We at Saleslift Studio recently had the privilege to sit down with our valued partner, the creative Frank de Blok from Content Animators.
He gave us insight as to the trials and tribulations he faced from organic growth and how allocating the prospecting stage allowed him to focus on what was truly important to him, content animation, predictable sustainable growth and return on investment.
We have been working together for about a year, can you tell us what is the main reason you wanted to partner with Saleslift Studio?
We are a start-up and we employ people who are mainly involved in making animation videos. We want to focus on this, because that is what we are good at.
On the other hand, we don’t want to rely solely on organic growth. By outsourcing sales development to Saleslift Studio I can focus on Content Animators and I don’t have to worry about sales development. I only take action when it really matters.
In addition, I do not have the resources and knowledge to do this in-house with the same quality and speed. A nice side effect is of course that the risk is very low due to the flexible cooperation.
You have a proposition that is primarily on a project basis, how do you ensure that customers come back? What would the lifetime value of your customer be?
Indeed, we do not work with a licensing model or similar. But thanks to our quality and know how, customers tend to return several times a year with different projects. We do not only focus on the initial order value, but mainly consider the lifetime value of a customer. A qualitative solution from sales development fits in well with this.
Can you elaborate upon what Saleslift Studio has brought to Content Animators, without giving away too much personal information of course?
Our business case is quite clear; we receive an average of about 12 qualified appointments per month from your sales activities. We convert +/- 60% of this directly into an assignment within 3 months. We stay in touch with the rest of the contacts for when it becomes relevant.
We know the average first deal value of the customers and the lifetime value of the customer. By completing this calculation, we can precisely calculate the ROI of our collaboration. We are still working together so it has been going very well so far.
You naturally create content, what exactly do you do and how do you think this can be best applied?
We help customers achieve a better reach through the use of animation videos. With this our customers experience a higher impact with their marketing / communication campaigns and achieve measurably better results.
Animation video can be used for any organization (formal or informal) and in numerous ways. It is especially important that the message is tailored to the goal and target group of the customer.
In addition, the video should mainly be about solving the customer’s “problems” and not so much focussed on the company itself. A short and concise message combined with a high-profile design ensures the desired result.
Finally; how do you see the future in the field of marketing and sales. We try to bring them together, but what trends do you see among your customers in this area?
1.
Evolution of traditional Marketing & Sales: We see that during this corona crisis, mainly traditional forms of Marketing & Sales, which are not measurable or deliver demonstrable results, are being phased out more quickly. So following up measurable marketing campaigns with sales so that demonstrable results are achieved, or strengthening your sales funnels with valuable marketing content, we see as an increasingly important focus.
2.
Video Marketing: We see that better results can be achieved with video marketing, because video is not only faster but also easier to consume whilst being more appealing than, for example, a piece of text. We see combining sales funnels with video / animation video is highly effective. This way you can not only explain propositions / products or services more easily, you can also literally give the organization a face, making a message much more personal resulting in much higher engagement.
3.
Analytics / automation: What we see a lot is that marketing and sales must be tracked, so that the impact can be measured and managed accordingly. Furthermore, we see both sales and marketing becoming increasingly automated in content flows. In this way you not only create awareness, but you can also manage to achieve a concrete result by providing leads with the right content throughout the entire sales funnel.
Thank you Frank for all your insights and knowledge. They have been truly stimulating and we know the learnings can be applied as best practise for a multitude of organisations.
May we also take this opportunity to welcome any readers to contact us directly on the below details as we are more than happy to evaluate your current growth strategy and provide a free playbook on how to grow your business to the next level.
Please contact davy@salesliftstudio.com if you have any question on this matter.
