Comdata Develops Leads Marketing Practice Using Social Networks

Anyone who works  in sales knows the importance of lead generation. And any organization that sells anything to anyone wants its lead generation activity to improve – for its leads to be hotter, its conversion rates higher, and its efficiency greater.

This may be every brand’s ambition, but in reality many have struggled with effective lead generation in recent years, leading to decreased or stalled performance in outbound telesales especially.

Comdata is helping clients to fix this problem, with end-to-end sales solutions that use a smart blend of people, process and technology to improve lead generation and conversion. The benefits include:

• better performance on conversion and sales
• GDPR compliance
• savings on acquisition costs.

Improved Acquisition and Conversation Rates

The traditional approach still used by many brands is to generate their own leads and supply databases to their telesales providers or internal teams for outbound calls. But the process can be disjointed – lists may be out of date, and leads may be tepid at best and ice cold at worst.

Far from getting in front of the right people with the right offer at the right time, brands may miss the mark in terms of prospects, timing or messaging.

Comdata recognized the opportunity to provide its own end-to-end sales solution, where it manages the whole process from lead generation to outbound sales.

To deliver this, it has developed a leads marketing practice using social networks, offering benefits at all stages of the sales process from how to connect with potential customers to how to convert and then retain them.

Results to date show sharp gains in success rates, activation rates and net sales. In the case of net sales, they were up to six times higher with Comdata’s online lead generation approach than with partners’ databases.

Benefits Reach Both Clients and End Customers

The Comdata approach uses social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Google Ads, YouTube and also affiliate marketing to generate leads. Comdata creates compelling, customer-focused content to fit the client, the sector and the consumer need, with a call to action that takes them to high-quality web pages.

There they can find further information and agree to be contacted by a sales advisor – all in a process that is GDPR-compliant.

Whereas a traditional database may contain the details of someone who was interested in a new phone or utilities contract a few months or weeks ago, Comdata’s technology and processes can feed their details to its skilled sales operators within minutes.

It’s also possible for the entire process to be completed online, although experience so far shows that end customers tend to buy more products when they are contacted by an operator. With both approaches, the attractions for clients and end customers are clear:

Clients gain from an end-to-end solution that:

• improves new customer acquisition and activation rates, and can accelerate the sales process
• reduces costs per sale (through savings on traditional lead generation costs such as print and postage)
• takes pressure off their own internal teams
• can be easily and quickly scaled up and down
• has demonstrated clear results in terms of cross-selling and win-back

Their end customers gain from a sales process that:

• offers them products and services at their time of need or intent, rather than weeks or months later
• allows them access to promotions. For example, one of Comdata’s banking clients is offering new customers better benefits on the Comdata sales landing page than on its own website.

Critical Success Factors in Different Sectors

These attractions can be realized across a range of sectors, from utilities to telecoms to banking and financial services to B2B – in any sector where the end customer has a need for a solution or service.

It could be a consumer thinking about travel insurance, home insurance or a more competitive bank account; a home-mover looking for a new utilities provider; a business or individual looking to change phone contract; a business in need of logistics or transportation solutions; or many other scenarios.

Key to all of these are:

• the quality of the social media content
• the best blend of smart technology, consistent and seamless processes, and skilled people
• a provider able to design and deliver end-to-end services and solutions.

The combination of these three elements is proving transformational for Comdata clients. Those wishlists of hotter leads, better conversion rates and greater efficiency may be feasible after all.

Case Study: Using Online Lead Generation for a Major Insurer

One client benefiting from Comdata’s end-to-end lead generation and sales approach is Colonnade Insurance in the Czech Republic. Its relationship with Comdata began several years ago, encompassing, first, telesales acquisition and then also cross-selling, upselling and win-back.

“Our approach at Comdata is always about continuous improvement and innovation – how can we improve what we do, how can we do better for the client, what new approaches and solutions can we bring to their business?” explains Adam Koudelka, Business Unit Director Comdata Czech.

“That’s what we did for Colonnade, tailoring a unique end-to-end sales process for them, from lead generation to conversion. Lead generation like this is absolutely not a ‘standard’ call-centre service, but at Comdata, we are makers!”

Critical Success Factors

Comdata uses tailored content on social media and with affiliate partners for Colonnade, drawing consumers to a website landing page – https://www.nahodpojistky.cz – that Comdata content experts built. There they find useful information on insuring anything from their family and pets to their phones or house keys, and can buy insurance online or request a call.

Comdata manages the entire sales process, delivering significant increases in acquisition, cross-selling and win-back rates as a result.

“Thanks to our cooperation with Comdata, we have developed an effective tool for database creation and reached a new target group of potential customers who are active in the digital world.

“Our first experience shows that critical for the success is daily management, continuous improvement and open communication between company and lead generation vendor,“ explains Martin Eibich, Direct to Consumer Manager at Colonnade.

Other clients now exploring similar tailored end-to-end sales solutions from Comdata range from banking to B2B brands.