Distinction Helped Deltek to Increase Revenue Streams

Distinction helped Deltek shifting from a technology to a customer-centric culture to increase revenue streams, including 107% in sales.

While shifting from a technology-centric culture to a customer-centric culture proved challenging, Distinction’s decisive actions also made the project highly rewarding for the established software providers.

Delivering a 107% increase in new sales leads, Distinction also produced a 28% increase in site visitors, a 21% increase in demo requests and a 300% increase in paid-for event requests.

A change of culture delivers 107% increase in leads

While the desire to make things better is a constant, the capability to improve leads, conversions and sales sometimes take a shift in approach. This was certainly the case for software provider Deltek (formally Union Square Software).

Providers of sophisticated project management software to a mixed audience of 40,000 architects, consultants, developers and engineers, Deltek’s culture was inevitably technology-centric. It creates effective software solutions. Its solutions are based on technology. It’s what they do.

Changing the approach

Yet Deltek had the foresight to do something completely new. As a business, it recognised the need for change. Being a technology-led business meant its website was falling short in terms of the user journey it delivered.

Consequently, an unfocussed value proposition and a frustrating navigation were having a negative impact on its business. The feeling was a change in approach could increase inbound leads for product demos, improve conversion rates and achieve higher sales and, ultimately, the business’s income.

Diagnosing the issues

With this open brief from Deltek, Distinction started by gathering information on what their audience wanted. By researching, listening and exploring the UI, they lifted the lid on Deltek’s current situation. Through a series of workshops, they canvassed the views and circumstances of their product, technical, sales and marketing teams.

This discovery and diagnosis phase uncovered a number of truths, principally one around fragmentation. There were too many website pages. It had a clunky navigation. Also, a fractured event-booking process which needed serious improvement.

Finding the answer

Beyond the website itself, this fragmentation was evidenced in the differing agendas between the internal teams, and in the gaps in the technology stack, where different platforms simply weren’t connecting.

Distinction soon discovered the solution for both issues were one and the same. This was for Deltek to adopt a much more customer-centric approach, where everyone’s efforts would be focussed squarely on what the customer wanted, needed, and expected, and on nothing else.

Acting with confidence

Confronted with solid research evidence to support this diagnosis, Deltek had the courage to recognise the value of change and the confidence to alter direction, enabling them to act decisively to improve the customers’ digital experience.

Distinction improved the navigation, design and structure, so users could find what they were looking for quickly and easily. They improved the tracking of site visitors, so users are shown more personalised content depending on what they need from the site. They improved the event sign-up experience by consolidating Deltek’s HubSpot, Mailchimp and Pure360 subscriptions into one platform.

Delivering impressive results

By reducing four systems into one, costs were reduced. Efficiency increased by freeing Deltek’s teams from repetitively inputting data for emails, input errors and reducing the time spent on a disjointed manual process. By automating the event sign-up process, customers received what they needed when they needed it. A confirmation email, a reminder, how to pick up their badge, parking, lunch arrangements and every detail that makes a successful event.

The results speak for themselves. A 107% increase in new sales leads. A 28% increase in site visitors. A 21% increase in demo requests. A 300% increase in paid-for event requests. 16 hours of admin saved every week.

Adopting a customer-centric approach

But ultimately, beyond the commercial KPIs and the immediate return on investment, the improvement proved satisfying both for the website user and the website owner. Because, while the former embraced a new user experience that put them first, the latter found that adopting a more customer-centric approach galvanised the business. Uniting its teams, delivering more efficiency, more effectiveness, and more satisfaction in serving software to its customers on an easier to use platform.

Reducing costs, improving outcomes

All this was achieved by providing research findings to prove the need to swing the pendulum to customers, and through Deltek’s courage and flexibility in accommodating a shift in culture. The rewards of doing so were pleasingly immediate, enabling Deltek to reduce its MarTech stack spend by thousands of pounds and improving tracking, reporting and the efficiency of the website.

Outcome

New sales leads increased by 107% and site visitors increased by 28%. The business enjoyed a 21% increase in requests for demos and paid-for event requests increased by 300%. There were time-saving results too, with 16 hours of admin work saved per week.

About Distinction

Distinction is the digital product studio who’ll make you stand out. They work with clients to disrupt their sector, challenge the competition, and capture market share by delivering experiences users love.