When office numbers stop working and you’re a phone seller
Antoine Garcia is a Digital Account Manager at Ippon Technologies, a Paris-based IT consultancy founded in 2002. With 201-500 employees, Ippon provides technical consultancy and development services across web services, UX, JavaScript, cloud, and information systems.
Antoine’s responsibilities split between two pipeline channels:
Outbound prospecting → Find and qualify new opportunities
Inbound qualification → Push marketing leads through the funnel
His targets: CTOs at gaming companies and startups. Technical decision-makers who evaluate consultancy partners and approve development projects.
When COVID hit, Antoine’s prospecting infrastructure broke. Office numbers stopped working. Prospects working from home meant switchboards went unanswered. Direct lines to CTOs disappeared overnight.
Email didn’t solve the problem. Antoine describes himself as “not really an email kind of guy.” He picks up the phone. He calls prospects. That’s how he sells.
But without working phone numbers, that approach stopped functioning.
“Ever since the start of COVID-19, Antoine had a problem. He needed to reach prospects who were no longer working from the office, rendering office numbers useless.”
A colleague recommended Lusha. Antoine signed up. Started using it seconds later. Immediate access to direct dials for CTOs.
Data accuracy: 70-80%.
Pipeline status after 4 months: “Stuffed with quality leads.” Including the CTO of one of France’s largest media companies.
I use Lusha because of the data quality and the ease of use. It’s just so easy for me to use.
Now 24 Ippon employees use Lusha. Viral adoption from one colleague recommendation.
Asked to describe Lusha in one word: “Accurate.”
Because when office numbers stop working and you’re a phone-first seller, direct mobile access to CTOs isn’t optional. It’s the only way to prospect.
When COVID broke prospecting infrastructure
Pre-COVID prospecting: call office numbers, reach decision-makers, qualify on the phone, book meetings.
Post-COVID reality: office numbers ring to empty buildings. Prospects working from home don’t answer company switchboards. Direct lines that worked for years suddenly connect to nothing.
Antoine needed to reach CTOs at gaming companies and startups. Technical decision-makers evaluating consultancy partners. People who approve six-to-twelve month development projects.
Antoine realized he needed a direct line of communication to his prospect, and that solution was Lusha.
The problem wasn’t finding companies. It wasn’t identifying the right CTO. It was getting them on the phone.
Office directories became useless overnight. Reception desks sat empty. Direct extensions forwarded to voicemail that never got checked.
For account managers who sell through phone conversations—not email campaigns or LinkedIn messages—that infrastructure failure meant prospecting stopped working entirely.
Not an email kind of guy
Some sellers thrive on email sequences. Craft messaging. Track open rates. Optimize subject lines. Measure reply rates.
Antoine doesn’t work that way.
I’m not really an email kind of guy. I’m really the kind of person to just pick up the phone and call my prospect. And, those accurate phone numbers is really where Lusha shines.
Phone-first selling requires different infrastructure. You need:
Working phone numbers that actually reach decision-makers
Direct mobile access when office lines fail
High accuracy rates so calls don’t waste time on wrong numbers
Email campaigns can tolerate 40% accuracy. Send to 100 contacts, reach 40 inboxes, convert 2-3 replies.
Phone prospecting can’t function at 40% accuracy. Ten calls with six wrong numbers means wasted time dialing dead ends. The economics don’t work.
70-80% accuracy changes the math:
Ten calls → Seven-eight working numbers → Actual conversations with CTOs
That accuracy rate enables phone-first prospecting. Without it, the approach breaks down entirely.
The colleague recommendation
Antoine discovered Lusha through internal referral.
“After receiving a recommendation from a colleague, Antoine decided to jump right in, and starting using Lusha – which he was able to do only seconds after signing up.”
Colleague recommendations carry weight. When someone you work with says “this tool solves the phone number problem,” you test it.
Antoine signed up. Seconds later: using it.
Now, thanks to Lusha, I can directly reach prospects, thanks to the accurate contact details I receive.
That immediate access matters for sales tools. No lengthy implementation. No complex onboarding. No IT approval cycles.
Sign up → Start prospecting.
The simplicity enabled rapid adoption. Not just for Antoine. 24 Ippon employees now use Lusha.
That’s viral adoption from one colleague recommendation. When a tool works, people tell teammates. When teammates see it working, they adopt it too.
From one user to 24 users through organic internal spread. That’s validation that can’t be manufactured.
User experience that doesn’t get in the way
Antoine tested competitors before Lusha. Some worked. Most frustrated.
Lusha’s user experience is second-to-none. I’ve used a few competitors in the past that were so cumbersome to work with. With Lusha, it’s so easy to understand. I mean, your prospect’s contact details are just a click away.
“Cumbersome” describes tools that make simple tasks complicated. Multiple clicks. Confusing navigation. Features buried in menus. Workflows that require consulting documentation.
“Just a click away” describes infrastructure that doesn’t fight you. See the profile. Click the button. Get the contact information. Make the call.
That UX simplicity matters for account managers juggling multiple responsibilities. Antoine handles:
Outbound prospecting → Find new CTOs at target companies
Inbound qualification → Push marketing leads through qualification
Revenue creation → Close deals and hit quota
With that workload, tools that require training or add complexity don’t survive.
Lusha’s adoption by 24 Ippon employees validates the UX advantage. When people across an organization choose the same tool independently, ease of use is usually the reason.
