Automating inbound lead enrichment, investor outreach, and more with Clay
Harmonic, the complete startup database trusted by many of the largest VCs worldwide, faced challenges managing their SDR workflows across multiple tools. To streamline their outbound motion and boost productivity, Harmonic rebuilt their entire SDR workflow using Clay.
Venture capital data and startup intelligence
New York
"We rebuilt our entire SDR workflow on Clay, and it completely transformed how we operate," said Darri Atlason, Head of Growth at Harmonic. "What used to be manual and fragmented is now fully automated and centralized, allowing us to scale faster and handle more leads without increasing the workload."
Impact TL;DR:
- Transitioned from a fragmented to a centralized, event-driven approach using Clay.
- SDRs now operate directly in Clay, managing inbound leads, event-based outreach, and re-engagement campaigns more efficiently.
- Increased message volume and conversion rates per SDR.
- Continuous experimentation and optimization fine-tuned outbound strategies.
The challenge: managing SDR workflows across fragmented tools
Before Clay, Harmonic's SDR team used multiple tools to manage outbound campaigns and track buying signals. They faced several challenges:
- Tool overload: SDRs juggled a dozen tools to collect signals and enrich data.
- Manual processes: SDRs manually identified prospects and populated cadences in SalesLoft, slowing them down.
- Uneven workload distribution: Some outbound triggers were more successful than others, leading to inconsistent results.
The solution: centralized SDR workflows with Clay
To solve these issues, Harmonic centralized their data feeds and automated workflows in Clay. This streamlined operations, enabling SDRs to work more efficiently and focus on higher-value tasks.
Automating inbound lead enrichment and processing
Before Clay, SDRs manually processed inbound leads, slowing follow-up times and leading to missed opportunities. By integrating Clay into the inbound lead workflow, Harmonic automated lead enrichment and routing, speeding up follow-ups and improving lead management.
How it works:
- Automated enrichment: When a lead submits a form on their website, Clay automatically adds it to a base and enriches it with contact details.
- Lead routing: Leads are routed to the appropriate SDR or AE based on territory or account ownership, cutting out manual effort.
- Customized follow-up workflow: SDRs follow up faster with personalized messages based on enriched data, ensuring more relevant communication.
This automation led to faster response times, higher conversion rates, and significant time savings for SDRs.
"With Clay, we’ve automated the entire inbound lead process—from enrichment to routing. Now, instead of wasting time manually entering data, our SDRs can focus on connecting with leads right away, with all the information they need at their fingertips. It's made us faster and more efficient," says Darri.
Co-investor outreach based on funding events
Timely outreach is critical for Harmonic when reaching out to its core customers. Before Clay, this process was manual, involving multiple tools and missed opportunities. Now, Harmonic can automate data enrichment and personalized, event-triggered outreach.
How it works:
- Identifying funding events: Harmonic’s database tracks events like Series A or B rounds and sends data to Clay via API.
- Co-investor enrichment: Harmonic finds funds that often invest alongside the lead investor of a recent round and enriches them in Clay before reaching out with a relevant value proposition.
- Personalized outreach: Clay automates outreach within 24-48 hours of the event, allowing SDRs to scale more efficiently.
"With Clay, we’ve automated how we track funding events and reach out to co-investors,” says Darri. “It’s given us the ability to react quickly, sending personalized messages within 24-48 hours of a funding announcement, which has made a big difference in engagement."
Automated no-show follow-up workflow
No-shows are common, and manually managing follow-ups takes time.
So Harmonic enlisted Clay to automate this process, ensuring no leads slipped through the cracks.
How it works:
- Automated detection: When a meeting is marked as a no-show in Slack, the data is automatically pushed to Salesforce and Clay.
- Triggering follow-up tasks: Clay schedules follow-up tasks immediately.
- Personalized re-engagement: Clay generates personalized follow-up messages referencing the missed meeting and offering rescheduling options.
This automation led to higher rescheduled meeting rates, with SDRs focusing on high-value activities instead of tracking no-shows.
"Clay has completely taken the manual work out of following up on no-shows. Now, instead of worrying about tracking missed meetings, we have an automated system that schedules follow-ups and sends personalized messages, helping us get those prospects back on track without any extra effort."
Closed-lost re-engagement sequence
Before Clay, re-engaging closed-lost leads was inconsistent and manual.
Now, Harmonic automates re-engagement, ensuring timely, relevant outreach.
How it works:
- Automatic trigger: Clay adds closed-lost deals to a re-engagement queue after 6-12 months of no contact.
