CONSISTENT sales growth
Reversing A Downward Trend
With Targeted Inside Sales
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Story
A large powder coating company had very low customer retention of their smaller buyers. On average, about 20% of those smaller buyers were returning customers and 80% percent were new customers. This ratio resulted in a three-year trend of decline and a 27% drop in sales revenue.
The powder coating company’s main hurdle was how to let the outside sales force do what they did best while still expanding market share. These salespeople were paid on commission, so they didn’t always pay close attention to the smaller existing customers. This is a common sales issue that we encounter at The Alias Group. Productive sales staff pursue new, large customers while the smaller ones get ignored.
With consumables like powder coatings, stealing market share is relatively easy. Smaller customers often buy from whoever paid attention to them recently. It was obvious to us that our powder coating client was failing on outbound inside sales and not being proactive enough with smaller customers.
The sales staff did not use a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) of any kind and didn’t track or collect essential customer data such as email addresses, market share, or industries served. The company contracted The Alias Group to focus on smaller buyers, improve customer experiences, and boost retention numbers across the board.
STRATEGY
The Alias Group jumped into the project with its signature, proactive outsourced inside sales and customer service strategy. It was a strategy the powder company’s outside sales staff would have loved to execute—with small and large customers alike—if they had the time. For us, “proactive sales” means using all available resources and tools, frequently and consistently, to satisfy customers’ needs, learn who they are, and determine the best ways to reach them.
The project started by segmenting 5,400 small customers by industry, revenue, size, purchase volume, vendors, and other criteria to get to know these customers better. Our outsourced inside sales staff collected valuable information about each company’s buying habits and business relationships while building personal rapport over the phone. All this was backed by top-of-mind drip email marketing campaigns to increase customer touches in a cost-effective manner.
Customizing Salesforce™ CRM to the specific needs of our client kept track of our sales efforts in detail. Our outsourced inside sales team built the CRM database and used it religiously, logging all call activity and referencing key data before each call. In addition, the Salesforce reporting and dashboards informed decisions about how to strategically segment and approach these customers through sales and marketing strategies. All this diligence led to steadily increasing market shares and retention rates.
The outsourced inside sales model Alias has perfected ramps up quickly and our sales staff become product experts in short order. Our dedication to the process and to the most effective tools finds hidden gems of opportunity when industries expand, or markets shift.
SUCCESS
With proactive calling and strategic email campaigns, our outsourced inside sales team was able to segment the customer base, find out relevant information for messaging and sales strategy, and implement that strategy directly. In a matter of months, The Alias Group reversed the negative sales trend and spurred a rise in customer satisfaction and retention.
The Alias Group’s talent for integrating Sales and Marketing rebuilt this company’s reputation across the industry and re-established their success in the powder coating category.