Callbox - Successful Partnership with IT Giant

THE CLIENT

The Client is a progressive internet and information technology company whose aim is to provide customers with the best range of products at the most competitive price. They offer domain name registration, web hosting, computer hardware, web design, computer networks and many more products to a large and diverse client base. They have clients from Global Fortune 50 companies to home users each getting the product and support they need to run their businesses. The Client also offers telecom services and SEO (search engine optimization). Their general offices are based in Dublin, Ireland.

For this marketing project, the Client targeted companies in the market for an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to integrate all data and processes of the organization into a unified system. 

The Client engaged the services of Callbox for the duration of 10 months (February to December 2006).

THE CHALLENGES

The Client needed research on companies that had either current or future plans of ERP implementation. ERP system implementation is a complex process. Evaluation of the current company system and the actual tuning or upgrading takes a significant amount of time and depends on the size of the business, the scope of the change and willingness of the customer to take ownership of the project. A small project (e.g., a company of less than 100 staff) may be planned and delivered within 3 months; however, a large, multi-site or multi-country implementation may take years.  Due to the complexity involved in the implementation, ERP is, without a doubt, expensive. 

While the benefits it provides to a particular business, especially large scale ones, spark interest in improving or changing their current system, it is the length of time involved that often discourages companies from proceeding with ERP implementation, and this is the most common reason for the Client's lost sales.

The Client therefore needed their current as well as prospect companies to understand that despite the fact that it is costly and involves a certain length of time, the benefits and advantages from the system will do much for their business in the medium and long term. With Callbox, the Client needed to generate and maintain the loyalty of existing customers but more importantly, find new ones.

The Client needed to identify companies that needed any of the following:

1.  upgrading
2.  systems performance tuning
3.  entire change of current software system

SOLUTION / METHOD

Callbox's team went to work:

1.  Profiled prospects for Client's software services, specifically ERP

Significant business intelligence was gathered via phone research. After discussing the goals of the campaign and obtaining a list of prospects or existing clients, this list was surveyed using questions developed jointly by the Client and Callbox's experienced researchers. Responses were then analyzed and presented along with the raw data.

2.  Implemented a lead generation program, including:

		Cold calling companies that needed upgrading, systems performance tuning or entire system overhaul
		Callbox agents adeptly setting phone or office appointments with C-Level executives, accounting managers, IT managers, and controllers assuring Client of a steady stream of business opportunities.
		Providing Client with PipelineCRM©, a private online customer relationship management calendar including lead tracking and sales pipeline

RESULTS

For the 10-month duration of the campaign, the Callbox team generated a total of 456 leads for the Client.

The Client expressed satisfaction with Callbox by deciding to continue the campaigns after a one quarter break to digest their full pipeline.