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Why Demandbase started looking into new dialers 

Before partnering with Nooks, Demandbase's Sales Development team already had many of the key ingredients for success. They had top-tier SDRs and strong leadership, with a product that truly helped their customers. The only thing missing? A dialing tool that could help them scale their efforts. 

When Demandbase set ambitious new activity goals—60 dials per day per rep—they needed a way to increase call volume while maintaining precise targeting and avoiding getting flagged as spam. Their SDRs had the talent, the drive, and the skills to hit those numbers, but manual dialing was slowing them down. Even with their best efforts, reps were capped at around 40 dials per day, simply because the process wasn’t optimized. The sales development leaders knew their team was more than capable—they just needed the right technology to bridge the gap.

That’s when Nicole Drummond, Sr. Enterprise Sales Development Manager, started exploring new solutions. “We wanted to see if a tool could help us increase our daily dials,” she shared.

Enter Nooks. Nooks’ parallel dialing feature immediately stood out as a game-changer—not just for increasing daily output, but also for tackling another major hurdle: spam filters.

“We noticed that when we dialed back to ourselves using some of our numbers with our old dialer, we were hitting spam filters,” Nicole explained. But when they tried Nooks' dynamic number rotation, Demandbase’s SDRs saw that they could avoid spam flags, ensuring their calls actually reached prospects—and that meant more conversations, more pipeline, and more wins.

The Evaluation Process: Why Demandbase Chose Nooks

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When it came to choosing a new dialer, Demandbase had experience to draw on. “We’ve used a dialer in the past, but it was much more expensive, and the user experience wasn’t great,” Nicole shared. With that in mind, the team set out to evaluate different tools and quickly found that Nooks stood out. “The overall user experience, the support we’ve had from the Nooks team, and the price point all made sense for us,” she explained. With Nooks, Demandbase found not only a cost-effective solution but also a partner that delivered a seamless experience for their team.

Discovering Unexpected Wins: Collaboration in a Remote World

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Initially, Demandbase brought Nooks on board with a clear goal: to increase the number of daily dials per rep. And while the results in that area were strong, the team was pleasantly surprised to discover an unexpected benefit—Nooks transformed how their remote sales team worked together, engaged, and learned.

Nicole described the challenge of operating in a fully remote environment. “All of our cold calling is pretty much done on their own at home,” she explained. “When we were listening in to some calls on Outreach, reps would get that uncomfortable feeling of someone watching over their shoulder.” Without the shared energy of an in-office sales floor, cold calling felt solitary and repetitive, like simply “clicking to the next one” without much interaction.

Nooks changed that dynamic entirely. With features that replicated the collaborative buzz of a physical sales floor, the platform gave reps a new way to engage. “Our team has been much more collaborative and engaging when they are doing these cold calls,” Nicole said. Using Nooks, reps could now listen to their peers’ calls live—gaining insights and tips in real time—without needing to dive into old recordings.

The impact was immediate. Live call-sharing created an environment of learning and support that had been missing from the remote setup. It felt as close as possible to being back on a buzzing sales floor, fostering connection and making cold calling a team effort rather than a solo grind.

Empowering Managers with Live Coaching Tools

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The improved experience wasn’t just apparent for the reps—Nooks also empowered the managers too.

Leading a remote sales team meant finding time to listen to recorded calls, analyze them, and then provide feedback—often hours or even days after the call took place. “In the past, I always had blocks on my calendar to go back and listen to calls,” Nicole shared. “Then I’d either Slack out feedback or save it for one-on-ones. It wasn’t really a live feedback experience.”

This delay in feedback often led to missed opportunities for reps to immediately act on insights and refine their approach. Enter Nooks. With its live coaching tools, Nicole gained the ability to provide instant, hands-on feedback while the context of the call was still fresh for her reps.

“Right after they finish a call, I can hop on and talk through what went well, what didn’t, and what they can adjust for their next call,” Nicole explained. This shift to real-time coaching has not only sped up the learning process for her team but also made the feedback more actionable and impactful.

Instead of sifting through recordings and piecing together notes for later, Nicole now has a direct line to her team during live calls, fostering a more dynamic and interactive coaching environment. For her, it’s been a game changer: “It’s definitely helped with more hands-on, live feedback as opposed to just slacking over little bits after the fact.”

Living in the Tool: Demandbase's Favorite Nooks Features

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Nooks quickly became more than just a dialer for the Demandbase SDR team—it turned into a central hub for collaboration, onboarding, and strategic outreach. “They are all very active in the tool today,” Nicole shared. “The goal is to keep them engaged with each other and using it even more.” The impact was particularly evident with new hires. Nooks made it easy for them to jump in, listen to their peers’ calls, start dialing, and receive real-time feedback from the team. “It hasn’t just been beneficial for our tenured SDRs—it’s been a huge help for new hires to get up to speed,” Nicole explained.

One of the team’s favorite features is the ability to filter calls by account or persona. This functionality is particularly valuable for new hires, giving them a focused starting point. “It helps them understand the account they’re calling into and the persona they’re speaking with, so they’re prepared with the right talk track when they connect,” Nicole said. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by a wide-open call list, new reps can filter for smaller, manageable sets of prospects to build confidence and improve results.

Another standout feature is Nooks’ smart lists, which have become a favorite tool for strategic follow-ups. “A lot of reps like using smart lists to redial numbers that didn’t pick up earlier in the day or follow up on emails that have been opened,” Nicole shared. With custom triggers, like only calling prospects who’ve opened an email twice or more, Nooks helps the team focus their efforts where they’re most likely to see results.

And at the core of it all is the collaboration Nooks fosters. By creating a space where reps can learn from each other in real time, Nooks keeps the Demandbase team connected, engaged, and driving success together.

Proving the Value: ROI from Nooks

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After just one full quarter, Nooks' impact was clear in the numbers. From Q3 to Q4, the team experienced a 31% increase in their meeting rate from cold calling—a significant jump in just one quarter.

But the impact of Nooks went beyond the raw numbers—it also transformed how the team approached prospecting. Nicole observed a notable shift among her SDRs who had previously relied heavily on email. “I think SDRs started to see the success others were getting in the tool, and as soon as they saw that success, they wanted the same,” she explained. Those who once focused primarily on email began incorporating more cold calls into their workflows, ultimately sourcing opportunities through both channels.

For the reps who were already heavy on calls, Nooks became their go-to tool. “It’s probably the tool that they are living in right now,” Nicole said. These SDRs were able to double or even triple their daily dials compared to before Nooks, driving higher productivity and results.

From boosting call volumes to diversifying how reps source opportunities, Nooks has not only delivered measurable ROI but also reshaped the way the Demandbase outbound team engages with prospects and achieves success.

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