ANNUITAS Case Study: Lenox Industrial Products & Services

As one of the world’s leading providers of industrial saw blades, LENOX has been successfully selling top-quality metal cutting products for over a century. But a winning track record in the market doesn’t guarantee optimized marketing results.

With revenue growth and market share viewed as ongoing priorities by the company’s leadership, the LENOX marketing team wanted to keep winning new customers while still demonstrating value to its broad base of stakeholders including business owners, plant managers, purchasing managers and more.

In trying to achieve growth goals, LENOX realized that it wasn’t practicing strategic demand. The company no longer reached its audience in the right place, at the right time, and was beginning to see that buyer content needs were changing. Meanwhile, marketing was primarily focused on getting products launched and promoted, not on tracking leads. As a result, the demand process was saddled with inefficiencies with no clear metrics for reporting and validating results.

The Solution:
LENOX partnered with ANNUITAS in an effort to achieve a strategic demand state — one that would lead to the most profitable lead to conversion program in the company’s history. In less than 12 months, that’s just what they did.

ANNUITAS began developing buyer insights through in-depth customer and industry-based research designed to identify the personas and primary pain points of key decision makers. In addition, ANNUITAS determined that historically, the company’s marketing approach didn’t match the buyer’s journey. In particular, LENOX lacked materials and communications to continue the conversation with potential buyers during intermediate stages. As a result, many potential buyers lost interest before they were ready to act. Working in tandem with the LENOX marketing team, ANNUITAS created the Industrial Metal Cutting Resource Center.

The resource center’s content now meets the needs of potential customers regardless of where they are in the buying cycle. Basic information about metal cutting operations drives early stage engagement and establishes LENOX as a reliable resource for critical metal cutting information, while sections discussing how to improve performance, along with LENOX product information, trial and demo options addresses the needs of mid and later stage prospects.

Leads are also nurtured by maintaining a steady flow of content-driven communications. Blogs, SEO, PPC, benchmarking studies, industry white papers, marketing automation and other tactics keep LENOX in front of potential buyers. Instead of targeting buyers with a random assortment of content, LENOX engages potential customers through ongoing conversations appropriate for every stage of the buying journey.

Based on what specific content potential buyers actually choose to download, the system captures where buyers are in their own decision making process. The resulting leads are then given weighted scores and categorized from engagement to qualified leads.

Qualified leads are turned over to the sales team and managed proactively via a framework jointly developed by the LENOX sales and marketing departments. As a result, sales and marketing are both driving greater ROI.

The Results:
LENOX increased marketing’s contribution to the sales pipeline from single digits to approximately 10% for 2014—with results still improving. Today, the strategic demand engine consistently converts 11.21% of engaged leads into qualified leads for the sales organization.

About Lenox Industrial Products and Services
Newell Rubbermaid Inc. is an S&P 500 company and a global marketer of consumer and commercial products. Its strong portfolio of top brands includes LENOX, a worldwide leader in providing high-quality metal cutting tools. The LENOX team of more than 900 people designs, tests, manufactures and markets power tool accessories, hand tools, band saw blades and other LENOX products in over 70 countries.revenue and to maximizing customer life me value.