Mastering Digital Sales in the Financial Services Industry
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As a result of the pandemic, a financial services leader struggled to sustain consistent growth. Driven by their need to remain competitive, they sought to quickly digitalise and optimise their outbound sales efforts. They turned to durhamlane to reshape their sales strategy and secure their market position.
The business provides administration services for International Equity Firms and develops innovative software solutions in response to changing financial regulations.
While some of their multichannel sales and marketing campaigns are always on, others are shorter, target different verticals, and launch solutions to market for the first time.
A flexible solution to sales challenges
The business needed to implement an agile, fully digital lead generation engine to maintain a steady flow of opportunities and keep growing through the pandemic. Yet, their salespeople struggled to adapt their strategy to the new lead generation campaigns and deliver them online.
Soon, this struggle translated into decreased conversion rates, missed sales opportunities, and a decline in revenue generation.
Finding a flexible and scalable solution to this challenge, a team of three sales development representatives (SDRs) began working on the ongoing lead generation campaigns and focused onto new go-to-market motions when necessary.
The launch of new campaigns followed a precise structure. The team reviewed the central features of the solutions that improve and automate the use of financial services. This analysis focused on the pain points they solve and the characteristics of their ideal users.
The insights derived from the SDRs’ evaluations were instrumental in crafting and testing the most compelling messages, expressing the value of the new solutions and highlighting their timeliness.
Connecting with the C-Suite
Their ideal customer is an International Private Equity firm raising new funds or expanding in new markets. Their target buyers sit within the C-suite.
Conscious that connecting with these prospects is particularly hard, the SDRs did not approach the market as product experts but acted as consultants who assessed prospects’ pain points to recommend best-value solutions.
The team used a multichannel approach that included social selling and creative email outreach, sharing insights on new regulations and their possible impact on a prospect’s business. Doing so allowed them to highlight the solution’s value and start more meaningful sales conversations.
Building a long-term partnership
This successful approach led to an outsourced sales partnership lasting well beyond the pandemic. During the first year, the SDR team grew from 3 to 4 reps and delivered an average of 14 sales-ready opportunities per month. This created over €1.3M in new pipeline.
Shortly after, marketing automation was introduced to deploy a multi-step campaign designed to enhance brand awareness and boost lead generation. This strategy showcased the full potential of an effective MQL to SQL conversion process and delivered an additional €2.5M in pipeline value.
This figure was achieved also thanks to an effective process for nurturing leads not yet ready to buy. The team nurtured and successfully re-engaged these leads, seizing opportunities 12-18 months after initial contact.
In less than three years, this outbound sales strategy generated over 400 sales-qualified leads, resulting in a pipeline value of approximately £5.2M.
Discover how you can transform your digital sales approach and achieve consistent growth in the financial services sector.
