Enkata Technologies
Build a sales pipeline
Enkata is the leader in Root-Cause Analysis software for contact centers in the communications, insurance and financial services industries. Enkata's application systematically discovers and reveals the hidden reasons for customer contacts so managers of complex contact centers can improve customer service by reducing call volume, allowing focus on the highest priority contacts while lowering operating costs. At the time of Enkata’s sales launch, their target market was reasonably well defined but they lacked a prospecting database that matched their target market and executive-level audience. In addition, Enkata needed a way to shorten time to revenue and increase the productivity of its new field sales team.
To that end, Brock Alston, Enkata’s VP of Sales, chose a two-pronged strategy to meet his revenue goal for the year. He assigned his field sales team to a small number of target accounts with the highest potential of having an immediate need for the Enkata solution. At the same time, he brought in Phone Works to build the pipeline for the next phase of growth while standardizing the processes for lead generation and qualification. Said Brock, “I considered other consultants to help plan and execute my sales development strategy, but Phone Works had the most experience and best track record in this area of expertise by far.”
Define a process
After meeting with key players and gaining an understanding of the product and market, the Phone Works team created a pilot calling program to prove the concept of a sales development process. They started by developing call guides (“scripts”) with marketing messages specific to each prospect’s industry and job title. They also implemented and refined the sales automation and sales tools needed for phone-based sales reps, populated the sales database with contacts from targeted lists, created and tracked metrics including lead conversion rates.
After the Phone Works consultants tested these processes and tools by getting on the phone themselves and generating leads, they were able to turn over a well-defined program to the reps they helped Enkata screen and hire. “Phone Works, understanding our needs well, was respectful of budget and time constraints and proposed that Enkata execute a sales development pilot before investing in a full-time group of employees,” said Alston, “They executed a pilot which generated immediate results while creating the sale development infrastructure I would need to build on in the future. I was particularly impressed with the level of detail involved with the process definition that Phone Works brought to the project. ”
Performance Against Lead Quota: 136%
In less than a quarter, forty-five new leads were added to the pipeline while more than half that number have signed up to meet (online) with an Enkata salesperson. Furthermore, Phone Works increased the number of industry-qualified but not-yet-contacted prospects in Enkata’s database by 350% while increasing the number of contacts that heard Enkata’s message by web and phone ten-fold. Alston concluded, “Our investment in Phone Works was more than paid back in qualified leads that have made their way onto our sales forecast this quarter.”
