Iron Mountain is a global leader in information management and storage services, serving enterprise clients with complex, long sales cycles. By 2024, the company faced intensifying competition and a growing volume of sales leads. Traditional tactics were no longer sufficient to engage every prospect.
Iron Mountain sought a more scalable, always-on approach to nurture leads and prevent potential customers from falling through the cracks in its marketing and sales funnel. An AI-powered chatbot was identified as a solution to enhance lead engagement and conversion, aligning with Iron Mountain’s goal of driving B2B revenue growth through innovation.
Challenge
Iron Mountain’s marketing team was generating plenty of interest and leads, but many of these leads were not being fully worked by sales. Two key challenges emerged: (1) a large pool of dormant leads that sales reps hadn’t followed up on, and (2) leads being handed off to sales too early, before they were truly qualified. With enterprise deals often taking 6–8 months or more to close, sales teams were reluctant to pursue leads that were not near a purchase decision. As a result, early-stage prospects and event-generated leads often went cold. The COVID-19 pandemic had further extended the number of touchpoints needed to convert a lead, exacerbating the strain on the sales team’s capacity. For Iron Mountain’s B2B marketing team, the imperative was clear: find a way to re-engage stale leads and nurture new inquiries until they were sales-ready, without overburdening the sales force.
Solution
Iron Mountain deployed a conversational AI chatbot (Conversica’s Revenue Digital Assistant) within its marketing and sales funnel to automate lead nurturing and qualification. The chatbot – given a human persona internally – was integrated with Iron Mountain’s CRM (Salesforce) and marketing automation platform (Oracle Eloqua) for a seamless workflow. Whenever a prospect showed interest (for example, by attending a webinar or downloading content), the AI assistant would automatically initiate a personalised conversation via email or web chat. Its role was to ask questions, provide information, and gauge the prospect’s readiness, effectively qualifying leads 24/7 without human intervention.
Initially, Iron Mountain used the AI assistant to reactivate dormant leads and follow up with event contacts, warming them up with tailored messaging. Prospects who engaged and signalled buying intent (such as requesting a sales meeting or specific information) were flagged as “hot” and immediately routed to the sales team for human follow-up. Those who were not ready to buy were kept in an automated nurture cycle – the assistant continued to check in or they were put back into an Eloqua email nurture stream until their interest resurfaced. This always-on engagement loop ensured that leads were continually educated and monitored. Notably, the AI chatbot could respond to inquiries even outside business hours, meaning no lead went unattended, even on nights, weekends, or holidays. By integrating the chatbot deeply into their funnel, Iron Mountain created a closed-loop system: the bot would catch and cultivate early-stage leads, pass sales-ready opportunities to reps, and recycle the rest for ongoing nurturing.
Results
The integration of the AI chatbot led to significant improvements in lead conversion and efficiency. Iron Mountain achieved a 49.5% lead-to-MQL conversion rate, translating to over 2,500 marketing-qualified leads from about 5,000 prospects engaged. In terms of business impact, this conversational AI initiative delivered a 17.2× return on investment (ROI). Approximately 18.5% of all leads engaged by the chatbot were qualified as sales-ready through automated conversations – a substantial lift in funnel conversion efficiency. Moreover, the speed of lead qualification improved: on average, it took just 12.6 days for a lead to progress from initial engagement to a conversation-qualified status, shortening the nurture cycle dramatically.
Crucially, the always-on nature of the AI assistant captured opportunities that might have been missed by human-only follow-up. In one instance, a prospect who had gone quiet re-engaged with the chatbot on a holiday weekend – the AI continued the dialogue, answered the prospect’s questions, and flagged them as a hot lead. By the time the sales rep returned, the lead was primed; within a week, that interaction turned into a £400k+ deal. This example highlighted how 24/7 AI engagement directly contributed to revenue. Overall, Iron Mountain saw its sales pipeline grow in both volume and quality. The sales team could focus their time on vetted, high-intent leads, while the chatbot nurtured the rest. By 2024, Iron Mountain not only boosted lead conversion rates but also reinforced its competitive position in the B2B market through a modern, efficient funnel.
Key takeaways for B2B marketers
Always-on lead engagement
An AI chatbot can engage prospects round-the-clock, ensuring no inquiry is ever missed. This 24/7 availability is especially valuable in B2B where global or off-hour prospects might visit your site – in Iron Mountain’s case, the chatbot’s always-on presence helped secure deals that would have otherwise been delayed or lost.
Nurture before you hand off
Use AI to fill the gap between marketing and sales. Iron Mountain learned that sending leads to sales too early led to drop-off. Instead, the chatbot qualifies and nurtures leads until they reach a defined readiness (e.g. within 90 days of purchase or explicit interest). This keeps the pipeline primed with warmer leads and prevents sales reps from wasting time on cold prospects.
Integration into the funnel
For maximum impact, integrate the chatbot with your CRM and marketing automation. This creates a smooth journey from first touch to close – as seen with Iron Mountain linking the AI assistant to Salesforce and Eloqua for automated routing and recycling of leads. Integration ensures the chatbot’s insights (e.g. lead interest level, responses) inform your broader marketing-sales process and that no lead is lost between systems.
Scalability and efficiency
An AI chatbot can handle high volumes of leads simultaneously, something human teams struggle with. Iron Mountain’s small marketing team re-engaged thousands of leads using their AI assistant, achieving a 17× ROI largely because the technology scaled outreach efficiently. This frees up humans to focus on high-value interactions and complex sales tasks, improving overall productivity.
Improved conversion rates
When implemented thoughtfully, chatbots can meaningfully improve conversion metrics. Iron Mountain’s case saw nearly 50% of engaged leads convert to MQLs, and a rapid acceleration of lead qualification time. B2B marketers across industries can draw on this example to set expectations for conversion lift – often double-digit percentage improvements – by adding conversational AI to their funnel.
Continuous engagement for long sales cycles
In B2B contexts with extended sales cycles, consistent follow-up is critical. The chatbot acted as a tireless follow-up agent, periodically checking in with dormant contacts and reactivating them when interest resurged. The lesson: lead nurturing should be an ongoing, automated process. Even if a prospect isn’t ready to buy now, an AI assistant can keep the relationship warm until they are, dramatically increasing the likelihood of eventual conversion.
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