Though the end goals are typically the same, not all sales cycles are created equal. For 55 years, Airvac, the world leader in vacuum sewer technology, has worked with cities to revamp their sewer systems. When they came to us looking for help driving more conversions at a pivotal point in their long sales cycle, we were up for the challenge.
The Challenge: A Long Sales Cycle
Airvac’s vacuum sewer technology is lower-cost, easier to install and maintain, and better for the environment than its more traditional sewer system competitors, like gravity and low-pressure systems. Still, this technology can be overlooked in the first phase of a four-part, multi-year sales cycle due to a lack of awareness.
In phase one, cities and municipalities would research the types of sewer systems available and select one type to proceed in gathering bids for in phase two. To get Airvac to phase two, we knew that education on technology and product benefits would be key. We immediately got to work learning as much as possible about the multi-year sales cycle, the key decision-makers at each phase, details about the innovative technology, and how it compared to its more traditional counterparts. All of this empowered us to position the technology in a way that would be quickly understood by engineers and city officials alike.
We learned that Airvac was providing an initial proposal during the first phase of the sales cycle via a link on a landing page that’s personalized for each prospective customer. The Airvac team welcomed help modernizing the look of the landing page to better portray the credibility of their brand. We also identified content opportunities to make the page more compelling and conversion-focused.
Based on pain points we heard from Airvac about the landing page creation, we knew leveraging the Umbraco Cloud Content Management System (CMS) as the foundation of the landing page builder would address their concerns and make creating a new landing page a breeze (as in taking only five minutes or less!). And so, our first project with Airvac, creating a proposal tool, began.
The Solution: Engaging Content and Seamless Content Management
The Airvac proposal tool needed to accomplish two major goals:
- Educate the audience about vacuum sewer systems
- Sell them on why Airvac is the best solution for their needs
We mixed different content types to achieve these goals for our client. Several content areas explain why vacuum sewer systems are the right choice, with comparisons made to the traditional technologies the audience is familiar with, helping them quickly see that vacuum sewers offer cost reduction via lower O&M and installation costs. Case studies and logos from engineering partners Airvac has worked with provide social proof and lend to its effectiveness and legitimacy.
Meanwhile, an expansive FAQ section answers any questions someone might have about Airvac at this stage of the sales cycle. Clear CTAs throughout the page direct people to download their initial proposals, moving them into the next phase of the cycle.
Another big piece of content we wanted to feature is Airvac’s team. The company is unique in that people can reach out directly to the CEO with questions. The team section reminds the audience that Airvac’s team is their team and puts faces and contact information to each name.
In addition to a compelling front-end experience, we also wanted to make the landing page-building process easy and enjoyable for our client. Using the the Umbraco Cloud CMS, we focused on making the landing page as templated as possible, while still allowing the individual sales reps, who build the pages, the opportunity to customize content in a way that is most motivating to their prospective customers.
To create a brand new page, an editor simply has to enter basic information about the customer and select team members from a database in the CMS. They also have the option to tailor the page for each customer by changing out the logos, case studies, and stats. But, the marketing team's defaults will appear if left blank.
“It came out almost exactly as our team envisioned (probably even better),” Project Engineer Corbyn Jones said. “The Williams Randall group took our “wish list” for the tool and did an excellent job translating that into an actual, tangible reality.”
The Results
Within the first month and a half of having the new tool, Airvac has built out over 10 proposals and the pages have a collective proposal download rate of 60%.
“The new tool makes it super easy to build new estimate landing pages,” Jones said. “The Airvac team loves it! There has been nothing but positive feedback.”
Given their long sales cycle, it will take some time to see the true impact of the proposal tool but the client is thrilled with how it looks and how easy it is to use.
“The proposal tool should have a highly positive impact on our business,” Jones said. “The landing pages that the tool produces are a major customer touchpoint, and it is therefore important to get this tool right. Williams Randall did not disappoint.”
