Crafting Products and Services to Reduce Time-to-First-Dollar

We’ve all seen our share of tire-kickers – those would-be buyers who take their time in making a purchase decision, evaluating every detail because they’re in no rush to pull the trigger. This problem becomes especially prominent when your company’s main service or product is a comprehensive, all-inclusive solution since there’s that much more to evaluate.
Good marketers know all this time sitting in the sales pipeline hurts revenue growth, and that’s why it is important to get prospects to buy something as quickly as possible. Sales Renewal has worked with clients in different industries to minimize this so called “Time to First Dollar” by various means ( such as “unbundling” a comprehensive service to create smaller, easier-to-buy services). Learn more about reevaluating your offerings through Sales Renewal’s “Crafting Products and Services to Reduce Time-to-First-Dollar”  webinar. You can also read more about specific case studies and our proven track record for putting this and other revenue accelerating marketing strategies into effective action.

Sales Renewal Develops Multi-Dimensional, Visual Search System for Non-Profit Client

The Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School (CHLPI) advocates for legal, regulatory, and policy reforms to improve the health of underserved populations.

Two years ago, Sales Renewal worked with CHLPI to build a new WordPress website that was modern-looking, responsive and easy for the CHLPI team to maintain. A key component of the new website was the creation of a Health Library, which houses all of its published research, articles from academic journals, and legal documents like amici briefs and administrative complaints.

As the number of publications in this Library grew over the last two years, CHLPI realized it was getting more and more difficult for readers to find the content most relevant to them. and they identified the need to be able to search by:

1. Keywords
2. Geography
3. Type of document
4. Topic
5. Publication year
6. Combinations of the above

In addition, for the geographic search, they also wanted it to not only be textual (the name of a state) but also visual (clicking the state on a map).

When they approached Sales Renewal for advice, we understood that as a non-profit, they were budget-sensitive, so we looked at available WordPress plugins that would meet these criteria. Unfortunately, while their search requirements could be addressed by separate plugins, there weren’t any that would handle all at once.

Affordable, Custom Search System

Consequently, Sales Renewal created a custom search system for CHLPI’s Health Library Publications that integrated multiple off-the-shelf plugins to meet their requirements at an affordable price:

• A multi-faceted, term-based filtering system, allowing users to narrow their search by Geographic Focus, Document Type, Publication Topic, or Publication year
• A keyword-based search system
• A visual, map-based filter in which will automatically update to indicate which geographic regions have applicable publications

Other notable features include:

• The system requires no additional work on the web editor’s part when adding a publication to the library – all they do is include a specific tag to categorize it correctly
• The entire system runs on asynchronous JavaScript*, so the page doesn’t have to reload when filters or search terms are changed
• Filters are represented as query strings in the website’s URL (for example, http://www.chlpi.org/health_library/?fwp_geographic_focus=south-carolina), which means that specific searches can be bookmarked by users for future reference, or linked to from outside sources, such as other websites, blog posts, or e-mails.
• The system is responsive, and works on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Feedback on the new Library has been overwhelmingly positive and has been called a “fantastic addition.” We encourage you to visit the CHLPI Health Library and test out the features for yourself. And please contact us for your next custom development project – we’re happy to provide a no-charge consultation.

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* Synchronous code is executed in sequence – each statement in the code waits for the previous statement to finish before executing. Asynchronous code doesn’t wait – your program can continue to run. This helps keep your site or app responsive, and reduces waiting time, making for a better user experience.

Love in Your Ring Wizard, the First-of-Its-Kind Online Ring Designer, Has Launched

Sales Renewal is pleased to announce the launch of Minter + Richter Designs’ new ecommerce site, http://www.MinterAndRichterDesigns.com, and the custom-built Love in Your Ring Wizard that seamlessly lives within it.

The site and unique App are great examples of Sales Renewal’s JointSourcing Solution at work: key business challenges were identified in the client’s JointSourcing Blueprint (e.g., streamlining customizations for millennial customers, increasing average sales price (ASP), lowering cost of sales). The sales-enabling technology was designed and developed as part of JointSourcing’s Build Services and is now being publicized and marketed as a key differentiator during the JointSourcing Sell Services step.

Our Client and Its Customers

Minter + Richter designs and handcrafts custom titanium wedding rings with a variety of inlay materials, from the well-known to the exotic. The typical Minter + Richter customer makes a single purchase, buying rings for that special, one-time occasion: their wedding.

The Sales Process

Each wedding or engagement band is hand-crafted and individually made based on the purchaser’s preferences. This means that clients have to provide information about ring sizes and choose the type of edges, finishes and interior colors for each ring, as well as care options (polishing and cleaning), and shipping and manufacturing times (standard, rush, shotgun rush) before the ring is made. This customization process was originally very involved and required hours of offline phone consultations and email exchanges, as well as missed opportunities for point-of-sale add-on purchases and upgrades.

