Webhelp and Cisco - Demand Generation Program of the Year
Company: Webhelp and Cisco, APAC
Company Description: Webhelp designs delivers and optimizes unforgettable human experiences to create game-changing customer journeys. From sales to service, content moderation to credit management, Webhelp is an end-to-end partner across all B2C and B2B customer journeys. Its over 100,000 passionate employees across more than 55 countries thrive on making a difference for the world’s most exciting brands.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Demand Generation Program of the Year
Nomination Title: Webhelp partners with Cisco to deliver a best-in-class digital customer experience and increase lead generation by 48%
Cisco is a world-leading provider of high-technology services and products. Technology sales in APAC can be highly competitive, where B2B customers have different needs, cultures, and languages, meaning they seek to purchase long-term solutions. Because of the extended sales cycles, lengthier contracts, and a need for stronger relationships, we must work harder to qualify leads while tailoring to a variety of audiences.
Cisco’s Virtual Demand Center (VDC), an integrated demand generation and customer experience program, could take several days to respond to customers, resulting in missed opportunities. They were looking for a new partner to help strike the right balance and strengthen the program.
In July 2019, Cisco partnered with Webhelp, a global leader in CX and business solutions, to help boost their customer experience. We would support and direct qualified customers and respond to inquiries quickly, while accurately tracking demand-generated opportunities.
Together, we formed the Lead Development Representative (LDR) team to support Cisco in APAC, delivering ‘first-touch resolution’ to offer customers a highly personalized engagement experience based on their readiness and needs. The aim was to create extraordinary buyer experiences through seamless digital and physical channels and reduce the lead time of responses, therefore increasing the ROI.
The challenge
As demand for Cisco products skyrocketed, we had to ensure this growth in demand was supported and operating effectively and efficiently, so that sales inquiries didn’t become missed opportunities.
Our goals were to:
Deliver an industry-leading, responsive customer experience
Capture new revenue by qualifying demand consistently
Provide immediate access to expertise and increase seller productivity
Our response
With a diverse team of 25 advisors in India and a multilingual hub in Malaysia, Webhelp would qualify marketing-driven demand through various inbound and outbound channels across 11 languages. Our team worked directly with Cisco’s sales to support customers on the spot or route them through a warm handoff to the appropriate representative.
We created an operational framework to increase quality management, including a 150-page LDR playbook. We launched data-driven performance coaching to empower our people while offering customized training to upskill the advisors.
A feedback loop between Webhelp and Cisco marketing teams on specific campaigns would ensure alignment on qualification requirements and prospect call-to-action.
The results
With a common goal to deliver a best-in-class customer experience, we saw a series of benefits across seller productivity, demand generation and Cisco’s pipeline growth.
The team consistently excelled, beating benchmarks for efficiency, responsiveness, and effectiveness. We maximized ROI through a 17% increase in seller productivity, leading to a 48% increase in qualified leads while demand remained flat.
We doubled the number of sales opportunities by increasing the conversion rate by 18%, leading to 7,100 new customer accounts over two years.
Industry-leading
Cisco benchmarks against industry standards using robust data from leading advisory firm Forrester. Looking at inbound channels compared to Forrester reports, the VDC’s operation is more complex and still ranks ahead of industry benchmarks.
According to Forrester
We delivered more than double the industry average of prioritized demand to qualified demand (MQL to SQL) at 35% conversions against a benchmark of 14%
Our response time is 3 times faster than industry average response times, at 96% within 30 seconds, compared to 80% within 90 seconds, while maintaining a lean operating structure to maximize ROI
This achievement is a credit to using data-driven processes and personalized coaching to empower our people and build a strong partnership based on trust and honest communication. A close relationship from executives to advisors facilitated a strong connection between sales and marketing, enabling operational excellence across the board.
A partnership built on shared values
“Webhelp has served as a real partner for Cisco when it comes to accelerating our demand generation program. As people-first businesses, we saw the value in empowering our team with data-driven insights and skill-based training to help them perform at their best. We’ve built a strong relationship leading to open communication and constructive feedback to help our marketing team further improve. Webhelp has continued to deliver for Cisco at optimal cost with the existing team. We look forward to continuing to work together in 2022 to deliver an exceptional experience to our B2B customers,” Loretta North, Virtual Sales Lead, APAC.
We have included a video to bring our written submission to life. This can be accessed via the following YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mduhBQFIfw4