Two years ago, Accord’s outbound strategy relied heavily on referrals and internal connections. It worked in a scrappy, founder-led stage, but as the team scaled, they needed a more systematic way to reach the right buyers at the right time.
That’s when they turned to UserGems.
The Challenge: Outbound in a noisy market
Accord is a Revenue Excellence Platform that transforms sales processes into enforceable playbooks, helping every rep sell like a top performer. But building pipeline in today’s crowded GTM landscape is tough.
“We needed to move beyond warm intros and tribal knowledge,” says Arif Jaffer, Growth Marketing Manager at Accord. “Outbound today is about precision. You can’t afford to miss timing or context.”
The Solution: Using Signals + AI Agent (Gem-E) to scale outbound
UserGems became Accord’s most consistent source of meetings. By using AI to capture signals (such as, Past Champions, New Exec Hires, etc), updating CRM, while making sure that Sellers have what they need to easily action on those insights, Accord built a scalable outbound play.
“UserGems drives 50–60% of our outbound meetings in a typical month,” Arif explains. “It doesn’t just make outbound easier – it makes it smarter.”
Here’s how:
- Signal 1: Past Champions & Users: Accord gets alerts when past champions or everyday users move to new companies — instantly creating warm opportunities.
- Signal 2: New Exec Hires: When a VP or CRO joins a target account, Accord automatically kicks off an outreach sequence with messaging written by Gem-E (UserGems’ AI agent).
- Slack alerts: Signals flow directly into Slack, where sellers can jump on opportunities in real time.
- AI SDR: Gem-E (UserGems AI Outbound Agent) It combines the 2 signals with others, such as Previous Closed Lost opportunities, to draft email sequences tailored to each prospect. Reps only need to review and personalize before hitting send.
"[Gem-E] cuts email prep time from 20 minutes to 3–5 minutes. It’s a massive time saver,” says Arif.
Accord runs both campaigns with Gem-E:
- Past Champions: Gem-E identifies and enriches the contact but the outreach is handled with a high-touch, white-glove approach by the BDRs.
- New Executives: More automated – with Gem-E identifying the new decision makers, enriching with their contact information, researching information about the Account before drafting and sending emails. After that, the BDRs follow up.
While both campaigns are AI co-pilot mode (Gem-E + Reps), Accord adjusts the level of automation to balance genuine relationship building with scale.
"Our Sellers were very into the idea of having an AI sidekick to help keep their pipeline full, so we didn't get a lot of push back in adopting Gem-E," says Arif.
The Results: More meetings, faster cycles
- 50–60% of outbound meetings come from UserGems signals & Gem-E.
- Reps save hours weekly by skipping manual research.
- Warm intros through past users consistently outperform cold outreach.
- Closed-lost accounts have been revived when new execs came on board. These opportunities might have been missed without UserGems.
“We had a deal that went closed-lost last year. A new exec joined, UserGems flagged it, and we re-engaged. That deal is now back in pipeline,” Arif shares.
Building trust in AI
Like many teams, Accord approached AI with caution. The breakthrough was keeping a human in the loop.
“We tell our team: AI drafts, humans finalize,” Arif says. “Once they saw that it cut their prep time by 75% while still sounding authentic, team’s buy-in was easy.”
Arif adds: “AI is a co-pilot, not the driver. People still buy from people. But with Gem-E, we can be more targeted, send fewer emails, make them more tailored, and get 10x better outcomes.”
Looking ahead
For Accord, UserGems isn’t just a lead source — it’s an AI command center for our Go-to-Market team.
“Our CRM is a system of record. UserGems turns it into a system of decisions and actions,” Arif says. “It takes data and insights already in Salesforce – that most reps and marketers wouldn’t have time to research, combines with 3rd-party signals, and makes it intelligent and actionable for reps.”
With AI and signals powering their pipeline, Accord’s team is free to focus on what matters most -- building trust and closing deals.
