How Oyster uses Clay to run intent-based outbound campaigns, saving 40hrs/month per sales rep

The challenge: managing a complex tech stack and a fragmented outbound process

Oyster's team wanted to make their intent-outbound process less manual and time-consuming. The team was using a complex tech stack, including tools like G2, Clearbit, Salesforce, and HubSpot. However, these tools were siloed, with data scattered across different platforms.

The outbound team initially wanted to ensure that any automation aligned with their strategic account selection and personalized outreach processes. BDR leaders wanted to ensure that automation would still support their key processes, such as strategic account selection and personalized ICP outreach. However, the team agreed that the account research and qualification process and account enrichment flow was manual and needed improvement to better ensure potential opportunities didn't fall through the cracks.

Petra mapped the manual prospecting and outreach process of a typical BDR in the market and showed the team how Clay can automate those processes while safeguarding strategic internal processes and rules of engagement.

Outbound to accounts showing intent data

Petra began addressing the challenge by focusing on intent-driven accounts, which the sales team historically had lower rates of success with.

“One intent channel initially showed no immediate pipeline, which led to hesitancy to prioritize those accounts due to concerns about whether the channel would deliver enough value for the team's efforts," Petra explained. "In reality, it wasn’t that intent data didn’t work—it was that we needed to scale outreach to accounts in that channel to start seeing results.

Petra began by automating the outreach process for these intent-driven accounts, allowing the BDR team to focus on other high-priority accounts. The results were immediate — within just one month, they saw $34K+ in new pipeline generated from these previously untapped accounts.

But Petra didn't stop there. She also took other lower-priority accounts and automated the outreach process for them. By adding data enrichment through Clay, the team was able to requalify these accounts, resulting in conversions.

"By automating the process in Clay and having access to new enrichment sources, we were able to convert accounts that we would usually not prioritize," Petra said.

Segment accounts to get relevant templated messages

One of Petra's most successful use cases for Clay was in the area of messaging segmentation. She created signal-based queries in Clay, allowing the platform to output tailored content that resonates with each unique intent signal, ensuring that every interaction is aligned with where the account is in its buying journey.

"We know the message we want to deliver," Petra said. "We don't need AI to come up with something super creative, but we need help gathering more information on our accounts to scale our personalization efforts and optimize the messaging at scale."

This addressed the team's concerns about data quality and the ability to craft highly personalized at scale.

Use case: Tracking signals to revive relevant dormant accounts

In addition to prioritizing outbound to intent-driven accounts and supporting customer success, Petra also leveraged Clay to revive dormant leads using signals of fit. For example, Clay's data integrations allowed the team to see which dormant leads had recently started hiring for remote roles or were experiencing rapid growth. Clay also provided insights on the ideal customer profile (ICP) fit for these accounts, taking location and company size into consideration, as well as contact info for new decision-makers and influencers at these accounts.

Armed with this enriched data, the sales team was able to re-engage the dormant leads with highly personalized outreach.

Syncing it all back to Oyster’s tech stack

Petra's Clay implementation integrated seamlessly with Oyster's existing technology stack to maintain their CRM as their single source of truth. When Clay identified and enriched new accounts or contacts, it automatically created or updated corresponding records. Then, the team was able to sync these updated records to the appropriate BDR and their email sending tool.