Summary
20:20 Dialogue was approached in November 2009 by Renault UK through a recommendation from an existing client. The client’s requirements were very specific; increase their market share and maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of their sales managers.
Working together, achievements include:
• From a standing start 20:20 Dialogue has grown in to being a strategic partner.
• In a short period, 20:20 Dialogue has exceeded Renault UK’s fleet business requirements.
• Established a fully integrated approach using digital, voice and data.
• Developed and introduced new technologies to support telemarketers with one-to-one fully trackable dynamic emails.
• Increased achievement against KPIs by as much as 267 per cent and satisfied ROI measurement within five months.
• Directly contributed to the increase of Renault UK’s market share.
• Renault UK is a very satisfied client and both parties are proud of the relationship has developed.
Renault UK has won two key industry awards for Most Improved Fleet Manufacturer for 2010, from Fleet News and Fleet World and openly acknowledges that our activity has contributed to winning these prestigious awards.
About Renault UK
Renault is one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. Established back in 1898, Renault was initially famous for rallying and racing successes. By 1945 they were a national corporation building and developing vehicles for the retail market. Ongoing development of the business resulted in the achieving success in motorsports, entering into the F1 arena, and whilst the brand was making its mark it was losing money. A refocus on core skills and a review of costs saw them get back into profit by 1987.
In July 1996 Renault was privatised, this provided them with the freedom to develop a business partnership through a strategic alliance with Nissan. In 2009, Renault made a commitment to become Europe’s most profitable carmaker. They pursued a product offensive, targeting emerging markets and one of the first manufacturers to develop electric vehicle technology.
Strategy — broader business issues the company is facing
The B2B automotive market is crowded and very competitive. Renault’s culture is driven by innovation and technology; they see their allegiance to motorsports as a way of gaining and maintaining an international profile.
Customers, both retail and fleet are looking for quality and style, good value and confidence in after sales service. Meeting all of these needs is an industry wide challenge, but one that Renault has taken very specific action into achieving.
In terms of quality and style:
Renault has developed a range of stylish products that have won awards for their quality and safety standards. The challenge they faced was driving awareness to fleet decision-makers of their model range and getting people behind the wheel to experience them first hand.
Using an integrated approach of voice, digital and data, 20:20 Dialogue was able to reach and speak to a wide target audience and increase the awareness of Renault UK’s award-winning range.
• Telemarketing activity — designed to generate qualified face-to-face appointments has resulted in a big increase in the number of demonstrations booked. Up to the end of May 2011, there has already
been 3041 demonstrations compared to 1989 for the whole of 2010. An increase of 267 per cent.
• Email deployment platform — enables telemarketing agents to send out information relevant to their conversation. The email is fully branded and contains dynamic links to information requested by the prospect e.g. information on a particular model, emission levels, service and maintenance information etc. The system interacts in real-time and is based on the telemarketer’s journey through the communication, determining their next actions as well as identifying hot opportunities.
Another challenge for Renault was getting across their ‘whole life costs’ for their vehicles in a clear, transparent way. Renault is very competitive within this area and since this is a key factor for any fleet manager when choosing their fleet provider it is essential this gets communicated during our telemarketing activity.
Once 20:20 Dialogue has captured what the fleet decision-maker values most in terms of his fleet, and has generated an appointment, our aim is to ensure the Renault fleet sales manager is fully briefed on the prospect’s requirements before the visit takes place. This enables the Renault fleet sales manager to illustrate whole life costs in an individual and relevant way.
Objectives of the campaign
• Increase Renault UK’s market share.
• Maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of their sales managers.
• Generate highly qualified sales appointments.
• Generate a healthy pipeline of leads for future development.
• Update and maintain their fleet database.
• Provide a ROI within 12 months of telemarketing activity.
20:20 Dialogue and Renault worked in partnership to integrate voice, digital and data to achieve improved results through the ability to engage intelligently with decision-makers at all stages of the prospecting life cycle.
Using our highly trained telemarketing agents to generate leads, supported by proprietary technology, such as our one-to-one email deployment platform, has been key in securing more opportunities for the Renault sales team. We have also introduced a service, virtual PA, where by the agents not only generate leads but provide full support to the Renault sales team e.g. arranging their diaries, carrying out administrative tasks, completing notes following a visit, working with individual prospects lists etc. to optimise the sales manager’s time in front of clients and securing business.
Target audience
The programme is targeted at businesses with a fleet of over 25 vehicles. The challenge was getting in front of the decision-makers, who could range from being the MD of a small business who has a fleet of vans on the road, right through to a fleet manager in a large corporate business, who periodically needs to go through a procurement process.
