Using Orum and UserGems to Power Outbound Success

Courtney Rives of UserGems, who recently became Account Development Manager after two and a half years as a BDR team lead, has seen firsthand how blending the right tech stack can transform outbound success. At UserGems, that stack includes their own platform combined with Orum’s AI-powered dialing engine.

"I honestly don't know life at UserGems without Orum," Courtney joked. Since her very first day, Orum and UserGems have worked side by side to help Courtney and her team maximize connect rates, personalize conversations, and, most importantly, book pipeline.

The Winning Formula: Personalization at Scale

At its core, UserGems is all about surfacing warm pipeline from relationships you already have—whether that’s former customers, champions who have moved jobs, or accounts with historical interactions. Pair that with Orum’s live conversation engine, and you get a formula that lets reps personalize at scale without sacrificing quality for quantity.

"I always like to be very personalized whenever I'm calling a prospect," Courtney explained. "UserGems does that research and homework portion. And then I'm able to use Orum to actually call through at a high volume, get more connections, and actually have more conversations throughout my day."

Rather than spending hours manually researching every contact, UserGems does the heavy lifting for Courtney’s team, surfacing critical insights right before the call.

Research-Driven Talking Points That Open Doors

For Courtney, the difference between a cold call that gets shut down and a conversation that opens doors often comes down to what you know before the call starts.

"When I get a connection, I don't want to feel unprepared and totally miss something that's really, really relevant," she shared. "If somebody answers and they're actually one of our past customers, I don't want to totally blank on that. I want to call and be like, 'Hey, remember we used to work with you at your last company?'"

This level of personalization is only possible because UserGems proactively surfaces data like:

• Past customer relationships: Ensuring reps never forget a critical connection.
• Closed-lost opportunities: Giving reps the context to re-engage without sounding like strangers.
• Job changes: Allowing reps to congratulate and tailor their messaging for new hires.
• Competitor success stories: Equipping reps with the right name-drops to pique curiosity.

"Even if I don't already have a relationship with that contact, I can mention early on in the call that one of their competitors is seeing success with us," Courtney added. "Those are the kinds of things that make people perk up and stay on the line."

From Over-Preparation to Confident Execution

Early in her career, Courtney admitted she spent too much time over-researching before dialing. It’s a common trap for new reps who feel the need to know everything about a prospect before ever picking up the phone.

"I used to spend a lot of time on this research because I didn't want to have someone answer the phone and not have a certain talking point in place," she said. "But I realized that if I'm going to have enough conversations, I have to hit dial."

Looking for ways to improve rep confidence? Orum’s new AI Coaching and Enablement tools feature AI roleplays that are perfect for every scenario.

Her advice? Focus on the low-hanging fruit—those existing relationships and clear triggers—and then get dialing. Let your tools, like UserGems and Orum, do the rest.

"The best way to get good at cold calling is to cold call and to have conversations," Courtney emphasized.

"The more repetitions you can get in, the more you can learn from it. And tools like Orum let you review your calls and start to see trends so that you can improve even faster."

Advice to New Reps: Get Through It by Getting Through It

Courtney's advice is simple but powerful for new SDRs stepping into their first call blitz.

"Don't get stuck in analysis paralysis where you feel like you have to do a background check on every person you're about to call," she said. "You're going to get through it by getting through it."

By combining UserGems for precision prospecting and Orum for efficient, high-volume dialing, UserGems' team doesn't just make calls—they make connections.