Marketing Consulting Case Study
Bill Warner Saturday, January 05, 2008
Establishing Effective Lead Generation Programs
Situation: A well established company that provides software and hardware products that help major manufacturing services company manage inventory of parts, assemblies and finished goods was not achieving its sales objectives. The CEO was the primary sales person whose sales performance had drawn nearly to a halt because his rolodex was exhausted. Nobody in the company had done any marketing work to identify new sales prospects and he did not really know how to do it. His company was stuck at $3M in revenue and most of it was from recurring license fees and maintenance services.
Engagement: The Company brought in Paladin to help with his sales stagnation problem. As Paladin learned, the sales process was actually pretty good, but the company had nearly no new leads to go after. They had an effective sales presentation and ROI model to support it. The demo was convincing as well. But, they had no lead generation programs.
Paladin worked with the CEO to determine the details about what a qualified customer is and the relevant market segments in which to find buyers. Lists of potential buyers were created from industry available sources and prioritized based on potential customer profile. An effective telemarketing program was funded that took the first step in lead qualification. With a new source of qualified leads, the CEO proceeded with the sales process that he knew well. An additional sales person was brought into the company that was coupled with a regional sales expansion initiative that was supported by the new marketing programs.
Additional marketing programs were put in place for relevant trade show attendance and participation. Advertising was also funded for certain trade publications that were popular with potential buyers. Their website was optimized for search engine keywords. Follow-up programs to up-sell current customers were also put in place that would yield repeat business.
Results: Within four months of putting the new lead generation programs in place, the company’s sales began to improve. Within a year, they had achieved 20% growth and are well on their way to 50% growth in the second year. They now have four regional sales people driving new business and continuing to cultivate their installed base.
Summary: Sometimes it simply takes some basic marketing blocking and tackling to remove the lead generation roadblocks that many companies often encounter after they have exhausted all the low hanging sales fruit. It’s a matter of driving the necessary marketing and sales productivity, based on a thorough understanding of buyer preferences and the required marketing and sales cycle.
Filed Under:
Bill Warner is the Managing Partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the Chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.
