The client specializes in developing Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Blockchain software solutions. Historically, the client had relied on personal contacts of its top management and word-of-mouth of existing customers to generate leads. Furthermore, the company concentrated on the USA market for generating leads.
Challenge:
The existing methods of lead generation employed by the client resulted in a twofold challenge – inadequate lead quality and low quality. With this background, the company wanted to set in place a formal system of lead generation to reduce its reliance on the traditional methods of lead generation.
Objectives:
- Increase the number of leads generated
- Improve the quality of leads to ensure a higher conversion rate
Strategy:
The client entrusted Concat with the assignment, which went about the lead generation exercise systematically. First, Concat decided to curate a tailor-made Email Marketing campaign, a customized Professional Social Media one-on-one reach-out plan, and industry association connections as the main sources of generating leads. Secondly, as the client was already reasonably well established in the US Market, it was decided to focus on the Indian and the Middle East regions.
Identification of Target Audience:
Client and Concat together identified its target audience using 3 parameters viz: Industry, Company Size, and hierarchy level of the prospect within the Company.
Based on prior experience of the Client across various domains, the following 6 Target Industries were identified:
- Financial Services
- Real Estate
- Project Management
- Construction
- Healthcare
- Automotive
Further, as the ticket size of the typical software projects varied from Rs 2.5 million to Rs 25 million, it was decided to focus on the mid-sized companies in terms of number of employees – too small companies shall not be able to afford the advanced technology solutions offered by the client. Too large companies already have access to more well-known and bigger IT players.
Lastly, since the decision to purchase such high-value projects would typically be taken by the top management, it was decided to concentrate only on Owners, C-level Executives (CXOs), and IT Functional Heads.
Operations:
The operations were separated into 2 teams viz. the 4-member Sourcing Team and the 2-member Qualification Team. The Sourcing Team generated leads through the tailor-made campaign of bulk emailing on the curated database using the email template jointly developed by Concat and the client, a customized LinkedIn Sales Navigator one-on-one campaign, and the Industry association connect plan. On the other hand, the Qualification Team used the BANT (Budget, Authority, Need & Timeline) framework to qualify the leads using outbound calling and emails. Once the lead was qualified, it was handed over to the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) from the Client through an online Introductory Meeting.
Though the assignment undertaken by Concat was for lead generation, Concat went one step ahead in helping the Client in conversion as well. This was done by setting up online Follow-up Meetings between the technical persons from the Client and the prospect organization. Further, Industry-specific Use Cases were developed jointly by the Client and Concat to give a flavor of the capabilities of the advanced software solutions to the prospect. Last but not least, the Qualification Team probed the prospect about pain points in the existing business operations as well as his future vision for the business, both of which could point to the need for an advanced software solution.
Results & Conclusion:
Concat has put in an effective and efficient lead generation system for the Client – both the quantity and quality of leads have improved substantially over time. The lessons learned from this case study can serve as a blueprint for other organizations seeking to revamp their lead-generation strategies to increase their revenue in a short period.