2022 Trailblazer Award Winner
ELEVATOR PITCH:
In early 2020, LeSaint Logistics was acquired by TAGG Logistics. At the time of the acquisition, there were multiple ways that sales and marketing results were tracked across the two companies. At LeSaint, the company used Pardot/Salesforce.com for executing and measuring sales and marketing performance. At TAGG, performance was tracked through an Excel spreadsheet, whereby lead data coming in via email was entered into a spreadsheet. In addition, the types and definitions for performance metrics varied. For example, TAGG used the term “Assigned to Sales” for leads that were qualified and delivered to salespeople. LeSaint, instead, used the “Qualified” stage and “Converted” function in the Lead object in Salesforce.com to mean the equivalent. Recognizing these differences and many others, the TAGG team, in partnership with Sol de Naples Marketing, undertook a project in mid-2021 to define a single set of processes and definitions for the customer lifecycle and sales funnel, ultimately resulting in the build-out of an automated, real-time Sales & Marketing Performance Dashboard in Salesforce.com. The dashboard utilizes data from email, social media, website conversions, campaigns and sales pipeline to track key metrics and report on them to senior management. It tracks what happens at the top of the marketing funnel (ie. unqualified leads) all the way down to won business, including what marketing campaign or channels won business can be attributed to.
Key metrics contained in the Dashboard that are calculated in real-time include:
- All Leads Generated, tracked by annual goal
- Total Leads Generated, trend by month
- Leads by Source, tracked by goal by channel type
- Qualified Leads Assigned to Sales, tracked by annual and monthly goals, including trend by month
- Leads Converted to Sales Opportunities, tracked by annual and monthly goals
- Total $ Value of Opportunities in the Sales Pipeline, by salesperson and monthly volume trend
- Total Won Business, tracked by annual goal, customer names and monthly trend
MEASURABLE RESULTS AND OBJECTIVES ACHIEVEMENT:
The original objectives of this initiative were to:
- Create a ‘single version of the truth’ for sales and marketing performance, instead of relying on various reporting sources in pockets spread out across the business
- Automate reporting so that management can see in real-time how we are tracking to goals
- Eliminate manual processes and labor required to maintain and update data related to leads sources and campaigns
All of these objectives - and more - were achieved. In fact, we estimate that approximately 15 hours per week of manual data entry and processes were eliminated and replaced by the finalized Dashboard. At the click of a button, we can now answer management’s questions, and we can provide a turnkey monthly report for performance in minutes.
BLAZING A TRAIL!:
From Sol’s perspective working with dozens of clients in the logistics and transportation industry, it is very rare for the sales and marketing team to work so closely together, that they can, in fact, connect the marketing and sales funnel into a single set of metrics and Master Dashboard. What’s more, TAGG has made the investment in CRM technology tools and marketing automation (Pardot/Salesforce.com) that makes this possible in the first place. Both things — the willingness/ability to connect the funnel from top to bottom and the technology that enables it, must be in place for a project like this to yield success. TAGG has both!
