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Kiera Abbamonte on December 9, 2020 (last modified on January 10, 2022) • 5 minute read
Recently, Steve LeVine wrote that Americans wonât hop on board with electric vehicles until they can have âthe gas station experience,â arguing that the U.S. needs to set about building âa dense, highly visible, and convenient network of [fast] charging stations.â
Itâs no secret that electric vehicles are the path forwardâand bringing that path to light will require an overhaul of current infrastructure in traditionally fossil fuel-forward countries.
Thatâs a future Virta has been working toward in Europe for some time now. Founded in 2013, Virta offers electric vehicle charging points and an EV charging platform designed to help their customers support electric vehicles and renewable energy.
We sat down with Samuli Ahola, Director of Digital Sales for Virta, to learn more about why they invested in a solution like Databox. Samuli shared some of the solutions theyâve put in place, along with how that investment has changed the way they do business and the results they produce.
As a company, Virta operates with lean resourcesâmeaning they need to be able to make every euro and every minute they invest count.
Before implementing Databox, the company didnât have a centralized way to use data to ensure their efforts and budget were creating the returns they needed. They didnât know which sales marketing efforts would drive the most revenue. They couldnât tie marketing campaigns to the contacts or SQLs or opportunities they brought in.
Samuli knew that needed to change.
Here are the challenges Virta Global faced before Databox:
âYou rarely see people able to tie down the processes between marketing and sales in a way that you can actually measure euros,â Samuli mused.
Samuli told us, âIf we didnât have the capability to report these things, our reporting processes would be from the stone ages. No one would be asking for specific data if they hadnât seen it in Databox. How much are you paying to acquire a new customer? How much should you be paying?â
âAt the end of the day, it comes down to prioritization. We have limited resourcesâwhere should we put our money and effort in order to get the most results?â Samuli said.
Samuli knew exactly how to rectify those challenges. An avid user of Databox in a prior role, Samuli introduced the tool to Virtaâs current Sales Director (then Head of Marketing and Sales) and played a heavy role in getting the team set up.
The team quickly integrated much of their sales and marketing tools, pulling their data into Databox as a central source of truth.
They connected Twitter, LinkedIn Company Pages, Facebook Pages, Bing Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Google Sheets, HubSpot CRM, Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, Google Search Console, and HubSpot Marketing.
Hereâs how Databox solved Virta Globalâs challenges:
âYou can pull out data from Facebook Ads,â Samuli told us, âsee how much you have spent in a campaign, then look at the number of actual contacts and leads and SQLs and opportunities in our CRM. You do the calculation and you can easily see what youâre paying for.â
âIn marketing,â Samuli explained, âwe decided that everyone is going to report numbers from their specific area of work, and, not surprisingly, Databox has been the answer for every single person. Our social media guy builds his own dashboard where he measures the effectiveness of paid social channels.â
âItâs a more systematic approach,â Samuli said, âwhere we can see whatâs working and what isnât, improve on the things that are not working, or just drop things we shouldnât be doing anyway.â
According to Samuli, the effect of implementing Databox across the sales and marketing teams has completely changed the culture at Virta. Theyâre now a data-driven, data-first company that makes key decisions based on hard numbers, not gut instinct.
âIt helps to drive the culture in the company to be more data-driven. Decisions can always be backed up with data, and thatâs been the biggest change,â Samuli said. âWe can always look at the data and see whatâs working and what isnât.â
Another result? Samuli is such a Databox advocate, that he was awarded the title of Mr. Databox at his former company.
Here are Virta Globalâs Databox results:
âIt has helped to develop sales and marketing overall because it makes it really easy to measure what works and what doesnât.â
âIt really helps me in my own work,â Samuli said, âbecause if thereâs something I want to change or thereâs a need to approve purchases and such, I can always back it up by data. And I always do. Then, itâs no longer an argumentâitâs just âHey, look at the numbers. We need to do this.ââ
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