CTOs at gaming companies and startups
Ippon Technologies provides technical consultancy and development services. Their clients need:
Technical expertise in web services, UX, JavaScript, cloud
Development capacity for custom projects
Consultancy to design and implement solutions
The decision-makers: CTOs at gaming companies and startups.
Antoine finds the most value from accurate, direct dials for his ideal target customers – chiefly Chief Technical Officers (CTOs) of gaming companies and startups.
CTOs at startups operate differently than enterprise buyers. Smaller organizations. Faster decisions. Direct access matters more.
Gaming companies have technical requirements that match Ippon’s specialization. Web services. UX design. Development expertise.
But reaching gaming CTOs and startup technical leaders requires accurate direct contact information. These aren’t people sitting at office desks answering company phone lines.
Especially post-COVID. Especially in France’s startup ecosystem where remote work became standard.
Antoine’s 70-80% accuracy for CTO contacts enables him to:
Target precisely → Gaming companies and startups
Connect directly → Mobile numbers that reach decision-makers
Qualify quickly → Phone conversations instead of email chains
That targeting precision combined with contact accuracy creates pipeline Antoine describes as “stuffed with quality leads.”
Four months, 6-12 month sales cycles
Antoine started using Lusha four months before this case study. Ippon’s sales cycles run 6-12 months.
That timing matters. Technical consultancy and development projects aren’t impulse purchases. They require:
Technical evaluation of Ippon’s capabilities
Budget approval for multi-month engagements
Contracting for development work
Project scoping before starting
Six-to-twelve month cycles mean four months of prospecting sits early in the pipeline. Deals haven’t closed yet. But lead quality indicators show results.
Antoine’s pipeline is stuffed with quality leads, including the CTO of one of the largest media companies in France.
“Stuffed with quality leads” describes quantity and quality simultaneously. Not just volume. Not just big names. Both together.
The CTO of one of France’s largest media companies represents significant deal potential. Large media companies need:
Technical expertise at scale
Development capacity for complex projects
Consultancy for system design and implementation
That’s exactly what Ippon provides.
The leads generated with Lusha are absolutely solid, and can definitely bring in a lot of work.
“A lot of work” means revenue. Multi-month engagements. Projects that justify Ippon’s 201-500 employee organization.
Antoine’s measured against revenue created with Lusha. Four months in, with 6-12 month sales cycles, pipeline quality indicates future closes are coming.
French market data quality
Ippon Technologies operates from Paris. Antoine prospects in France. His targets: gaming companies and startups in the French market.
Data quality varies significantly by geography. Many global contact data platforms optimize for US coverage. European data—especially French market—often comes secondary.
Antoine’s 70-80% accuracy for French CTOs at gaming companies and startups suggests strong French market coverage.
That regional data strength matters when your entire target market operates in one country. US-optimized platforms don’t help French account managers reach French CTOs.
The viral adoption pattern—24 Ippon employees using Lusha—validates French market effectiveness. If the data didn’t work for French prospecting, internal adoption wouldn’t spread.
When colleagues recommend tools, it’s because those tools work for the specific market they operate in.
From one user to 24 users
Antoine discovered Lusha through colleague recommendation. Now 24 Ippon employees use it.
That viral adoption pattern reveals tool effectiveness:
One colleague recommends → Antoine tests it
Antoine sees results → Other colleagues notice
Results spread through example → More teammates adopt
24 employees using → Organic internal validation
No company-wide mandate. No top-down deployment. No IT-driven rollout.
People choose it because they see it working.
That adoption pattern can’t be forced. Tools that require executive mandates to achieve usage don’t spread virally. Tools that make individual contributors more effective spread through demonstrated results.
After receiving a recommendation from a colleague, Antoine decided to jump right in, and starting using Lusha – which he was able to do only seconds after signing up.
Sign up in seconds. Start prospecting immediately. Share results with teammates. Watch adoption spread.
That’s how infrastructure becomes standard across teams. Not through mandates. Through demonstrated value.
When “accurate” means working phone numbers
Asked to describe Lusha in one word, Antoine chose: “Accurate.”
For phone-first sellers, accuracy means:
Working numbers that actually connect
Mobile access to decision-makers
Direct lines instead of switchboards
70-80% hit rates that make calling productive
Email sellers can tolerate lower accuracy. Send 100 emails with 40% good addresses, get some replies, convert a few deals.
Phone sellers need different economics. Wrong numbers waste time. Disconnected lines kill momentum. Switchboard gatekeepers block access.
70-80% accuracy means seven or eight working numbers out of ten attempts. That ratio makes phone prospecting productive instead of frustrating.
Accurate data + simple UX + French market coverage = infrastructure that works for Paris-based account managers prospecting CTOs at gaming companies and startups.
Antoine’s pipeline: “Stuffed with quality leads.” Including the CTO of one of France’s largest media companies.
Colleagues saw those results. 24 Ippon employees adopted Lusha. Viral spread from demonstrated effectiveness.
That’s what “accurate” means in practice. Not abstract data quality scores. Working phone numbers that create conversations with decision-makers who can buy.
When COVID broke prospecting infrastructure by making office numbers useless, and you’re a phone-first seller who needs direct access to CTOs at gaming companies and startups, accurate mobile numbers aren’t a feature. They’re the entire prospecting foundation.
Colleague recommended Lusha. Antoine signed up and started prospecting in seconds. 70-80% accuracy for CTO contacts. User experience described as “second-to-none” compared to “cumbersome” competitors. Four months later: pipeline stuffed with quality leads. 24 Ippon employees using Lusha.
Because when office numbers stop working, “accurate” means having direct mobile access to the CTOs who make buying decisions.
