Organic sales growth can be a challenge for companies that don’t have the resources required to hunt for new opportunities. With Athena’s help, Tyoga was able to turn that around.
Tyoga Container, located in Tioga, PA, is a manufacturer of custom corrugated, packaging, bulk bags, transit protection, and pallet solutions. The company’s target markets include food, beverage, chemical, pharmaceutical, and non-durable goods manufacturers.
Like many companies, Tyoga Container had a sales team that was excellent at servicing existing customers and finding new customers near their existing base customers. However, when it came to exploring new markets or breaking through the corporate structure to reach the decision maker in some companies, they struggled. Tyoga needed a solution for organic sales growth that would allow it to expand its customer base and break into new markets, regardless of location or company size.
Tyoga had an aggressive growth plan and invested in technology and plant expansion to help fulfill its sales initiatives. But then pandemic hit, creating even greater challenges with reaching sales goals. Tyoga knew it needed help.
The company tried using a call center but had poor results. Tyoga President Charlie Frysinger learned of Athena SWC from another corrugated packaging company, Jamestown Container, which is a long-time client of Athena. Charlie, Randy and Chris Morral, executive vice president, decided after speaking with Athena’s CEO, Todd Zielinski, that Athena took a different approach, and it was worth giving them a shot.
Having a great list is half the battle when it comes to lead generation. For Tyoga, making sure it was targeting only companies that were a great fit was an important component of its success. Athena has a research team that will build and clean lists to meet a company’s specific criteria as part of its program.
“One of the things that Todd really stressed was list, list, list – to really go through and pare down the list to make sure you have good opportunities for calls. We took that to heart when we engaged with Athena,” said Randy. “We had limited success with our previous company because they took a shotgun list approach, basically taking all manufacturers whether they were fit or not and just calling everyone. We’ve done far better this go-round, and I think it really is indicative of the list development.”
List development is one small part of Athena’s holistic front-end sales process. The process incorporates multiple marketing touchpoints (calls, emails, etc.) at planned intervals and inbound marketing strategies. The teams have monthly and quarterly calls to review data and implement process improvements if needed. Pipedrive™ CRM is used to track and monitor opportunities as they move through the pipeline, and calls with prospects are recorded for client review. The program includes additional support such as pre- and post-tradeshow assistance and sales coordination.
“Athena uses a methodical approach. Something that we needed was the structure that Athena provides,” said Randy. “One of the things I really like is the access to Pipedrive and being able to see the notes and get the call recordings. I listen to them before I make my call to the customer, and it really allows me to use what they said in the initial call to target right to the customer’s pain point. It’s been really successful for me.”
Tyoga’s program also included inbound marketing strategies, such as social media, blog posts, and website visitor tracking. Athena also offers a chatbot through Pipedrive that can be added to your website to help visitors find what they are looking for or sign up for an email newsletter.
“Before Athena, we did not have a social media presence. Now we do. We also put the lead capture on the website,” said Charlie. “There are other things besides lead generation that round out the full program and help Tyoga look polished. “That is really important because companies are definitely doing research online.”
“I would agree with that statement as well,” Randy added. “And honestly, even the monthly newsletters that people sign up for – all of that just it professionalizes the appearance of Tyoga to our customer base.”
“One other thing worth mentioning is we had a few leads where Athena was successful getting in contact with a prospect, but then the lead went cold. We were able to redirect them back to Athena get new life breathed into them and then move on with those. So the fact that there’s a continuous follow up all the way to close or until full disposition of that lead, has been very helpful as well.
“From a sales resources standpoint, we have a team of people working for Tyoga on a regular basis,” said Randy. “Athena brings value in that sense. We’ve now got a marketing team, we’ve got outbound sales, we’ve got web optimization tools, and on all fronts, it helped us fill gaps that would have required a lot more hires internally rather than outsourcing to Athena.”
Tyoga with the help of Athena’s team and process model was able to create a highly successful program that is driving organic growth.
Athena has been working with Tyoga for less than a year. Since that time, it has closed seven new accounts, resulting in over $1 million in annual spend . The company currently has an active pipeline with the potential for more than $2.5 million in annual sales .
