Case Studies:

B2B eCommerce

CLIENT:   A new division of a Fortune 1000 technology solutions provider.

ISSUE:  The Endurance Group was asked to assist the client with the establishment of B2B online marketplaces that would utilize their newly developed suite of industry specific toolsets.  The first tool in the suite was a “deep drilling industry specific search tool” that was essentially designed as a loss leader for the project.  The goal was to use the search tool to establish relationships with the operators of e-commerce websites in specific verticals (lumber, steel, heavy equipment, coal, etc.) under the premise that these e-commerce companies would then implement, on an “a la carte”  basis, other offerings in the suite.  The client team had experienced poor results in creating any significant traction with identified prospects via an in-house telesales effort and turned to The Endurance Group for help.

APPROACH:   The Endurance Group's first steps were to simplify the conversation path for the on phone Business Development Consultants and to focus the message on ease of use and ongoing support for this industry specific search tool. Included in the new methodology were online demos of the tool in a real time environment that allowed the prospect to experience the tool in action. The targets for these calls were the owners/operators of previously profiled e-commerce sites, typically at the Senior Executive level and often including the head of IT.

Early on in the project, The Endurance Group team was able to determine a significant pitfall in the client's established process through team meetings and analysis of sales intelligence data. It was discovered that about 40% of the prospects that agreed to place the search tool on their sites were delaying implementation because there was no sense of urgency. The process was refined and modified from an environment where the HTML code to install was emailed to the prospect (at which point the prospect had control of the timeline) to a more pro-active process whereby The Endurance Group Business Development Consultants would set an appointment with a 15 minute time-allotted agreement with the prospect. The Business Development Consultant would then follow through on the phone appointment, email the code to the prospect and then “walk” them through the installation process during the allotted time. The “no-install” percentage dropped from 40% to less then 10% in 3 weeks.

RESULTS:   Over a period of 6 months, The Endurance Group was successful in integrating this tool into 66 different B2B e-commerce sites, successfully setting a foundation for future sales of the rest of the software suite.

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