Fast Track Winner: ADX

Specializing in supply chain integration and e-commerce management, a key service Advanced Data Exchange (ADX) provides to its clients is Business Integration services. Therefore, the company’s management team realized having an integrated approach to sales & marketing would be critical— as it prepared to launch a new service designed to open up EDI to millions of buyers and suppliers still relying on faxes and the post office for supply chain management.

For the introduction of its CommerceMail service in late October 2008, ADX decided to deploy the Genius platform for real-time marketing and sales analytics and the results have been fast and dramatic—enabling ADX to capture 60 qualified leads for their new service in the first 90 days.

“When we implemented Genius, we made the commitment to working together as a team, keeping checks and balances on each other, and jumping in to help each other when necessary,” says Heather Steele, senior marketing specialist at ADX.

ADX utilized the MarketingGenius product to send out a series of four automated and personalized emails to prospects.  Depending on their response (if they asked to see a demo), the ADX sales team received an instant alert via the Genius Tracker. As part of the alert, the sales reps also received immediate insight into their interest and could then immediately reach out to the prospect.

“Genius has had a huge impact on the sales and marketing efforts at ADX. In addition to ramping up our email marketing efforts, it has allowed us to make the impact of a very large sales organization with only a small sales group,” Steele says. “The tool is very efficient and makes the most out of sales’ time.  It also allows to quickly measure ROI and campaign effectiveness on various different lead sources and marketing efforts, which in turn allows us to makes more informed decisions with regards to marketing strategy.”

The company has integrated the Genius tools with its Salesforce CRM platform, which has also furthered the organization’s alignment to track and measure results within the funnel. “We use our integration with Salesforce CRM to set and monitor our common goals, which is makes a significant difference in how closely we all stick to those goals,” Steele adds. “We’ve found that transparency is absolutely mandatory to stay accountable and realistic about our common and individual goals. At any time, any one of us can check in on others and offer encouragement or help when goals aren’t being reached.”  

Peter Grace, vice president of sales at ADX also notes the big impact of Genius. “It has allowed us to systemize our email marketing efforts and develop a very efficient and cost effective lead generation program. Although we have a small sales team, this tool makes the most out of our prospecting time and has generated a strong pipeline.”

In addition to Genius and Salesforce, ADX has recently utilized the VistorTrack application from NetFactor to capture information on web visitors. Steele says VisitorTrack and Genius both help to quickly identify a lead’s exact needs and interests and approach them with the most appropriate solution, which greatly reduces the sales cycle and increases win rates for new deals.

Ultimately, Steele attributes much of the success of the CommerceMail rollout to the sales and marketing automation tools they deployed and she anticipates it will have a long-term impact on their corporate approach. “In the past our sales and marketing teams did not work closely together. As a result plans, schedules, campaigns, and goals were rarely in line,” says Steele. “The launch of our new service, CommerceMail, definitely helped establish a common goal for sales and marketing. We were all able to rally around the new service, get excited about it, and work together to spread the word and sell CommerceMail.”  

Grace notes the impact resulting from better collaboration with sales & marketing. “When we implemented Genius it gave both teams instant visibility into what messages were resonating with customers and what messages need to be modified,” he says. “Through this collaboration we have become much better at reaching our target audience and creating meaningful dialogues.”