Seesaw generated millions in pipeline through sales development support, without diverting existing sales team efforts.

Seesaw is a learning platform utilized by students, teachers, administrators, parents across more than 75% of schools in the United States. The company aims to create a learning loop among those involved in the educational process.

From its inception in the 2010s, Seesaw operated with a “freemium” model for its product, allowing individual teachers to utilize the platform at no cost while opening the door for selling its paid version to the districts those teachers work in.

Head of Revenue Vlad Gutkovich had noted Seesaw’s progress through this method and also saw an opportunity to grow district outreach by introducing email campaigns to the sales approach. The inside sales team at Seesaw saw immediate results through its email outreach in the form of meetings booked and closed deals but it also proved to be a process that is time-consuming and distracting.

Simplifying the process

“We needed to figure out a way to prospect at scale,” Gutkovich says, “without having to hire a manager and SDRs and having a whole function around something we hadn’t tried before.”

The process didn’t just include hiring the manpower to implement this strategy. As Head of Revenue Victoria Lawyer notes, there were many other moving pieces associated with the plan.

“We have to do X, Y, and Z and build a playbook, then we need to hire,” Lawyer says. “There were so many steps and it felt really daunting.”

Gutkovich connected with FuelK12 through the recommendation of a colleague, but did his research into companies that outsource SDRs and had expectations that needed to be met.

“It was very important to me that we worked with an organization that understood education,” Gutkovich says. “What it’s like to prospect into education, the rhythms and the cycles of district administrators, and holding the SDRs accountable to protecting Seesaw’s brand.”

“We wanted to work with folks who are experts in the (education) field,” Lawyer says, “and would take the load off of us and would work with us a partner.”

Through its partnership with FuelK12, Seesaw was able to test whether having its own team of SDRs would generate the results they desired while also getting to learn the process used to achieve those results.

Results for years to come

The partnership saw Seesaw generate millions of dollars in its pipeline while saving time for its current sales team to focus on speaking with districts that are ready to engage with them.

“Ultimately, we generated a lot of pipeline and started a lot of conversations,” Gutkovich says. “A good amount of those conversations turned into partnerships and closed-won deals.”

Beyond the statistical improvements, Seesaw saw opportunities to open communication with districts they hadn’t anticipated reaching out to until years down the road. Lawyer says the partnership with FuelK12 took their prospecting efforts to the next level and led to a growth of meetings on the reps’ calendars.

“I expect for years, we’ll continue to see the fruit of the initial conversations FuelK12 helped us to start,” Gutkovich says.

Seesaw also took advantage of the opportunity to hire a FuelK12-trained SDR for a full-time position and when a sales rep position opened up, they were the obvious choice to fill it.

“The quality of SDRs coming out of FuelK12 has been really high quality and a pleasure to work with,” Lawyer says.

Challenges

  • The process of effective outreach to school districts was hindered due to time constraints and current sales team’s abilities.
  • Saw the process of developing a playbook and SDR team in-house as daunting, wanted to avoid jumping into a new plan head first.

Results

  • Seesaw experienced millions of dollars generated in its pipeline.
  • Saw opportunities to open communication with districts they hadn’t anticipated making progress with until years down the road and expects those conversations created by Fuel K12 to continue creating deals in the future.
  • Hired a FuelK12 SDR to its team and seen promising results internally.