July 15, 2025
In this episode of the Transform Sales Podcast: Sales Software Review Series, Tony Dicks and Alex Nisenzon discussed how sales teams and agencies targeting DTC brands can use Charm IO to solve the problem of inadequate market insights. They talked about how Charm IO helps teams identify fast-growing ecommerce brands by tracking ad spend, social media growth, and key sales signals, making it easier to prioritize outreach and win new business.
When it comes to inadequate market insights, what alternatives were your customers most often using before buying your software?
Sales teams and agencies typically relied on these alternatives:
- Manual Prospecting with LinkedIn and Google: Many teams used spreadsheets, Google searches, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator to manually find and track DTC brand data. This required hours of research and rarely provided up-to-date insights.
- Generic Lead Databases: Tools like ZoomInfo or Apollo offer wide lead lists but lack ecommerce-specific signals like ad spend patterns, social growth, or Shopify presence, leading to poorly qualified prospects.
- In-House Research or VA Teams: Some agencies hired virtual assistants or internal teams to gather and qualify DTC brand data. However, this approach was inconsistent and difficult to scale.
What challenges were your customers running into that Charm IO helped them overcome?
Sales and agency teams faced several major challenges:
- Time-Consuming Research
Manually researching ecommerce brands and gathering social, ad, or revenue data took hours per lead. This slowed down outreach and reduced pipeline volume.
- Low Data Confidence
Without reliable tools for ecommerce-specific metrics like monthly ad spend or social growth, teams lacked the confidence to prioritize leads. Outreach often went to brands that weren’t ready to buy.
- Inconsistent Qualification Criteria
Different reps or teams used different signals (like Instagram follower count or website design) to decide who to prospect. This lack of standardized data made it hard to scale outbound programs.
What are the key features of Charm IO that help overcome those challenges?
How Charm IO Overcomes Time-Consuming Research
- Situation: Sales teams need to quickly build high-quality lead lists of DTC brands with real buying potential.
- Problem: Manual research through multiple platforms is slow and doesn’t surface key signals like ad activity or growth.
- Solution: Charm IO aggregates over 160,000 DTC brands into one searchable platform. Filters like tech stack (Shopify, Klaviyo), estimated ad spend, and Instagram growth help users instantly prioritize fast-growing ecommerce leads. It saves hours per week and unlocks more pipeline.
How Charm IO Overcomes Low Data Confidence
- Situation: Reps need accurate, real-time signals that indicate whether a DTC brand is actively investing in growth.
- Problem: Most tools don’t track ecommerce-specific signals like social momentum, website updates, or new tech installations.
- Solution: Charm IO tracks key metrics like estimated ad spend (based on Facebook API + ad frequency), Shopify installs, and daily social growth. This gives reps clear, consistent signals to act on. They know who’s scaling and can tailor outreach accordingly.
How Charm IO Overcomes Inconsistent Qualification Criteria
- Situation: Sales leaders want their teams working from a shared set of data and rules for qualifying leads.
- Problem: Without a common platform or lead scoring system, reps use subjective criteria, leading to mixed results.
- Solution: Charm IO provides structured filters and shared lead lists that standardize what qualifies as a good lead. Everyone works from the same playbook, improving consistency, training, and results.
What tasks, deliverables, and/or people need to be involved in setting up your software and how long does it typically take to reach full productivity?
Setting up Charm IO is fast and simple:
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Account Creation & Access Setup: Creating a user account and gaining access to the platform takes less than 5 minutes.
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Sales Team Training: A 30-minute walkthrough is often enough to get reps started with filtering, list building, and exporting leads to their CRM or outbound tools.
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CRM or Tool Integration: Teams can export directly to CSV or sync with platforms like Apollo or Clay for workflow integration. No developers needed.
Most teams reach full productivity within 1–2 days of setup. Charm IO requires no technical implementation and scales easily across SDR teams, agency sales teams, or even executive prospecting.
Typical cost is around $4,000 to $8,000 per year, depending on user count and data volume. There are no implementation fees or long contracts.
What KPI’s should sales teams and agencies use to evaluate their success with your software and what quantifiable outcomes can they expect?
Teams using Charm IO can track the following KPIs to measure impact:
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Time Spent on Research: Teams typically reduce manual research time by 70–90%, freeing up hours each week for outreach.
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Lead Conversion Rate: Improved targeting from Charm IO’s signals increases lead-to-meeting conversion rates by 25–40%.
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Outbound Volume per Rep: With more efficient list building, teams report a 2x increase in weekly outbound activity per rep.
Expected outcomes include more meetings with qualified DTC brands, a faster sales cycle, and higher pipeline quality with less effort.
Conclusion
Charm IO gives sales teams and agencies targeting ecommerce brands a powerful way to replace manual research with clear, real-time insights. By tracking ad spend, tech stack, social momentum, and brand signals, Charm IO removes the guesswork from prospecting. Teams get more done with less work and target the right brands at the right time.
Explore Charm IO and other DTC lead generation tools in the CloudTask Marketplace to improve your outbound strategy and close more deals with the fastest-growing ecommerce brands.