TTMC’s new business and reactivation campaign helps Turtle Wax establish new Trade Portal and gain strategic insight.

Founded over 75 years ago in Chicago, Illinois, Turtle Wax is a globally recognised leader in car care. Known for product innovation and value, the company offers a wide range of award-winning solutions – from polishes and waxes to tyre dressings and trim restorers. With production in the UK since 1966, Turtle Wax products are now sold in over 120 countries worldwide.

Campaign objective and project background.

Turtle Wax had launched a new trade portal, enabling UK trade customers to purchase products directly. The portal had achieved a retention rate of over 90% with active users but there remained significant potential to increase the number of active users and grow this revenue stream. To maximise awareness and uptake, the company wanted to promote the portal to a large target audience of up to 2,000 independent retailers and thousands of forecourts.

With a small UK team and limited internal capacity, they recognised the need for external support and sought a specialist telemarketing provider that could offer scale, reliability and the expertise to maximise conversion. After evaluating several providers, they selected The Telemarketing Company (TTMC) as the best fit, based on its strong credentials and solid automotive sector experience.

The key objective was to recruit new customers to the trade portal and activate existing accounts that had yet to order on the platform. As the company had not used the telemarketing before, the engagement would also serve as a proof of concept for the value of the channel itself.

Project execution

Agents were fully briefed on Turtle Wax’s brand, proposition, competitive positioning and trained to identify decision makers, uncover objections, and highlight the benefits of ordering direct through the trade portal.

The client provided a database of SME retailers and independent motor dealers and TTMC sourced new data matching the same profile to support calling. To provide a solid proof of concept, large brands, groups and marketplaces such as Amazon were excluded.

The telemarketing programme was structured to:

• Grow awareness and expand reach by attracting new businesses to the portal.

• Activate existing accounts – account holders who had not yet placed an order.

• Highlight and encourage take-up of exclusive trade benefits such as full product access, promotional offers, fast delivery, and low minimum order values.

• Understand common objections around pre-payment, minimum order values, and past delivery issues, capturing valuable insight through call recordings and lead notes.

To support transparency and collaboration, key stakeholders at Turtle Wax were given access to TTMC’s client portal with full visibility of campaign performance, real-time access to data and analytics, and the ability to download call recordings. This transparency, along with regular reviews and ongoing communication between teams, created a solid feedback loop to allow continuous refinement of the approach. This was especially valuable in the early stages, increasing knowledge exchange and helping agents quickly get up to speed on the brand and proposition.

Whilst the goal was to increase the volume of purchases, it was important to ensure lead quality. TTMC applied BANT qualification —Budget, Authority, Need, and Timescale—tailored to the client’s specific criteria. For example, they confirmed that prospects could meet the minimum order value and had clear intent or influence over spending decisions.

Data management was vital, and focused datasets were set up to allow the client to gain insight into how the portal might be received and how their brand and proposition resonated with different audiences. This also allowed them to isolate and test new segments, qualifying the potential opportunity with new target audiences such as funeral directors.

Agents gently guided prospects through the journey — carefully tailoring conversations to highlight key benefits, offering hands-on support with account setup, and presenting a strong, personalised case to increase conversion. Beyond nurturing leads, they actively smoothed the customer experience by quickly identifying and escalating issues in real time, helping to remove barriers and provide valuable insights that informed ongoing optimisation of the customer journey.

Results

Turtle Wax has been impressed with TTMC’s capacity to engage and convert the right audience, validating the direct-to-retailer model and laying a foundation for future sales development initiatives.

The pilot has met their expectations in terms of new business and reactivation of existing accounts. They have really valued the flexibility of both the agency and the channel, which made it very easy to test key markets and refine the message and approach. The campaign has also delivered valuable insight into common barriers to conversion, the quality of customer experience, competitor positioning and potential improvements to the portal.

The pilot has demonstrated the value of telemarketing, and Turtle Wax sees strong potential in using the channel to boost sales and shape future strategy. They're now exploring additional projects and looking at how telemarketing could work alongside other channels to support wider business goals.