AmazingMail.com taps power of Access Hoover`s to

Access Hoover’s Case Study
AmazingMail.com
AmazingMail.com taps power of Access Hoover’s
to strengthen sales team’s customer knowledge
BUSINESS ROADBLOCK
Through multi-channel, personalized direct-mail
campaigns, Amazingmail.com helps companies tailor their
messages to specific audiences so the lasting impression
will be: We know you, and we can help you.
It’s an effective sales tactic, as executives at AmazingMail.
com have witnessed firsthand. That’s why the company’s
business development team knew it had to get smarter
about its clients — and its prospects — if it wanted to excel
in a sluggish economy.
“In a manner of speaking, we didn’t know who our
customers were,” says Stephen Barron, vice president of
business development. “We needed a way to answer the
question ‘Who are these businesses that are using our
products?’”
AmazingMail.com had a solid database of existing
customers, but the majority of the information was
centered around those individuals the salespeople dealt
with, versus the companies as a whole. Barron’s team
also needed to fine-tune its methods for sniffing out new
business.
“How well you know your customers can mean the
difference between a one-time deal and an ongoing
business relationship that brings in revenue for years to
come,” Barron adds.
SOLUTION
When Barron learned of Access Hoover’s, which integrates
with Salesforce (the CRM tool his sales team uses),
AmazingMail.com didn’t hesitate to upgrade its Hoover’s
subscription.
“We were testing other business information solutions for
a while, but we weren’t getting what we wanted,” Barron
says. “It was difficult to move data from their platforms
to our CRM tool. Plus, there always seemed to be an issue
Company: AmazingMail.com
Operations: Marketing and sales software
Web site: www.amazingmail.com
Company Overview
Established in 1999, AmazingMail.com Inc. (www.
amazingmail.com) drives direct-marketing campaigns
for customer acquisition, cross-sell, up-sell, retention
and loyalty programs. The company’s online services
and integrated marketing applications deliver mobileto-print, digital direct-mail, email and personalized
Web page campaigns. AmazingProspects customer
profiling software and automated analytics uncover
insights about customers and deliver a ranked list
of prospects that are likely to become new, best
customers. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company
assists more than 2,500 clients worldwide, including
Fortune 500 and the small- to medium-business
markets.
with data integrity. You can see the difference when you’re
working within the data that Access Hoover’s provides.”
Barron’s team began using Access Hoover’s in September
2009. The benefits were immediate.
“Once you install Access Hoover’s, you can map your data
fields — for instance, last name to last name or annual
revenue to annual revenue. Other services only allow
mapping of selected pieces to one place in the database,
typically leads,” Barron explains. “Access Hoover’s erased
the potentially costly and time-consuming task of asking
our sales team to comb through multiple sources to fill in
the information gaps for the businesses we serve.”
Now armed with in-depth customer knowledge,
Amazingmail.com can approach clients with products and
services that are relevant.
“With this high-level information, we can see the business
landscape more clearly and anticipate when and how our
products might best serve our customers,” Barron
says. “Access Hoover’s enables us to better understand
our clients’ needs and culture.”
to generate new leads. From one central source, the
team can gather information on company subsidiaries
and connections among executives.
In using solutions like Access Hoover’s, Barron says
AmazingMail.com is raising the confidence level
of its sales force. Even before initiating the first
conversation, sales representatives have company
insights that can help build rapport and trust.
“Often, if you research companies individually on the
Web or through other means, it may not be obvious
that they are owned by another company or that they
have subsidiaries or long-standing partnerships,”
Barron says. “Getting this information through Access
Hoover’s helps us push to the next sale — perhaps an
even bigger sale.”
Our increased
efficiency ...
has led to more
time for more
sales.
“Let’s say we’re talking to a company that does $19
million in revenue and — with information we gained
through Access Hoover’s — we know it spends 4
percent on marketing,” Barron explains. “In our initial
discussions, we can ask more informed questions
about how the company is spending that $700,000.
We can have deeper conversations because we’ve
done some calculations on our own — without having
to ask the client to go back and do the math.”
In reviewing Access Hoover’s corporate biographies
and company overviews, sales representatives learn
more about their business contacts and how they plug
into the organizations.
BOTTOM LINE
The business development and sales teams at
AmazingMail.com had a specific need to increase their
customer knowledge and streamline their methods
for finding new business. Access Hoover’s played an
integral role in helping the company move closer to its
objectives.
“I can say that our productivity and efficiency in
finding the right leads and getting a 360-degree view
of our clients have increased,” Barron says. “We are
more intelligent about our clients and also about
similar companies out there that have become new
leads for us. Access Hoover’s helps our business
development team find and work similar veins that can
eventually turn to profit.”
“Our increased efficiency in researching clients and
prospects has led to more time for more sales,” he
adds. “I see Access Hoover’s continuing to be an
integral part of our process and success.”
“Sometimes we discover there’s a person in another
department who would be a more logical point of
contact within the company when it comes to making
decisions,” Barron admits.
Access Hoover’s also improves the sales team’s ability
Want to learn more? Visit crm.hoovers.com
to find out what Access Hoover’s can do for you.
HOOVER’S, INC, • 5800 AIRPORT BLVD. • AUSTIN, TX 78752-4204