How EBQ surpassed their sales appointment projection by 200%
PatientKeeper® Inc. (PatientKeeper) needed a sales engine to compete with larger, more established competitors. However, their initial in-house telemarketing campaigns failed to produce results that moved the needle.
PatientKeeper then turned to EBQ to first validate their market through first-hand research. Afterwards, EBQ then handled all of PatientKeeper’s prospecting needs. As a result of their partnership, EBQ
Surpassed initial sales appointment projects by
Contributed
in estimated sales pipeline revenue
The Challenge
PatientKeeper is a healthcare software company that provides physicians with healthcare applications, enabling them to concentrate on patient care. As an emerging company, PatientKeeper had limited resources to compete with larger, established companies.
However, PatientKeeper’s sales team needed to devote more time to selling, leaving them little time for prospecting. To help drum up more interest, PatientKeeper also invested significantly in exhibiting at high-profile trade shows (such as HIMSS), which provided most of the company’s annual sales leads.
“We felt like we were missing out on opportunities to build the sales pipeline by refining the message to current prospects and capitalizing on new market segments,” said Kathy Ruggiero, Senior Director of Corporate Marketing.
Because the previous in-house telemarketer did not meet expectations, PatientKeeper’s sales reps were initially skeptical of onboarding another appointment-setting partner. However, Kathy knew that the right business development team could be very effective.
The Solution
After PatientKeeper’s sales leadership structure changed, she suggested outsourcing their prospecting activities to another expert partner. PatientKeeper’s board chairman remembered working with EBQ at another company, so they decided to fold EBQ into their lead generation mix.
Kathy wanted to start with market research to validate PatientKeeper’s sales messaging and gather additional prospect data. EBQ called their targets to conduct a brief survey to gather information that would help shape future lead-generation efforts.
For example, the survey revealed that PatientKeeper kept leading with the wrong message. Back then, the outbound conversation started with the idea that hospitals’ back-end systems were ineffective at influencing doctors to adopt new technologies. While true, EBQ’s research showed that when their business development reps (BDRs) started positively and focused on how PatientKeeper’s software complemented their current back-end systems, the BDRs would have a better chance of capturing their prospects’ attention.
The survey also revealed an opportunity to set more sales appointments by discussing how hospitals can add PatientKeeper’s mobile capabilities to their computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system.
Armed with new insight, PatientKeeper moved to the next stage of their pilot lead generation campaign: setting more sales appointments with highly qualified prospects.
The Results
Within 8 months, the EBQ appointment-setting program surpassed their initial projections by 200%. For example, EBQ:
- Set 76 sales appointments that uncovered 14 new sales opportunities
- Contributed an estimated $9.5 million to PatientKeeper’s sales pipeline
“We’ve recently experienced significant interest and success in Canada. EBQ’s appointment-setting support is helping PatientKeeper reap the benefits and potential in that territory without diverting scarce resources from the core US market,” said Kathy.
Today, PatientKeeper’s sales reps feel supported, turning initial skeptics into staunch supporters.
“EBQ has done a fabulous job getting appointments scheduled in accounts I’ve not had any luck with previously. In addition, they arm me with information that I can reference on the call that allows me to build on the conversations they’ve already had,” said Mark Kausel, Area VP of Sales.
One year later, PatientKeeper has assigned one new product and one new geographic area to EBQ for prospecting.
“Our Charge Capture product is very complex and is guided by government mandates about how hospitals translate patient care into billable charges. I know that EBQ will succeed with this complex assignment as well,” said Kathy.
“EBQ is a service that works! We use EBQ for almost all cold calling. This frees up our sales executives to focus on securing customers and not simply generating leads,” said Peter Dolphin, VP of Sales & Marketing
In 2026, PatientKeeper was acquired by Commure.
PatientKeeper x EBQ
Find out how PatientKeeper surpassed their initial sales appointment projection by 200% with EBQ’s BDRs.