Client Siemens Datatrak
Need Cost-effective pre-qualified sales leads for direct sales force
Methodology Cleansed database, telephone, targeted approach
Solution Outsourcing cold-calling
Results Cost per lead reduced tenfold
Background
International Call Management are a highly-focused and proactive telemarketing company based in Gloucestershire, England. They were engaged to deliver sales leads for the internationally renowned Siemens Datatrak.
Siemens Datatrak Location & Information Systems provides real-time vehicle tracking for companies running a fleet of 5 or more vehicles. Their solution enables more efficient fleet management and ensures peace of mind for payroll deliveries or heavily insured goods. Customers range from emergency services, distribution & logistics, to car rental companies.
Situation
Customer acquisition is the most important and also the most expensive part of the sales process. This product offering meets a very specific need, which does not lend itself to mass marketing techniques. The direct sales approach gets a better response than advertising, however running a direct sales force of 12 people is an expensive overhead.
Historically, the Siemens Datatrak sales force did their own prospecting which comprised 1 day a week identifying prospects, 1 day a week cold-calling and only 3 days out ‘on the road’.
As a general rule, salespeople are not fond of cold-calling, preferring to engage in one to one sales visits.
In order to maximise the investment in the direct sales force, management hired a telemarketing company to set appointments for the sales team. The first incumbents were not successful so when ICM (International Call Management) were approached, they were required to ‘hit the ground running’ in order to retain the sales team’s confidence in this approach.
Key objectives:
• Reduce the cost of sales
• Represent the Siemens Datatrak brand personified
• Thorough lead qualification delivering genuine sales opportunities
• Sales pipeline management
• Partnership on diary management
• A thorough sales briefing for each appointment
Solution
The basic concept is to keep the highly paid direct sales force out on the road doing what they do best, selling face-to-face. The ICM team are office-based and focus solely on generating appointments. In a very short time frame they have acquired skills, processes and expertise in this arena. Rather than scripted calls, International Call Management use a non-scripted, more intelligent conversational approach.
The main objective is to secure an appointment for the direct sales force and no attempt is made by telemarketers to sell the client’s product. Nevertheless, ICM need to understand the business issues, match needs and make the process work.
For business-to-business sales of this type there are few eligible companies in the UK. International Call Management used data supplied by Siemens Datatrak, which was cleaned and built by the team of outbound telemarketers. Companies were screened for the most appropriate named individual, either with budget responsibility or with a very clear need.
Prospects are qualified as to where they are in the sales cycle at the time of the call. A methodology has been introduced to ensure consistency in identifying and capturing prospects at each stage of the sales process.
Results
International Call Management has often exceeded their targets, sometimes by almost doubling them. Siemens Datatrak has been very satisfied with both the quantity and the quality of appointments generated. At times, the quality of appointment set has meant that salespeople have been able to close the deal with smaller prospects on the very first appointment.
Perhaps the reason for this success is that ICM differs from its competitors by paying staff not on the number of appointments generated, but by the quality of appointments generated. This represents true payment on results.
Return on Investment
Outsourcing cold-calling has proved to be one of the best ways to reduce the cost of sales.
Based on analysis of previous Siemens Datatrak advertising campaigns, the ICM telemarketing approach has proved to be 10 times more effective for lead generation than advertising.
The cost per allocatable lead from awareness advertising was often up to around £1000 each. By contrast, each lead generated by ICM costs about £100 - even after direct mail costs are added into the equation.
According to Alister Ross, UK Marketing Director for Siemens Datatrak, ‘ICM understood the requirement and produced a proposal. After acceptance they delivered against it extremely quickly, which is a reflection of their experience and excellent commercial understanding’.
Martin Tregoning is Managing Director for International Call Management has made this observation: ‘ICM have a proven track record of consistent quality delivery often against a previous background of failure’ He continues, ‘The sales force is the engine of a company and at ICM we just drop in the fuel to keep it running’.
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