Gong > Case Studies > Ascending the Peak: How Gong Helped New Hires at Iron Mountain Hit Their Ramp Targets

Ascending the Peak: How Gong Helped New Hires at Iron Mountain Hit Their Ramp Targets

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

Gong

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Employee Satisfaction

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Remote Collaboration

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

Iron Mountain is a Boston-based enterprise information management firm. Founded in 1951, the company has over 225,000 customers and more than 24,000 employees. Like many organizations, Iron Mountain had to pivot to a fully remote work environment due to the pandemic. This posed several challenges, including onboarding new reps, managing people remotely, and keeping teams aligned. They also needed to understand what was happening in sales calls and which actions to take based on their conversational data. The company has a culture that focuses on continuous development and upskilling, and establishing a culture of coaching is a critical aspect of this approach.

The Challenge

Iron Mountain, a Boston-based enterprise information management firm, had to adjust to a fully remote work environment due to the pandemic. This sudden shift posed several challenges, including onboarding new reps, managing people remotely, and keeping teams aligned. They also needed to understand what was happening in sales calls and which actions to take based on their conversational data. Before implementing Gong, Iron Mountain’s new reps participated in “physical ride-alongs,” sitting beside a seasoned rep, headphones on. In a working-from-home world, this wasn’t possible. Additionally, trying to find the right call to listen to had always been a hit or miss exercise. As a result, they couldn’t target specific behaviors, and that was something they wanted to correct.

The Solution

Gong provided Iron Mountain with the visibility and call insights it was missing. With Gong’s Call Library, new reps now access the calls they need to hear — the “best-in-show” calls they should emulate across the sales process. They can also listen to calls that match their speaking style. This gives them an excellent opportunity to engage with more skilled sellers. Gong also helped the reps improve their skills and recognize when good things happened. The numbers spoke for themselves, and once reps saw those positive metrics (i.e., sales increasing), they got fired up about Gong. Gong also helped Iron Mountain's teams become better aligned. As Christine shared, “Sales and Marketing have always had a good working relationship; however, now that Marketing (and other teams) are also able to provide feedback on Gong calls, the entire organization is better aligned.

Operational Impact

Iron Mountain was able to coach and develop their people, despite most of their teams working from home.
New sales reps began hitting their quota during ramp phase.
Tenured reps who had been struggling, started to have more consistent success thanks to Gong and call coaching.
With Gong, calls became more of a strategic consultation instead of a straight sale. Reps started solving customers’ problems rather than suggesting a specific product.
The team overall started “getting better together,” as Christine put it. “Today, during team huddles, managers often share one call and the team evaluates the good and the bad. This helps all the reps in the room learn and it brings them closer together.”

Quantitative Benefit

60% of Iron Mountain’s new reps hit their two main metrics (double club) within their first five months, versus only 9% of reps pre-Gong, a 566% improvement.
They also shaved off 3 months of time for new reps to hit their first metric.