How Aclaimant Evolved from Yellow Pages to Data-Driven GTM: A Decade of B2B Sales Evolution

Picture a startup founder flipping through the Yellow Pages, cold-calling Chicago healthcare staffing companies. Now fast forward to a sophisticated data-driven operation serving 10,000 organizations including Caesars Entertainment and Carvana. That’s the transformation of Aclaimant’s go-to-market strategy over a decade.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, David Wald, Co-Founder and President of Aclaimant, shared the evolution of their GTM approach, offering a masterclass in scaling B2B sales from scrappy beginnings to market leadership.

The Yellow Pages Era

Aclaimant’s early GTM strategy was refreshingly simple. “Our early days were really working through networks, working through referrals and even kind of going down,” David recalls. “I still remember in our office we kind of pulled out one of the yellow pages, right. And just let’s get all the healthcare companies that do staffing in Chicago and let’s go ahead and call them all and see if someone will use it.”

This brute-force approach taught them a crucial lesson about early-stage companies: “Early companies are all go to market. Product is helpful, and the product can help there. But in my opinion, you got to find a way to actually move the product, especially in this environment. If you don’t have sales, you’re dead unless you’re an AI company and you managed to convince people otherwise.”

The Market Evolution Catalyst

A series of global events dramatically expanded their potential market. As David explains: “The past five years alone. Pick your poison. COVID, supply chain, severe weather, political instability, you name it, rising amounts of people working, remote wages going up. All these things make it a lot more difficult and potentially risky to run businesses.”

This market evolution created an opportunity to serve not just enterprise clients but also “your 100 person almond farmer or your 75 person construction firm.” The expanding market necessitated a more sophisticated GTM approach.

The Transformation to Data-Driven Growth

Today, Aclaimant’s GTM strategy bears little resemblance to their Yellow Pages days. “Right now we run a very data driven inbound referral and channel strategy on our go to market that’s very driven using targeting and tech tools,” David shares. They look for specific signals indicating when companies are ready to invest in safety and risk management.

Their marketing philosophy evolved alongside their targeting strategy. Instead of pushing products, they focused on empowerment. “You can’t beat people into being safer,” David explains. “You really have to have them understand that they have a choice and they can choose to better.”

The Credibility Challenge

One constant throughout their evolution was the need to build credibility in a regulated industry. “We live in a world that is highly regulated, that is full of expert practitioners who know their stuff,” David notes. Early mistakes taught them that even small terminology errors could derail sales conversations: “You’d use the word claims or work comp and you get a sideways lesson… these are people who are managing risk, and the first thing they see with you is, oh, my God, this is risky. This guy doesn’t even know the words that I’m saying.”

Looking Forward

The evolution continues. With their recent appointment of industry veteran Kathy Burns as CEO, Aclaimant is positioning for their next phase of growth. Their vision, as David shares, is to “catalyze the next 100,000 companies that want to get into RMIS.”

This decade-long evolution from Yellow Pages to data-driven growth offers key lessons for B2B founders: start with whatever works (even if it’s manual), let market evolution guide your strategy, invest in industry credibility, and continuously sophisticate your approach as you scale. The tools and tactics may change, but the fundamental goal remains the same: finding and serving customers who need your solution.