Background
The Michigan State Chamber of Commerce experienced relatively flat revenue in FY2022 and set a goal to average 8% YOY revenue growth for three years. So, they knew they needed to do something different from a business development perspective.
The Plan
They engaged Convergo to help them develop a Revenue Growth Strategy. Convergo facilitated an onsite workshop for the Chamber leadership and marketing teams in Lansing in the fall of 2022. The most significant takeaways from the workshop were:
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Member segmentation
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Heat map of the current state of membership development and the Member Journey
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Zoominfo recommendation
Member segmentation
The Michigan State Chamber leadership team realized they needed three target groups of potential members:
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Enterprise – Large businesses that provide significant revenue for the Chamber, credibility and clout to support their lobbying efforts.
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Mid-Size – The sweet spot or “Ideal Member”. Growing mid-size membership is in the hands of the Chamber Marketing and Sales Teams.
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Small – These businesses have a relatively low cost per business to join the Chamber but were helpful for the Chamber to have a large number of businesses that they represent. A lower-touch marketing-centric approach was needed to pursue these businesses.
Heat Map
The heat map helped the Chamber understand the current state of their member experience and the sales and marketing processes to drive the experience. This helps them set their quarterly rocks/priorities.
Zoominfo
The sales team was using LinkedIn Navigator and their internal CRM to target mid-size businesses. Both systems have their place, but the team was having difficulty reaching and engaging with the right people at the business. These mid-size prospects were needed to grow revenue.
One of the recommendations from the workshop was for the Chamber to acquire Zoominfo to help them target the Ideal Members ( mid-size prospects). The chamber acquired Zoominfo to help its sales team target mid-size members.
Some of the ZoomInfo key features that the Chamber is using are:
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Target the right people inside the businesses that meet the Ideal Member Criteria – instead of pursuing old contacts.
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Contact info – More comprehensive contact information such as accurate phone, cell, and email details.
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Scoops – Scoops are actionable insights into things going on in mid-size businesses that enable the sales team to engage with their target contacts more successfully.
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Websites- This helps the Chamber know what prospects are coming through to which landing pages, helping them determine what is important to the businesses.
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Intent data – Intent data shows the different topics the mid-size businesses are Googling that the Chamber can help with. This information has helped the sales team match the specific topics with the right contact person.
The Results
The Michigan State Chamber is in the early days of their Zoominfo journey, but the initial results are very positive. They have had 500 more qualified leads for businesses over the last four months because of the contact information and scoops. The team is getting more people on the phone and leveraging texting successfully.
One interesting additional benefit is that the team has had more success on their renewal calls and increased retention rates because they can target outreach to the current contacts instead of targeting someone that might have left the business. Member outreach is now much more successful because they call the right people.
In addition to supporting continued success by the sales team in targeting mid-market businesses, in the future Zoominfo is able help the Chamber target the third tier of members, smaller businesses, with extremely targeted marketing campaigns.
In closing, the Michigan State Chamber has effectively implemented its Revenue Growth Strategy with the support of Convergo and Zoominfo, putting them on the road to hitting their 3-year revenue goal.