Common Apollo User Challenges & How to Solve Them
Apollo. ioio has become the top sales engagement and lead generation platform for thousands of sales development representatives and sales teams around the world, helping customers increase the size of their pipeline and win more deals. This full-service sales intelligence solution offers powerful search, email and lead generation tools to help you streamline the sales workflow from finding leads to closing them. But as with any powerful platform, Apollo presents its own learning curves and operational hurdles that can impede user progress. A lot of sales people are dealing with data quality headaches, deliverability challenges, and integration nightmare of a life that affects how well their campaigns will run. Knowing about these common hurdles, and how to overcome them, is an essential step for driving ROI and maintaining steady sales results. This post explores the most common Apollo user hiccups and presents solutions to apollo problems, to help you unlock its power to supplement your team’s sales success.
Challenge 1: Inaccurate or Outdated Contact Data
Why It Happens
Most Salient Apollo Problems and Concerns Contact List Discrepancy The perennial bugbear of Apollo users is the issue of wrong or obsolete contact information making all the difference in the campaign and a whole lot of time. Apollo leans heavily on third-party data sources and web-scraping technology to build the vast database of contact details, however, this has limitations when it comes to precision. And as the business world is more fluid than ever, such as employees moving jobs, updating roles, or updating their contact details – there’s always a new opportunity to test a level of accuracy that is real-time. Also, some businesses have high privacy protection, or rapidly changes web sites layout, so we could not extract information in time. Data rot is a fact of life in the B2B world; reports indicate that contact databases can degrade as much as 30% in accuracy every year thanks to organic business occurrences. By Apollo’s very nature, it also means that some contacts may not get the same level of verification frequency as smaller, more niche databases do.
How to Solve It
Adopting a multi-faceted approach to data verification can vastly improve the performance of your Apollo contact lists. Begin by leveraging Apollo’s native enrichment capabilities to fill in gaps and refresh data from disparate sources. Set up a calendar reminder to review and clean up your saved contact lists on a regular basis, deleting bounced emails and old data to keep lists clean. Cross-reference key contacts with LinkedIn Sales Navigator or other professional networks to validate that job titles, company association, and contact information are current before starting large campaigns. Consider using email verification tools on top of that step, particularly for higher value leads, or if you’re sending out an email blast. Leverage Apollo’s contact activity urgency indicators and engagement signals to surface prospects with recent engagement or activity on the platform. Finally, urge your sales team to update contact information when they get out-of-office messages or a bounce email, and you can establish a feedback loop that increases the quality of data over time.
Challenge 2: Little to no Email Deliverability
Why It Happens
Email deliverability is one of the biggest challenges our Apollo users face – even a beautifully designed email will never reach its full potential if it never makes it to the reader’s inbox. It is quite common that users fail in reaching their deliverability as they just start sending high volume emails to ISPs which is not the right approach, domain warm up is something that they usually miss along with other recommendations to control and manage email reputation. ISPs and email clients’ spam-filtering algorithms now pose a formidable challenge, when analyzing elements such as sender reputation, authentication protocols, and the content itself to decide where an email should land. Send too many emails too fast from a new domain or IP address, and you’ll set off spam filters — and find yourself blacklisted permanently in a way that is hard (sometimes impossible) to reverse. On top of that, many people inadvertently utilize content patterns, subject lines, or formatting that modern spam filters recognize as questionable, regardless of the user’s intent. The rise of templated and generic outreach has made email providers more draconian in cataloging messages that look mass-produced or automated.” Bad list hygiene, that is old email addresses and contact that don’t engage, is one of the leading causes for high bounce rates, which in turn, hurt the sender’s reputation and decrease their deliverability.
How to Solve It
Implementing a successful email deliverability strategy takes time and technical focus, however the payoff is dramatic improvement in campaign performance and ROI. Start with a well-planned domain warm-up: it means slowly increasing your email volume over 45-60 days to introduce yourself to ISPs, and for them to learn that your reputation is good. Setup mandatory email authentication protocols SPF, DKIM and DMARC to validate your identity and curb spoofing which has become a foundation level requisite for leading email services. Write subject lines and email text without using spam trigger words but that are still authentic and relevant to your target audience, emphasizing value over hardcore salesy language. Leverage Apollo’s deliverability reporting and insights to track KPIs such as opens, bounce rates, and spam complaints and pivot your strategy as performance drops. We would recommend A/B testing different sequence variations, as well as subject lines and send times, to learn what works best for your audience and improves engagement rates. Keep your list squeaky clean by taking out bounced emails, unsubscribed contacts and inactive addresses to ensure for good the health of your sender reputation and ultimately the holders of your campaigns.