- Data enrichment: Clay updates contact info and signals like job changes, promotions, or funding rounds.
- Personalized outreach: Clay triggers messaging tailored to recent updates and past interactions.
"We’ve set up a re-engagement flow for closed-lost deals, and it’s been really effective," says Darri. "After six months of no contact, Clay automatically pulls them back into our system, and we’re able to re-engage based on new triggers like job changes or funding rounds. It’s helping us revive deals we thought were dead."
Clay’s impact on Harmonic’s SDR operations
Early results show significant improvements with Clay.
Automating data enrichment, signal tracking, and lead routing allowed Harmonic to manage more leads without increasing workload, leading to faster response times and improved conversion rates.
- Efficiency gains: SDRs manage more leads and respond faster, following up on key signals like job changes and funding events.
- Improved lead quality: Clay enriches leads with accurate, up-to-date data, leading to more personalized outreach and higher engagement.
- Measurable results: Harmonic saw an increase in opportunities created per message sent, greater SDR productivity, and faster response times.
"Clay has allowed us to scale our outreach in ways we never thought possible. We're able to automate key processes, reach more leads, and stay incredibly efficient without sacrificing the quality of our engagement. It's been a game-changer for us," Darri concluded.
Explore more customers
Discover how users leverage Clay to uncover distinctive data and use data in innovative strategies to succeed.
OpenAI
Clay enables our team to rapidly experiment with trigger driven workflows, and 3rd party enrichment data. We’re able to move fast and drive outsized impact on GTM execution – all while using a tool that’s fun, creative, and cutting edge.
2X
Enrichment coverage
Anthropic
"Clay is a game changer for marketing, data, and operations. We have tripled our enrichment rate with Clay’s combination of data providers vs. our previous solution. We're using the best aggregate results across a waterfall of data sources, and implementing complex workflow logic even beyond enrichment—of course powered by AI. Clay makes it easy to use AI for GTM initiatives, unlocking new workflows that were infeasible before."
.avif)
3x
Data enrichment coverage
Vanta
"Clay should be an essential pillar of every company's GTM stack, enabling outbound built on the highest quality data foundation possible. Now you can automate hours of manual research so sales teams can focus on selling."
.avif)
80%+
Enrichment coverage
Rippling
"Clay is the Rippling marketing team's secret weapon. It has helped us build an experimentation-driven GTM motion that iterates on ideas and scales what works. We've greatly improved our outbound email performance, deeply enriched our customer base with AI, and more."
.avif)
2x
Increase in cold email performance
Verkada
"Clay is a central part of our outbound campaign program. It’s helped us fully automate lead enrichment that previously required expensive and time consuming manual research. We can use the hours we've saved on manual work for more interesting, creative, and important tasks, like coming up with new outreach ideas or nurturing relationships with prospects."
.avif)
2x
Increase in LinkedIn ad targeting match rates
Coverflex
"When one provider doesn’t have it, Clay automatically checks the next one. It really helps our inbound and outbound motions because we can leverage the best source of data. I’ve never seen a tool that was so easy to do this process."
3M+
companies prioritized
Sendoso
"Scaling inefficient SDR work isn’t possible without an infinite flow of capital. Clay helps automate mundane tasks like contact data enrichment, including pulling signals and triggers, so SDRs can focus their time on prioritized selling and spend their days more effectively. It evolves the SDR role and aligns it with better with marketing paths for more upward career momentum."
.avif)
10x
Outbound productivity
Oyster
"Clay should be an essential pillar of every company's GTM stack, enabling outbound built on the highest quality data foundation possible. Now you can automate hours of manual research so sales teams can focus on selling."
40 hours/month
Time saved per sales rep through automation
Rootly
"Clay allowed us to consolidate our workflows and eliminate the need for multiple tools. It’s streamlined everything, saving us time and money while improving our ability to act on key signals"
100%
Automation of outbound sales workflows, from list building to outreach
Exit Five
“Before Clay, we could only guess at our audience composition. Now, we can confidently show sponsors the segments that matter most to them, like marketing leaders at companies doing $10M+ in revenue”
50%
Enrichment of 27K contacts with actionable firmographic data
Regency Supply
"Clay simplifies how we experiment with new ideas and automate processes, Whether testing AI workflows or building contact lists, Clay is consistently a foundational tool we turn to."
5000+
Key contacts for job changes.
Streamline data enrichment
Leverage 100+ data sources and an AI agent with 140M monthly runs.
