Taken from our blog post on August 18th, 2011 http://blog.slideshare.net/2011/08/18/pro-case-study-frost-sullivan-lead-generation/

1. Pro Case Study: Frost & Sullivan Lead Generation
In this brief interview Jake Wengroff, the Global Director of Social Media at Frost &
Sullivanshares the results of the first seven months of using a custom branded Channel
for lead generation. With over a 50x ROI, this is an example any professional services
firm should aspire towards.
Why Did Frost & Sullivan Upgrade to SlideShare Pro?
We wanted more from SlideShare. It was doing
wonders from the brand and engagement
perspective. It made our content accessible to
audiences we wouldn’t reach through traditional
channels, so we saw the potential for social
distribution of content.
We were aware for the Pro services as they have
evolved. Before SlideShare created Pro, you could do
lead capture and pay on a cost-per-lead basis. When
we first tested it, we blew through our budget in two
days. I was shocked. Taking a look at the leads that
were captured I was sold. And then we took
advantage of lead capture through a custom branded
Channel.
What Are The Business Results?
For the past seven months, we’ve sold over $125,000 from leads generated through a $299 per
month investment in a customized Pro Platinum account. 3,233 leads were generated and 1,335
of the leads were qualified according to internal criteria. That’s quite an ROI for social media.

2. How Did You Build Support for Going Pro?
In the next few months we had to build the business case in the organization, eventually leading
to sign-off by the Global President of Frost & Sullivan. The business case was how it’s going to
drive revenue. Not some ephemeral social goal.
It took time to get other groups like corp communications and regional marketing people
around the world on board. The eighteen people are in hybrid roles as regional directors and in
corporate communications who help assemble and distribute content. There was a large
variance of content based on what should be shared and not. We needed to explain what we
were doing with SlideShare, how it complimented how they traditionally worked and what they
need to think about.
What was new was sharing content more openly than before, and understanding how sharing a
little more got a lot back in the form of business leads. We used same content guidelines that
already existed. It’s all previously presented content, so it was publicly distributed, but never
published before. Now the 18 people across the world know it’s part of the process to publish on
SlideShare.
How Did You Make SlideShare Operational?
The biggest learning was making it relevant to our existing business systems. Namely
establishing a process for getting the leads into our CRM system and having a team process
them. This then meant that qualifying reps needed to know about SlideShare to understand
where the leads came from and how to value them. When we did this, we made SlideShare
operational — and effectively aligned it with existing processes to grow revenue.
One of the first leads was an existing client. The account manager wasn’t that happy at first, as
they expect their customers to always go directly to them or through the corporate website. But
customers and prospects often go to the web first and discover things on SlideShare. The
customer expressed high purchase intent through the lead and later made the additional
purchase.

3. What Can You Tell Us About Your Content Strategy?
As I already noted, the first step was auditing existing content and publishing processes. And
determining which content can be shared openly with lead form optional, or form gated.
You can’t have an effort to produce content for only one end-point. Content can’t sit in one
place. I don’t have the bandwidth to create content just for on SlideShare, or any other channel.
We put some client content on our Channel as well, passing metrics and leads to them. It’s
another outpost for them. IBM, Sprint and others. For some of them, our contacts hadn’t heard
of SlideShare. Some like it just because its social media, some skeptical because they had a low
volume of content for it, but they all got how it could generate leads and engagement under our
brand. They want our Channel to not just be a marketing or ad channel for client and we have to
use editorial judgment to keep it that way.
What Is Your Biggest Takeaway Thus far?
The people you work for don’t care about driving Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers — you
have to show how it affects the bottom line. When you show how this integrates with your
existing systems and processes that have been there for years, you will be the hero. Sure we have
more engagement, but the ability to monetize that engagement has really helped me. That is
what SlideShare has allowed me to do.
by ROSS on AUGUST 18, 2011