The key objective with this audience is to establish not only who the final decision-maker/budget holder is, but also to establish and understand whom the influencers are in the business. Understanding the business’s buying process and associated timelines, engaging with the person responsible for the fleet at the right time with the right message is critical.
Both parties realise that not all decision-makers will be in the market during our prospecting activity. There are a number of reasons for this but it tends to come down to the length of the contracts they may already be in, typically around two to three years. To ensure we do not miss any future activity our agents will look to establish rapport with these prospects and capture additional information on the decision-maker’s personal interests. This information is fed back to Renault so they can actively engage with the prospect and enter them into their corporate hospitality program, thus giving Renault the opportunity to build a relationship with the decision-maker and ultimately keeping them in the fore front of the client’s mind when they do come up for review.
Media, channels or techniques used
The main channels utilised in this activity are direct mail, email and telemarketing. Telemarketing is seen as the core activity which involves following up and generating the main objective — an appointment. Renault currently develops its marketing message using our frontline feedback from our agents and the sales teams.
Both Renault and 20:20 Dialogue have found this integrated approach effective in achieving the main objective of bolstering fleet business activities. Working together and ensuring each channel supports one another gives great leverage in terms of keeping prospects up-to-date and ensures 20:20 Dialogue is perpetually at the forefront of their minds.
The programme started by sourcing data and profiling the prospect universe. During this stage of the process immediate opportunities were identified and secured in terms of an appointment. For prospects that required nurturing, i.e. those that would need some information about Renault, 20:20 Dialogue would provide this via email — Accelerator is a bespoke one-to-one email platform 20:20 Dialogue has developed — and then follow up with a specific objective of securing a sales appointment.
Campaign timescales
From our initial introduction in late 2009 the campaign has developed considerably. The continual test, learn, and optimise approach has provided insight and feedback for both parties throughout the campaign to optimise the campaign to attain Renault’s objectives.
• October 2009 — Renault approached 20:20 Dialogue following a referral from a client.
• November 2009 — meeting with Renault to establish requirements, brief and view our operational capabilities.
• December 2009 — commercials agreed, contract secured and brief finalised.
• January 2010 — system design and build, agent recruitment and training (a mix of client and internal), data sourcing and segmentation, proposition and script building.
• February 2010 — live calling commences, engage with sales teams, daily calls with client for feedback and results, MI in place and KPIs monitored, pipeline developed and immediate opportunities identified. Virtual PA service launched.
• March 2010 — prospect database develops and reaches 10,000 records, pipeline for future activity increased.
• April 2010 — Renault master van launch, telemarketing activity aligned to promote launch and identify immediate opportunities, continual database development and lead nurturing.
• May 2010 — ROI achieved (as measured by number of vehicles sold).
• July 2010 — Renault business promise launched, telemarketing support to promote launch alongside lead generation and nurturing of programme.
• January 2011 — email Accelerator developed and implemented to support prospecting activity
• March 2011 — new three-year contract awarded.
Results
• Achieved the targeted ROI in the first five months.
• Contacted 11036 unique businesses.
• Spoken to 8811 key decision-makers.
• Generated 2861 appointments.
• Contributed to an increase of 9630 vehicles sales in 2010.
• Contributed to an increased market share of:
1. Vans from 5.05 per cent in 2009 to 7.47 per cent in 2010.
2. Cars from 3.17 per cent in 2009 to 4.71 per cent in 2010.
• Designed a platform that enables prospect opportunities to be nurtured and tracked through the end to end sales process.
• Increased brand and product awareness through use of email Accelerator, to deploy one-to-one emails.
• Increased the effectiveness of their sales force which resulted in an average of 1.5 appointments a day on average attended.
• Created a virtual PA service to directly support the sales managers.
• Built a healthy pipeline of leads and future opportunities.
• Secured a three-year contract to continue the success.
Client testimonial
Mark Hawkins, manager of national fleet sales, Renault UK said, “20:20 Dialogue continues to provide us with a superb service, not only do they respond to the specific requests we make of them, they are always proactive in terms of identifying potential business solutions for us. We have developed a great working relationship with them and my sales team really values the service they provide, not only in terms of providing highly qualified appointment opportunities, but also by helping them manage their time more effectively through their VPA service. Renault UK has met significant objectives over the last 18 months, and 20:20 Dialogue has played a pivotal role in making this happen, we could not have done it without them.”
