Customer case
How KPN drastically increased sales of a complex product through a door-to-door approach
This is
KPN is the largest internet and telecom provider in the Netherlands with a sustained 40% market share in internet and telecom. A few years ago, KPN piloted a door-to-door sales channel for their glass fiber product. This decision did not come without hesitation. Wouldn’t this be seen as an overly aggressive approach by consumers?
A few years later the door-to-door channel has proven its potential. And what about consumer complaints? Little to none are being made.
Challenge
Setting up a D2D channel for glass fiber connections in rural areas from scratch. Manage high expectations of tangible results from internal stakeholders, while avoiding an overly aggressive sales approach.
Solution
Staying on top of the performance of over a dozen of external door-to-door teams with the help of Briggs+Walker location manager and reporting features.
“We managed to establish a full-fledged face-to-face channel within a few years that makes a significant contribution in KPN’s channel mix. The insights and support we received from Briggs+Walker has helped us enormously.”
Frank Koevoets
Thema Lead KPN
Continuous feedback and collaboration
Over the past years, Frank Koevoets has built up the door-to-door channel at KPN’s glass fiber department. His role as Theme Lead involved everything from getting people on board, to increasing conversion rates to a highly profitable state. Koevoets works meticulously. He must. He has hard KPIs, and manages 3 team members and several external agencies.
“We can’t let the agencies move about too much, we have to supervise them carefully. I need to be able to monitor and track all of our efforts.”
Koevoets: “I have 3 operational people in my team. Twice a week, they discuss results with the agencies. Every month we invite our agencies to meet and learn how we can improve collectively. I know that the agencies consider this collaboration intensive, but I believe that the most sustainable way of improving in the long run is by learning from each other’s successes ánd mistakes.”
When it comes down to numbers, Briggs+Walker’s location manager allows him to monitor shift conversions in real-time. Koevoets also receives a daily ‘result code’ that enables him to see how many addresses of the canvassed area have been visited.
Learn how to stay on top with Briggs+Walker’s Location Manager.
Every month we invite our agencies to meet and learn how we can improve collectively.
How to approach door-to-door sales of a complex product
A fiber glass connection is an expensive product, not to mention complex. Often times, sales reps get to endure technical questions by potential customers. This poses a challenge to even the most experienced sales(wo)man. Koevoets and Briggs+Walker have found three ways that help drive the success of the door-to-door channel.
Creating a soft landing for sales reps with direct messages.
Koevoets uses KPN’s extensive customer database to send direct messages to a canvassed area before the sales reps go door-to-door. In these messages KPN informs people about the benefits of glass fiber connections. This way, sales reps have a better chance of encountering a well-informed consumer. That means less questions, higher quality conversations, and higher shift conversions.
Gamifying sales rep education
Frank and his team spend a lot of time on educating field reps. “You don’t want to give your reps an overkill of information before they go out on the streets. But of course they need to be able to have a decent conversation with potential customers. That’s why we invest in training and in making training fun. In one example, we do trivia with glass fiber related questions.”
Capturing leads instead of customers
A short conversation is often not enough to sell a complex product like glass fiber. Oftentimes, interested consumers need some time to make up their minds. This posed a challenge to sales reps, who used to only be allowed to register paying customers. Briggs+Walker’s Field app now allows sales reps to register leads without them having to become customers. Instead they will be given a call at a later time.
Image shows a KPN lead gen form in which prospects can indicate whether they are interested in other KPN products so that they can be targeted in the future.
KPN door-to-door sales partners in strategy and innovation
Koevoet sees door-to-door sales as one of KPN’s go-to channels for the next 10-15 years. “Briggs+Walker is a partner that’s quick to respond to our questions, and feels the same need to innovate as we do. What’s more, is that our agencies are all happy to work with them. When our collaboration with B+W started we only wanted to hand them a few addresses so that our agencies knew where to go. But it has grown out to be so much more!”
Briggs+Walker is a partner that’s quick to respond to our questions, and feels the same need to innovate as we do.