Challenge 3 – Poor Pattern Performance
Why It Happens
A lot of Apollo users get hung up on sequence performance and that’s because they are using generic templates that don’t resonate with the persona or differentiate them from competitors. Today’s B2B buyer is inundated with dozen of sales emails everyday, and it’s harder than ever to stand out with a generic, template message or one that’s irrelevant to specific pain points. Bad audience segmentation exacerbates this, because most users build campaigns that are too generalist, a sequence for every buyer persona, at the top of the funnel without meeting them where they are, without speaking to their **, motivations, etc. The lack of a meaningful personalization other than generic “insert name”/person’s company makes the messages sound like they came straight from a mindless bot rather than having been written by a human being, hurting engagement rates and ultimately the brand. That’s not to mention most users are forgetting to use intent signals and behavior indicators inherent in Apollo, and use that data to customize the messaging to their prospect activity in interest. Uneven follow-up timing and sequence structure can also affect performance, where contacts are either hit too often or left with intervals between, resulting in loss of momentum! Furthermore, users frequently forget to reap sequence analytics-based and performance-driven feedback to iterate, for continued refinement and optimization.
How to Solve It
High-performing sequences are not built, they are strategically crafted and combine deep audience insights with continuous optimization and scale personalization. Begin by utilizing Apollo’s rich repository of dynamic fields and personalization tokens to craft content that cites individual company details, recent news, mutual connections, or industry trends unique to each prospect. Isolate complex audiences by factors such as industry, company size, job function and behavioral signals or you may end up messaging to “the general you” and none of it aligns to a specific persona, or their unique problems. Create several sequence variations, catered to and sent to different segments of your audience, and experiment with various value propositions, angles, and calls to actions, to path to the highest engaged sequences. Monitor the sequence analytics of Apollo on a regular basis to spot trends in open rates, response rates, and conversion metrics to help tweak your copy and frequency. Add social proof, case studies and specific examples of the results you’ve achieved for similar companies to give credibility and show your value prop. Test various sequence lengths, follow-up timing, and content type (text-only vs HTML, short vs long messages) to find out what works best for your audience’s preferences and industry standards.
Challenge 4 – Lack of CRM Integration or Problems with Syncing
Why It Happens
One of the most annoying issues Apollo users come across involves the integration with CRM when it’s not able to handle complex field mapping conflicts, and update data between systems lack of options, not necessarily in real-time. A common source of woe for many users is the way the Apollo data structure and field names don’t always quite map directly to their current CRM setup, leading to misunderstanding and data discrepancies which can lead to disruption with carefully constructed workflow. Setting up integration often does require some technical expertise. More than just your entry-level sales guy that got assigned a sync operation, since a simple configuration error will result in continued mismatches between systems and data quality issues. Each CRM software has its own API restrictions and sync schedules, that cause delays in updates or incomplete data syncs for people who want real-time updates. Access issues due to conflicting user permissions and roles roles can also develop between Apollo and CRM systems that can inhibit team members from being able to view newly updated information or complete required updates to contact records. Many organizations have also tailored the configurations in CRM over time, building their own field structures and business logic that doesn’t fit neatly into the standardized offerings of Apollo. The scale of challenge expands significantly when you deal with larger entities that have more than one CRM instances, work with custom objects, and complex approval flows that needs to be managed within the integration.
How to Solve It
Implementing Apollo in your CRM successfully just needs some preparation and configuration, ongoing maintenance to ensure data is flowing the way you expect, and that your users can get the data they need to make decision. Start by carefully combing through Apollo’s official integration documentation for your CRM–whether that’s Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, or something else–focusing specifically on your fields mapping needs and limitations. Map your CRM fields to their Apollo counterpart prior to enabling the integration and verify if there are any custom fields that need special setup or data transformation to assure there is consistency between the 2 platforms. Create your sync rules thoughtfully, deciding what you want to move in both directions and building clear rules around what to do when the same record is updated on both ends. Testing is key, so try it out with a limited number of records and make sure the data is mapping correctly and any automated workflows are being triggered. Put in place clear ownership and accountability for data management so everyone knows what system holds the truth for the different data types. Develop documentation and training resources for your team on the integration process, troubleshooting, and process for escalating technical issues encountered during the normal course of operations.
