CCD Health increases its MQLs by 750% with Kalungi's full-service engagement

“We didn't go from zero to 60—we went from zero to 60 to 200 miles an hour.” 

So says Carlos Ziegenhirt, Founder and Chief Advisor at CCD Health, who has been overseeing growth and strategy for the healthcare call center since 2011. 

As a nearshore B2B contact center focused on healthcare support services, they had the leadership, vision, and talent to provide world-class patient care for their clients. Whatever their healthcare customers need, CCD Health provides.

But when Carlos and the CCD Health team wanted to invest in their growth, they knew they needed marketing leadership and tactical execution for long-term success. This is where Kalungi’s expertise came into play.

Getting attention and leads in U.S. markets

CCD Health provides patient support services for radiology practices in the U.S., from scheduling patients and verifying insurance to transcribing doctors’ notes and processing payments. 

Within this niche market and competitive environment, they needed help finding and nurturing high-quality leads. And as a company based in the Dominican Republic, they struggled with properly penetrating the U.S. radiology market.

“Internally, we were going in the right direction,  just not fast enough,” explained Carlos Ziegenhirt. 

“CCD Health’s success was largely based on our past relationships, which got us to a good point. As we grew, we needed to invest back into our growth, and we wanted to have a stronger mechanism in place for that.”

With plans to double down on the U.S. radiology market and a challenging U.S. climate for nearshore companies, they turned to Kalungi’s fractional CMO, account-based marketing (ABM), and inbound services to do just that.

The challenge: driving growth beyond relationships

CCD Health focused on building strong and intentional relationships to generate opportunities for their company. However, this relationship-led strategy proved to be challenging. The team used a combination of in-person events, webinars, and mass email campaigns to drive demand.

“Our lead generation at times felt like a Jackson Pollock painting,” said Ziegenhirt. 

“Colors everywhere—we would focus on referrals to springboard our existing accounts into new ones.”

The timing was usually off, and no one was truly accountable for lead attribution or progress reporting with these initiatives. At the end of the day, each event wasn’t fully optimized to drive the most value for CCD Health and its clients. 

“We were interested to know what worked better or if things were working at all. We had an idea that they did, but it was tough to prove it,” Ziegenhirt added.

CCD Health worked internally to achieve a certain level of financial and operational stability before bringing in a marketing partner to jumpstart their growth. 

“We have a product that can outperform companies within the United States at 40% less cost to the client,” said Ziegenhirt. 

“But we were seeing maybe two to three leads a year. We had the entire team on the field ready to go, but getting companies to notice us was a major challenge. We just didn't have a coherent enough mechanism in place.”

Before Kalungi, CCD Health partnered with another marketing firm in 2017. However, they didn’t deliver the demand generation results CCD Health wanted and needed.

But when a member of CCD Health’s investment team recommended Kalungi, a new relationship began.

“Kalungi’s reputation precedes you. They said, ‘Listen, this company is really solid. They did wonders for us. I think they can create a major impact for CCD,'” Carlos said.

True north: Laser-focused lead generation with Kalungi

At the same time as Kalungi’s partnership with CCD Health began, the company brought on a new marketing leader: Massiel Popa. 

Together, Kalungi and Popa met in the middle and worked seamlessly to elevate CCD Health to the next level.

“Other marketing agencies typically comply with every demand but sacrifice execution,” Ziegenhirt explained. “Kalungi has the strength of fortitude and the character of knowledge to say, ‘Okay, we're going to get there, but not yet. We got to do this first.’ That takes courage and confidence in your abilities.

“Their team comes in with a great deal of knowledge but doesn’t make the executives feel displaced or patronized. Kalungi is always open to hearing from us as much as they teach us about the different aspects of proper content-driven lead generation. 

“That's why I think that the relationship has been so fluid so far. We didn't go from zero to 60; we went from zero to 60 to 200 miles an hour.”

After setting up the foundational marketing strategy, the teams worked together, targeting qualified leads and nurturing them through the sales funnel. CCD Health went from two to three leads a year to two to three leads a week. 

“This is unheard of in the healthcare space. We're attracting imaging companies, healthcare organizations, and private practices. It's a laser, beaming to the heart of our market. That's a different, measurable key performance indicator in itself.”

Another avenue Kalungi helped CCD Health with was B2B outreach through account-based marketing (ABM). The team introduced the concept, then launched different campaigns to drive leads. 

“I would recommend Kalungi’s ABM program 100%. Other parts of the ABM for us were superb and exceptional with a capital E. I would absolutely recommend it. Absolutely 100% it is a game-changer. It is a before and after. That's unquestionable.”

Bridging the gap with an outsourced CMO and marketing team

CCD Health also turned to Kalungi’s Fractional CMO program to guide and manage their growth strategy—especially at the beginning of their partnership, when they were laying the groundwork. 

Kalungi’s team met CCD Health where they were and built out a strategy to create a strong foundation and foster lead generation. Fractional CMOs Brian Graf and Yusuf Mahmoud guided CCD Health not as a contractor but as a partner accountable for results. 

“Never did we think that we'd have two dedicated executives in Brian and Yusuf, sending me emails every single day on three different topics,” Ziegenhirt praised. “It was an extension of our company.”

Balancing relationships and setting expectations

As the CCD Health CMOs, Brian and Yusuf were tasked with planning and executing marketing initiatives and, at the same time, managing expectations with the CCD Health team.

This partnership required a delicate balance between communication, planning, and working towards the agreed-upon results with a laser-focused approach. 

“Brian was great at managing the relationship with CCD’s leadership. That was challenging because we wanted results immediately. We got the results, but we had some work to do on the content."

A strong foundation for growth

As a part of the team, Kalungi worked with CCD Health to implement the right tools to increase lead generation and execute successful marketing campaigns. Kalungi worked on a strong HubSpot setup paired with messaging and positioning to create valuable content.  

“Kalungi taught us the value of a properly run HubSpot and how to create content-driven leads. They executed while teaching our team.

“The amount of inquisition, investigation, and just overall homework that went into Kalungi’s approach was great to see. 

“The messaging and positioning exercises are what eventually started to capture all those MQLs. Yusuf and the team were able to take that information from us and create a very specific content platform that is yielding immense results today.”

Looking to the future with Kalungi’s support

The work Kalungi has done with CCD Health has progressed naturally—with every step falling into place. Kalungi helped CCD construct a strong marketing foundation and coached them through each initiative, slowly moving to a support position.

“It's a little bit like riding a bicycle,” Ziegenhirt explained. “We took off on the bike, but you guys were behind, grabbing the wheel, running alongside us. Little by little, you started letting go. If we would tumble, you'd grab on again.”

Kalungi leveraged teamwork coupled with marketing expertise to guide CCD Health through winning demand generation strategies.

“The Kalungi team doesn’t feel like a subcontractor. The greatest value that we had by having that kind of close-knit relationship with the executives was that the work became our own. I would absolutely recommend Kalungi.”