BigTeams is a comprehensive team management software built for sports coaches and athletic directors. Over the past couple of decades, BigTeams has worked with over 3,000 schools across the US to facilitate better athletic scheduling, management, administration, and more. 

BigTeams’ current list of target accounts consists of around 400 schools  — but selling software to time-constrained, non-technical sports departments is easier said than done. This case-study explores how Jennifer Motze (Customer Development VP, BigTeams) streamlines an otherwise strenuous sales process with the help of Storylane.

The Problem

The business of athletic scheduling and team management software presents a unique set of challenges:

• For one, athletic departments are typically staffed with non-technical prospects who prefer a hands-on experience of the product before taking the conversation forward with sales.
• On top of this, athletic departments typically work with packed schedules. Surfacing BigTeams’ value to time-strapped sporting directors demands prompt and pointed sales outreach.
• Finally, BigTeams is sold to high school athletic departments with broad buying committees. Tailoring the product to multiple stakeholders (end-users, decision makers, IT, etc) is a hurdle. 

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“We’re not talking to school heads, but rather; athletics departments. Budgets are moderated and speed to value is essential”

The Solution

 At BigTeams, Jennifer leads a sales team that targets an account list of ≈400 schools via email outreach. Here’s how Storylane fits into her larger strategy to overcome aforementioned challenges with her team. 

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Intuitive, Self-serve Product Demos

Selling software within the software industry is hard enough — imagine the challenge with selling to busy, non-technical sporting directors! This is exactly where Storylane fits into the picture; with intuitive, self-serve product tours. BigTeams embeds these product tours onto their outreach emails and website, allowing prospects to experience the product first-hand, at their own pace.

Rather than jumping through hoops of forms, calendars, and sales calls, buyers are given an initial taste of the product as a primer (and qualifier) for the live demo. Eliminating this friction along the customer journey makes for a smooth, buyer-friendly experience. 

Here’s why BigTeams product demo works so well:

• Organized “pick your own adventure” walkthroughs
• Concise work flows with no more than 7 steps each
• AI-voiceover for improved access and consumability

“BigTeams is a comprehensive software that buyers want to see. Storylane gives prospects that initial taste to warm them up for a sales demo.”

Intent Capture & Lead Scoring

Rather than casting a wide net over all 400 target schools, BigTeams prioritizes a handful of engaged prospects based on Jennifer’s custom lead scoring rubric. This rubric accounts for cross-channel engagement across BigTeams’:

• Website
• Email campaigns (Gmass + Pardot)
• And now, Storylane demos!

Jennifer captures and scores account engagement across website, email campaign, and product tours before passing down high-intent accounts for her Sales team to double down on. These intent signals are surfaced via real-time Slack alerts [Read more: Storylane Slack Integration] and daily email updates. 

Specific to Storylane demo, key engagement metrics include:

• Engagement Rate
• Time spent on demo
• Completion rate
• CTA clicks

Storylane integrates out-of-the-box with most major CRMs. For BigTeams, this data, along with engagement data from email campaigns and website, is unified under Pardot as a single source of truth. 

Additionally, with Storylane’s Account Reveal, BigTeams identifies otherwise anonymous schools engaging with ungated demos placed on their website. This further aids the lead qualification process.

Personalization & Leave Behinds

Even after a live demo takes place, there are multiple stakeholders that have a say in the purchase decisions. Here are a couple of ways in which Storylane helps BigTeams streamline this process:

• Feature-specific Demos: Rather than a one-size-fits-all demo, BigTeams builds multiple Demos based on features and use-cases. This helps break down a comprehensive product into bite sized chunks that may be served to unique buyer personas based on their interests and requirements.‍
• Sales Leave Behinds: BigTeams’ sales team is also encouraged to share a product tour as a leave behind for prospects to review and share internally in their own time. This helps overcome challenges associated with multiple, time-constrained stakeholders.

“Storylane is a big part of what we’re doing to convert MQLs into SQLs”

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The Results

At the time of writing, over 3,500 users have viewed BigTeam’s product tours, yielding the following results over 6 months:

• 34% engagement rate
• 6% CTR‍
• 284 leads

It’s also worth considering the multiplier effect of this 25 hours saved. This metric is measured as the cumulative time spent by prospects on BigTeams’ self-paced product tours, thereby “saving time”. However, if you really think about it, this is time saved from the Sales team too: with better lead qualification, contextual live demos, and fewer back and forths on product queries. All in all: a win-win for buyers and sellers alike.