ATG Executes Successful HP LeftHand Event with the Help of eCoast, Generating over $100K in Revenue. Download PDF

From technological installations to managed services, Allied Technical Group (ATG) is a reputable name in the technology industry, and is recognized as a prominent HP business partner.

Formed in 2006, the Salt Lake City based IT company provides high quality IT services and consulting to numerous organizations and business verticals in the Salt Lake City metro area. With a strong focus on professionalism and technical expertise, each member of ATG has significant experience in the technology industry. With a unique combination of expertise, experience, and exceptional customer service, ATG provides a variety of IT services to several Utah communities.

Challenge

“We were looking for an opportunity to reconnect with our current customers and reach out to those we are less familiar with,” said Darren Spencer, Co- Owner of ATG. “We wanted to schedule an event to promote the HP P4000 SAN Solution and share the benefits of this particular storage solution with our community.”

Spencer and his team at ATG had been selling HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN Solution and other HP SAN Virtualization solutions for a little over a year and were looking for an ideal opportunity to educate their client base and their potential customers on the functionalities and cutting-edge capabilities of the HP P4000 SAN Solution.

“I’m a big fan of face-to-face interaction, and we’ve been eager to host an educational event for quite some time now,” said Spencer. “I knew that successful promotional events are hard to do, so were seeking additional support and outreach to ensure its success.”

Selection Criteria

With the expertise and know-how to educate event attendees on the benefits of the HP P4000 SAN Solution, ATG needed assistance in generating interest and attendance.

“We were ready to handle the organizing, preparations, and other operations, but needed a solution to help us generate leads and drive attendance,” said Spencer. “Our connections at HP let us know about several resources available to HP Partners that allows partners to get assistance with marketing services including audience acquisition and lead generation.”

ATG decided to utilize this resource and ordered an attendance generation campaign through HP Campaign Central, an electronic co-marketing tool that assists HP partners in launching custom campaigns centered upon marketing HP product-lines. In ordering the attendance generation campaign, ATG selected eCoast, a New Hampshire- based provider of demand generation and outsourced marketing solutions, as their telemarketing vendor. Spencer and his team at ATG were previously aware of eCoast and the services the company provides to the technology industry, but had not utilized the company’s services for any previous campaigns.

“We had never worked with eCoast before, but had pretty high expectations going into this campaign,” said Spencer.

“We were hoping for a high level of customer service, a significant number of leads and registrations, and detailed communication to keep us up to date with the progress of our campaign.” ATG selected Salt Lake City’s Flemming’s Steakhouse as the venue for their lunch and learn event, coordinating all non- attendance related details with the restaurant staff.

Solution

eCoast provided ATG with an attendance generation campaign priced below $3,000 which included and an email blast and telemarketing services designed to generate registrations for their informational event. Deliverables for the campaign included an email blast to a select amount of records, inbound response, outbound telemarketing, and lead management and reporting.

eCoast assigned Channel Marketing Program Manager Alicia Edgerly to manage the campaign and maintain communication with Darren Spencer from ATG. Prior to initiating telemarketing activities, Edgerly established contact with Spencer, explained the campaign thoroughly, and reviewed all necessary documents and event information needed to get the campaign started.

Shortly after sending the email blast invitation to a select list of prospects, a team of certified HP business development representatives from eCoast followed up with all email recipients, further educating them on the details of the upcoming informational lunch and learn event, and capturing necessary lead information.

Darren Spencer and the sales team at ATG received real time notification of all registrations and had access to all lead information via on online portal and lead management system provided by eCoast.

Results

eCoast provided ATG with seventeen registrants, enabling the HP partner to host a successful informational event and close multiple business deals resulting in over $110,000 in revenue. Having never worked with eCoast, or any other telemarketing vendor on an event generation campaign, Darren Spencer from ATG did not know what to expect from his campaign.

“We had a very positive experience with eCoast and this event definitely exceeded my expectations,” said Spencer who was hoping to earn at least a 10:1 return on his investment. “eCoast did a great job of getting our campaign going right away, and their efficiency early on enabled me to trust them throughout the entire process.”

With the lunch and learn at Salt Lake City’s Flemming’s Steak House scheduled to take place 28 days after the November 12th order date, eCoast needed to get the process started as soon as possible to ensure sufficient registrations. Alicia Edgerly, the Channel Marketing Program Manager managing ATG’s event campaign, was quick to point out that cooperation from the partner company is an essential component of getting a campaign started quickly.

“Darren Spencer at ATG was a great client and got us all the information we needed in a timely manner. His cooperation and his faith in our processes allowed us to finish ahead of schedule,” said Edgerly.

The goal associated with the HP attendance generation campaign was to register between 12 and 17 qualified business and technical decision makers as attendees for the lunch and learn event. The calling began on November 18th and closed on December 1st with 17 registrants. Representatives of ATG then viewed the registrant information o ensure that all registrants were representatives of qualified companies, and followed up with all prospective attendees approximately one day prior to the event.

Rather than having to download any sort of program or sync the calling activity to their own lead management system, ATG was given a secure login to the eCoast lead management system, and could access all lead information and calling results quickly and securely through an online portal.

“The lead tracking and management system provided by eCoast was great,” said Spencer. “We immediately knew if we had any new leads or registrations, and had all the contact info we needed to follow up with prospects effectively.” Spencer also applauded eCoast’s quick timeline and was impressed at the number of registrants ATG received.

“These events have limitations, and you have to target a pretty confined radius of people that are willing to take that time to drive somewhere and listen to your pitch,” he said.

The December 10th event was deemed a ” success by ATG and 17 representative of current and prospective client companies were in attendance. Members of ATG and representatives of the HP technical team socialized with attendees during lunch and gave a short, 30-minute presentation on the benefits of the HP P4000 SAN Solution to all in attendance.

“Events like these are great because the clients and prospective clients are all there because they have some level of interest in the solution and are curious to learn more. There was definitely energy and excitement in the room.” said Spencer. Spencer also noted that there was an immediate and palpable interest in the HP P4000 SAN Solution, and that the ATG team went home that afternoon confident that new business was coming their way. Several companies in attendance reached out to ATG for more information within the weeks following the event, and the ATG sales team followed up with all attendees who did not proactively contact them afterwards.

“Altogether, we have brought in about $110,000 in revenue from this event, and I hope to see another $100,000 in the near future,” said Spencer, whose team spent a little over $3000 coordinating and hosting the event. “We’re happy, HP is happy, the event went over very well. For the money we put in, we’ve seen about a 40:1 return that still has the potential to grow even further.”

The first deal came into play the week following the lunch and learn, and generated a little over $50,000 in revenue for ATG. The second is still in the final stages, but the company is expecting a PO of $60,000 within the first quarter of 2010. Two additional companies are expressing interest in the HP P4000 SAN Solution as well, and Spencer is hopeful that with continuous and strategic lead nurturing, two more deals of a similar size will close by the end of 2010.

“This was a good experience all the way through, we would definitely work with eCoast on engagements like this in the future,” said Spencer. “The whole thing went so well, especially since this was our first engagement with eCoast. If we re-rack the exact same event, but move it to reach some people that wouldn’t come otherwise, I bet we could make it even more successful!”