Client Profile
Signal-Tech, headquartered in Erie, PA, is a manufacturer and distributor of LED signs and signals for the banking, parking, and transportation industries.
Business Situation
Signal-Tech offers an extensive signage product line, which should provide multiple purchase opportunities for its customers. However, Signal-Tech found that customers were only placing one-time purchase orders and were seldom contacted after their initial order about other signage sales opportunities.
For Signal-Tech to accomplish its goal of re-engaging these clients within the banking industry, Signal-Tech was interested in finding a structured sales and marketing process method that included the ability to extract market intelligence on purchasing behaviors and ensure increased sales opportunities and more consistent product orders.
They also needed to refine prospect lists to reach the appropriate signage purchasing contact and develop new marketing materials with strong messaging regarding Signal-Tech’s value proposition. Lastly, Signal-Tech required a process to qualify and convert opportunities to increase sales rep productivity by allowing them to focus on only the most qualified relationships for closure. Signal-Tech lacked the internal resources and processes to accomplish this initiative, so they began to look at potential outsourced options.
Getting Started
Signal-Tech partnered with Athena SWC, a business improvement consulting firm, to leverage Athena’s synchronized Relationship Acquisition and Management Process (RAMP), outsourced marketing support infrastructure, and web-based technology tools, which tracked and monitored return on investment metrics. Signal-Tech chose Athena as their business development partner, based on referrals from other local manufacturers in the Erie, PA community and Athena’s knowledge and experience in working within similar manufacturing sales environments.
Executing RAMP
Athena created a program that focused on increasing market awareness and extracting intelligence from past customers within the banking industry. Signal-Tech wanted to determine why customers first engaged as well as provide education regarding their extensive signage offerings to create more opportunities for multiple product sales.
To complete this task successfully, Athena extensively cleaned an aged prospect list to obtain validated contact information specific to decision makers and centers of influence responsible for signage purchases.
Next, Athena developed the necessary tools to extract specific marketing intelligence regarding awareness of Signal-Tech and understanding purchasing behaviors. To increase education regarding Signal-Tech’s product line, Athena generated multiple industry case studies leveraged with the outbound marketing process and offered a non-invasive sales method to connect with individual prospects to re-introduce Signal-Tech’s new product line through educational webcasts.
Ultimately, this approach provided qualified relationships with a way to learn more about Signal-Tech and left them eager to learn more about the new signage product offerings.
Additionally, Athena worked with the Signal-Tech sales team to develop an extensive sales call execution script, which provided the ability to extract viable market intelligence from prospects regarding purchasing needs. As a result, Signal-Tech had the necessary resources to target the correct market and expand into new markets that they didn’t know existed.
Quickly Seeing Results
Within three months of the program’s inception, Signal-Tech’s pipeline quickly refilled with past client relationships and manufacturing sales representatives were back in the field and closing additional product sales opportunities.
Athena’s holistic business development, marketing, and sales support process allowed Signal-Tech to accomplish its goals of re-engaging with past relationships, creating long-term opportunities, and increasing awareness for its extensive product line.
The experience with Athena’s process provided Signal-Tech’s highly trained sales staff with the appropriate tools to remain focused on the active selling process and closing relationships to grow and service the existing client base.
Increased Sales Rep Productivityby providing front end sales infrastructure that continuously fed and supported the sales pipeline with qualified opportunities
Increased Awareness in the Marketplacefor Signal-Tech’s value proposition by targeting prospects through multiple marketing mediums and prospect touch points
Extracted Market Intelligencespecific to purchasing needs of decision makers and key influencers
