A hot prospect as visionary company secures commercial funding
A Thames Valley Enterprise Hub client company which helps organisations to turn otherwise ‘anonymous’ website visitors into real, qualified leads, has been awarded £30,000 in funding to further commercialise its business activities. The award is part of the South East Funding escalator managed by Finance South East.
Using its unique Behavioural Inference Engine (BIE), Prospectvision enables companies to acquire customers more cost-effectively and subsequently increase their sales conversion rates.
“Reports show that UK businesses alone spend £10 billion trying to generate leads, and yet their websites often remain incredibly underutilised as a sales tool,” explains Andy Krafft, founder and Managing Director of Prospectvision. “Each day thousands upon thousands of potential customers are browsing websites and yet only a fraction of these will take their interest further.
“The Internet has become a major commercial tool and in the next 20-30 years will become an even more powerful and sophisticated environment for traders. In reality websites are still largely being used as shop windows, so if you can see who is visiting your shop - and so the identity of your potential next buyer - it’s much easier to be proactive and close the sale before your competitor does.”
Unlike companies that concentrate on providing web statistics and technical facts, such as Google Analytics and WebTrends, Prospectvision’s focus is specifically on SONAR - Sales Orientated 'Net Activity Reporting software.
Following identification of the individual using BIE, Prospectvision is then able to analyse the way they use the website, ranking the prospect's interest as a hot, warm or cool lead. Prospectvision subsequently qualifies the specific focus of the lead's interest so that any follow up can be allocated to the most appropriate salesperson.
The company provides contact information for the leads using a mixture of integration with CRM databases, public and third party information providers. Weekly reports provide a qualified list of actionable leads for sales teams to pursue and convert into sales.
“Having proven the concept, this additional funding will help us to commercialise the business throughout the remainder of 2008,” explains Andy. “The money is being allocated to areas such as marketing and telemarketing with the intention of bringing on board 40-50 more customers.
"Our next phase of development and expansion will come after this when we expect to look at greater sources of funding going into 2009.”
Support for Prospectvision by the Thames Valley Hub has included business and financial modelling, sales strategy planning and access to finance. The Hub will continue to support the company as it enhances its products and pushes for further funding to accelerate a second growth phase. Andy Krafft is a member of the client Peer Group facilitated by Hub Director, Susan Elliott, where a group of like minded owner managers meet regularly to support each other through the challenges of building their businesses.
Publish Date: 20th August 2008
