Elevated message quality

Regie.ai revolutionized Smartling's approach to personalization in their outreach efforts. Prior to Regie.ai, deepening the segmentation of their personas demanded an almost unfeasible amount of resources and time. However, the partnership with Regie.ai and the expert guidance of their Customer Success Manager, Missy Scheuller, marked a turning point. This collaboration enabled Grace and her team to scale their persona development with unique value propositions and pain points stored in the Regie.ai CMS.

These personas allowed Smartling to employ deeply persona-specific messaging and engagement strategies for the first time, bypassing the extensive manual effort that would have otherwise taken months. Now, each message Regie.ai generates for Smartling reps is finely tuned to the prospect's background and needs, leading to more impactful connections.

"Regie.ai gives options that it will personalize on [things] like the company's goals, this person's actual work history and more, and it surfaces this personalization data automatically in its messages. It even uses information from the prospect's own writing, which likely reflects their interests. So now, my team isn't manually looking for something to personalize on, or manually writing. They have unique messages that at most, they only need to edit, which Regie.ai makes easier too."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

On average, 69% of Grace's team creates and sends more than 50 personalized messages per rep each week, meaning each of these messages meets the Regie.ai personalization score's thresholds for message customization. After the first 6 months as Regie.ai users alone - Smartling doubled the number of personalized emails sent.

"It's taken a huge weight off my shoulders. Now I have a platform that offers so many options for content creation and maintaining control over the messaging."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

For further assurance that her rep's rapid-fire prospecting meets Smartling standards, Grace relies on Regie.ai prompt customization, a feature incorporated into the upfront system set up of Regie.ai that guardrails the platform's AI outputs to Grace's specifications, and applies it to the text it generates across her team. This ensures sales-ready content is generated each time by Regie.ai, with minimal editing required.

"The feedback from our outbound efforts has been positive. Even when we don't get an immediate 'yes,' the responses are appreciative of the personalized approach. It's rewarding to know that our efforts are noticed and appreciated, which motivates the whole team. This new approach to sales feels good; it's about appreciating prospects and building rapport, even without face-to-face interaction."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

Leadership bandwidth and insights

_{For Grace, Regie.ai has provided a broader perspective on her team's prospecting}

With the balance between quality and quantity no longer the struggle it once was, more of Smartling's prospects are receiving messages that are relevant and engaging.

"Now, my SDRs can send way more personalized emails each day. Our content quality has improved, and we can do this 3x times faster than before. This improvement has allowed me to focus more on account planning for my department and identifying gaps in the market we could fill."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

This development also allows Grace to dedicate more of her time to other key responsibilities, such as coaching her team for enhanced performance. Using the Regie.ai Manager Dashboard, Grace can ensure her team's message quality is consistent and that she never misses an opportunity for improvement.

"The Manager Dashboard is already integral to my workflow. Tracking team activities, especially on LinkedIn, provides an overview of individual performances that I can't get anywhere else."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

The Dashboard offers analytics and insight into the team's messaging and individual performances, enabling Grace to make informed, data-driven management decisions. It proves especially valuable in optimizing the team's LinkedIn strategy, a key channel in Smartling's outreach efforts.

Unlike an SEP, Regie.ai allows managers to look at all messages their reps are sending via LinkedIn, adding an additional layer of insight and accountability.

‍Smartling is only getting started‍

_{Smartling's story with Regie.ai is more than an example of overcoming operational challenges; it's a narrative of foresight, adaptability and strategic success in the competitive world of translation services}

By embracing an AI-powered solution, Smartling didn't just resolve existing inefficiencies; they unlocked new potentials in client engagement and team productivity.

"Two months ago, sending 50 personalized emails in an hour seemed incredible. Now, we've doubled our email output in just two months, and I'm excited to see what we'll achieve by next year. Part of this progress is thanks to the consistent updates and new features at Regie.ai, which keeps us ahead in a fast-moving environment."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

Their achievements as a team serve as a beacon for businesses looking to leverage technology like Regie.ai to turn their challenges into triumphs and set a new standard in the art of B2B outbound selling.

"Regie.ai has revolutionized our email process. It allows me to input the type of message we need, streamlining the creation and editing stages. This means we no longer go through endless back-and-forths for approvals, whether it's for sequences, templates or even value propositions. We simply input all the necessary data into Regie.ai, and it generates what we need. And it's already integrated with our SEP, which saves me from getting bogged down in Google Docs and endless comment threads. What's great is that each message Regie.ai helps craft is unique, encouraging creativity and saving time. It's been a game-changer, particularly for someone like me, who finds content creation time-consuming. Regie.ai lifts that burden, making my job easier and more efficient."

_{Grace Feeney, SDR Manager at Smartling}

About Smartling: Smartling is a translation technology and services company. Smartling's LanguageAI Platform is how many of the world's largest and most trusted brands translate and localize their website content, software, apps and documents. The company has been recognized by CSA Research as the No.1 language-oriented TMS and as the leading translation management system according to G2 user reviews. Learn more here.