July 26th, 2010
We all are aware that the past couple of years have been rough for marketing departments. Just looking internally at our sales pipeline, the number of prospect accounts where our main point of contact has changed is unnerving. If a marketing professional is not truly holding themselves accountable for their deliverables, they can wind up in a very tough situation. Even so, someone on their game can end up a victim of these difficult economic times.
As a tele-sales service provider we understand accountability is a must in every situation. We also understand that sales and marketing professionals that choose to partner with our organization, must be accountable for their decision.
The executive management staff at KPI is constantly analyzing client program performance and delivery to make sure we are truly accountable to our clients. We continuously ask ourselves how can we improve? How can we make our management and delivery teams better? Are our clients recognizing true value in what we deliver? There are many pieces to this puzzle but one key area that we are currently focusing on is more effective sales lead development and nurturing.
Surprisingly, telelsales/demand generation firms seem to be slow in adopting marketing automation technology as key platform for tele-services. Although marketing automation is still evolving, it is an extremely powerful tool for executing a successful tele-sales/lead generation and nurturing program. By utilizing this system wisely, tele-services reps who are supporting a complex sales process now have the ability to understand the prospects current interests before they dial the phone or they can determine if a call is warranted. In the right scenario, an agent can easily move prospects in and out of different campaigns based on their fit, interest, activity, and lead score…all in real time.
Based on what we have seen so far, there are numerous features and functionalities within marketing automation systems that make tele-sales more powerful than ever. Our future posts we will provide details on our progress but one thing is certain, the adoption and integration of this technology allows us to continue to be accountable to our customers regardless of the market conditions.
July 26th, 2010
KPI has always been completely committed to providing the most innovative and effective teleservices campaigns. That’s why were proud to announce our recent partnership with Manticore Technology. There are several reasons why we like Manticore. They’re in Austin, just like us. They’re small but strong, knowing how to deliver great results and provide personalized service, just like us. And they have outstanding programs and products, just like us.
We think integrating marketing automation with tele-services is an industry game-changer and we found Manticore to be the ideal partner to break ground. They have insane integrated solutions that turn salesforce into an ultra-powerful means of customized contact and lead nurturing….call it a “Psychic CRM”. Thanks to Manticore, you can completely automate a decision tree that best determines how to pursue and interact with a prospect. Tele-sales agents have access to excellent up to the minute intelligence before they make the call e.g. Did the prospect visit a website? How many times? What is their true interest? What activities did they initiate? Should the agent make the call right away, tomorrow, or will an email be enough? We’re still getting our heads around the total potential, but the customization and control has incredible power. Imagine how fine-tuned messaging and offerings can get!
We’re already working Manticore capability into our solution portfolio, and plenty of clients are excited about the potential. We’ll be sure to post some quick case studies in the near future. In the meantime, be sure and check them out yourself.
July 26th, 2010
Welcome to Taking the Lead, KPI’s new blog. We think it goes great with our newly redesigned web presence. As much as we like how that presents our capabilities and services, we also wanted an outlet where we could more actively share our expertise. That’s what this blog is all about. We hope you’ll make a point to check it out with some frequency. Better yet, take a second to subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll be in the know, up to the minute.
What’s our blog all about? First, it’s a place where we can share what’s going on with KPI as a company. We’ll share client successes, shout about employee promotions and announce new clients. Just as important, however, Taking the Lead will be the place where we really try to share our industry innovation, expertise and thought leadership. It will be a place where our execs, managers and staffers offer perspective and point of view on the business of Lead Generation/Demand Generation, Lead Nurturing, Response Management, Data Services/List Building and much more.
Read Taking the Lead regularly, and you’ll be keeping up with KPI while building a better understanding of how our business works to improve your business.
July 26th, 2010
The secret to success at KPI is really no secret. Sure, at first glance, we’re demand-generation experts – but we’ve knocked ourselves out to redefine what any client should expect from the demand-generation experience. For us, it’s not just about data, follow up and follow through. The real key to success is in the relationship we build with our clients. We can only make it work when we work together. If that sounds a lot like something you’d hear from some late-night relationship expert cable talk show, well, it’s because it is.
Our job is to keep in touch with our clients. We don’t want to just slap our own KPIs on a campaign. We want to understand the client’s KPIs, which can be unique to every initiative. That means we have to do a lot of listening. We often make the initial, strategic approach – think of someone trying to make an impression in a bar – but for any conversation to continue, that person has to listen as much, after they make the introduction. Everyone knows that guy who comes on too strong and talks to much. He at best he’s annoying. At worst, he’s just creepy. We certainly don’t want to be thought of as annoying creeps by our clients or their customers!
In the weeks ahead, we’ll use this blog space to offer regular profiles of the “relationship stages” that make what we think are the most effective, healthiest professional relationships. The progression is a lot like when two people meet and hit it off. Things move from that initial involvement to setting expectations to a state of ongoing management. Throughout, there’s constant communication. Stay tuned to join us for further discussion on how we try to make this happen. Of course, we’ll be expecting you to participate. We can’t make this work by ourselves!