The challenge

Tipping Point products have won accolades around the world and are used extensively by leading corporations, but in New Zealand Tipping Point is a relative newcomer. Tipping Point's local reseller Kaon Technologies, led by Tony Krzyzewski, is well known and well respected in the local market.

3Com marketing manager Carolyn Henley's challenge was to find an effective way to help Kaon Technologies give Tipping Point a flying start into the New Zealand marketplace while keeping to a tight budget.

A seminar set for the New Year was to be a key launch vehicle for Tipping Point in New Zealand, but with the Christmas shutdown looming Henley sought a way to collect a base of leads for Kaon to work on through to the seminar. Henley's options included display advertising, direct mail and email. The short timeframe available before Christmas precluded using the first of these options. Direct mail and email were ruled out because Henley knew that getting prospects to self-register interest was going to be virtually impossible, given all the other pre-Christmas distractions.

The solution

The clear course of action was telemarketing, mainly because a campaign could be created and executed quickly, and because direct cut-through to prospects was the most likely way of generating a base of leads for Kaon to follow up.

Knowing that a good list is a key to success Henley's first stop was to purchase IDG's "Contacts" database. Contacts consists of more than 7500 contacts in more than 2000 companies, includes in-depth data on the technology used in the companies and is continuously updated throughout the year.

For implementation Henley turned to Vital Marketing, a full service marketing consultancy specializing in the IT sector.
Vital Marketing Director Alec Brown has an engineering background and more than 15 years experience in the IT industry, most of that time in marketing, so he is able to quickly translate technical needs into clear market communications.

Within a few days Vital Marketing had developed a comprehensive telemarketing guide based on phone discussions with both Henley and Krzyzewski.

"Alec's telemarketing guide was the best I've ever seen," says Henley.

"It addressed all the issues and provided an excellent tool to support the telemarketers. I think the quality of the guide and supporting materials that Vital Marketing delivered was reflected in the excellent result."

Within a week of Vital Marketing taking on the assignment telemarketers were making calls. "We got going on the calls fast because the Christmas close-down was looming and every day closer to the break made it harder to get through to people and get their attention," says Brown.

"Our telemarketers are all mature people who have long experience working in business situations. They currently choose to work from home on a part-time, as-required basis, so we're quickly able to build a resource base when we need it."

"At the same time we're not paying people during down-time so we can be highly cost-competitive without sacrificing skills or quality."

Conclusion

Kaon's need was for a group of well qualified leads to work on in the period before a launch seminar scheduled for the New Year. Based on earlier experience of telemarketing campaign outcomes, and taking into account the difficult time of year, Krzyzewski and Henley were expecting around 30 leads to be generated. In the event, some three times that number was delivered.

"We're delighted with the outcome. Alec and his telemarketing team delivered an outstanding result that far exceeded our expectations, and it was turned around very smoothly, in the tightest of timeframes, at the worst time of the year," says Henley.

"Tony and his team at Kaon now have an abundance of leads to go on with, and we're looking forward to continuing to work with Vital Marketing on a further telemarketing campaign later on in the year."