The Sales and Marketing Challenges

Minter + Richter originally approached Sales Renewal because they wanted their site to rank better when their millennial buyers searched for wedding bands in Google. As we worked through our SEO planning process (Sales Renewal’s Blueprint phase), however, we both realized that while improving SEO was a worthwhile thing to do, there were more even important things to tackle first. For example: enhancing the selling capabilities of the website; creating an integrated marketing strategy (read more about the benefits of comprehensive, integrated marketing here) and overcoming some key business challenges (streamlining the customization process for their customers while simultaneously increasing the ASP and lowering the cost of sales). We knew that once these challenges were met, the other marketing tactics, like SEO, would be easier to put into place.

The eCommerce Solution

Our efforts focused on the redesign and optimization of the company’s Shopify-based website to increase per-transaction revenue and to streamline the sales process. A key piece of this was designing and building the Love in Your Ring Wizard. The Wizard is able to handle all the most popular customizations online in four streamlined, user-friendly steps. Ring sizing, finish options and even rush manufacturing are all clearly laid out, making it easy for customers who want to customize their ring to do so without jeopardizing the sales of customers who aren’t interested.

Early Results Point to Financial Success

Minter + Richter’s new website launched in mid-July, and from the first Wizard sale, the company has seen increased per-sale revenue as well as incredible time savings. The business – and Wizard – was recently publicized by Boston’s WCVB Channel 5 in their Made in Mass series. As reporter Doug Meehan says, Minter + Richter is “taking design in a brand new direction. [Minter + Richter] are the first in the country where you can completely design your wedding ring online.”

Sharing the Rewards & Risks in JointSourcing Works: Client Revenue Goes Up and Costs Go Down

Given that Sales Renewal’s JointSourcing is truly one-of-a-kind-there are no other Marketing General Contractors that shares the risk and reward-it is not surprising that it requires a bit more explanation than the familiar, fee-for-service, single-marketing-strategy (like PR, inbound marketing, advertising, direct mail, tradeshows, …) approach every other agency takes.

But numbers have a way at cutting to the heart of a matter, so here are three simple charts that show that JointSourcing increases leads and revenue (bar graphs in the charts below) while decreasing the per lead or sale cost (line graphs below). Note: To ensure client confidentiality, all chart data is expressed as relative to their initial period.

Manufacturer Client Performance Over 2.5 Years

During the 2.5 years from 1Q13 through 2Q15, JointSourcing increased qualified leads by 380%, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87% per year.

Because of JointSourcing’s increased productivity, while the client’s marketing budget did grow somewhat, it grew far, far slower than their leads did. As a result, JointSourcing decreased cost-per-lead by 74% (-42% CAGR).

Our strong, long-term relationship with Sales Renewal has been critical to Metro Sign & Awnings’ accelerating growth.

Because I wasn’t familiar with it when we first began almost 4 years ago, I was a little unsure of the JointSourcing “partnership, ” but I’m a big believer now.

Sales Renewal really treats the marketing of my business as if it were theirs – whether it’s going to bat for us with a vendor on their own or how proactive they are in analyzing and continuously optimizing our marketing.

This saves me time and allows me and my team to focus on sales. In fact, we have been getting so many leads that we are hiring more sales people to close all the new business.”

— Tom Dunn, Owner and VP of Sales & Marketing

eCommerce Client Performance Over 4 Years

During the 4 years 2010 to 2014, JointSourcing increased e-commerce sales by 170% (28% CAGR)

At the same time, JointSourcing decreased cost-per-sale by 33% (-7% CAGR).

Working with Sales Renewal is a real partnership, I know the floral business and Sales Renewal knows technology, marketing and sales.

I’ve been a small business owner for 26 years and I appreciate having someone who, thanks to its financial interest in my success, is almost as motivated as I am to grow my business.

— Helen Halloran, Owner

Different Levels of Marketing Investment Lead to Different Levels of Revenue Growth & Cost Savings

While from the accounting perspective marketing costs are considered an expense, an equally important way to view them is an investment: if you want your business to grow you have to invest in growing it. While the Concord Flower Shop has grown its web sales 28% per year while lowering its cost per sale 7% per year, Metro Sign & Awning has blown past even those impressive numbers, increasing its leads 87% per year and decreasing its cost per lead 42% per year.

