Toine Boelens, a founder of NewPoort lead generation agency, answered our call from the beautiful scenery of the Netherlands and discussed how Skylead helps him find employees for his clients within the recruitment & selection industry. He also mentioned how he uses Skylead to find clients for himself and his clients and fill both calendars with qualified calls within just a few months
Can you tell us a little bit about you and your agency?
Toine: “Sure thing. My name is Toine, and I was born and raised here in the Netherlands. My profession is helping recruitment agencies and other companies create and manage their LinkedIn outreach campaigns. The main goal is to find more clients for them, and the other goal is to find candidates for employment. So, for example, I’m working with a company specializing in wind turbines. They are in real need of both national and international clients and employees. But they don’t want to do the hustle - they don’t wanna do everything via LinkedIn for themselves, so I do it for them. Therefore, Skylead makes it easier for me to get in touch with more clients and candidates in less time.
We've been in the business for 3 years now, and currently, I have 6 long-term clients, and I’m completely transparent with them. I want to let them know that we’re using Skylead right from the start.”
How did you start using Skylead?
Toine: “I heard about Skylead from a friend. He used it in the past and read a lot of great reviews about it. He also told me about the great output he gets from using this automation tool. Then, I saw it with my own eyes. It was really working.
To be honest, automation brings a lot of advantages you would never have while doing it manually. So as soon as I needed such a solution, I just logged into Skylead and started with my first account. I also noticed the more accounts I had, the better the price I’d get. So from there, I just started adding more and more accounts.”
What challenges did Skylead resolve for you?
Toine: “I think the biggest challenge for me was to be determined to send out 20 connection requests daily. It's really challenging to do that, especially if you have to do it, like, for several accounts. I never want to do it manually because I've never done it manually and would never do it manually. It's just too big of a challenge to be determined to do it every day. So I don't want to do that, and thanks to Skylead, I don't have to.”
How do you use Skylead now, and what are the results?
Toine: “So I start sourcing via LinkedIn using Sales Navigator, and from that, I make a list of potential prospects. After that, I load everything to Skylead and run the automation. Normally, I run campaigns on LinkedIn, but sometimes, I create campaigns on both LinkedIn and email because the multichannel works pretty well.
If I’m generating new clients for my clients, I usually get 5 to 10 responses per day via LinkedIn because I manage around 12 accounts. So then I make a selection out of those conversations for my clients. I don’t want to give my clients extra work, you know. I want to provide them with extra sales, so I chat with potential clients and book the appointments in their schedules. And at that moment, the client takes over.
The results are something my clients ask first as well. It’s a difficult question to answer because every client is different, and of course, every prospect is different, and every market is different. We have a Dutch saying that it’s like comparing apples to pears. So that’s what we’re doing right here. But if I look at the biggest success stories so far, I’ve created around 100 meetings for my clients within 4 months. And there are also a lot of name acknowledgments. So the name of the client is getting acknowledged by potential customers.
My clients are also expanding their network, and every time they post something on their LinkedIn account, it’s getting picked up by the right people because they have connections with the right people over there. That’s something my clients like as well.
And I also use Skylead to generate clients for myself. I get most of the clients from my own network and by finding them via Skylead. And when I find the clients via Skylead, I can then tell them: The way I found you is the way I’ll find the clients for you as well. That’s a great thing to say. Looking back, when I first started using Skylead, I remember generating 40 to 50% of my business.”
What features do you find most beneficial in Skylead?
Toine: “The most important feature for me is, of course, scraping the leads from Sales Navigator.
I use suggested sequence templates, as well. My favorite one is the Classic value proposition because it's perfect if you need to find new clients. What's more, you can edit the sequence templates. So, for example, you don't need to have three email steps, but two, and add steps or messages that are the most important to you.
Since I'm the ghostwriter for my clients and chat with potential clients in their name to book a call, I also use Smart inbox all the time. It's beneficial because I don't need to log into my clients' LinkedIn accounts; I have all the messages in Skylead's inbox.
If/else conditions in Smart Sequences are also great. It's low code, so it's great because I'm not good at coding yet. I also like the Find & verify business email step, which finds email addresses most of the time. So you get, like, two ways you can get in touch with the client.
I also use LinkedIn InMails for my clients. Since they pay hundreds of thousands of euros to LinkedIn every year, they have way too many InMails that they won't use at all. So we use them as the last step, in a sense that If a connection request isn’t accepted after 4 to 5 days, the leads then get an InMail.”
Why did you choose Skylead, and do you have any words for our potential customers?
Toine: “I think it's your name in the market because you guys are doing it longer than anyone else. There are a lot of upcoming software variants, but I need a trustworthy name because I don't want to have my clients' LinkedIn accounts blocked. Safety is the biggest thing for me.
I recommend Skylead because LinkedIn is one of the most popular B2B social media platforms, and if you know how to push buttons in Skylead, you can create synergy between the two platforms and do more in less time.”
And the experience with our customer support?
Toine: “That’s great! The experience with Skylead customer support is always great. I get a response in a couple of seconds, maybe a minute max. Sometimes I’ve got the feeling that someone’s new and needs to get up to speed, but I feel I’m getting quick answers. So, yeah, I’m quite satisfied with it.
Guys, keep going like this, and I will keep growing my accounts. If you can keep my accounts safe, I will be a very happy customer for as long as possible.”
