Conversica > Case Studies > AI-Driven Lead Management Boosts Sales for Star2Star Communications

AI-Driven Lead Management Boosts Sales for Star2Star Communications

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Hybrid Cloud
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Time Sensitive Networking

About The Customer

Star2Star Communications is a recognized leader in the field of unified communications. They deliver the world’s leading hybrid cloud communications solution, unifying customers’ voice, video, fax, chat, presence management, and more into a single, easy-to-use solution that enables visibility and improves productivity. Their award-winning, patented technology overcomes the reliability and quality limitations of other hosted technologies, guaranteeing 99.999% uptime reliability. Star2Star has been named to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, as a top 10 VoIP/UC Provider by Infonetics, and as a leader by Inc. 500|5000, Forbes, and Deloitte, all multiple times.

The Challenge

Star2Star Communications, a leader in unified communications, faced a significant challenge in identifying opportunities from their inbound leads. The company used a channel sales model, relying heavily on partners and resellers. Their primary method for generating leads was capturing information from businesses visiting their website. However, reaching the right partners and convincing them to market Star2Star’s offerings was a challenge. The company also marketed through onsite events and cold calling, but this approach was inefficient and failed to provide measurable intelligence regarding which prospects were ready to join or who were at least intrigued versus leads that were not interested. The company recognized that their sales operational model needed to be modified and enhanced to reduce the amount of time it took to get to an answer, be it a positive or negative response.

The Solution

Star2Star Communications turned to Conversica, an AI Automated Sales Assistant, to improve their lead engagement processes. Conversica's solution, an AI sales assistant named Rachel, engages with leads and passes them on to sales. Initially, there was some resistance from the team, but upon closer inspection of the product, they realized that Conversica was not a regular one-way, email campaign platform. It was a back-and-forth conversation between a lead and an AI who has the ability to read and discern intentions in emails. After assessing the risk/reward ratio, the company decided to implement the Conversica technology solution in 2016. Rachel, the AI sales assistant, was used to engage with their inbound leads, significantly increasing the team's productivity and reducing the time needed to obtain an answer.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Conversica's AI Automated Sales Assistant, Rachel, has brought significant operational benefits to Star2Star Communications. The AI assistant has not only increased the team's productivity but also reduced the time needed to obtain an answer from leads. The company has been able to quickly get to a 'yes' or a 'no', eliminating the chatter in between and allowing the sales team to focus on prospects who have expressed interest. This has resulted in a more efficient and effective sales process. Furthermore, the success of the program has led the company to consider expanding it to their partners, allowing them to engage and convert their own group of leads and user opportunities through the Conversica platform.

Quantitative Benefit

Email engagement increased to a 30% rate
Conversica contributed to 24% influenced sales
The sales team’s productivity improved—their time can be focused on selling, instead of reaching out to gauge interest from leads