Q-MATIC

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Q-MATIC is the world's leading queuing management and customer flow solution provider, with customers in 80 countries. The company develops, manufactures, installs and supports a wide variety of hardware and software products to make customer service delivery more effective and efficient. Q-MATIC's North America Division focuses on the U.S. and Canada, with dedicated managers in charge of the company's financial, public sector, healthcare and retail sectors. The company is in a niche market, and pursuing niche market opportunities presents its challenges. The biggest challenge is that it's very hard for Q-MATIC to find RFPs for their services and generate a steady flow of sales leads.

Most of the company's sales leads are generated from the networking efforts of the marketing managers. "It's very rare to find RFPs for our exact services, and if we do find something, it is a big deal," says Jody Smith, Q-MATIC's Director of Marketing, North America Division. For example, 35 states in the U.S. use Q-MATIC's services to manage customer flow within their DMV offices. "Since so many of the State DMV agencies have queuing solutions, there are not many states left that need go to RFP for these solutions," says Smith.

Q-MATIC wanted a way to increase their number of sales leads to help maximize their potential revenue. The company specifically wanted detailed contact information for decision makers and influencers nationwide at various government agencies such as Health and Social Services, Veteran Affairs, Building and Facility, and Utilities. In order to market their services and begin building relationships with decision makers, Q-MATIC also wanted to ensure that they had visibility into new RFPs for their services, plus announcements on new building construction.

Q-MATIC discovered Onvia, liked the thoroughness of Onvia's government contact lists, and started purchasing multiple lists targeting Directors of Health/Human Services, DIR/COM, and IT Departments. Q-MATIC has used Onvia's custom government contact lists for use in marketing campaigns. Once the company receives a contact list from Onvia, the direct mail and email campaign is sent to the contacts and then followed up with telemarketing efforts. "Once we identify a lead, we input the information into our sales CRM system and provide the contact information to the sales person," says Smith.

To ensure that Q-MATIC is maximizing government sales opportunities, the company also subscribed to Onvia Business Builder, which provides daily sales leads and online access to an archive of over 4.5 million procurement records. The company utilizes five licenses, allowing multiple Q-MATIC managers and directors access to Onvia's procurement database so they can further research government procurement data. In addition, each manager receives a daily email report of any new RFPs that are specific to their sector.

Q-MATIC values how innovative and thorough Onvia is in comparison to other business intelligence companies. Says Smith, "We joined Onvia because they have a large research team gathering data for us every day and provide various ways for each user in our company to obtain the information. Other companies don't have that flexibility."

Onvia's custom government contact lists in particular have been driving many of Q-MATIC's marketing campaigns. "We have utilized at least 5 different custom contact lists from Onvia within this year," says Smith. "We ran a public sector marketing campaign early in 2007, targeting 5 different public type agencies and had big success with the Onvia lists. They enable us to get to the correct decision maker faster so our sales cycle could move more quickly." "One of our sales representatives worked his contact list and closed several deals already," relates Smith. "The typical sales cycle for Q-MATIC is 6-12 months, but the representative was able to close business in 2-4 months." For Q-MATIC, the top benefits of the contact lists are uncovering additional sales leads and shortening sales cycles. "We use Onvia's custom contact lists because they are comprehensive and accurate," says Smith. "You get to the right person the first time."

In addition to custom contact lists, Q-MATIC also benefits from receiving daily sales reports and accessing Onvia's archive of procurement records. Q-MATIC even receives leads on new buildings being built, such as hospitals, post offices, etc. where customer flow management services may be needed. If the building requires lobby construction, Q-MATIC will try to get involved in the design of the lobby by contacting building logistic managers. This is another way that Q-MATIC is able to build relationships and develop sales opportunities. "We didn't want to miss out on any projects," says Smith. Onvia Business Builder provides us with a back-up method just in case we miss a project that came out."