“GSA Marketing worked with us on a test campaign to assess the viability of an outbound sales function in what is a relatively niche sector (outdoor learning residential breaks for Special Educational Needs schools) for our centre in the Lake District. The target market was Teachers or Special Needs Coordinators within schools and colleges, with us providing contact details, albeit un-validated, from our existing database – a combination of organisations who had enquired but never visited, or lapsed. We asked them to pitch for our business from a shortlist of potential suppliers and we chose them due to the bespoke attention they paid to our enquiry, and once selected were very pleased with the personal attention they gave us at a senior level. Setting up the campaign with them was very straightforward and we were impressed by the level of reporting through the campaign and the quality of the calls made by their staff, with each call being recorded. Warm leads were passed to us to follow-up and the quality of the contact information supplied very good. The nature of our business is that 1st contact to booking is usually relatively long, but we were delighted that the month long campaign quickly resulted in a booking from an entirely new customer which more than covered the capital cost of the test. We also now have several schools visiting the centre on an inspection trip, and previous experience tells us that a proportion of these will also convert. All in all, we were very pleased with this outbound sales test and GSA’s contribution to its success. We now have the confidence to invest in sales resource at the centre as a direct result”
