OFFLINE x ONLINE MARKETING reaps faster results!

This case study is about a product manufacturing company with a moderate annual turnover. The company has 3 regional sales officers and 1 marketing manager in the sales & marketing team. I was consulting the firm for digital marketing efforts.

To compete in the market, last year, the company management spent money and resources in building strong marketing collaterals, product demonstration videos, photographs, presentations, etc., The company overcame its traditional mindset and entered the digital marketing world. First and foremost they started with a website, SEO – AdWords, and uploaded their products on Indiamart and TradeIndia portals.

A series of brainstorming sessions resulted in formulating a central repository for the available collaterals so that the sales team can access them on the fly. We segregated these collaterals in different folders depending on their use at various stages of the sales funnel.

A new process for handling marketing enquiries was drafted – whenever there is an enquiry through digital marketing efforts, the marketing executive would enter the same in the company’s CRM as “DM enquiry” and also started adding source for the enquiry. Then for its authenticity check, he would search online for the enquired customer’s website and other online presence. If all things are in place, he then would qualify the lead as MARKETING QUALIFIED LEAD – M Q L. He then would send the first set of collaterals from his repository, which was named CONNECT series. It included a company brochure and a particular product brochure. SOP mentioned that he should also keep a regional sales executive in the loop.

Then, M Q L will be shared with the regional sales executive with the enquired customer’s contact details. A regional sales executive would call the customer for understanding the product application, urgency of need, and would gauge the competitive or commercial angle to it. If the salesperson is of the opinion that this is a serious lead then he will qualify M Q L as a SALES QUALIFIED LEAD – S Q L. For each product, we created a second set of collaterals by the name INFORM series. As these were readily available on a common repository, it helped the salesperson to send these collaterals to customers.

After sending collaterals from INFORM series, after some time sales officer calls the customer for checking two things,

(a) whether he/she received all the information and

(b) to get an appointment.

During the meeting, the sales executive would present the collaterals from the PRESENT series. He/She will lead the discussions, negotiations and persuade the customer for the order. Post discussions, during follow-ups sales executive, would use collaterals from the LEAD series.

Recently the firm experienced closing the long journey of enquiry to deal in just within 10 hours!

• At 7.15 AM: While travelling, Rajkumar, a customer from Chandigarh sends a product enquiry through his mobile. Rajkumar enters his company name, contact coordinates along with the enquiry.
• At 7.45 AM: En-route office the marketing executive saw this enquiry on his mobile. He checked the client’s website and qualifies it as M Q L and sends it to the northern sales executive.
• At 8.20 AM: The marketing executive sends the collaterals (Corporate brochure and product brochure) from CONNECT series and marks a copy to the regional sales executive. He also updates the enquiry in CRM.
• At 9.15 AM: After receiving MQL, the regional sales executive calls Rajkumar for understanding the product application. After understanding the requirement directly coming from the production head of the company, he qualifies the lead as SQL with a higher product urgency.
• At 9.40 AM: The regional sales executive sends collaterals (Product demo, Test certificates, Installation list) from INFORM series along with commercials.
• At 10.15 AM: The regional sales executive calls Rajkumar to check whether he received all the information. He also requests a personal meeting. Rajkumar was elated to receive all the necessary information in such a fast and quick response.
• At 2.30 PM: The regional sales executive meets Rajkumar and discusses the product application and feasibility. He also shows collaterals (application video, case study) from the PRESENT series. They also negotiate on commercials, delivery period and service terms.
• At 4.30 PM: Rajkumar is convinced about the product and is very happy about the fast response. He confirms the order over an email and also sends an appreciation testimonial!