Reading: Workbooks sets out to conquer the US market

British CRM vendor opens first US office to export its unique ‘Shared Success’ approach to implementation.

Workbooks, a British cloud-based CRM and marketing automation vendor, today announces its expansion into the US market. This bold move to challenge industry giants like Salesforce and Microsoft on their home turf comes after strong growth in 2017 and another successful financing round.

Building on strong growth

Workbooks has had tremendous success over the past 12 months, growing new business by over 75% in FY17/18. The company recruited a chief marketing officer and a chief revenue officer as well as expanding the sales and marketing team to drive aggressive growth and redefine its go-to-market strategy. 

Following feedback from customers and prospects Workbooks significantly expanded its solution by adding mapping, event management, marketing automation, web analytics, contact information gathering and also integration with US-based Zapier. Many features are available preconfigured to make implementation quicker and easier for customers.

Customers include Arlington Automotive, CABA, Caspian, ClinkClink, Coeliac UK, K3 Retail, Knowledge Transfer Network, Law Business Research, NFB, notgoingtouni.co.uk, Russell Finex, SAV Systems, SOAK.com, Student Universe, TC Facilities Management, Exchange Lab and Newmarket Holidays.

Investment trust

Earlier this year the company raised a further £1milllion, taking the full investment to £7m. The latest round is set to fund continued product development and more specifically continued international expansion.

“The year 2017 was pivotal for the company, where we concentrated on building a cloud-based CRM and marketing automation solution that delivered value quickly,” explains John Cheney, CEO, Workbooks. “Our UK clients particularly appreciate that we work very closely with them to implement and deliver the outcomes they expect in a timely and cost-effective manner. We’re now looking to replicate this success in the US market and we’re confident we have the tools and the talent to make an extremely strong impression there.”

Shared Success – a unique approach to implementation 

Workbooks already has customers in 30 different countries and is available in five languages, but the US office is its first international placement. Based in East Hartford, Connecticut, it will be managed by Dan Collins, an early angel investor of Workbooks supported by head of delivery, Penny Lowe. Lowe will ensure that the new US team build on the implementation best practices she helped develop while turning Workbooks into one of the UK’s foremost CRM providers.

Workbooks’ groundbreaking implementation approach has already captivated many customers in the UK market. The company’s ‘Shared Success’ implementation programme includes a co-funded workshop to define desired outcomes followed by free consulting days for implementation. It’s this kind of responsive, collaborative approach that helped SOAK take its entire CRM project live in just six weeks.