Business development manager, Mattieu Berlinguette, is our point of contact at Laurentide. He has been with the company for the past 15 years, where he looks after current clientele as well as prospecting into different markets and segments selling reliability solutions within Laurentide’s Eastern Canadian territory.

When looking back at the engagement thus far, Mattieu is glad to say “it’s been over [his] expectations…and [he’s] looking forward to the next steps.” Tyler has been able to solve the key challenges Laurentide faced, including the drying up of their traditional channels due to COVID, their lack of prospecting man power, and their difficulty penetrating new markets, all while generating enough pipeline to put ROI just on the horizon. And while the work he’s doing is currently focused on the reliability solutions business unit, Mattieu knows that “in the next coming weeks, as [Laurentide] close more business, it’ll prove the recipe and hopefully [Predictable Revenue] will be able to generate that for other business units as well..other initiatives…and we can continue to grow the relationship.”

Before Predictable Revenue

As is common in the Industrial space, before working with Predictable Revenue, Laurentide relied heavily on traditional, in person channels to generate opportunities. Mattieu and his colleagues participated in trade shows, held solo events, and attended various meet and greets to meet new potential clients. Once most of those dried up as a result of COVID-19, there was no chance that Mattieu himself was going to be able to take on a full time prospecting role to pick up the slack. “[He] was dealing directly with customers so [he] didn’t have a lot of time in the week to be able to do that. [He] needed some help to do that leg work. Doing all of that manually was very time consuming.”

“The business needed to find a way to grow in spite of losing their traditional, face-to-face channels (also driven by COVID ramifications). ”

The Problem

One of Mattieu’s goals as a business development manager was to expand into different verticals. However, their internal structure means account managers and key account managers are often busy with current customers. This, coupled with the fact that they had exhausted all of the in person events in their territory and weren’t sure where to find new contacts, meant that targeting a “different vertical from [their] historical clientele indeed was quite difficult.”

When it came to biting the bullet and seeking outside help, there were a few catalysts that hit at the same time for Mattieu and Laurentide. Firstly, they hired a new marketing manager who, in creating new initiatives, made apparent the need for more manpower on the business development front. Secondly, Laurentide needed to come up with some ideas on how to expand into new markets. Finally, the business needed to find a way to grow in spite of losing their traditional, face-to-face channels (also driven by COVID ramifications). 

ROI is coming fast. Laurentide has been able to build a pipeline that’s in and around 10-15x the actual cost doing this exercise. If they close a third of what they have in the pipeline they can cover the cost of the project.

Our Solution

According to Mattieu, “The Emerson Impact Partner Network is a tight knit community,” within which “there are a few key players that have very large reliability groups,” like Laurentide. When brainstorming with another company in the Network and discussing “how [the two companies] were having success – which industries, what’s working, what’s not working,” Mattieu learned that their fellow Emerson partner was “able to dig into that life sciences vertical industry” with the help of Predictable Revenue. Life sciences was one of the markets Mattieu was hoping to penetrate, so this was a big green flag for him. Since “[they’re] in the same situation, with similar contacts,” Mattieu decided Laurentide should “try to leverage [Predictable Revenue’s expertise].”

Tyler Krenbrink, Laurentide’s Account Strategist, is also the strategist behind Caltrol’s success, and since he already understood the reliability sales business “[Laurentide] were able to get up on [their] feet and get running fairly quickly.” Tyler took Mattieu through workshops to define ICP, identify promising industry segments, and create strong, tailored messaging. Mattieu says, “It’s been very positive and has actually been a learning experience as well. Tyler took the time with us to build the script, look at the type of personas we wanted to go after…and with that we were also able to focus on different segmented markets that we wanted to go after. [Tyler] really took the time, step by step, to go through each of those different initiatives.” 

Predictable Revenue’s process is very collaborative. Mattieu “shared with Tyler some of the solutions we’d like to offer, how to position it, where and how we had success with our [existing] customers…so giving him that background.” Tyler, in turn, makes sure to be transparent with what he’s doing currently, and how he’s looking to optimize. “When [they are] progressing, [Mattieu is] seeing the number of touchpoints, the number of contacts, and the reply rate that [Laurentide] have” for all active campaigns, and “as [they] are moving forward [they] are looking at the different metrics, adjusting the messaging.”

Mattieu mentioned that working with Tyler is like “having a consultant on the team that’s actually participating in doing some of the work as well.”

An added bonus to working with Tyler is that he is bilingual. “Having somebody as well that [can] speak both French and English is a huge plus for [Laurentide] because their market is bilingual so that’s an extra challenge that [they] had to work with.” 

The Result

Since beginning their engagement with Predictable Revenue, Laurentide have seen success in many areas.

First, the speed with which Tyler was able to bring in pipeline exceeded their expectations. “Initially [they] talked about getting a 60 day window before getting [their] first leads. It actually started within the first month, so that’s been very positive.”

Second, something Mattieu felt was a top priority before coming on board with Predictable Revenue was “being able to find the right contacts, find the right script… and being able to leverage that to have those initial conversations.” They’ve seen nothing but good things in this area. “Even the number of meetings is more than [Mattieu] can currently handle so [he’s] postponing some of [them].”

Third, Mattieu and Laurentide were really looking to gain market share in some new verticals. Predictable Revenue provided them that opportunity. “For example, life sciences is not something that Laurentide would typically be involved in, so being able to build those contacts and being able to have those conversations is leading into some good opportunities and generating some revenue for [them] as well.”

Fourth, and probably most importantly, ROI is coming fast. Laurentide has “been able to build a pipeline that’s in and around 10-15x the actual cost doing this exercise. If [they] close a third of what [they] have in the pipeline [they] can cover the cost of the project.” As for Mattieu’s confidence that he will, in fact, close that pipeline, he says he is “very confident. [He’d] say 100%!”