These differences arise from the growth vs cost goals each business had which during the JointSourcing Blueprint, translated into the breadth and depth of their JointSourcing Solutions. Metro’s is more comprehensive and includes all of the important digital and real-world strategies for their business with each strategy nicely elaborated. The Concord Flower Shop’s JointSourcing Solution is focused just on online marketing and as you can see from the figure, invests about ¼ of what Metro does in marketing. It is this difference in budget, scope, resources and strategies that leads to their different growth & savings rates.

For a more detailed understanding of Sales Renewal’s unique JointSourcing Solution, please see these JointSourcing™ in Action case studies:

• JointSourcing: a Breakthrough Solution with Stellar Client Results – a more detailed explanation of JointSourcing’s results
• Collaboration Leads to New Strategies, Brand, Site, Marketing Programs and … a Blue Ribbon
• Sales Renewal Corp. Wins Battle Against Google Adwords on Behalf of Its Client Metro Sign & Awning
• How the Concord Flower Shop More Than Double Its Online Sales and was Ranked in the Top 1% of Local Businesses by Google

Client’s Collaboration with Sales Renewal Leads to New Strategies, Brand, Site, Marketing Programs and … a Blue Ribbon

It is generally rare for two different companies, let alone a client and its vendor, to work together so thoroughly, on so many levels, that the resulting whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

However, thanks to Sales Renewal’s revolutionary JointSourcing Solution (a unique hybrid combining elements of joint venturing with elements of outsourcing, in which shared risks and rewards align Sales Renewal’s economic incentives with those of its clients), such synergies are the norm.

If you’ve been wondering how JointSourcing and its three, Blueprint, Build and Sell steps actually works in practice, in the real world, this latest installment of our JointSourcing in Action Case Studies series is for you.

This issue provides a detailed, step-by-step view of how Sales Renewal partnered with our client MATsolutions to overcome their business, marketing and sales challenges to produce a marketing & sales system neither company could have developed as quickly or efficiently on its own. One result of the collaboration: MATsolutions receiving the prestigious Blue Ribbon Small Business of the Year for 2014 award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As Steve Wedler, VP Sales and Marketing, MATsolutions has said:

“Over the last year with Sales Renewal’s critical assistance, we’ve rebranded the company, launched a new e-commerce site and introduced marketing programs and supporting technologies that truly distinguish MATsolutions from its competitors. Having two highly dedicated and bright teams responsible for this transformation has allowed us to deliver something far superior than either team alone could have. This award is a great acknowledgement of the advances we have made.”

Read the JointSourcing in Action case study.

JointSourcing in Action #1: Sales Renewal Wins Battle Against Google Adwords On Behalf Of Client

It began when analysts at Sales Renewal noticed the poor return on investment one of the firm’s clients was receiving on their Google Adwords search ad campaigns.

In response, Sales Renewal asked the ad agency it had subcontracted on behalf of the client to investigate. As is typical of such specialized firms, their view was narrowly focused on their area of expertise, and on traditional advertising metrics like CPC (cost per click) and CTR (click-through rates). Those measures seemed to show the campaigns were performing well.

Unable to pinpoint the source of the problem, but nevertheless wary of what they saw, Sales Renewal immediately recommended canceling the previously planned ad spend increase. Later, Sales Renewal decided that the campaign’s poor ROI-even if the reason why was still a mystery-required cutting the client’s Google Adwords budget in half (something no ad agency would volunteer to do, as their compensation is tied directly to the ad spend). As Sales Renewal pressed Google Adwords for a remedy, the search giant’s early denials and demurrals eventually led to a $200 credit offer, provided the client would drop all future claims.

Convinced there was a larger problem, however, Sales Renewal rejected the settlement offer and kept digging, ultimately pinpointing a complicated technical glitch deep in the ad tracking system. Because of this, for every ad landing page a visitor actually saw, Google Adwords was charging for 5.78 click-throughs!

“If you had enough time and technical expertise, this is how you would do it.”

Faced with Sales Renewal’s detailed and accurate analysis, Google Adwords yielded and provided a credit that fully funded the client’s Adwords advertising campaigns for six months.

There were three elements to Sales Renewal’s success with Google: perspective, expertise & tools and motivation.

• As a General Contractor, Sales Renewal is focused on the big picture and how all the pieces work together, not just performance within a narrow silo like advertising.
• SR also had the expertise and tools required to monitor return on investment, dig into problems and convince Google over several months its technical evidence was sound.
• Probably most important, however: thanks to its innovative JointSourcing Solution that shares risk and reward and aligns the economic interests of Sales Renewal with its clients, Sales Renewal is as motivated as its clients to cost effectively grow their sales.

As Keith Loris, CEO of Sales Renewal Corp., often tells our clients, “If you had enough time and technical expertise, this is how you would do it.”