Selling into the construction industry is a different challenge than most of our customers face – it’s heavily relationship driven, requires highly specialized salespeople, and tends to have very long sales cycles. It’s also reliant, heavily so, on knowing who has a project coming down the pipeline and when we’ll be able to bid on it.
When AMG Engineering first approached us, I was skeptical because my previous experience of prospecting into this industry (as an Account Executive) was challenging due to the technical nature of the products we sold. But the more I looked at our customer base, the more I realized that the prospectors didn’t need to possesss this specialized sales knowledge as long as we had someone to guide them. 10 months later, AMG has made the leap from waiting for projects to proactively hunting for new business and the results have been impressive.
In just 10 months (April 2017 – January 2018), Predictable Revenue’s Accelerate Team supported AMG Engineering with:
94 Handoffs (leads)
$415,000 Pipeline Value
$151,124 Closed Deal Value
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: your company, like every company, wants to grow.
But, it relies on almost entirely on repeat business and the occasional referral. Compounding the issue is no formalized outbound sales process, and no resources devoted to designing one (let alone actually getting on the phone and drumming up business).
And so, that desired growth never happens.
Sure, some quarters, and some years, will be great. Repeat business will do that. But at other times, your clients won’t have new projects on the horizon. Your sales, as a result, just won’t be there. And you’ll be forced to ride the ups and downs of that process. There’s just no predictability.
Life Before Predictable Revenue
This is the place AMG Engineering, an Ohio-based full service engineering firm, found itself in April last year. And they were looking for a change.
“We knew for a long time that we were not doing a lot of the right things when it came to our business development efforts. We didn’t really have an organized and documented system for pursuing leads outside of our existing client set,” says Julieta Mendez Davis, Chief Financial Officer at AMG Engineering.
“We realized if we want to grow on the trajectory we intended, there is no way that 100% of that growth is going to come from that existing client set. So, we knew that both our inbound marketing as well as our outbound sales strategy would have to contribute towards bringing in a stable pipeline flow of new clients.”
AMG had, here and there, dabbled in outbound sales, but to no success. The company had purchased lists from data providers, but never actively worked those leads. Some got called, most didn’t. There was no process to adhere to; no guiding outbound sales principles to set the foundation.
“It wasn’t very methodical,” adds Davis.
“The change needed was creating a method, and knowing we have to take it as seriously as we take our inbound leads.”
Life With Predictable Revenue
Enter the Predictable Revenue Accelerate Team.
Since signing on with Predictable Revenue last April, AMG has, with the guidance of a dedicated Predictable Revenue strategist, established an air-tight outbound sales process, refined its messaging, and, most importantly, had brand new pipeline to work.
“It’s all about having a process, having a method,” says Davis.
“And we knew we didn’t have any know how on how to begin that process, how to standardize it, and make it into something that we could incorporate as a real workflow.”
And the results? Between April 2017 and January 2018, Predictable Revenue’s Accelerate Team provided AMG with nearly 100 handoffs. Of those, almost 70% engaged in discussions with AMG, a dozen expressed interest in pursuing projects in the near-term future, and one $125,000 deal closed within the first few months.
Oh, and AMG also has $415,000 generated from Predictable Revenue-led prospecting still to close.
“We looked at everything when we started evaluating companies to help us. And, we came to the conclusion that, after seeing a demo, that Predictable Revenue was the choice,” says Davis.
“There was process, and a guarantee of the volume that Predictable Revenue will execute on. We really like that Predictable Revenue had measurable targets, and measurable results that will be followed through on.”
Needless to say: the days of up and down, unpredictable growth that used to plague AMG are a thing of the past.
AMG has since transitioned to using Predictable Revenue’s software, and their success has even allowed them to bring on an internal rep to handle leads part-time.
Simply put, AMG got the standardized, predictable sales machine it needed.
“The biggest impact is having a new lead channel that we can rely on,” says Davis.
“Before I wouldn’t even call outbound a lead channel. It was the occasional, accidental outbound sale.”