Intellitactics Finds Security By Ramping Up Sales-Ready Leads Via Lead Scoring

Some leads are better than others. It’s a business reality and at Intellitactics, understanding the difference between a suspect and a sales-ready lead has led to dramatic results.

Headquartered in Reston, VA, Intellitactics is a privately held enterprise security management firm. With an increased premium placed on customer data and its protection, Intellitactics combination of appliances and software products provide solutions to every organization regardless of size or purchasing power; because of this, there is a large pool of potential clients.

Early this year, Intellitactics deployed Manticore Technology demand generation solution set, including their lead scoring application. Using the solution, Intellitactics developed a system which numerically ranks leads based on their level of qualification, which may include lead attributes (industry, title, etc), purchase intent (budget, timeline, authority), and level of interest (website visits, whitepapers downloaded, search terms).

Flexibility in the lead scoring system became important for Intellitactics as it sought to expand offerings and clients in its security information and event management (SIEM) products for organizations of all sizes. It also expanded its product leadership with a line of security information management appliances, and sought to increase the number of opportunities without increasing cost.

Since implementing the Manticore demand generation platform in January 2008, Intellitactics saw an increase of 32% in new customers that could be attributed to using Manticore. The 171% increase in qualified leads accepted by the channel and entered into the active pipeline will continue to have positive impact on new business revenues. “We invested a lot of resources into creating compelling content to educate and persuade the prospect. We found in Manticore a way to stage the delivery of that content – providing just in time content at every stage of the salescycle,” explained Pam Casale, Chief Marketing Officer at Intellitactics.

In addition, the marketing team has increased leads coming from its outbound marketing campaigns. Just recently, the team sent out a whitepaper campaign and generated over 100 downloads within hours—a significant increase compared to previous campaigns. Intellitactics also hired an SEO consultant, who worked with the team to optimize Web site visits through Google ad words. As a result, the marketing team generated more Web site traffic and was able to track the activity through Manticore. Using the lead scoring component to score leads, the Web activity along with other promotions created a more complete picture of a prospect’s interest in Intellitactics and their products. The channel can focus time and energy on the leads with the highest scores and the highest probability of making a purchase near term. This enables marketing to continue to nurture early stage suspects without losing contact or using valuable salescycles. “Even our partners, tied into salesforce.com, get the benefit of Manticore lead scoring. This is a benefit to the channel that they don’t have with other vendors and gives us a definite advantage when competing for their mindshare” Michaela Dempsey, Director of Marketing at Intellitactics explained.

After implementing a lead nurturing process, Intellitactics marketing team was able to move more than 100 “inactive leads” to “sales-ready” leads within a 75-day period. Last year, 35% of leads entered the active pipeline. Currently 58% of leads on average are entering the active pipeline. Closed deals are easily traced back to campaigns initiated through the demand generation process, validating ROI on marketing spend. With more leads, lead nurturing and tracking, marketing can focus dollars on programs that work. Fewer leads grow ‘cold’ or get lost in the system. “We’re in a very competitive market, with many large companies who can easily outspend us when it comes to marketing. So we need to optimize every marketing dollar to ensure we participate and win more often. Manticore provided us with a foundation to integrate many different programs designed to guide the early stage suspect from inquiry to evaluation and selection,” Casale concluded.