PTC BUILDS END-TO-END ROI ENGINE THAT DELIVERS STELLAR RESULTS

THE CHALLENGE: LEVERAGE INTELLIGENCE, CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING, AND AUTOMATION TO LEVEL-UP MARKETING’S ROLE IN BUSINESS OUTCOMES

PTC, a $1.2B global software company needed to create an intelligent, efficient, scalable engine that generates demand while providing exceptional value to customers. “The world is changing and it’s going to continue changing,” says Mariana Cogan, SVP Digital Marketing Strategy and Operations. “As marketers, we’re obligated to think ahead of the curve to figure out how we provide more value to our customers.”

In support of this mission, PTC’s marketing team moved to shift from a product-centric to a customer-obsessed approach that would empower the company’s marketing team to fully leverage technology and give marketing a bigger, more effective role in driving pipeline and business outcomes.

The two main pain points driving this strategic shift were an outdated way of engaging website visitors and stalled pipeline progression. As a result, they were missing opportunities and leaving revenue on the table.

Traditional engagement strategy lengthened response time.

To engage buyers at the moment of peak interest, PTC needed to be able to do two things: identify and prioritize accounts, and engage them in real-time. Instead, their lack of predictive analytics and use of a traditional, form-based lead qualification process delivered an experience that required buyers to complete a 12-question form and they had to be available to take a phone call for someone to respond. “We need to be there, in real-time, when our buyers are ready to talk,” says Mariana.

Fixed response stalled pipeline progression and negatively affected conversion.

The rigidity of PTC’s existing method of engaging prospects left the marketing and sales teams without any way to adapt or evolve their approach. And a lack of account intelligence made it impossible to identify and replicate their ideal proven pathway to pipeline. They needed a solution that would deliver interaction-based insights so they could optimize their approach to reliably improve outcomes.

To make things more interesting, Marketing needed to address all these challenges using its existing team, resources and budget. “We didn’t have the luxury of putting our day jobs on hold,” says Saima Rashid, VP Field Analytics and Insights. The team needed a technology solution that would help everyone work smarter and faster, instead of harder.

THE SOLUTION: COMBINING 3 POWERFUL TECHNOLOGIES FOR END-TO-END COVERAGE OF THE BUYER JOURNEY

PTC’s concept solution was to create an end-to-end view of the customer from the first interaction with an account in the research phase throughout their entire journey and into renewal. To do this, PTC developed a Revenue Orchestration and Intelligence Engine (ROI Engine).

The ROI Engine allows PTC to identify buyers that are in market and engage them with targeted messaging through both inbound and outbound sales and marketing efforts.

The engine includes three key components to address the three primary tactical areas:

1. 6sense’s account intelligence to identify and prioritize relevant VIP accounts
2. Drift’s Revenue Acceleration Platform to deliver real-time, personalized conversational sales and marketing
3. People.ai’s CRM automation to identify and assess deal health and proven pathway to pipeline

Using 6sense predictive data to drive both marketing and sales outreach, PTC is able to uncover accounts with high intent. Drift’s direct integration with 6sense then enables real-time, two-way data sharing that enables PTC to instantly recognize high-value target accounts and either engage them with personalized messages based on detailed account information, or route them to the right sales rep. Drift’s ability to engage high intent buyers in the exact way they want allows PTC to deliver a fast, easy, and positive customer experience, which helps them accelerate trust, pipeline, and revenue.

Drift engagement also helps PTC identify its buyers, immediately engage in real-time and in a more personalized manner, all advantages the company leverages to deliver a better digital experience across the board. “Traditionally our sales teams would follow up within 1-2 business days. With Drift, we are able to engage with our prospects immediately, this is a game changer for our global sales teams,“ says Nicole Heavey, Senior Manager Marketing Operations. In addition, PTC is able to quickly and easily adapt chat playbooks based on insights gathered from Drift’s reporting tools. This ongoing optimization based on what’s working and what’s not has a direct, positive influence on pipeline progression.

The team created a well defined pilot which prioritized cross-functional collaboration to ensure success. “One of the main recommendations I have is to be sure you have a super strong partnership with sales and IT,” says Mariana. “The success of the program depends on it. We built this engine with sales, for sales, so partnership is extremely important.”

PTC’s ROI Engine began showing value within just four months. For example, a typical day would look something like this:

1. ID target account: example, XYZ pharmaceutical company SDRs reach out to contacts at the target account (Ex. 8 contacts at this account) 8 different contacts.
2. Marketing provided the air cover to share more about the brand with these targets.
3. When one of these eight contacts visited the PTC website, the team immediately identified and engaged them in conversation using Drift. Drift then quickly connected the prospect to the right SDR to move the conversation into a revenue generating opportunity.

THE RESULTS: A REPLICABLE PATH TO SUCCESS

The ROI Engine, powered by the integration between Drift, 6sense, and People.ai, was an unquestionable success.

In Phase One PTC’s ROI Engine delivered these results:

1. Identified 1,200+ net-new large, high-intent accounts
2. Saved 21,000 hours of time by automating Salesforce activity logging
3. Engaged prospects in 20,000 conversations
4. Captured 4.7K emails
5. 17 Countries enabled with Drift

The overwhelming success of the ROI Engine has cemented the deep alignment between sales and marketing, which was such a critical piece of the project. “We wouldn’t have been able to implement Drift without buy in from our sales leaders,” says Mariana. “Now, there’s even more camaraderie, which is driving expanded use of Drift.”

PTC has already expanded the program worldwide to 45 BDRs in 17 countries, and have localized Drift bots for their markets in Japan and China. In addition, they are creating a “white glove” experience to prospective buyers showing high intent, and exploring additional use cases for the ROI Engine, including customer success and subscription renewal.

“Never settle for what already exists,” says Mariana. “Adopt an attitude of continuous process improvement, embrace technology, and work with amazing partners – that’s how you conquer the world. We now have a new path forward. Customers get immediate value from a personalized experience that connects emotionally and builds trust. We’re able to foster alignment between marketing, sales, and customer success, which has given us cleaner, more robust data, resulting in more pipeline and a replicable path to success.”