Case Study.
Customer Case Study - Global Knowledge
Global Knowledge reaps immediate results and measurable returns with RainKing. Achieves 600 percent ROI after only one year of usage.
Global Knowledge targets two main streams of business. The Enterprise Division sells to large companies who need to train groups of eight or more on various IT systems, technologies and software — including Cisco, Microsoft, VMware, and Nortel. This division brings training to the customer, holding sessions at their offices, at local hotels, or at conference facilities. The Open Enrollment Division targets large firms as well as smaller companies that need to train one or two employees at a time. In these cases, the trainee attends courses at one of Global Knowledge's Training Centers throughout the country.
The nature of training responsibilities within large companies poses unique challenges, says Andy Wright, Global Knowledge's Director of Enterprise Marketing. "Large companies have so many different people at multiple locations, it's very difficult to expand your reach within the organization. Finding the right people at remote locations, or even within a single location, is a major challenge. Training doesn't necessarily have a single purseholder. Multiple people might have multiple training budgets. Some of the training budget might rest within IT; some might be in a project management office or an engineering group."
Over the years, Global Knowledge has used various tools, including Hoovers and Harte-Hanks, to try and identify these prospects — with varying degrees of success. But often, says Wright, the data was inaccurate and outdated, or sales reps simply couldn't find enough information to go on. "I never got a feeling that any one tool did much for the reps."
Enter RainKing. RainKing offers an online subscription database that's built on the daily efforts of more than 35 well-educated and well-trained research analysts. RainKing employs what it calls the intelligent phone call (TIP) — an in-depth phone interview conducted by a well-educated, well-trained professional research analyst with key IT sources at a company. After several TIPs, RainKing delivers very precise and accurate contact data and intelligence on the key managers and buyers of technology services and products. RainKing then explains and maps out the technology decision-making process — providing this valuable data and intelligence in a web-based, on-demand database and marketing platform that's never more than a few clicks away. RainKing's researchers will also follow-up on specific requests from users, using their inside contacts to deliver intelligence that would be practically unattainable by busy salespeople.
It's unanimous! Users praise depth and relevance of RainKing intelligence.
Wright says he's constantly bombarded by companies who claim they can provide solid market intelligence, so when RainKing approached him he was understandably wary. "It was really just a chance that we listened to their story, and we decided to do a small pilot at the tail end of '07 going into '08. But I was kind of leery going in, because it was a new product."
But within weeks, he realized RainKing actually delivered sales. "It was extraordinary the amount of positive feedback we received. All of the participants in that pilot reported really great results. They had high accolades in terms of the data, its pertinence, the contacts, the information."
Sales directly attributed to RainKing soar.
Wright could quickly see the ROI would be tremendous, and Global Knowledge signed on a number of users in the Enterprise Division. "But word of the positive reaction soon got out to the Open Enrollment division," he says. "They wanted to take a look at it as well." Reviews there were equally favorable, and Global Knowledge staged a rollout for reps in both divisions.
After less than a year, Wright says that actual sales closed as a direct result of RainKing leads represent at least seven times Global Knowledge's investment in RainKing. "And if I look at the opportunities currently on the table for 2009 that come as a direct result of RainKing, it's 50 times our investment," he says. "I've never seen anything like it before. We've never been able to quantify results from similar tools before."
RainKing's flexibility is well suited to the variety of ways salespeople work. At Global Knowledge, the enterprise team works with named accounts, while open enrolment reps work within defined territories. "Each rep is different," says Wright. "One might want to search on networking and see what comes up. Another might go into a technology like Microsoft Exchange Server. Or they might want to go into the particular organization and look at the structure."
Currently, Wright is encouraging salespeople to leverage RainKing's research teams with specific requests — getting them to find the networking administrator responsible for Microsoft training, for example. "That holds great promise," he says.
"Personally, I get the sense that the folks at RainKing are very much focused on improving the product — they're open to feedback, they're open to sharing with us where they're going, and they're willing to listen to us regarding potential future directions." Download the full success story here.