The success of a company is not just dependent on its ability to convert leads into sales, it’s the after sales process that becomes more critical in building a brand reputation. A strong digital strategy for visibility and marketing rides on credibility of the brand.
At Wild Creek, we follow a process called the Feasibility analysis where we understand the company/brand and identify if they have the necessary systems and capabilities in place to manage the inflows and leads resulting from the digital efforts. We learnt how crucial these systems are in one of our experiences with a client. If a company is not equipped enough to handle the project and close it with a happy client, it doesn’t matter how successful your current digital campaign is, you would invariably end up spending more on multiple such campaigns. And by being equipped, it not just refers to competence or skills, softer aspects such as attitude, the depth of involvement in work and also an internalization of the goals and vision of the company.
Sometime at the end of 2018, we began working with a software company that wanted to generate leads and increase their pace of client acquisition. After working with them for a few months, we noticed certain aspects that were not fully supporting the digital activities.
Situation: They were facing an exodus of clients who were moving to their competition despite our client providing a good deal and noteworthy execution. The company’s leadership was quite strong and had recently made major changes in the business model in line with their vision. The CEO of the company had ensured that the vision was communicated to all and that they understood the company’s need of the hour. After having understood the goals and objectives of the company, Wild Creek was able to devise a strategy that generated high quality leads, with a high conversion rate. However, over time, the company was still unhappy as the exodus continued, despite a strong sales team signing up high quality clients and having a high percentage of conversion of the leads generated through the digital medium.
Due to the strong relations that we had built with the team, we noticed in some of the routine client meetings, that the post sales team handling project executions, delivery and client relations were constantly under pressure causing them to slacken in certain aspects. Despite initially having understood the business visions and goals, with pressure came poor attitude that clearly set aside the vision and brought onto the table short sightedness and apathy. The situation began treading dangerous waters, taking the company away from their vision, while the leadership put on a defensive stance and refused to acknowledge or understand the shortcomings of the team, resulting in a breakdown of the goals right in the middle.
Our Learning:
It was during this real time situation that we realized that it is not enough to just have strong sales teams or digital marketing efforts to bring in clients, it is also imperative that the execution teams that build and maintain client relations, are capable enough to see through delivery and put a smile on their clients’ face. Furthermore, our experience also highlighted the importance of viewing things objectively in the business, as an entrepreneur, to be open to identify internal break downs and set them on the right course of action before it is too late.
