fresheye produced the content for 15 newly designed Proposition Sales Launch Packs and interactive Knowledge Profilers for BT Major Customers marketing. The briefing packs were launched to the BT sales channels via their intranet and a record number of downloads and profilers have been achieved for these launches

Business situation

The BT Major Customers marketing team were responsible for the launch of over twenty five new or enhanced propositions to the BT Major Customers account teams throughout 2005/2006.

To up-skill over a 1000 salespeople by face-to-face methods for every new proposition would have been unfocussed, time consuming and costly. BT were keen to ensure that their sales channels did not spend a disproportionate amount of time off the road which could be more effectively spent with customers and prospects.

An evaluation by BT had shown that the sales channels had little awareness that some new propositions had been launched or how to use the propositions to develop new business. BT needed a fresh way of delivering relevant and inspiring sales channel up-skilling for their new priority propositions so that the business could increase the sales pipeline to meet sales objectives.

The requirement

The objectives for the marketing channel development team were to provide the Major Customers sales channels with straightforward tools which raised knowledge levels and enabled salespeople to confidently sell new propositions. They also wanted to make these tools readily available through the sales intranet site.

Graham Cavan, Senior Marketing Manager had set out a launch programme of blended learning and high profile internal communications. A key resource requirement was strong market knowledge and marketing skills to manage the preparation and content for new ‘Proposition Sales Briefing Packs’. Briefing packs were needed for each new proposition, starting with 5 new propositions to be launched in the summer of 2005.

Support was also needed to construct the questions for a 'Knowledge Profiler', an interactive tool for salespeople to help test their new understanding of the new services.

The deliverables

fresheye worked closely with Marketing to determine the scope of the information to be included in the Proposition Sales Briefing Packs. The objective was to ensure the sales teams had sufficient understanding of the proposition, were able to identify prospects and therefore increase sales effectiveness. For each proposition fresheye:

Liaised with the key stakeholders to obtain available information on the service, identified gaps and obtained agreement to supply additional information.

Produced the content for the Sales Propositions Briefing Pack to fit within the defined structure of 15 key headings; these covered the service; the market drivers and the relevant information to support each stage of the sales process.

Managed iterations of the content through to sign-off of each briefing pack.

Compiled accompanying questions for the knowledge profiling tool that self-tested the salesperson’s understanding and identified improvement areas for up-skilling.

Following a test launch of a proposition, the first 5 new propositions were launched to the sales channels and the Proposition Sales Briefing Packs and supporting Knowledge Profilers were posted on BT’s 'learning zone' landing page. The response was fantastic and the site received a record number of downloads.
A further 10 new propositions have subsequently been launched with 25 planned for the year.

Why fresheye

fresheye’s market knowledge and experience of BT meant they could quickly assimilate the required information and write appropriate content for BT’s Major Customers account teams.

Graham Cavan, Senior Marketing Manager said, “fresheye’s expertise and understanding allowed them to challenge the content and offer an additional perspective to ensure that the most relevant and the best quality content was delivered.”

The benefits

The immediate result following the first launch has been a high rate of awareness and active participation by the sales force. Evidence of this has been seen in the measures from the intranet which has given BT a good understanding of usage and an indicator for their marketing ROI.

Downloads of the Proposition Sales Briefing Packs increased significantly compared to the previous average number of downloads from the page.

Over 100 knowledge profiles were completed at launch.

The launch sparked unprompted feedback from the salespeople which has been very positive. They have been impressed with the structure and comprehensive content of the Propositions Sales Briefing Packs. One comment recorded was that the packs are the best collateral that sales have seen from BT in years.

Graham concludes, "This new approach has meant we’ve succeeded in reaching a much higher proportion of the sales force. We’ve successfully given them the high quality tools they need to identify opportunities and sell with confidence within their customer base."

"It would not have been possible to achieve the full scope of work that the 15 launches demanded without fresheye. Their understanding of the market and our requirements meant they have turned everything around very quickly and professionally, saving a lot of time and energy on briefings and revisions."