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Example A for-profit company sought to introduce a new outsourcing service for printing and mailing high volumes of bills and statements. Deciding that its customers were its best salespeople, the company asked ICG to create a seminar series to communicate the high value of the service to both existing clients and qualified prospects. Facing Challenges Our first challenge was to overcome the perception that such meetings are merely glorified sales opportunities. We created a program that included a presentation on industry trends from Gartner Group, a leading consulting company and information provider. This was followed by case studies and interviews featuring the client's customers. The seminar closed with a briefing on the client's services that had been mentioned in the previous presentations. Marketing Mix The client served major corporations in New York City and northern New Jersey, so we produced two two-hour morning seminars, each in a central location for that area. The seminars were marketed to customers and prospects through mailed invitations as well as email. We devoted time to briefing salespeople on the importance of the seminar series and enlisting them to invite their best prospects. Customer Conversion The first breakfast seminar attracted seventy attendees, including many highly-qualified prospects who became customers in the next 18 months. The second seminar, six months later, draw over 150 attendees and helped grow the new service as well as reducing customer churn. When the company went public, its prospectus cited strong growth in its billing and statement services as one of its strengths. |
