Exceed.ai Enhances Elkem’s Lead Qualification Process, Boosting Conversion Rates by 40%

Elkem is a global leader in the production of raw and advanced materials. Founded over a century ago, the company has an extensive customer base spanning markets across the globe. Elkem Silicones, a division of Elkem, operates 14 multi-functional manufacturing sites and 13 Research & Innovation centers worldwide. The company offers a full range of silicone technologies for diverse specialty markets including aerospace, automotive, construction, renewable energy, healthcare, paper coatings, personal care, and textiles. Elkem Silicones is committed to creating new, innovative, and green solutions and business models that promote a sustainable future.

Elkem, a well-established raw and advanced materials company, was grappling with the challenge of managing over 7000+ leads a year. The sales team was overwhelmed, struggling to differentiate between unknown intent and promising inbound leads while also maintaining attention to existing clients. The company was in dire need of a solution that could alleviate the burden on sales without missing out on new opportunities. The sales team was primarily focused on demand generation among existing customers, and the marketing team’s influx of new, unknown intent inbound leads were seen as cluttering their CRM. The lack of a system to filter and understand the leads’ intent or relevance led to clashes between the marketing and sales teams on how to manage the new leads. Additionally, lead nurturing posed a significant challenge as Elkem’s marketing automation solution (Pardot) was incapable of conducting two-way conversations or replying to a potential lead inquiry, understand and analyze the comment, and recommend an appropriate next step.

Elkem turned to Exceed.AI’s lead qualifying solution to address their challenges. The solution helped Elkem qualify intent and properly score leads. Pre-written sequences provided Elkem’s sales and marketing reps with a valuable template and guidance on what to do with their unknown intent leads. High-intent leads were passed along straight to sales reps, while low or unknown-intent leads were engaged and nurtured via Exceed playbooks. Exceed.AI’s lead qualifying process helped align sales and marketing goals and processes, which significantly improved conversion rates and higher closures for sales. The solution also included a feature to qualify unknown intent leads with a follow-up query, determining if they are just browsing or have a specific question. This helped clue in sales teams into whether a lead should be handled by them personally or by Exceed.ai. More than 70 business opportunities, totaling a potential of more than 1 million Euros in revenue, entered the funnel due to Exceed.AI’s nurturing sequences.

• The implementation of Exceed.AI’s solution led to a significant improvement in Elkem's operational efficiency. The solution helped 'purify' the relationship between sales and marketing by removing waste. The alignment of sales and marketing goals and processes not only improved conversion rates but also led to higher closures for sales. The solution also helped declutter the leads, enabling marketing and sales teams to work together in harmony, making priorities and processes clearer and boosting morale. This clarity and unity paved the way for hitting benchmarks and accomplishing goals, making the path clearer and more understandable to all stakeholders. Moreover, the automation of the scoring and qualifying process freed up the sales teams to focus on nurturing and developing strong relationships with high-intent leads and existing clients.

• Elkem was able to qualify 700+ initially engaged leads, creating some 70 opportunities worth more than 1 Million Euros in revenue.
• Elkem's conversion rate for inbound leads increased from 6% to 10%, meeting their industry goal.
• Low-intent leads, previously not worth a follow-up, are now engaged at scale and with persistency.