Sailing to Greater Sales; SafeHarbor Relies on PointClear to Navigate Choppy Sales Waters and Steer it Toward Higher Quality Leads

The PointClear Difference

The company that introduced SafeHarbor to PointClear was CenterBeam, a managed IT services firm that recently engaged SafeHarbor as a client. For years, CenterBeam has used PointClear to identify, qualify and nurture the best prospects before handing them over to its sales team.

When SafeHarbor found out from CenterBeam that it had been talking to a PointClear associate throughout much of the sales process, it immediately wanted to get to know PointClear. "We were amazed by how professional and knowledgeable the PointClear associate was," said SafeHarbor Vice President of Sales Dianne West. "We would never have known that he wasn't part of CenterBeam's own sales force."

Twenty minutes into her first conversation with PointClear, West knew she was hearing something very different: "The other firms we evaluated were typical appointment-setters with an emphasis on quantity, where you end up with lots of leads but few with any real value. In comparison, PointClear's value proposition appealed to us in that it provides fewer yet higher quality leads. From my perspective, if you have ten quality leads and eight of them close, you're in a much better position than when you're trying to handle 100 leads, with your staff running all over but ultimately only closing four or five."

West said that PointClear was also highly responsive throughout the evaluation process, something that wasn't always the case with the other vendors. "Right from the start, PointClear behaved in a way that showed they knew how to sell their own product and that they could apply their skill sets to our solutions, as well."

PointClear associates are highly trained professionals who work as a seamless extension of a company's sales team. They interact with prospective customers to learn their pain points, buying obstacles and timeframe. At the same time, they build rapport and communicate the solution's value, including how it can resolve the prospect's specific business needs.

Pilot Program and Results

SafeHarbor's SmartSupport® solution integrates knowledge management with Web self-service and other multi-channel support services to help reduce costs while enhancing customer satisfaction. PointClear associates were brought up to speed on the SmartSupport technology, market positioning and messaging in just a few weeks, and began reaching out to prospects in mid-October 2007 as part of a three-month pilot phase.

Initially, associates worked leads that SafeHarbor had generated from trade shows and web site registrations for free resource materials. Later, PointClear purchased lists that helped to further identify prospects in SafeHarbor's target industries – consumer electronics, communications, banking and financial services.

PointClear's live telephone interaction with prospects was augmented with other personalized touches that included voice messages and email, with the eventual goal being to qualify the best leads and move them to the next step in the sales process: a telephone call or face-to-face meeting with a SafeHarbor executive.

By the end of the pilot, PointClear had handed over 31 bona fide leads to the SafeHarbor sales team, with an additional 19 still being worked in the pipeline. Based on the lead quality, SafeHarbor anticipates closing a significant share of the identified business. "If we close even 30 percent of those leads, it could be worth several million dollars in revenue," estimated West. "That represents a tremendous return on our investment."

Additionally, one of the prospects unearthed by PointClear has the potential to be one of the largest deals in SafeHarbor's history. The prospect is currently in the due diligence phase and is meeting with other SafeHarbor customers to learn more about its services firsthand.

Ancillary Advantages

A key advantage of using PointClear's sales lead management services is the knowledge acquired by its associates. Information gleaned from conversations with prospects is shared with the client so that sales executives go into presentations with a detailed background on the opportunity, including specific challenges and needs. Further, through their interaction with PointClear associates, prospects are already engaged in the sales process prior to the first actual meeting.

SafeHarbor also relied on PointClear to help determine how well its messages were resonating with targeted audiences. For example, statements about SafeHarbor's technology and benefits were tweaked based on prospects' responses to the call guidelines being used by PointClear associates.

"The information we receive from PointClear, based on conversations taking place with prospects, has been very helpful in evaluating our sales and marketing messages," confirmed Harry Thomas, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for SafeHarbor. He also emphasized that another significant benefit is PointClear's ability to identify and navigate to the appropriate decision-makers inside the prospect organizations.

During the pilot program, it became apparent that the person providing contact information at trade shows or through web site registrations wasn't always the right person to be talking to in the company. Often, these people were mid-level managers or others who had been tasked with getting information about customer support solutions for someone else. "PointClear associates were able to start with the names we had on our list and work their way through the organization to find out who is actually responsible and get to the right contact," said Thomas.

Moving Forward

With the pilot program completed, SafeHarbor is currently in the process of expanding PointClear services into 2008. VP of Sales Dianne West advises other companies considering outsourced sales lead generation to look carefully at lead quality and not just the number of guaranteed leads a provider offers. "For many businesses, it's a big paradigm shift to move from the mindset of simply needing a lot of leads. We're meeting our goal of higher quality prospects with PointClear."