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DataCaptive » Case Study » Case Study: Restructuring The Sales Cycle Of A Heavy Machinery Company

Case Study: Restructuring The Sales Cycle Of A Heavy Machinery Company

sales cycyle
steps

Company Overview

Industinc is a 20 year old California based heavy machines company manufacturing goods like tractors, tillers, blowers and cooling towers suited for farming, mechanical, petroleum, mining and other industries.

 

Since their inception, they have maintained their place among the top-heavy Machinery industries list; thanks to their continuous innovation efforts that have kept the stability of the company intact despite several adversities which affected the majority of other companies.

 

The real issue began to seep into the effective system after the economic recession that hit the US economy in 2007. The company which survived that tumultuous period was starting to show cracks, ineffective sales cycles, and overburdened sales representatives didn’t exactly help the cause. The only solution was to put the sales back on track and lift the burden off the sales representatives’ shoulders.

Major Challenges:

Unsteady sales

They had an unsteady sales flow for the past 5 years, and the top management was concerned that efficient inroads weren’t made in reaching the long-term sales and business objectives.

 

They had been seeking the most effective and prompt solution, and various services were put forth by a variety of companies. However, the top management at Industinc decided to work with DataCaptive because of the practicality of the strategies presented and how differently we viewed the issue as compared to others.

 

We at DataCaptive brainstormed with our Business strategists to come up with the best cause solution that comprised of practical and feasible sales strategy and an introduction to Online Marketing Campaigns to complement their offline marketing efforts as well.

Poor Project Maintenance:

Inefficient practices in current project maintenance and new project onboarding led to a lot of delays in the product being manufactured and shipped to the customer. The company had to bear the brunt of the clients because of this practice. However, in spite of the delay they had enough inventory but finding new qualified leads for sales wasn’t enough.

 

Delays in product delivery took a hit on the reputation of the company and to add fuel to the fire, the products that were manufactured rapidly to shorten the fulfillment of the requirements were poor in quality, and the base cost of the product overshot the initial expectations.

Poor Reputation Management:

Bad reputation and poor delivery rates put the company at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue and profit.

 

After an exhaustive study into the competitors’ project management techniques, we concluded that tight deadlines put an end to make necessary adjustments and update the project as per the times. There could be some subtle changes that can be brought in to increase the optimal delivery of the product within the specified time.

Market Fluctuations:

The study conducted by our i.e., DataCaptive’s Business strategists also revealed that because the orders placed by the clients were in millions of dollars in value, the market fluctuations played a significant role in the sales progress. During the economic recession the demands were at an all-time low, and since then the company has failed to reach the heights it was originally destined for.

Alternatives

marketing sales database

The company, in the beginning, did not want to use the Marketing & Sales database we provided as they figured that the Sales lead generation would become too dependent on it and thus lose the initiative of doing quality work and the quality of Sales leads and the ROI from them will drop over time.

 

The Lead Generation team put in their efforts in collecting and collating the data for Sales, but they had no means to authenticate the information within the data and were forced to adopt the “Spray and Pray” strategy and this put the company in a more dire situation than earlier as not only were its sales receding but so was the company’s reputation that they had carefully molded over a period of more than forty years of existence.

Although the company’s databases were full, their revenue coffers had cobwebs in them because of unsteady sales and less frequent flow of revenue. The Lead Generation and Sales specialists despite their best efforts were not able to increase the efficiency of the sales cycle, and the company started to slip into mediocrity with these happenings.

 

Industinc then realized that they were depending too much on the lead generation team instead of providing the right tools to help them work effectively alongside the Sales team.

 

They also came to know that just having a lead generation wouldn’t be enough to drive positive revenue upside, but a curated Marketing & Sales list along with the lead generation and the sales team was the effective formula to step out of the problems they were in currently.

We took the opportunity to create varied databases of distributors, buyers and of prospects who wanted to rent out the products. Our Data Experts worked around the clock and covered every nook and corner of the internet, events, exhibitions, and trade shows to find the relevant contacts and Prospects who would be perfect for Industinc.

 

Now with the curated sales leads, the sales team had gotten a shot in the arm, it allowed them to function effectively and concentrate more on activities that bring revenue to their Business.

Proposed solution

lead generation expert

Our advice to Industinc was to recruit a few lead generation experts who would identify who would be the point of contact between them and us. The lead gen team helped us identify the relevant targets for the business and our data experts took the responsibility to provide the required curated Sales lists to the lead generation team.

Industinc was mainly following an offline marketing system which used to bring in the revenue till that channel and system started drying up. We suggested that the company adopt an EMAIL MARKETING policy and create content relevant to the needs of the end user.

 

We also suggested that during the process of conducting the Email Marketing Campaign, they should nurture and prod the clients till they earned their trust and later pitch about their products.

We also advised them to put the prospects into 3 buckets namely:

  • Hot
  • Warm
  • Cold
hot lead

Hot Leads/ Prospects:

The hot prospects regularly interacted with the brand, opened their emails and clicked on the CTA’s present. These people had generally brought products from the company beforehand and would want to continue being associated with the company and in the future would want to buy more products from them.

Warm Leads/Prospects:

Warm prospects are the ones that occasionally interact with the emails and the brand in general. They have limited interest in the products and only very rarely respond positively to any marketing campaigns targeted towards them. These clients should be further nurtured with Personalized Content and offers that will make them sway towards your brand/product.

Cold Leads/Prospects:

Cold prospects are the ones which were gotten through the original process of collecting the data. These people are the ones who aren’t relevant to your business and are wrongly targeted. Your emails wouldn’t mean much to them and would only end up going unread or deleted. But not all of these cold leads are useless, they need to be prodded and nurtured enough, and they just might make the jump from cold to a hot prospect.

Recommendations

build online email lists

We encouraged Industinc to not look at the dilemmas they faced in the past, but rather look towards the future where more focus needs to be placed on successfully moving from the offline marketing medium to Email Marketing, and that the products need to be more customer-centric. The company should also avoid a myopic approach and always have a larger outlook when formulating strategies and when solving problems that arise in the business.

 

Companies that consider factors such as technology leadership and adhering more towards the customer’s needs are the ones that will receive the most attention and will immensely contribute in filling up the previously empty revenue coffers of the business.

 

Effective partnerships should be maintained with companies having similar long-term goals. The sales should be given more impetus and the necessary tools to simplify their processes, which only add to the increased Efficiency Of The Sales Cycle

 

We also suggested that in the future they can form a complete digital strategy that targets various social media platforms and other forms of generating online traffic which will make them relevant again in today’s market and allows to catch up on the ground that they slipped on since their sales began stagnating.

 

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