The challenge

A multinational utility company was looking for a new strategic partner to increase the quality and quantity of sales leads that it received from its sales development partner. While the sales partner was delivering qualified leads from large enterprises, the overall volume of leads and meeting show rate were insufficient. The company needed an experienced partner with the right technology, best practices, and analytical approach to fill its sales pipeline with quality, top-of-the-funnel leads.

Our solution

The TTEC sales experts’ first move was to analyze the root causes inhibiting productivity and efficiency in the lead generation process, as well as factors affecting the show rate.

Our analysis revealed a number of issues:

• Sales development representatives (SDRs) booked sales qualified meetings (SQMs) with only one type of prospect persona while neglecting other personas
• The sales representatives were blindly selecting accounts from a database that they thought would be the best to target without data-driven insights
• Sales reps were struggling to manage their daily activities
• Sales managers had a manual process in place to monitor the sales reps’ activities

Utilizing our Inside Sales Playbook (a database of more than 400 inside sales best practices) and our powerful suite of digital analytics tools, we collaborated with the client in a pilot program to develop solutions that were effective and efficient.

We applied our expertise in predictive analytics, fit modelling, and marketing analytics to build a statistically based propensity model to target prospects who were more likely to be interested in a SQM and more likely to turn into customers. We also provided the SDRs with additional training and more relevant marketing collateral to better support all types of persona outreach.

Additionally, we deployed new outreach tactics to drive more opportunities with qualified accounts. For example, our agents leveraged Google Alerts to monitor the web for relevant company press releases, such as press releases that include a company’s sustainability goals. From there, an agent would reach out with information about the client’s products for optimizing energy consumption and related solutions.

And to help the sales reps and managers work more efficiently, we built a dashboard that included daily activity metrics and a task list for reps that gave managers a better understanding of how many accounts were being touched daily.

The results

TTEC’s analytical expertise and skill in driving leads quickly showed results. By utilizing the propensity model, 30% of new SQMs came from a population that was not being targeted for outreach prior to TTEC coming on board. And from that population, an additional $468K in opportunities were booked in the first 6 months of using the model.

We also delivered a 75% increase in the share of SQMs booked with other personas and the total volume of SQMs grew 30%, in addition to reaching a 100% show rate (up from 60%).

Our enhancements to the outreach strategy increased the monthly lead output by 130%. And by implementing the new dashboard, the sales reps increased their average outreach activity per day by 19%. Based on TTEC’s phenomenal success, the client extended the pilot program and we’re actively reviewing new sales motions to manage.