Introduction
For over 20 years the Gob2b platform has delivered world-class eCommerce websites and integrations, which help manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors succeed online.
GOb2b is a unique B2B eCommerce platform which provides seamless integration with a company's accounts system, delivering a feature-rich, highly personalised customer experience.
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Another search for success
Building on the successes under their belt, GOb2b needed to reach these potential customers and tell them an integrated ecommerce solution to their particular accounting system existed now. The senior team began to look for another partner who could help - though they were very sceptical that one could be found.
Shortlist Marketing were one of several companies that Paul Belworthy, Head of Sales and Marketing contacted to find solutions to their lead generation challenge.
Initially, Paul was looking for a list of ideal prospects for the internal sales team to reach out to, to develop their sales pipeline. Out of the organisations they contacted, Shortlist Marketing were the only company that took the time to understand the issue, market and company.
The Solution
Paul decided to undertake a data build trial with Shortlist, initially to identify users of the accounting systems they integrate with, starting with Sage and Pegasus.
“Straight away I was impressed with the Shortlist Marketing team, they were very flexible and wanted to work with us to find a solution” Paul Belworthy said
Having never found a similar list before, GOb2b were sceptical over results, so they offered Shortlist a short-term contract with the option of a longer-term relationship if they were satisfied with the results.
“It is important that we work in partnership with our clients” said Phil Richardson, MD at Shortlist Marketing. He goes on to say “We understand lead generation and what goes into making a successful campaign. We bring this experience and our skilled team to try different approaches to generate success.”
Initially, Shortlist began qualifying the contacts provided – understanding what accounts system they were on and gauging where they fell in the sales pipeline. Over 50% of contacts were deemed a perfect prospect for GOb2b, a far better success rate than they originally imagined.
HubSpot Services
As a HubSpot partner, Shortlist is always keen to introduce our clients to the leading CRM system. Fortunately, GOb2b were already admirers of the system and had been using it for an extended period. The team at Shortlist were able to improve GOb2b’s understanding of HubSpot – whose Head of Sales only used the system to monitor his sales pipeline, but knew of the marketing and reporting features it contained.
Extending the use of its HubSpot integration, Shortlist helped GOb2b increase their overview of their digital leads, by transferring all Lead Forensics' identified visitors into the CRM – giving them a centralised view of all incoming leads.
Marketing Services
GOb2b turned to Shortlist to offer support and expertise to improve their outbound activity. Focusing on an email marketing campaign, Shortlist set up monthly emails and overhauled pre-existing marketing campaigns to maximise outbound channels.
“We had the option to employ a full-time marketing resource to further build on the success we were seeing. Once again Shortlist Marketing proved invaluable as their marketing team joined the campaign helping improve our outreach, demonstrating just how much they understand and can deliver around the entirety of B2B lead generation.” Paul Belworthy
Shortlist took the time to understand GOb2b’s marketing automation, which enabled us to engage efficiently with different stages of the sales pipeline. Using HubSpot and marketing workflows, Shortlist were able to establish a key line of communication with everyone from a subscriber stage to fully-qualified sales opportunities.
As a Lead Forensics partner, we soon built automation sequences to efficiently communicate with all web visitors as a part of our MQL follow-up strategies. These cadencies alerted our sales team of any digital visitors, so they could reach out within 15 minutes of the visit taking place.
The Problems
During COVID-19, GOb2b’s inbound sales opportunities sky-rocketed, with many B2B businesses who were used to email and telephone ordering having to switch to digital sales channels. The genie was out of the bottle and many B2B businesses now needed to transact with their customers online even after lockdown. The challenge however remains that many potential customers simply don’t know that the e-commerce solution that integrates with their accounts systems out-of-the-box exists. A ‘brochure’ website or a B2C off the shelf ecommerce platform doesn’t work for them with huge volumes of stock items, complex pricing and customer accounts.
GOb2b needed to get the message to these potential customers that an integrated ecommerce solution was not only available but tried and tested too! It is crucial that the accounting system a customer uses is identified early – it’s not a simple as buying a list!
GOb2b tried repeatedly in the past to outsource lead generation but always came across the same issues. With their target audience being users of leading accounting systems, it was impossible to find the right prospects without conducting extensive research into who used each system. Because of this, a lot of their outbound activities didn’t reach the ideal audience, resulting in a huge amount of wasted resources and a lack of results.
Having tried a few partners they had never found a lead generation company that was able to find the right data, which left them wondering if it even existed.
Lead Generation
GOb2b wanted to expand their outbound sales capabilities to further grow the success of their sales department. With a relationship already in place with Shortlist Marketing, and with an understanding of the quality they provide, the decision to integrate them into the sales team was an easy one.
Shortlist’s sales team already had an experienced sales development rep with a background in SME accounts systems – meaning he was a perfect fit to work alongside the existing GOb2b sales team.
Initially, the service was extended to generate new sales opportunities from their cold database. The Shortlist team put together an integrated approach of outreach including email, LinkedIn and calling, to identify opportunities and manage them carefully until they were ready to be handed over to GOb2b. Meaning every opportunity GOb2b received was an accurately qualified sales opportunity.
MQL Follow-up
Because of the understanding Shortlist had built up, the depth of conversations they were having, and the quality of the qualified sales opportunities, GOb2b wanted to expand the partnership further to follow up all inbound Marketing Qualified Leads. Whether the lead came through their web chat, submitted form, visited the website, or interacted with any digital marketing content Shortlist made sure it was followed up within 15-minutes of the interaction taking place.
Shortlist soon became an integral part of GOb2b’s sales department, helping them close several high-profile prospects in multi-year contracts. Over the course of eighteen months of partnership, GOb2b received significant ROI as Shortlist helped them master their growing sales pipeline.
The Results
At Shortlist Marketing we know how key it is to maintain a stream of communication with all of our clients. By meeting with GOb2b on a frequent basis, Shortlist were able to build a professional but laid-back relationship. Shortlist knew what we needed to achieve for our client, but also wanted to create an enjoyable atmosphere, building a relationship outside of our contracted objectives.
Shortlist were able to help rebuild GOb2b’s pipeline by tying down several key prospects into multi-year contracts through our integrated campaign. Within eighteen -months of the campaign starting, Shortlist added over £720,000 of value back into the GOb2b sales pipeline, with a potential future value of £3,600,000 over the next 5-years.
This relationship was a big reason for securing their renewal at the end of the short-term contract, with Head of Sales and Marketing, Paul Belworthy, explaining how good his relationship is with the Shortlist staff – from the pre-sales team to the account manager and their dedicated sales and marketing resources.
GOb2b have become one of our biggest clients since starting out as a data research enquiry, and they’re 100% committed to Shortlist Marketing for the future. GOb2b will continue to abide by Shortlist Methodology and processes as they believe it’s the best way to achieve results.
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