ShipStation, under the Auctane suite of products, works to provide consumers with faster, more affordable, and more transparent shipping practices. Their mission is to fuel commerce through exceptional delivery, a mission they’re currently excelling at. Three billion orders are processed annually using ShipStation’s products, surpassing $200 billion in value.
Challenge–Maximize and scale call efficiency
ShipStation doesn’t have a problem getting people to try its products. It’s done a masterful job investing in marketing over the years, driving incredible traffic and awareness of its products. Anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 people perform a trial of ShipStation every month. With that many people signing up, it's incredibly important that the sales team can efficiently reach out to all those new users.
That massive, continuous injection of new inbound opportunities can create a bottleneck without an agile way to connect with prospects. As Ryan Wilson, Director of Revenue Acceleration at ShipStation notes, “When we can engage, we see the best outcomes for the merchants. We have a huge pipeline of people that come to us seeking a solution, and we need to be able to connect with.” Finding a way to speak with all of those prospective consumers was essential.
Decision criteria–tech stack integration, reporting, and cost
Tech stack integration was massively important for the ShipStation sales development team. Being able to make a large number of calls every day wasn’t enough. They needed a platform that integrated with their CRM and made it easy to sync data and forth between them.
Reporting metrics matter deeply for ShipStation as well. They needed to be able to access actionable data that showed activity and results for their reps and they needed that data to be in a single location.
An additional factor was cost. Charging per dial wasn't an option for an organization making such a high volume of calls.
Solution–Simplifying the process with Orum
As you might imagine with such a well-established company, ShipStation has a very well-run sales development engine. Prior to Orum, a major challenge was assuring the reps were calling the right people at the right time. “Orum simplified the entire calling process. We input the various lists from our CRM into the Orum platform, and when reps go in, they just click ‘dial,’ and it starts.”
At first glance, saving thirty seconds when making a phone call might not seem substantial, but it adds up. For Ryan and his team, the math was simple.
Whereas other platforms charge per dial, Orum enables ShipStation to make large amounts of calls for one flat rate. If reps weren’t able to convert prospects for any reason on a particular day, there isn’t the double whammy of incurring large costs as well.
The integration with their CRM was seamless.
ShipStation also appreciates the hands-on partnership working with Orum provides. “With the amount of dials we make, dispositioning is obviously vital for us but the data we were getting initially wasn’t really beneficial. We’ve worked closely with Orum to simplify the disposition options, streamlining the work for our u and our analytics team.”
Starting during the pandemic and continuing through the present day, ShipStation uses Orum’s reporting tools to break down the data by rep, day, and disposition so they can see what’s working and for whom. “It was essential when we couldn’t be in person together to see more granular results of rep activity. It’s continued to be valuable so we can properly coach and train.”
Results– Automation and human-centric selling
Platforms like Orum where power or parallel dialing are available options for reps can create hesitancy or nerves because of how quickly the calling process occurs. Ryan and the ShipStation team love that, in reality, the process only goes fast until someone picks up. “The speed comes from how Orum automates the dialing process but when someone picks up, it’s the same as any other phone conversation.” Ryan also noted how much the team loves that Orum also automates things that slow down the selling process like writing call notes or leaving voicemails.
Calling has always been ShipStation’s best way to connect with prospects and one that is essential to assuring their merchants get the most out of the software. Shipstation is extremely powerful, and since each merchant has different needs it's incredibly helpful to connect with an expert who can help get everything set up. Orum helps facilitate those calls. When you combine this with the thousands of monthly trials, it’s clear that Orum’s dynamic live conversation platform has become an integral part of the success of the ShipStation sales organization.
A major component to their success in connecting with prospects is that Orum has generated a 10% connection rate in their calls.
Ryan also shared that something he loves about Orum is its’ simplicity. He inputs lists and reps can just start calling. It’s the aspect of the sales process they see the greatest human value in.
