Telemarketing pushes timber merchant sales through the roof!

OUR CLIENT IS ONE OF THE UK’S LEADING TIMBER MERCHANTS WITH BRANCHES ACROSS THE UK. WE HAVE WORKED WITH THEM ON MULTIPLE CAMPAIGNS FOCUSED ON CUSTOMER ACQUISITION, ENGAGEMENT, MARKET RESEARCH, LOYALTY BUILDING AND DATA CLEANSING.

WHAT THEY NEEDED

After a flurry of branch openings, our client asked us to help them increase awareness and footfall in some of its newest branches. Although brand awareness was high, our client was keen to attract more customers to one of its newly opened stores. They wanted to build a successful sales pipeline, generating immediate opportunities for the sales team to pursue. Our client also wanted to understand the buyer landscape by discovering what would attract customers to shop in their stores.

WHAT WE DID

By examining their current customer personas and their typical type of business customers, we were able to profile and segment data to encompass their ideal target market. This included looking at factors such as employee size, main business activity and drive time from the new branch sites.

Once we’d grasped the types of tradespeople our client wanted to attract, we started to segment our target database. We focussed on those most likely to be receptive to the offering, generating immediate opportunities for the branch to work on live projects.

We developed a multi-channel approach to marketing, using both telemarketing and email marketing to reach prospects and nurture businesses along the sales pipeline.

When prospects had no relevant live projects on the go, we endeavoured to figure out their potential upcoming projects and typical buying patterns. This enabled us to build medium and long-term prospect pipelines. This valuable market intelligence provided the in-branch team with an up-to-date contact list that the marketing team used for a targeted email campaign. Where there was sufficient interest, we also encouraged visitors to open a store account so that they could begin to access targeted incentives and offers.

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

Our first campaign targeted one new branch to pilot our marketing approach and strategies. We uncovered 306 traders who wanted branch information, creating a strong sales pipeline to follow up. Of these leads, we identified 30 hot leads who requested a quote for a live project or requested to open an account with our client. The hot leads were passed over to the branch in real time meaning no opportunities were lost.

These instant quotes not only generated interest in our client but allowed the sales team to be utilised from the offset, meaning no resource was wasted.

Our client was so impressed with the success of the pilot campaign that he used our lead generation and market research service for all new branch openings. They also employed our services to boost productivity in the lowest performing branches.