Focusing on quality over quantity helps Databricks execute at scale

Teams need the right technology to keep up with demand

Thousands of companies in every industry, every business size, every geography rely on Databricks to bring data teams together with all their data so they can collaborate better, innovate faster and solve the worlds toughest problems. The company's success has recently led to incredible growth, and in response, its sales development organization plans to double in size.

"Databricks is scaling as a company," says Kelly Flowers, Director of Sales Development for America at Databricks. "We're doubling the size of our team, and that means our pipeline goals will double, too. We can't get there just by hiring additional people. We have to ask ourselves, 'What does it mean to be effective,' and how quickly can we make people effective?"

For Databricks, the right way to prospect goes deeper than the typical spray-and-pray approach. Instead of having sales reps send out a high volume of emails and calls and then cross their fingers, they wanted to empower SDRs and BDRs to engage with prospects and customers the right way from day one.

"We are customer-obsessed at Databricks," Kelly says. "Sales development is the front line, and bringing something of value helps us get in the door and cuts through all the noise thats out there. It also ensures we don't waste any of our customers time."

They needed a solution that would help even new SDRs and BDRs engage with prospects and customers in personalized, meaningful ways that would add value for the prospect and convert them into a customer.

Focusing on quality over quantity helps Databricks execute at scale

Databricks partnered with Outreach to add scale to its engagement strategy, equipping SDRs and BDRs to execute sales activities that lead to more substantial conversations.

Outreach sequences lay out the correct number of calls, emails, and social touches. SDRs and BDRs can take this tested, customer-centric content and add their creativity to personalize the messages to ensure they're relevant. Plus, SDRs and BDRs are set up on Outreach as soon as they start and can ramp up quickly because they already have these proven sequences for success.

Outreach also gives managers activity and conversion insights to drive productive coaching conversations. In addition to looking at leading indicators like activity metrics, managers can pay closer attention to conversion rates and positive-versus-negative sentiment analysis. These insights are critical to hitting their goal of developing and retaining great talent.

"Outreach helps us coach to the skill gaps to help SDRs and BDRs be effective in this job and then move on to the next step in their career," Kelly says. "Its so much better than just pulling up a dashboard and looking at the number of calls made or emails sent."

Driving faster rep onboarding and down-funnel conversion

Databricks sales development team will double in size by the end of the fiscal year. Outreach is supporting its evolution, up-leveling operations to match the larger team and meet more ambitious organizational goals.

With Outreach, sales development leaders have become truth seekers who make data-driven decisions on sequence and message performance. This helps SDRs to build stronger connections with prospects and customers. Furthermore, SDRs are decreasing activities while increasing the quality of their execution, so they're getting more down-funnel conversions without adding work.

The faster ramp up for new hires and coaching that focuses on skill development ultimately leads to more successful and satisfied SDRs.

"Databricks growth is likely to continue so our need to scale will, too. That means more changes are likely ahead," Kelly says. "But the one thing that wont change is Outreach being our partner along that journey."