Challenge 5: Team Work & Role Conflicts
Why It Happens
This confusion-inducing and inefficient overlap of account ownership is many times what triggers the team collaboration challenges we see in Apollo and other products like it. Most companies either don’t have clear definitions for lead ownership or territory management or collaborator workflows in place, which results in duplicate effort to get in touch with a customer and confuse the potential customer. If the permissions are too tight, team members might not be able to get the information they need to do their jobs, while overly lenient permissions can result in data getting altered without authorization, and in intrusion into existing flows. Role conflicts can be especially challenging in complex sales organizations, where the platform supports different teams, geographic regions and product lines with varied access levels and levels of responsibility. For example, while some account-based reps may have more experienced and refined sales approaches, those efforts might be thwarted if other team members accidentally send the same targeted account a haphazard message that antagonizes a contact in a steering committee as a promotion for a webinar. Lack of visibility into the activities and interaction with prospects of team members hinders their managers’ ability to coach, provide guidance, and deliver a consistent message throughout the organization. The fact was the lack of clear escalation requirements and collaboration policies would cost this company business, but also lead to internal strain and harm to morale.
How to Solve It
“The key is to have governance and team management in place and be empowered by Apollo’s team management features to have a seamless workflow.” First, take advantage of Apollo’s team settings to set up specific roles and permissions that match your organization, and to ensure that each member of your team has the access they need for your features and data, but that your don’t compromise on the security and quality of your data. Develop and establish lead ownership rules on who owns what lead, when it get assigned out, and how is disputes gets handled, leveraging Apollo’s assignment capability and so that we can automate the distribution of leads where it makes sense. Turn activity visibility settings on and let the right team members see your prospect interactions and engagement history so they can work more closely together, and avoid reaching out more than once. Standardize handoff processes for accounts between teams (e.g., SDR to AE, inside and outside sales), so that valuable context and relationship history remain intact as accounts are passed along. Utilize Apollo’s analytics and reporting functionality to support and drive regular teamwork and meeting/reporting cadences to identify performance trends, assess areas of potential teamwork, and engage where we can; anticipate and resolve potential conflicts before they damage customer relations. Define escalation points for disputed accounts or complex prospect scenarios, making sure that the frontline team members have a clear view of when to engage Management to speed resolution.
Bonus Tips For Success In The Long Run
To be successful with Apollo and ensure that you’re always ahead of the curve, you need to continue learning about the platform and update your knowledge and functionality as it evolves and your business needs shift. Keep updated on Apollo’s frequent feature releases and product updates by signing up for their newsletter, reading their blog, and attending their webinars which walk through new features and best practices. Leverage Apollo Academy and their vast training assets to keep your team informed on platform features and best practices. Connect with the Apollo community by participating in our forums and user groups, and by following us on social media—then share your own tips, of course, to help other experts find new uses for these methods you’re learning. Monitor your Apollo usage and performance metrics, on a regular basis, to make sure that you are not only able to improve where needed, but also are able to take advantage of any optimizations and workflow enhancements that can help enhance your efficiency. You may also consider assigning an Apollo platform advocate within your organization who can help keep up with industry best practices, provide internal training, and act as a resource for learning, troubleshooting and optimization advice. Keep excellent records of your Apollo setups and added customizations—both new team members and future organizational changes will thank you for it.
To overcome the hurdles that Apollo poses, one must not only have a tech-savy know-how but also to lead by strategic actions and consistent status enhancements. The five most common challenges we’ve detailed here – data accuracy, email deliverability, sequence performance, CRM integration, and team collaboration – are what hold companies back from fully leveraging Apollo. Sales teams can overcome these roadblocks and unlock the full potential of Apollo by applying the complete solutions we’ve laid out here. Keep in mind, the mastery of a platform is more of a continuum rather than a single event. It involves staying up-to-date with performance metrics, industry best practices and changing buyer behaviours. The investment of addressing these challenges correctly achieves with better campaign performance, higher conversions rates and sales processes that are so much more effective in the end making all parties happy with business returns. Leverage Apollo’s rich support, user community, and training materials to continue broadening your skillset and keeping a step ahead of common roadblocks to your sales success and your teams’ productivity.
