The client is an anonymised Series D technology startup with more than 1,200 employees. It sells into the midmarket and commercial segments, and its sales motion often involves displacing an incumbent competitor. As its product and market segment matured, leadership looked to adopt the refined sales practices of more established competitors, with buyer-first personalisation among them, and set up a methodical evaluation to measure the results.

The company's sales motion often requires displacing an existing competitor, which puts a premium on generating genuine buyer interest from the first touch. When the company analysed its past wins and losses, it recognised that its sellers were not meeting expectations when it came to generating that interest through outbound sales.

As the product and the market segment matured, leadership sought to adopt the more refined sales practices of established competitors, and buyer-first personalisation was one of them. The team had also noticed that the trust and relationships sellers established in their first touch often led to wins further down the funnel, so first impressions carried real weight.

Two constraints shaped the choice of tool. The company already had a comprehensive tech stack, so any AI solution had to integrate seamlessly with it. And leadership wanted evidence rather than anecdote, so it set up a methodical evaluation strategy to assess the impact of its buyer-first initiative.

The company adopted Humantic AI, a platform known for its ability to foster buyer trust. The decision was driven by the firm's recognition of the critical role first impressions play in generating buyer interest. It also met a practical requirement: the company wanted an AI solution that integrated seamlessly with its existing, comprehensive tech stack.

Sellers used Humantic AI to understand each buyer's personality and adapt their first-touch outbound accordingly, and applied the same insight when running discovery calls. Amy Niehaus, a senior manager for strategic accounts, reported that understanding buyer personalities during discovery calls sped the conversation up considerably.

To assess the impact of the buyer-first initiative, leadership set up a methodical evaluation strategy and tracked meetings booked, email response rates and the time sellers spent on prospect research against the previous baseline. Beyond the tangible sales outcomes, the team found it was saving 24% of its prospect research time on average.

• 220% increase in meetings booked, a 3.2x improvement
• 110% increase in email response rate
• 24% of prospect research time saved on average
• Buyer personality insight sped up discovery conversations, according to a senior strategic accounts manager