Client Profile
Western New York based contract manufacturer of Class I and II Medical device products.
Business Situation
In order to address the demand of current customer needs, Athena’s client opened a contract manufacturing assembly plant in Reynosa, Mexico. The contract manufacturers services provide a significant cost savings as it pertains to the manufacturing and assembly of product which reduces overall cost without impacting product quality.
They had a need for additional medical device customers to drive new account sales and maximize the plant’s profitability. The client did not possess the internal infrastructure or capabilities to approach a highly defined target market with an aggressive, large scale, sales-focused marketing program.
Given the complex nature of their sales cycles and the need to target C-Level executives, this manufacturer was looking for a process model that could tactically strike quickly, educate a niche market segment regarding their value-added offer and extract market intelligence to understand demand and needs within medical device outsourcing. The process also needed to provide the capability to qualify and convert active opportunities with an overall goal to compress sales cycle time.
Relationship Acquisition and Management
The contract manufacturer partnered with Athena SWC, a business improvement consulting firm, to leverage Athena’s synchronized Relationship Acquisition and Management Process (RAMP), marketing support services, and web-based technology tools. They selected Athena because their process had been successful within similar contract manufacturing environments and had a history of delivering quantifiable sales results quickly.
Athena worked with the client to design a campaign targeted at Class I and II Medical Device Manufacturers within North America. Athena developed a highly targeted, custom built list of specific decision maker and key influencer contact information that was further defined according to buyer product specifications that matched the company’s service offering. Athena’s synchronous touch process (direct mail, email, web marketing, inside sales follow up) ensured each prospect received multiple and continuous touches throughout the campaign effort, building awareness and education regarding the customer’s offer.
The Process That Brings Results
The client utilized Athena’s holistic outsourced business development, marketing and sales support offering to continue building relationships and creating awareness for the company’s contract manufacturing services for Class I and II medical devices. Athena’s team managed the opportunities until they were ready to engage in active sales cycles.
The comprehensive process included:
- Relationship Centric Touch Program – to increase awareness and education within the marketplace through a monthly e-newsletter program
- Nurture Marketing Program – to build relationships with future interest prospects and convert them into the first step of active sales cycles
- Sales Lead Pipeline Management Services – to provide expertise, resources and software tools to track, manage and support sales opportunities from lead conversion to acquisition of new relationships
The process enabled the client’s highly trained staff to focus on closing new business and servicing existing clients, significantly increasing sales rep productivity.
Closed $750,000in new business in the first 6 months
Compressed sales cycleto 5 months from 12-18 months
Quickly built brand recognitionand brought education to the medical device market
Extracted market intelligencerelative to decision makers and key influencers
As part of the campaign program, Athena created and utilized both direct mail and email messaging aimed at the decision makers and key influencers that focused on each target’s specific industry needs and business pains. On the first day of the campaign, and prior to the start of Athena’s call execution process, a targeted prospect who received the direct mail piece contacted Athena expressing an interest in evaluating alternative manufacturing environments. The prospect was experiencing uncertainty in their current manufacturing environment and was quickly scheduled for an educational web conference (the first step in the clients sales process), by Athena’s highly trained inside sales staff. Within three months of the campaign kickoff, the customer received multiple RFQ’s and over the next six months closed new business with an annualized value of $750,000.