BOTFRIENDS: INCREASING CONVERSATION RATES THRoughout THE FUNNEL
The Challenge
BOTfriends faced declining marketing performance in their acquisition channels and struggled to close deals due to the absence of a standardized, repeatable sales process. The lack of an efficient strategy was hindering their growth in a competitive market.
The Solution
To address these issues, BOTfriends enlisted the help of an external expert with extensive sales and marketing experience across various industries. This expertise provided BOTfriends with the immediate strategic and operational guidance needed to scale effectively without wasting time on trial and error.
The Result
By focusing on a specific ideal customer profile (ICP) and ensuring alignment between sales and marketing, BOTfriends saw a significant increase in conversion rates throughout the funnel and a 20% reduction in sales cycles. They are now closing significantly more deals and winning against competitors they previously lost to.
BOTfriends, a startup specializing in conversational AI for applications such as chatbots and voicebots, was experiencing declining campaign performance, worsening conversion rates, and decreasing win rates. The company was also facing in some cases price battles, due to increased commoditization and competition in this segment, making it challenging to grow sustainably. BOTfriends wanted to build an independent and scalable marketing and sales strategy. However, their initial attempts on their own saw a dissatisfying performance, prompting them to seek external expertise.
External Expertise to outpace the fierce competition
BOTfriends enlisted the help of B2B Practitioners, led by Norman Rohr, to tackle their challenges. As a bootstrapped startup in a crowded market with well-funded competitors, they felt they had no time to waste. Daniel Rösch, Co-Founder & CEO of Products at BOTfriends, believes that earlier collaboration with B2B Practitioners would have accelerated their growth by providing a sales and marketing strategy when they were primarily focused on building an exceptional product.
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Daniel Rösch, Co-founder of BOTfriends:
"The initial workshops on positioning and ICP were eye-opening. We realized the importance of keeping these fundamentals up-to-date and actively using them in our strategy."
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The partnership began with foundational workshops on positioning, ideal customer profiles (ICP), buyer personas, and the buyer's journey. Although BOTfriends had previously discussed these topics, Daniel notes that having an expert moderating the conversations made a significant difference, and these exercises were crucial in aligning the company’s strategy and operations​
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Daniel Rösch, Co-founder of BOTfriends:
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"Norman's expertise in setting up bottom-of-the-funnel campaigns made a huge impact. The shift in channels and campaign types improved our lead quality significantly and we started to capture higher intent leads."
B2B PRACTITIONER'S APPROACH INCLUDED:
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Defining ICP and Target Verticals: Identifying and focusing on specific industries and customer profiles to streamline marketing efforts.
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Revamping Campaign Strategies: Transitioning from top-of-the-funnel activities to bottom-of-the-funnel tactics.
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Improving Sales Processes: Standardizing the sales process with clear exit criteria for each deal phase, facilitating better team collaboration and deal management.
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Coaching and Team Empowerment: Conducting coaching sessions with the marketing team, fostering a strategic outlook and self-sufficiency.
The results
The results came quickly as BOTfriends' collaboration with B2B Practitioners yielded significant improvements. Conversion rates improved markedly across the entire funnel, the sales cycle was reduced by 20%, and the company returned to a healthy, high double-digit growth trajectory.
The unique value proposition, now including backend workflow automation, resonated well with prospects, as it is crucial for increasing the ROI of customer service automation.
With stronger positioning, messaging, and a refined demand generation strategy, BOTfriends acquired more high-quality leads. The closer alignment between sales and marketing further boosted conversion rates, ultimately leading to more closed deals.
Daniel Rösch, Co-founder of BOTfriends:
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"Standardizing our sales process with clear exit criteria for each deal phase brought much-needed clarity and efficiency."
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Conclusions
BOTfriends' partnership with B2B Practitioners was transformative. The strategic overhaul not only reversed declining performance metrics but also positioned the company for sustainable growth. The successful collaboration highlights the importance of combining a strong product with a well-defined marketing and sales strategy.