Online Marketer Q-go Increases Web Leads, Achieves Return on Investment in Two Weeks with Salesforce

Case Study

New Department Challenged to Grow Revenue

Founded in Amsterdam with offices in the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain, e-service communications software company Q-go provides navigation software that enables companies to fundamentally improve the way they communicate with their customers through the Internet. Using natural language communications technology, Q-go helps a company's customers quickly find relevant information on a Web site. Q-go guarantees a six-month return on investment. Rapid ROI is just one reason why Q-go's customers include Fortune 500 names such as the Dutch Postbank, Banco Caja Madrid, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Banco La Caixa, Rabobank, and the Dutch TPG Post.

Daniel van de Wetering joined Q-go in November 2002 with the core task and challenge of boosting revenues by establishing a new sales development department. Having previously worked at Siebel and SAP, Van de Wetering's natural question on day one was, "What CRM system should we use?" He says, "Q-go had been using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, but this was inadequate for what we wanted to do. As the new sales development group started making calls, inviting people to seminars, and so on, it was vital to be able to share customer and prospect information across the company and across geographic markets."

Demanding Criteria for New CRM System

Van de Wetering realised that he needed a CRM system, and quickly. Based on his previous CRM experience, he developed a list of demanding criteria. It had to be easy to learn and customise. It had to be up and running in weeks, not months. Q-go also wanted to avoid the software licensing trap and find a solution that was scalable and flexible to accommodate extra part-time staff before a big event. "This was very important. With traditional CRM, you pay upfront for licenses," explains Van de Wetering. "If you stop using them, you can't give the licenses back to the CRM vendor, and they don't offer to give your money back."

Other criteria included multilingual capabilities and the ability for users to work with their information without Internet access. Another consideration was the fact that Q-go's IT group was very busy and likely could not offer resources to help implement a new system. Cost was also a key factor. "In my first day in my new job, I wasn't going to be popular by requesting a costly IT investment," says Van de Wetering.

Van de Wetering knew that a traditional CRM approach would not meet Q-go's criteria. "It would be too complex and expensive, take way too long to implement, require costly maintenance, and not provide us with the flexibility we needed," he says. "I had heard of salesforce.com, but I was rather skeptical about this new kid on the block."

Despite his reservations, Van de Wetering signed up for a free 30-day trial of Salesforce. "I was amazed," says Van de Wetering. "It did everything we needed." Halfway through the 30-day trial, Q-go purchased salesforce.com's Professional Edition.

Fast Return on CRM Investment

One concern was how difficult it would be to move Q-go's data to Salesforce. "We need not have worried," Van de Wetering says. "Each salesperson had Excel sheets, but Salesforce made it easy and painless to transfer our existing customer data in minutes. Within 30 days every sales development rep, executive, and consultant was using Salesforce. In my experience, installing the data, customising the system, and getting up and running would have taken 12 to 18 months if we had gone for a client/server CRM software solution."

Within two weeks Q-go was generating new business leads off the Web. One of Salesforce's sales generation capabilities involves capturing and tracking leads off a company's Web site. Prospects who register on the Q-go site are automatically captured as a lead in Salesforce, and the relevant salesperson is alerted by email. "Before, we were missing opportunities to capture and monitor Web site traffic," explains Van de Wetering. "A company's Web site is one of the most powerful weapons in today's marketing mix. With Salesforce, we are able to fully exploit the power and reach of the Web."

Another surprise to Van de Wetering was the quality of salesforce.com support. "In view of the low overall cost of the solution, I was pleasantly surprised by the responsiveness," he says. "We all have horror stories of hanging on for help desks, but with Salesforce I never had to wait for more than two rings before my call was answered."

As part of the drive to grow revenue, Q-go CEO Marcel Smit wanted to implement the Miller Heiman Selling Programme. "We were delighted to find that Miller Heiman is a salesforce.com partner and is fully integrated into the system," says Van de Wetering.

Q-go's management now has a much more transparent view of the sales pipeline. Standard or custom reportscustomised reports are easy to generate, and the automated reporting system eliminates duplication of salespeople's time. And Salesforce has been a major boost in getting the new sales development department up and running quickly. "It is generating leads and helping us to grow sales as well as boost customer service," says Van de Wetering.

Q-go's IT department was delighted that Salesforce got up and running without their involvement. "They did ask us about the risk of another company hosting our valuable customer data," says Van de Wetering. "I am able to get a weekly download of all our data from Salesforce so we are fully backed up at all times."

The new system has also been demonstrated to investors. "They have been very impressed with the efficiency of the system, the amount of customer data we have, and the speed of implementation," says Van de Wetering. "Being investors, they like anything that helps to boost revenues at a low cost. Having a CRM system like Salesforce, especially in a difficult technology market, boosts investor confidence."

Q-go