Customer success story

Octopus Investments Case Study



 

Hotkey transfers shorten sales cycle and ensure success of outsourced lead generation campaign

Octopus, based in Holborn, London, is one of the UK’s fastest-growing fund management companies, with around 500 employees, more than £5 billion in assets under management, and over 50,000 investors. Working closely with financial advisers, Octopus creates investment solutions that combine expertise in smaller company investing, with government approved tax reliefs, to offer solutions that focus on capital growth, income generation or capital preservation. With a company ethos centred on customer service, the company has built market-leading positions in tax-efficient investment, smaller company financing, renewable energy and healthcare.

Octopus Image

Campaign objective and Project background

Since its foundation, Octopus had grown steadily and developed a network of around 4800 Financial Advisers. Despite healthy growth, the company was aware of significant untapped potential within the total universe of around 24,000 Advisers in the UK. It therefore launched an initiative to scope the opportunity within the current market, establish existing levels of penetration and identify new opportunities for Octopus products.

With a large team of Business Development Managers, Octopus considered an in-house approach, but decided in favour of an outsourced option to minimise management overhead, and free up the in-house team to focus on converting the pipeline of leads generated. An existing Octopus employee who had previously worked with the agency at another financial services provider, recommended The Telemarketing Company for the project, and they were invited, with one other agency, to present a proposal to support the initiative.

Following an evaluation period, The Telemarketing Company was engaged for an initial six week proof of concept trial.

Project execution

Prior to calling, a briefing took place at the agency offices in Brighton, so that the client could meet the team and provide training on the company, its proposition, features and benefits.

Data to support the campaign was sourced from a specialist database of Financial Advisers, which included a mix of profiles - from one man bands to larger firms with many regulated individuals. Data was filtered to remove Advisers – those associated with banks, nationals and networks – that were not able to advise on Octopus products.  As the data still included multiple types of Adviser, each with a variety of clients, areas of interest could vary significantly and calling needed to include careful qualification so that the proposition could be tailored accordingly. Callers used open questions to understand pain points and present corresponding benefits, and to identify clients particularly receptive to the Octopus portfolio, including high income tax payers and those with tax issues including inheritance tax. 

With a database of nearly 13,000 records, it was important to retain and report insight that would inform future initiatives. Data and insight gleaned during calling needed to be captured in a specific format to ensure it could be easily filtered and incorporated into the client CRM for future use.

In addition to insight, another goal of the campaign was opportunity generation. Working as an extension of the Octopus team, callers were tasked to create leads via hotkey transfers to the in-house team. Having established initial interest, Advisers would be transferred during the live call direct to Octopus product experts, to discuss requirements in more detail and receive more in-depth product information.  Where Advisors were not yet ready to speak to a specialist, callers would forward a lead across to the Octopus team so that additional information could be provided via email to gently nurture interest and build future pipeline.

Results

The initial six week pilot provided the perfect opportunity to review the approach, test assumptions, analyse results, and implement changes based on client feedback and, following its success, the campaign was extended to a six month engagement. By outsourcing the initiative, Octopus benefitted from regular bespoke reporting, call recordings and proactive account management, freeing their team up to focus on pipeline conversion and provide feedback to enhance the campaign. At the start of the calling process, a member of the Octopus team spent the day at the agency offices, listening to live calls and providing feedback and advice. This close collaboration continued on an ongoing basis for the duration of the campaign, with the client working closely with the agency, listening to call recordings and helping coach agents.

Using hotkey transfers ensured leads were prioritised and passed immediately to an in-house Octopus product expert during a live call, and significantly, over 50% of results were generated from a first call. In addition, live transfers ensured leads were qualified and responsive at the point they reached the Octopus team. At the end of the six month campaign, performance had exceeded the agreed target of 1 result every 4 hours and over 450 results in total were generated.

In addition, in the course of the campaign, over 4500 live conversations were held with decision maker contacts, and data and insight from each conversation supplied for import into the Octopus CRM to feed future initiatives. Over 16,000 changes were made to the original database including 11601 contact names, 283 job titles captured or amended, as well as 975 email addresses to support future marketing efforts. Data output at the end of the campaign included a pipeline of warm leads for future nurture.

Following the success of their first outsourced telemarketing campaign, Octopus Investments is looking at future initiatives and The Telemarketing Company is in discussion with other divisions of the business to discuss potential new projects.

“We’re delighted with The Telemarketing Company. As a result of the campaign, we now plan to use them again to launch new products. We’d have no hesitation in recommending the whole team, they have extremely professional well trained sales staff and the organisation are a pleasure to deal with”.

Head of Internal Business Development, Octopus Investments

Our full range of telephone services

Data Services

Flexible Data Services

Data Cleansing
Data Cleansing
Clean, up-to-date data delivers better quality leads and boosts sales
Read more
Data Enrichment
Data Enrichment
Data enrichment helps you better connect with your target audience and delivers actionable insights, improved conversion
Read more
Email Opt-ins: GDPR
Email Opt-ins: GDPR
Do you have a clean, compliant, opted-in database?
Read more

Pre Sales Research

Drive your sales strategy with telephone interviewing

Pre Sales Research
Pre Sales Research
Arm your sales and marketing teams with clear customer intelligence and actionable insight.
Read more

Telemarketing

Telemarketing that’s personal, agile, smart and insightful.

Lead Generation
Lead Generation
A steady stream of qualified buyers
Read more
Call Handling
Call Handling
We can provide your customers with an expert, personalised service - making every interaction count
Read more
Appointment Setting
Appointment Setting
Successful appointment setting requires meaningful human interaction with senior decision makers
Read more
Lead Management
Lead Management
Improve lead flow and quality - turn inbound leads into sales
Read more
Event Marketing
Event Marketing
Engage high value attendees and drive registrations
Read more
Lead Qualification / Nurture
Lead Qualification / Nurture
Move leads through the funnel more strategically with our expert lead qualification and lead nurturing services
Read more

Sales

High-performance Telesales

Telesales / Inside Sales
Telesales / Inside Sales
Flexible, high performance transactional telesales and complex inside sales services.
Read more
Account Based Marketing
Account Based Marketing
Increase profitability, reverse churn and increase customer lifetime value.
Read more

Post Sales Research

Strengthen customer relationships

Welcome Calls
Welcome Calls
A welcome call is an opportunity to reach out to new customers and reduce customer churn, as part of an effective customer management strategy.
Read more
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction
Gain a more nuanced view of your customers’ experiences through phone-based surveys.
Read more
Treating Customers Fairly / Compliance
Treating Customers Fairly / Compliance
An FCA authorised and regulated business, our expert team can help you meet your TCF compliance needs.
Read more

Related success stories

Awards and Accreditations

Financial Conduct Authority
ISO 27001
ISO 9001
Investors in People
Brighton Living Wage
Disability Confident Committed
ISM
ISM Recognised Centre
MRS Evidence Matters - Company Partner
IQCS
MRS Evidence Matters - Accredited Training Provider
ESOMAR
DMA member
B2B Marketing - Top B2B Telemarketing Agency
Level 4 PCI Compliance
TPS
The Business Marketing Club

Make an enquiry

The Telemarketing Company can help with all of your sales and market research needs. We look forward to hearing from you.

Call us on 01273 765 000
or email us at info@ttmc.co.uk

Visit us at:
The Telemarketing Company
26-27 Regency Square
Brighton
East Sussex