TwelveLabs: Consolidating a Fragmented RevOps Stack into a Single GTM Engine

Overview

TwelveLabs, a leader in video understanding AI, partnered with The Kiln to take their Clay instance from a basic, underutilized setup to a centralized go-to-market engine—consolidating nearly a dozen inbound lead sources, scoring and routing leads automatically, and powering personalized outreach across multiple platforms.

What began as a need for genuine Clay expertise evolved into a broad RevOps transformation. The Kiln replaced an entire constellation of contractors with a single, trusted partner—unifying lead capture, enrichment, scoring, routing, and outbound into one coherent system, and laying the foundation for true outbound motion through TAM mapping and target account development.

The Challenge: A “Midwit” Clay Instance and a Constellation of Contractors

TwelveLabs had owned Clay for well over a year, but a lean RevOps function meant they were only scratching the surface of what the platform could do.

We were able to get a zero-to-one version of Clay—what I would call a midwit instance. We didn’t have to use other data enrichment sources for the basics, but the question became: how do we take it to the next level?  — Maninder Saini, TwelveLabs

When VP of Revenue Bobby Moore joined, he identified that TwelveLabs could be doing far more with their Clay instance. The problem was finding someone who genuinely knew the platform:

Clay has popularized the notion of GTM engineering. We needed GTM engineers. Before The Kiln, we’d pick a random RevOps consultant who’d say, ‘Oh, I know Clay, I think I can work with it’—but they didn’t really know it, and couldn’t really work with it.  — Maninder Saini, TwelveLabs

On top of the expertise gap, TwelveLabs was managing an assortment of contractors, each owning a different segment of the RevOps stack—a fragmented arrangement that created overhead and made it hard to drive cohesive outcomes.

The Kiln’s Approach: Expertise, Consolidation, and Thought Partnership

✅  1. Consolidating a Dozen Inbound Sources into One Engine

The Kiln’s biggest area of impact was unifying nearly a dozen disparate inbound lead sources into a single centralized engine where leads are enriched, scored, and routed to the right people based on assignment logic.

These sources included:

• Five or six in-product signals from the TwelveLabs Playground web app

• Trust and security intent leads sourced via Vanta

• Sales inquiry forms in HubSpot

• Marketplace data used for enrichment and outbound

• Several additional channels feeding the same unified pipeline

✅  2. Personalized Outreach Across Multiple Platforms

Beyond centralizing capture, The Kiln built personalized outreach motions across multiple platforms—running enriched and scored inbound leads through SalesLoft, with higher-volume outbound flowing through Instantly.

Rather than simply executing the first idea on the table, The Kiln pushed for the right architecture—steering toward Instantly over a more archaic, marketing-tool-based approach to deliver better results.

✅  3. Building Toward True Outbound with TAM Mapping

With the inbound engine humming, The Kiln began developing TAM mapping and target account lists—shifting TwelveLabs from purely warm, opt-in motions toward genuine net-new outbound against high-fit accounts.

The Difference: A Collaborative Thought Partner, Not an Order Taker

What set the engagement apart, in TwelveLabs’ own words, was the move from a scattered group of vendors to a single trusted partner—and the quality of that partnership.

Before working with you, we had an assortment of contractors helping with different segments of the RevOps stack. Since you guys started, we’ve been able to disengage with all of them. Instead of a constellation of people, we essentially just go to Sean now—which is awesome.  — Maninder Saini, TwelveLabs

What makes most contractors good but not great is that they’re order takers. What I appreciate about you guys is that you’re collaborative thought partners. We tell you we need X, and you say, ‘We could do X—but have you thought about Y or Z?’ You’re the functional experts, and I appreciate that.  — Maninder Saini, TwelveLabs

The Results

• Nearly a dozen fragmented inbound lead sources consolidated into a single centralized scoring and routing engine.

• An entire roster of RevOps contractors replaced by one trusted partner—dramatically simplifying vendor management.

• Personalized, multi-platform outreach launched across SalesLoft and Instantly.

• A clear path to net-new outbound established through TAM mapping and target account development.

• A Clay instance elevated from an underused “midwit” setup to a true GTM engineering backbone.

A Long-Term Partner, Not Just a Vendor

Throughout the engagement, The Kiln didn’t just take orders—they brought functional expertise, challenged assumptions constructively, and consistently steered TwelveLabs toward the more optimal solution rather than the obvious one.

I appreciate the collaborative nature of working together—to find not just a solution, or the solution we had in mind, but a much more optimal one.  — Maninder Saini, TwelveLabs