In this new series of blogs, we’re going to talk to our clients to find out more about their missions, and how bant.io helped them achieve their lead generation objectives using marketing automation.
For our first interview, we contacted Andy Dickens, CEO at Virtual Sales Limited.
What is Virtual Sales Limited?
Virtual Sales Ltd offers expert business development services in the UK, Europe, and the USA. Specialising in telemarketing services and lead generation, VSL helps drive sales and build revenue for businesses. The company is run by experienced Business Development Consultant Andy Dickens, who brings over 50 years experience of working in business development in the IT software industry.
Our interview with Andy
My name is Andy Dickens and I’m the CEO and co-founder of Virtual Sales Limited. The Virtual Sales business started in March 2001, so I just celebrated my 20th year of running Virtual Sales, and the premise of the company is exactly the same as all those years ago. VSL offers a bespoke lead generation service, and we work with small software technology and digital agencies to help them build and nurture a sales pipeline.
What bant.io module have you been using?
We’ve used all of the different modules within the bant.io platform, the ones that work best for Virtual Sales are the email and the retargeting modules. So the email works really well for us because we can target the companies and the size of companies, and the geographic location. And the retargeting is great because when people come to visit a website, the advert then follows them around, and we’ve tried lots of different versions of the retargeting, to make sure that we get a good return on investment.
What was it like before you discovered bant.io?
Before bant.io came along – and thank you very much, bant.io, for coming into my life – we had to rely on inbound inquiries from our website, and as you can imagine, with 20 years organic traffic on our website, we do get good qualified opportunities. But you can’t rely on it, and I think the thing that bant.io showed us is that you can take destiny in your own hands, so now with a constant supply of qualified leads coming into the inbox, that means that we get a lot of qualified leads, and we close business as a result of it. So, you know, it’s a world of difference from what we had before.
What were the results that made you go ‘WOW’?
We’re now up to, I think the latest – last month – 30 qualified leads coming in from from bant.io.
What made bant.io stand out from other options?
The individuals who work for bant.io – very creative, always open to new ideas, and we can test new things. We’ve tested lots of different messages, lots of different ads on the retargeting, as we’re going through it. So the ability to tweak the campaign as we go along is very appealing for a company like Virtual Sales.
What features sold you on signing up for bant.io?
What I like is having a dedicated Account Manager, we work very closely with Melody in Canada and she works in tandem with a colleague in the UK. What I do like is there’s always somebody that we can go to if we want to change things, so as an example, with coming out of COVID, I wanted to test small to medium companies with messaging about “we’ll do the calls for you, you don’t have to, you could leave it all to us”, and within a couple of days of having that conversation with Melody, we’re rolling out a test this week, so very very timely and very efficient.
What is the main reason why you recommend bant.io?
I think, you know, I’m probably one of the world’s biggest advocates of bant.io, I take each and every opportunity to let people know what we’re using and the results that we’re getting, and I have referred quite a number of businesses to use bant.io, which I know they have done. I think the hand in glove relationship that we have with bant.io is clear for all to see in terms of the results that we get from them.
What would you tell someone who’s considering bant.io?
I’d have no hesitation in recommending bant.io as a platform to companies looking to take destiny in their own hands, get qualified opportunities, and then to follow up. And the other good thing is we work with bant.io, helping some of their clients who perhaps don’t have the time or inclination to follow up the bant.io qualified leads, so we’ve worked with many clients over the years in terms of helping them qualify opportunities and move it to the next stage of a sales qualified lead, so they can close business.
Alice
Hey there! I'm Alice Guala, born and bred in Italy, but currently based in the UK. I’m a digital marketing expert who specialises in social media, content strategy and content creation. In my spare time, I love recording music and spending time with my rescue pup!