VAR Finds Outsourced Lead Generation A Bust

When it comes to generating new business, Mobius Partners decided on a simple formula: Stick to one system vendor partner and don't rely on outside lead-generation companies.

The $30.1 million Hewlett-Packard enterprise solution provider, which grew 468 percent last year, decided to outsource lead generation to other demand-generation companies. What it got for its efforts was a hot list of companies looking for printers and toner cartridges. "We received a lot of leads, but they weren't focused on what we do," said Jay Uribe, co-president of Mobius Partners, San Antonio. "Our focus is enterprise computing solutions, not printers and print cartridges."

Uribe admits that Mobius Partners was growing so fast he took his eye off the ball by using telemarketing companies referred to him by his distributor, Arrow Electronics, and by HP. As a result, many of the leads sent his way were for low-end products rather than for enterprise products and solutions. "The manufacturer [HP] is spread across many products so the demand generation was not specifically focused on our business," he said. "It might work for a CDW or Insight that handles products all the way across the board, but it doesn't work for a value player."

So Uribe brought his marketing and demand generation back in-house. "Everybody here is hungry [for new business]," he said. "We are now rewarding the people who are hungriest by feeding them the most."

Uribe explains that he and co-founder Junab Ali built the company starting in 2000 by doing their own customer calls and meeting with businesses face to face. "We got away from that in the last year and a half because we got so busy," he said. "Now we are going out, meeting the customers and finding out what pain they are having and how we can help."

Having the owner of a company go out on a sales call holds more weight than having a salesperson call, he said. "When the company meets the sales rep you feel like you are being taken care of, but when you meet the company's owners and the guys that have investment in the company, that says something a little different," he said.

Uribe also is leveraging his decision to focus exclusively on HP. As part of that strategy, Mobius Partners not only markets to its customers but maintains a close relationship with HP and its local HP rep. "These guys take care of us and bring us in and help us close deals," he said. "We try to specifically market ourselves to them as well."

That effort paid off recently when Uribe learned from his rep that HP Chairman and CEO Mark Hurd was coming to San Antonio to hold a roundtable with CIOs from local companies. Uribe then contacted company CIOs in the area, including ones who weren't his clients, and encouraged them to attend.

At the roundtable, Uribe said Hurd encouraged the companies to work with HP solution providers because Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP couldn't touch every midmarket account with its direct sales force. "That afternoon I had three voice mails from three financial institutions wanting to set up a meeting to discuss their IT environment," he said.

In the end, Mobius Partners' new demand-generation strategy seems to be paying off. "We've really gotten to know our HP reps and they've gained confidence in us and are starting to send leads our way—and they aren't for printers and toner cartridges," he said. "We are in partnership for one customer with Cap Gemini and SAP where we are doing the hardware portion, and that lead came from HP."