SalesPortal looked at online affiliate networks and ad networks like Google AdSense and saw an opportunity to leverage the same lead generation model but for customer phone calls.    We thought to ourselves, why can’t we do the same for phone traffic?    Where web publishers monetize their organic web traffic by publishing relevant ads from advertisers, sales and service contact centers can monetize their call traffic by presenting relevant product offers to callers and transferring opt-in, interested callers to affiliate partners.    Where the website owner gets paid for a click through, the contact center gets paid for a customer transfer.  And where the advertiser has a steady stream of targeted traffic coming over to their website, the contact center partner receives a steady stream of calls and pays for the call transfer as a lead.

Why can’t there be a partner network that helps companies with contact centers, either in-house or outsourced, to monetize their phone traffic by pitching a highly relevant pre-approved product at the end of their customer service and sales calls. That call transfer (instead of the click) results in the monetization. The contact center is acting just like the publisher of a website and taking advantage of the steady flow of organic traffic coming in.

SalesPortal is that network. We are the Google AdSense of phone leads.

The SalesPortal partnership marketing network connects contact centers and brands that exist in separate, yet not directly competing niches, to discover each-other and exchange relevant live phone leads. It allows companies that have a touch point on the phone (the contact center) to enhance customer engagement and the overall customer experience AND generate additional revenue by offering relevant products to their customers at the end of their calls. By monetizing their organic phone traffic, call centers can help counter some of their high overhead costs and become a source of revenue for the company.

Our partnership marketing network also allows advertisers and marketers to receive calls from the interested customers of those contact centers to fuel their sales pipeline, and at a price that works for them. Marketing executives are able to lower their customer acquisition cost, improve lead-to-conversion rates and develop marketing partnerships in the voice channel, a source of quality leads that many companies have not yet fully leveraged.    Participating partner companies see lead-to-sale conversions of over 17%.

Lead generation is an integral part of any business. But while generating more leads is good, generating the right leads is better. What if there was a better way to cultivate new sources of targeted leads that required little extra effort on the part of your organization? What if there was a unique and profitable customer acquisition program that delivered qualified, live phone leads directly to your sales team AND in a consistent volume to reliably meet and exceed your sales goals.   SalesPortal’s partnership marketing network is that solution, delivering lead-to-sale conversion rates of over 15%.

Enterprise contact centers handle thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of organic customer service and sales calls for their own products every day. SalesPortal’s unique partnership marketing network and pay-per-call campaigns give your brand the ability to bid for live phone lead transfers from those contact centers.  Our cross pitching process solves the pain points of traditional cross-selling and up-selling in contact centers by allowing both the contact centers and the marketers to create as many partnerships as they want without the typical one-to-one partnership restrictions. Since all the contact centers in your partnership network exist in similar, yet not competing niches, your brand and products are presented to the widest audience possible while still remaining highly targeted.

After the contact center agent presents the most relevant and highest bidding marketer’s cross-pitch offer and the caller agrees, live customers are transferred to the marketer’s contact center. It’s a win-win for both the marketers, who determine their own customer acquisition campaign parameters (pay per call lead price, lead qualification criteria, daily budget), as well as for the contact centers that are now efficiently monetizing their organic phone traffic.

Several factors result in the highest lead-to-sales conversion rates for marketing lead generation programs with the SalesPortal software:

1. Relevancy of products – only partnerships and offers are presented that have agreed upon relevance to a caller.
2. The caller opts-in to be transferred to the partner based on the offer presented.  They are pre-qualified and pre-disposed to speak to a partner phone agent to learn more about the offer.
3. The caller is immediately engaged live with trained, product knowledgeable partner agents.  Couple this with the relevancy factor and that dramatically increase the odds of a sale.
4. The caller is often being transferred from a sales call with credit card at the ready.

A customer acquisition program with the SalesPortal partnership marketing platform helps protect marketers and their budgets by allowing marketers to establish their own price point for leads (helping lower customer acquisition costs) and making sure only qualified and interested leads are being billed and paid for.

SalesPortal has appointed Carol Snell as its executive director. Snell has deep executive experience in high-growth, venture-funded companies delivering leading-edge customer service solutions.

Carol Snell has been an advisor to SalesPortal for nearly two years and has now expanded her role to include broader management responsibilities that support the company’s growth into large enterprise markets.

“Carol’s tremendous understanding of emerging companies and her deep experience in the contact center industry will be an invaluable asset to SalesPortal in her expanded role as we continue to grow,” said Saurabh Khetrapal, co-founder and CEO of SalesPortal.  “Her knowledge complements the depth of the leadership team she has helped assemble. She will continue to help us shape the direction of the company as we service larger enterprise accounts.”

Carol Snell has a broad range of experience that includes venture financing, refining market direction for technology-focused businesses, building management teams and establishing strategic alliances. Her career highlights include co-founding Aspect Communications and being CEO of two early-stage startups, executive of a global communications company and board chairman for venture-backed startups. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and an executive master’s of business administration degree from Stanford University.

“We’ve been able to attract a lot of great talent to the SalesPortal team, and I am very bullish about the company’s success,” said Snell.  “We are laser focused on building relevant marketing partnerships and solving key problems that the contact center industry has not ever been able to cost effectively solve. Now, we’ve removed the challenges of cross selling and agent training and are enabling companies with contact centers to generate revenue and create relevant partnerships in the process. It’s a clear win-win for our customers.”

SalesPortal is expanding beyond North America and is developing a new partnership marketing network in India. Company co-founder Kevin Sandhu has relocated to India and will be managing director at the headquarters in New Delhi.

According to recent Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) reports, there are nearly a billion mobile phone users in India.

“Voice is the primary communication channel for consumers in India,” said Sandhu. “Indian companies have historically looked at their contact centers as cost centers. SalesPortal represents a huge opportunity for contact centers to generate revenue and help offset costs. Separately, it is now more difficult for marketers in India to use outbound calling and text messaging to reach customers. The SalesPortal model represents a scalable, new channel for marketing professionals to generate high-quality inbound pay-per-call leads.”

Recent consumer regulatory developments support adoption of the SalesPortal model.   In 2011, TRIA instituted new, stringent regulations to enforce customers’ rights to block commercial calls and text messages at the Do Not Call registry. The marketing opportunity is now even greater to leverage inbound calls to offer value-added partner services.

“Our decision to accelerate expansion into other global markets is a result of the rapid adoption rates we’ve seen in the past 18 months in North America,” said Saurabh Khetrapal, SalesPortal’s co-founder and CEO. “Leading companies in telecommunications, travel, finance, insurance, home services and consumer goods recognize the tremendous marketing, customer acquisition and revenue generation opportunities with SalesPortal.”