From 69% Cost Savings to Coaching Wins: How Tessell Scaled Smarter with Apollo

When Tessell raised their $60M Series B in early 2025, Phoebe Farber had her work cut out for her.

As Director of RevOps at the multi-cloud database company, she watched their sales team quadruple. But their tech stack wasn't ready for this rapid scaling. They were losing prospect data in failed syncs, while missing capabilities like meeting scheduling meant endless back-and-forth that ate into selling time.

“As a quickly scaling start-up, we were really starting to feel the gaps in our tech stack,” Phoebe explains, “We were using a basic sales engagement tool, but the integration with Salesforce was clunky, and the feature set didn’t cover all of our needs.”

Plus, with no call recording solution in place, they had no visibility into how calls were being run. With this wave of new reps joining their remote team, they urgently needed a way to develop systematic training and coaching.

One platform, multiple solutions

When evaluating solutions, Phoebe felt sticker shock at enterprise platforms and saw how piecing together point solutions would create more problems than it solved.

"To get the value we were looking for, I would need to buy multiple tools, which was daunting," Phoebe confesses.

Apollo gave Tessell everything on their wishlist in one platform, all while saving 69% compared to purchasing multiple products.

"What really stood out about Apollo was the ability to access all of this functionality within one tool and tie it back well to Salesforce," Phoebe explains. "Instead of stitching together multiple platforms, we could bring all of those capabilities together.”

With only one rollout to manage, they quickly started using Apollo throughout their entire sales process — leveraging sales engagement (with a dialer), call recording, data enrichment, and meeting scheduling.

They even moved away from Zoominfo, finding Apollo's data enrichment capabilities just as strong. The simplified tech stack meant less overhead for RevOps and fewer systems for sales to navigate.

Building a culture of continuous improvement with Apollo Conversations

Apollo's AI-powered conversation intelligence transformed how Tessell developed their sales team. Beyond just recording calls, they could now transcribe, summarize, analyze, and share conversations.

Here's how they used these capabilities to build a systematic coaching program. Without it, their rapidly growing remote team risked developing bad habits at scale — and with a technical product like Tessell's, poor discovery calls meant wasted demos and stalled pipelines.

Making every meeting count

As Tessell's new BDR team hit its stride, leadership spotted a chance to level up the qualification process. The team was booking meetings, but they saw an opportunity to improve conversion rates and reduce no-shows.

By listening to call recordings, managers found a way to improve their conversion ratios: BDRs could dig a little deeper to make sure that prime prospects were booking time on the calendar.

The team rolled out focused coaching on qualification best practices and optimize for more high-quality meetings.

"The path forward was clear. Managers began coaching BDRs on how to identify a good lead,” Phoebe recalls. “The result more meaningful conversations that actually advanced deals."

Fast-tracking sales ramp

"Onboarding has been especially critical for us because Tessell is such a technical product," explains Phoebe. "It can be tough for new reps to grasp the nuances quickly." With their rapid growth and remote environment, traditional live shadowing wasn't practical.

Instead, the team built a playlist of best-practice call recordings, curating successful examples of discovery, proof of concept discussions, product demos, and objection handling.

“That shortens ramp time and gives them confidence in having those complex conversations earlier,” says Phoebe.

The library was just a start. “It’s not enough to just hire great talent,” shared Phoebe. “We need to give them the feedback and support to be successful – especially with a complex enterprise sale.”

Managers now carve out dedicated weekly time to review calls, spotting patterns and coaching proactively. They also run regular 'tape review' sessions where reps volunteer their calls for group feedback.

"It creates a culture where coaching isn't just top-down," says Phoebe, "but something the whole team contributes to."

Enhancing cross-team collaboration

For Tessell's SE team, which had tripled in size, call recordings transformed deal collaboration. "Recorded calls have become a game-changer," Phoebe shares. "Sales Engineers can now catch up on previous conversations asynchronously so they can tap in to support the deal with ease."

Instead of having customers repeat technical requirements, SEs can review past discussions and join deals fully prepared. Call Assistant licenses let them access recordings directly, without needing full Apollo seats.

The impact extends beyond just sales and SEs. Using Conversation clips, reps can share customer feedback in their exact words with product and marketing teams, ensuring customer needs are clearly understood across the organization.

A foundation for growth

From a quadrupling sales team and fragmented tools to a streamlined GTM motion, Tessell's consolidation with Apollo goes far beyond the 69% cost savings:

• Streamlined operations: One platform for data enrichment, sales engagement, call recording, and meeting scheduling
• Faster rep ramp: Curated call library and systematic coaching program
• Better collaboration: Seamless handoffs between sales, SEs, and product teams

“It wasn’t just about choosing a tool,” Phoebe shares. “It was about simplifying our stack, empowering sales, and making sure we were investing in a platform that could scale with us.

“Apollo has become the backbone of how we support and grow our sales team.”