Case Study: iSB Global
About iSB Global:
ISB Global provided unparalleled access to top keynote speakers, acclaimed personalities, and leadership development offerings. ISB was acquired in early 2010. As Vice President of Marketing (November 2007 to September 2009) I was accountable for setting and leading the strategic brand marketing, public relations and sales support efforts across all ISB organizations.
The Challenge:
iSB had a number of challenges I was brought in to solve. One was that the brand had become stale and tired, desperately needing to be updated. Another issue was that the sales team was struggling in a crowded market. Competition was fierce and other companies were ahead of iSB in that the competition could offer more web-based access to solutions. Additionally, the sales team was not "speaking the same language" in their sales pitches with each running from their own individual playbooks and methodologies. Finally, the company's website project was languishing, having been "in development" for more than a year with nothing to show for it but some very costly invoices from an unreliable vendor.
The Solution:
I led the effort to reshape and update the companies brand identity and value proposition with a much more contemporary look and greater appeal. I took the reigns of the website redesign and held the vendor accountable for services paid for, but not rendered. With this new over site, we launched ISB’s website in two months, incorporating much greater user functionality, baked-in SEO and with the new branding. The site delivered an increase in the number and quality of conversions. The new site, value prop and branding quickly allowed iSB to become more competitive.
In addition, I worked to create a new sales playbook and toolkit that included web-based solutions for consistency and speed to market. This sales enablement initiative freed sales from the time-consuming tasks associated with building proposals, decks and custom pitches by automating much of the process. Additionally, it armed the sales team with collateral and speaker profiles which gave the entire sales organization unified and coherent messaging and methodologies.
The Outcomes:
Once fully implemented, the brand and digital marketing strategy ushered iSB into a much stronger competitive position. The web-based proposals actually gave the sales team a competitive advantage over many of our competitors. We immediately began to see improvements in strategic key term search rankings which greatly increased the number of NB leads. Here are some selected results:
1. Increased qualified sales leads by 47% over previous years prior to joining iSB Global.
2. In the first nine months after launch of the new site, the sales pipeline grew by 27%.
3. Search Engine Marketing (PPC & SEO) program, accounted for 90% of corporate sales.
4. Marketing initiatives achieved an overall ROI of 345%.
Has you brand grown stale and confusing to buyers?
