The Challenge

One of the most transformative developments in corporate products and services over the past decade has been the explosive growth and usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. In fact, according to a recent global research report, the AI market is expected to increase from $387 billion this year to $1.3 trillion by 2029, representing an annual Compound Annual Growth Rate of 20%.

Industries from healthcare, logistics and financial services to retail, food & beverages and automotive are expanding their AI capabilities to increase productivity while creating opportunities for their employees to focus on expanding their skills and talents to further drive growth and innovation.

Our client, a global leader in automation, security, AI technology, and information services built to drive real business results, has been at the forefront of the AI marketplace. They have witnessed firsthand the overwhelming demand for AI products as well as one of its greatest challenges — ensuring that the B2B sales team has the resources to identify new customers, address their questions, and successfully implement their AI systems.

Our Insights

After conducting an extensive review of their customer purchase journey, our team quickly determined that our client’s B2B sales and marketing team was highly effective in raising awareness of their suite of services. However, given the complexity of their products, they needed additional support to ensure that potential new customers’ questions had been fully addressed.

They also needed additional support to identify which customers had the resources to successfully implement complex AI technology on their platforms.

In addition, given the client’s global business operations, this support team had to be fluent in multiple languages and quickly integrate within the existing B2B sales communication structure.

Our Approach

We conducted a comprehensive analysis of our client’s marketing communications operations and identified multiple opportunities for the Harte Hanks European team to “embed” themselves within the client’s existing structure to help accelerate new sales opportunities.

Among the key touchpoints we recognized as critical pathways to engaging with new customers, we focused on developing and managing customer conversations on several platforms. Those platforms included chat on the client’s website, as well as direct service calls to their hotline, which required our customer service representatives to speak multiple languages.

Our team also leveraged multiple channels to identify and connect with “high potential” new customers on various social media platforms, including customized, topic-driven “wireless webinars” and “virtual summits.” These special events addressed a range of questions and topics surrounding AI and wireless solutions and implementation.

The Results

44%

Conversion rate

In less than 12 months, our team worked alongside the client’s B2B sales and marketing operation to increase the conversion rate for new sales opportunities to 44% for inbound.

$1.14MM

One closed deal’s value

Of the many deals secured in the past year, we closed a won deal within the telco sector for a total value of $1,140,000.

According to the client:

Harte Hanks’ ability to seamlessly integrate their B2B sales support operation into our existing structure, along with their deep and extensive knowledge of our services, especially in the area of AI, was critical in our ability to successfully respond to the exponential demand for our products.