Q&A With DMD’s Client, Meltblown Technologies, on Sales Enablement

Digital Marketing Direction (DMD) started working with the industrial manufacturer Meltblown Technologies (MBT) in the spring of 2016. After... 

• completing buyer persona research
• optimizing their newly redesigned website for search
• training each of their sales executives on the HubSpot CRM and its integration with Gmail (templates, documents, auto-logging)

DMD published the first piece of content for MBT in June. The campaign was about industrial absorbents, which is their main product category. The content was heavily focused on keyword research and relationship building with their primary target persona.

By the end of August, this campaign consisted of six blogs and three sales emails. Over those three months it is easy to see the rise in their stats:

They’ve also closed 115 new customers from their existing list.

Here’s our sales enablement video, featuring a testimonial from the president of the company, Derek Yurgaitis.

You may also read his Q&A notes from the full interview:

DMD: Tell me about Meltblown Technologies. What is it and what do you do?

Derek: MBT is a manufacturer of polypropylene absorbents used to clean up oil and chemical spills.

DMD: Why were you initially looking for a company like DMD, a HubSpot partner?

Derek: I was originally looking into CRM packages when I stumbled into HubSpot, and subsequently I started looking for a HubSpot partner to guide us through the process.

DMD: Is that (the CRM) the main value that you see DMD provides now? Or is it maybe something else and why?

Derek: I think our original intent and my thinking was around trying to corral our very fragmented customer information into one place. But after working with DMD and learning more about the power of inbound the focus began to shift into creating a more self-sustaining system to generate leads and contacts who would find us, versus us having to always find them. I think for many people in our industry or in the manufacturing/industrial distribution industry our ideas about marketing are stuck in the 90s and need an upgrade.

DMD: Why did you feel comfortable partnering with DMD?

Derek: I felt that their knowledge of what is successful and their systematic approach to bring us along the learning curve made the partnership very easy. They knew what I didn’t know and didn’t have time to learn or frankly time to do. 

DMD: You all do monthly sales and marketing (smarketing) meetings, right? Are those helpful?

Derek: Yes, the monthly smarketing meetings are very helpful. Again, DMD helps me stay on track and provides key touch point in the relationship that keeps us all focused.

DMD: Let's talk about sales enablement. What does that term mean to you? 

Derek: Good question, I think that is a concept that is constantly evolving for all of us. I used to believe that it was about providing my sales and marketing people with tools to help them do their roles more efficiently and provide the company with some reporting capabilities. But as I learn more about the power of integrating all of the things we do while working in the business all day with the power of an inbound strategy, the meaning has transformed into something much larger. It encompasses everything from pipeline development to lead generation and thought leadership opportunities in our areas of expertise. Ultimately these all roll together to create a system through which we will enable our sales to grow organically without us have to touch every interaction. It’s almost like putting it on autopilot.

DMD: What have Jackie and her team done to help better enable your sales team with content and HubSpot?

Derek: Jackie and the team have been great! They literally take the time to understand us and our markets and then develop a plan to implement a strategy. Starting with training and data collection, right through to content development and execution. I have found them to be extremely efficient. For a fraction of the cost of hiring their types of skills in one person or more, we got a whole team!

DMD: Can you give me a few examples of specific, relevant things that they've helped with that you've found useful and explain why?

Derek: Without a doubt it was the blogging content development and strategy. When you are a small business owner and have a small team so focused on the day-to-day, you literally don’t have time to do it. Not only that, but when you have no clue where to begin, it is so nice to have a team of experts there to help drive the strategy. Using different leaders within the company as experts in specific areas, they created content that our customers could use to help train their people, and it was focused on specific business issues, not just the products. 

DMD: The sales team is pretty traditional. They’re shake-your-hand kind of men, right? What do they think about all of the changes you and Jackie have thrown at them?

Derek: I think the whole team has been geared around that face-to-face sale our whole careers. Combining DMD with HubSpot and the visibility it provides into our current customers is great and has been eye-opening to us all. But the real power was in finding the potential. We had all been using one form of CRM or another, but HubSpot was a whole new level for us. The training was easier than we had experienced in the past and its integration into our email with HubSpot Sales was perfect. For a bunch of people on the road all day the last thing you need is to have to spend your whole night re-entering info and sales opportunities into a separate system. HubSpot is extremely easy to use and understand.

DMD: What are the key metrics you look at to measure success for your marketing and sales efforts to know if you're winning?

Derek: I like to look at a pipeline of opportunity as a primary measure of success, but there is a whole new world opening up to us through inbound. Now we are also measuring the number of new contacts created through our website, which is integrated with HubSpot. In an older industry like ours its was extremely rare to generate leads, let alone have them order. Today we get leads nearly daily. Many of those turn into orders for our distribution partners. We literally are getting leads from all over the world.

DMD: Is that easier to do with HubSpot?

Derek: Easier? It didn’t happen before HubSpot. I can’t believe how many of our colleagues and partners out there have no clue what a powerful concept inbound is and what companies like HubSpot can do for their business. Seriously, we are considering starting other businesses because we see opportunity and competitive advantage in harnessing the power of inbound where none of the major players are doing it. The best part is it can lower the barriers to entry in many industries.

DMD: What's the biggest win you think you've seen with DMD, sales enablement, and everything that goes with it for MBT?

Derek: The biggest win for MBT is having an overall systemic approach to our marketing. DMD and sales enablement have elevated our brand to the forefront of our distributor partners' minds. They see us as not just an innovative and creative company in our space, but as one of the more creative companies they deal with on a daily basis.

To talk specifically about an actual win, as a result of our blog and its integration into social media, we received a request to quote on a division of the Korean national oil company in Vietnam. While we have not received that order yet, I am confident we will. The big win here was the fact that they found us! Without our connection and program with DMD there is no way this would have ever happened.

DMD: Would you recommend it to anyone else and why?

Derek: Absolutely. It is a no brainer to me. Many of my colleagues just aren’t doing enough to compete in the digital space and HubSpot is a simple, elegant solution. They need a partner like DMD, though. Someone to keep them on task and focused.

DMD: In six months, what will you hope to have accomplished working with DMD and why?

Derek: I know we will have established a regular cadence of content and engagement that positions us as the leader in our space. Generating leads that we can share with our distribution partners daily, therefore allowing us to grow mind share within their businesses, will be a huge win too.

Since the Q&A and interview in August, DMD is now strategizing on:

• closing more sales-sourced leads from events faster with content
• prospecting sequences with content
• adding more offers to the site to convert more traffic into leads and close prospects, with a heavy emphasis on video

I look forward to MeltBlown Technologies' continued success and partnership!