Azuga eliminated 640+ hours of manual work per week and increased lead connect rates to over 8%
From manual lead research to a scalable data engine
Azuga, a Bridgestone company, relied on a 16-person research team to gather lead information from scattered sources and enter it into Salesforce. The process consumed more than 640 hours every week, slowing down outbound activity and making it difficult to maintain accurate lead data.
The Kiln (a 2X company) helped Azuga automate lead enrichment, improve data quality, and expand the project into a broader system connecting data acquisition with campaign execution.
The results included 640+ manual hours eliminated per week, lead connect rates rising from 4–6% to over 8%, and enrichment workflow launch times falling from three months to under three weeks.
The challenge: Manual research slowed outbound sales
Azuga’s outbound sales process depended on a steady supply of accurate, enriched leads. But gathering information from scattered sources and entering it into Salesforce required extensive manual effort, making it difficult to scale.
Harish Bilimale, who led CRM strategy and Salesforce governance at Azuga, described the challenge:
Leadership wanted to automate research, simplify the underlying systems, and improve the quality of data reaching sales.
The solution: Automate enrichment and expand the data operation
The Kiln worked with Azuga to replace manual processes with automated workflows that could support its growing outbound needs.
1. Automate lead enrichment with Clay and Salesforce
Using Clay and Salesforce, The Kiln developed workflows to automate lead research and enrichment.
The workflows deduplicated, validated, and routed leads automatically. Enrichment logic identified company status, role changes, and the level of enrichment each record required.
Sales teams received clean, enriched leads in real time instead of waiting for manual research and data entry.
2. Resolve workflow blockers in real time
The Kiln worked directly with Azuga’s team to address technical challenges and workflow requirements as they arose.
Rather than relying on support tickets and delayed follow-ups, the teams worked through complex issues together on live calls.
This hands-on approach helped Azuga resolve blockers quickly and keep the project moving.
3. Expand from enrichment to a full-funnel enrichment engine
What began as an enrichment automation project expanded into a full-funnel enrichment engine connecting data acquisition with campaign execution.
Along the way, the teams explored additional workflows for validating company health, verifying persona status, suppressing outdated leads, and routing enriched records into different nurture paths.
The results: Less manual work, better lead data, and faster campaigns
Automation reduced the manual workload, accelerated enrichment workflow launches, and improved the quality of leads reaching sales.
Outbound performance
- Lead connect rates increased from 4–6% to over 8%: Sales gained access to validated, enriched lead data.
- Over 50% of leads included validated mobile numbers and direct dials: Sales gained access to contact information that had previously been unavailable.
- A more consistent lead supply: Azuga reported that sales no longer faced situations where there weren’t enough leads to work.
Operational performance
- 640+ manual hours eliminated per week: Automated enrichment replaced the research and data entry work previously handled by the 16-person team.
- Three months to under three weeks: Enrichment workflow launch times dropped from three months to under three weeks, reducing deployment time by more than two months per campaign.
- Cleaner Salesforce data: The Kiln helped Azuga eliminate workflow bottlenecks and clean up its Salesforce instance within months.
Beyond the initial automation project
The Kiln’s involvement extended beyond implementing automated workflows. The team trained Azuga’s employees, provided strategic guidance, and identified opportunities to improve processes beyond the original scope.
Azuga gained an automated enrichment operation that delivers validated leads to sales faster and supports quicker campaign launches.
The Kiln is now part of 2X, bringing its data automation and GTM engineering expertise into a broader model that connects GTM strategy, technology, and operations.
