SilverService Marketing Lead Generation

Managed Service Provider Looks to SilverLining to Reach Senior Decision Makers to Expand It's Business Opportunities and Awareness.

Finding new customers is very difficult, time consuming and costly. SilverLining Partners was engaged to find a creative method to reach senior management (CFO's, CIO's and Presidents) as potential clients by a mid-size Managed Service Provider (MSP). The goal was to be very selective about the target audience and to gain at least a 40% "conversation rate" with a senior corporate executive in the target group whose business model included outsourcing.

SilverLining, working in conjunction with the MSP, segmented the market based upon geography and business type (size, industry SIC, number of remote sites, etc). The total field of targeted executives was further reduced by past experiences of the MSP sales team.

The next step was to create an innovative way to reach the executive. The minimal objective was to have a "pre-arranged" business call with the executive to "size" the opportunity level to sell managed services. The maximum was to have a face-face meeting with the executive to review the MSP's business proposition, programs and value-add offerings.

SilverLining proposed a distinctive and extremely cost effective method to achieve the objectives by creating a unique, executive-level mailing campaign with a theme based upon the upcoming World Series and coupled to the only World Series "Perfect Game" in 1956.

First, a mahogany glass enclosure, fit to hold a regulation-size baseball, was sent to each target executive. Accompanying it was a personal letter introducing SilverLining as the MSP's agent and describing briefly the robust services the MSP could deliver. The letter requested the executive to fill out a web-based questionnaire on SilverLining's web site to provide more background on his/her corporate IT situation and challenges.

As an incentive to go to the specially designed web questionnaire, he/she would be sent a 2002 Commemorative World Series ball to be showcased in the new glass enclosure when the questionnaire was completed. This critical step accomplished two important sub-objectives:

• It gave the MSP more detailed information about the customer's potential to use their services, and
• It allowed the executive to participate on his/her own time without the concern of speaking to a sales person.

After filling out the questionnaire, the executive was contacted by SilverLining to verify the information. If the executive agreed to meet with a sales executive of the MSP during the verification call, the executive was informed he would receive an autograph baseball by Don Larsen, NY Yankees, commemorating his 1956 World Series Perfect Game for insertion into his ball case during the sales visit (with no obligation).

From the targeted list originally developed by the MSP and SilverLining, 40% of the executives contacted the web site and filled out the questionnaire. Of the 40%, approximately one-half were ultimately visited by MSP sales or SilverLining.

The cost of the project was estimated by SilverLining to be approximately 50% less than what the MSP would have spent using field sales alone. The additional value was that the MSP sales team only had to focus on the pre-qualified potentials, freeing time to pursue other client opportunities or farming existing relationships.

This marketing event allowed the young MSP to get their company name out to high-level executives in a unique and memorable fashion. The tie between "Perfect Game" and "Perfect Solutions" instantly gave the executive audience a sense about the MSP's business commitment. Considering this was conducted in the late summer of 2002 and during the most economic stress seen in recent business history, the final results were considered very effective.

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