Challenges
Businesses of GDL’s size usually have a limited audience due to their location-based service offering. Knowing the small region Belkins could work within, the team had to find a way to work within their total addressable market.
- Business locality. When offering B2B cleaning assistance, you must be quick to arrive at the location, provide a superior level of service (due to the saturated industry), and be prompt to fulfill spontaneous cleaning requests. Furthermore, signing the contract requires a preliminary assessment of the upcoming work. Therefore, face-to-face meetings are necessary. This meant serving companies from all over the USA is impossible for such businesses as GDL. This left Belkins with a relatively small pool of potential contacts and lead generation opportunities.
- The absence of quality leads base. Prior to partnering with Belkins, GDL’s most popular channel of client acquisition was through word of mouth. As a free and effective promotion method, that had worked for GDL - up to a certain point. However, to get their business to the next level, GDL Building Maintenance needed to hire assistance. In addition, GDL did not possess a defined base of prospects, so Belkins prepared a research document to help them uncover the correct ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This is all a part of our proficient lead generation process.
- Extended ICP. It’s important to recognize almost every working establishment will need a cleaning service. Which left us with wide opportunities (the only limitations at this point were geography and sticking to the business sector only). However, without a clearly defined ICP, we were left with a huge pool of contacts with no idea who the decision maker was. Initially, we had a bit of a complicated process to clear out in order to create a really effective lead generation campaign.
What we did
Over the past 10 months Belkins has rearranged our strategy and worked with GDL as they required personalized attention at every step of their growth plan. Below is the outline to our approach and how we changed as needed to get the very best results.
Outlined ICP
As mentioned, the client operates strictly in California. So the only instruction for the ICP was to stick to California counties. In addition, GDL Building Maintenance would need to visit these destinations personally for assessments.
In the end, we had an impressive list of 5,200 local companies, office complexes, and landlords.
Developed templates with referral messages
A very blurred lead base made it a bit complicated to define the decision-makers in the businesses we targeted. So, a classic but proven referral approach was the obvious choice in designing our email templates. What exactly does that entail?
Here’s a brief example of the opening line:
An excellent way to grab a recipient’s attention and encourage them to respond from the start. But as it goes with campaigns involving many moving parts, we were forced to rearrange the approach. Initially, we invited prospects to a video call because it would save time on trips and encourage a quick and convenient meeting. Unfortunately, when your potential customer owns a facility that requires a deep assessment, there’s no way to move forward on a contract without a face-to-face appointment.
Adjusted our proposition
In janitorial B2B services, you need to check the premises square and discuss all the required work details. So we flipped our proposition to offer in-person meetings and schedule them in a convenient way.
Going the extra mile
Belkins doesn't just provide leads. Our mission is always to ‘seal the deal’ for our clients. Regardless of the appointment formats, our team of professional appointment setters, SDR’s and Account Managers do their best to connect the client with its prospects. Through A/B testing of different copy approaches and messages, we were able to create some traction and set GDL up for a handful of successful F2F sales appointments.
Once the appointments were confirmed, we had to figure out how the point of contact from GDL Building Maintenance would travel directly to prospects’ facilities in a timely manner, while coordinating all communication logistics. Considering the geography of California, traffic, timing, and unpredictable variable, we had to do our best to ensure everything would be planned flawlessly.
What did this include?
- Each meeting detail was double-checked: contact person, address, phone number, date, etc.
- Due to COVID restrictions, the client had to clarify whether it was still OK to have an appointment the day before.
- The client was very busy and required well-organized data about the upcoming appointments.
- Different time zones became a challenge for our communication process, so we had to structure a thorough standard operating procedure to succeed
Setting the re-engagement campaign
Because of the project's peculiarities, the region of lead research could not be extended with the sway of a magic wand. Working with GDL’s on its best strategy forward, we’ve decided to slow down and focus on the re-engagement campaign for the current pipeline. This tactful strategy has led to an increased number of qualified B2B leads and successful sales. The results are speaking for themselves; winning more appointments amongst the re-engaged leads. Finally, let’s cover the outcome of our overview.
Results
Within 10 months of working together, (GDL is an on-going client) we’ve retrieved more than the expected results; booking 50 meetings and a minimum of 5 total closed deals to date.
- 5,200 cold leads to GDL Building Maintenance's pipeline;
- Average 58% open rate and 10% reply rate;
- 50 F2F meetings with potential customers. They are now averaging 5 new clients a month. Appointments are still flooding in through the re-engagement period, as some prospects take their tie to convert.
- During this period, we successfully closed 5 new deals for GDL Building Maintenance.
Our partnership is still successfully progressing and we’re expecting massive returns in the near future.
Key takeaways
- Stay alert. No matter the appointment format best suited for a client, your team must be focused and have an eye for detail. There are dozens of addresses, names, positions, terms, deadlines, and other features that need to be closely monitored to succeed. Should a hiccup arise, we take full responsibility. Double, and triple-check every figure in a client’s schedule.
- F2F meetings require a hands-on approach. Every industry will require different approaches and it is our job to understand the client's needs. We relied on GDL’s experience to close the deal and increased our communication channels and availability to assist in winning their prospect over.
- No project is ever simple, but we find a way. At Belkins, we’ve worked with over 25 different industries to drive their business growth. What we’ve learned is that no lead generation process is the same and each client requires personalization. We succeed by formulating value propositions and targeting the relevant ICPs through trial and error. Whether a project effortlessly flows or unseen challenges emerge, we never underestimate our efforts and we execute until we find the strategy that works.
