>10M
in new qualified pipeline
+41%
increase in conversion rate
Sales Ops Foundations
Created a foundational, self-improving AI x GTM layer
Time to Pipe
Saw faster time to pipeline with their new AI product release
Jeremy Smith
President, Ironclad
About Ironclad
Ironclad, founded in 2014, has become a leading AI-powered contract lifecycle management platform serving companies like L'Oréal, OpenAI, and Cisco. Given the company’s ambitious growth goals, leadership faced a critical question: how could they use AI to drive more efficient growth, particularly in go-to-market operations?
The Challenge
Doing More with Less
In 2023, Ironclad wasn’t seeing the outbound pipeline it needed at a sustainable cost and downscaled the BDR team. This created a new problem: In a period of explosive growth for the company, matched with an increasingly competitive landscape - the Ironclad BDR team was tasked with delivering more value while headcount remained flat. The team had to cover more accounts while managing multiple tools that generated an overlapping and a high volume of intent signals - not to mention years of interaction data -which often proved overwhelming for the team.
On the outbound side, landing the right message to the right persona via the right channel was a core challenge. Reps would:
Spend hours digging through data for quality account research
Chase intent signals without clarity on why there was a good fit
Rely on high-volume calling while historical context was buried
The central question became: how could Ironclad generate more qualified pipeline with fewer resources?
The solution
Why Ironclad Chose Actively AI's Custom Reasoning AI Engine
Comprehensive Evaluation & Fast Adoption
Linkedin Post resulting in tons of inbound from sales AI tools to Ironclad
After evaluating more than 15 AI solutions and conducting multiple trials, Ironclad selected Actively AI for its ability to:
Customize highly accurate reasoning models specifically to Ironclad's GTM motion
Unify disparate data sources into actionable intelligence
Extract meaningful recommendations from unstructured data
During the proof of concept, Actively AI quickly integrated with Ironclad's systems and began delivering results immediately.
Key Outcomes and Use Cases
01 — Daily Targeted Outbound
Each morning, Actively AI analyzes a BDR’s entire territory and identifies the top contacts most likely to convert. For each contact, it provides:
Data-backed hypotheses on why and how to engage that account and individual, informed by a reasoning model trained on Ironclad’s closed-won data
ICP contacts with verified jobs and emails as well as suggestions on multi-threading
Relevant email drafts in Outreach, plus account intelligence for call scripts in their dialer
BDRs now spend their time strategically engaging prospects rather than mining Salesforce or job boards.
02 — Driving Pipeline from Marketing/Unowned Accounts
Ironclad's CRM contains over 100,000 unowned or marketing-assigned accounts with significant revenue potential. While other tools help identify some prospects, Actively AI's deep scoring mines this account pool daily across a wider range of data points, surfacing high-propensity leads that might have been overlooked—whether they attended a webinar 16 months ago or recently hired a Legal Ops Manager.
03 — New Product ↔ Revenue Loop
When Ironclad introduced Jurist, a multi-agent legal AI assistant, the marketing team created positioning and messaging. When it came time to identify the right prospects, Actively AI scanned past calls, emails, and RFPs for AI or automation needs, letting BDRs and AEs re-engage the right accounts with precisely timed messaging for this innovative new product.
04 — Data Enrichment for Targeted Marketing Campaigns
Ironclad has years of historical sales and marketing data, including hundreds of daily prospect conversations scattered across systems.
Actively AI's intelligence layer mines this information to identify accounts and contacts for specific campaigns—whether targeting companies using competitors or those interested in AI. This capability helps GTM Operations support Marketing and Sales on critical engagement initiatives.
Impact
10s of millions in Qualified Pipeline and Maximized Data ROI
Within six months, Ironclad attributed 10s of millions in qualified pipeline to Actively AI, proving pipeline could grow while keeping the same headcount. Given the efficiency gains to the function, Ironclad is now hiring more reps.
Looking Ahead
Expanding Across the Sales Team
Building on success with the business development team, Ironclad is looking to expand Actively AI to support AE-sourced revenue. The plan involves collaborating with Actively AI to customize enterprise workflows for AEs who require precise, well-researched targeting. Actively AI's "deep reasoning" approach aligns with Ironclad’s move toward full-cycle AEs that can manage buyers from outreach to expansion.