SafeHarbor Hooks Big Prospects By Outsourcing Lead Management Ops
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- Published in DemandGen Reports
Managing a large volume of leads can be challenging for a small sales team, even with a great CRM tool. For the team at SafeHarbor Technology Corporation, a Satsop, WA-based support solutions company, its efforts are focused on qualified leads. SafeHarbor’s marketing efforts generated a high quantity of leads, but the company still had to contact and qualify further, which was difficult due to the small size of the sales team, with six sales/account management team members.
SafeHarbor designs and deploys online support environments that transform and optimize customer support interactions for companies of all sizes and industries, like American Airlines, IBM, Cingular, and Washington Mutual.
The solutions are designed to integrate knowledge management with Web self-service and multi-channel support services, enabling companies to increase self-service rates and reduce interaction costs while continuously improving the customer experience.
SafeHarbor decided to use an outsourced sales lead management firm to assist in identifying, qualifying, and nurturing sales prospects before turning them over to its sales team—and uncovered a prospect which is shaping up to be one of the largest deals in SafeHarbor’s history.
Smart Support
SafeHarbor partnered with Norcross, GA-based sales leads management company PointClear, LLC for a three-month pilot phase. PointClear associates were brought up to speed on SafeHarbor’s SmartSupport technology, market positioning, and messaging in just a few weeks, and began reaching out to prospects in mid-October 2007.
Initially, associates worked leads that SafeHarbor had generated from trade shows and web site registrations for free resource materials. Later, PointClear purchased lists that helped to further identify prospects in SafeHarbor’s target industries—consumer electronics, communications, banking, and financial services.
PointClear’s live telephone interactions with prospects was amplified with other personalized touches like voice messages and email, with the eventual goal of qualifying the best leads and move them to the next step in the sales process: a phone call or face-to-face meeting with a SafeHarbor executive.
At the pilot’s end, PointClear handed over 31 bona fide leads to the SafeHarbor sales team, with an additional 19 still being worked in the pipeline. Based on the lead quality, SafeHarbor anticipates closing a significant share of the identified business. “If we close even 30 percent of those leads, it could be worth several million dollars in revenue,” estimated Dianne West, vice president of sales for SafeHarbor. “That represents a tremendous return on our investment.”
One of the prospects discovered by PointClear has potential to be one of the largest deals in SafeHarbor’s history, and is currently in the due diligence phase and meeting with other SafeHarbor customer to learn more about its services firsthand.