Turtle & Hughes uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator to make Digital Sales

Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) supplier Turtle & Hughes offers a range of materials and supplies that enable daily business operations. Their traditional source of high-value leads was face-to-face relationship building at trade shows and other in-person events.

The travel disruption during COVID required Turtle & Hughes to adapt their sales tactics to a
digital audience.

The primary challenge they faced was identifying up to date information on members of buying committees within their target verticals. Their previous methods of gathering data did not deliver the quality of leads they were looking for.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator immediately solved the biggest problem: identifying who the right contacts were within target organizations. Turtle & Hughes Marketing Director Jonathan McLane shares, “We had identified regions and organizations, but we didn’t have names. Sales Navigator filled that void by identifying who our contacts should be.”

Turtle & Hughes turned to LinkedIn as the virtual trade show floor, where business leaders in their key verticals were already active in a social setting. The sales team at Turtle & Hughes was able to apply their finely honed relationship-building skills via LinkedIn.

“LinkedIn Sales Navigator allowed us to find decision makers and opportunities with a lot more clarity,” says McLane. “It’s important to reach key decision makers at the right level, people who are going to be more open to our messaging. With Sales Navigator, we can engage on a personal level. It isn’t just our brand reaching out, it’s a real person establishing contact.”

Since starting their journey with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Turtle & Hughes has seen a significant uptick in requests for information and quotations. Blake Varbero, Sales Director, credits both their targeted marketing and personal sales outreach via InMail with driving these numbers. “The work we’re doing on LinkedIn is creating a lot of interest. We’ve seen an increase in requests for proposals (RFPs) throughout 2022 as we matured in our use of Sales Navigator.”

McLane explains how performance data and tracking on LinkedIn has enabled this refined approach between marketing and sales: “LinkedIn gives us the ability to manage the noise. It’s one thing to cast out a message through digital marketing. Sales Navigator acts as a refinement tool that allows us to prioritize what we push through to our CRM, so we can efficiently manage our workload.”

The sales team at Turtle & Hughes already knew that one of their key markets was North America, which presented a great deal of opportunity. Varbero explains, “A lot of companies with decision-makers in the United States have manufacturing sites in bordering countries. The next step is to use Sales Navigator to find people in a specific range of titles and relay to them our ability to provide services in the U.S. and link that with operations in other countries as is often found in multi-plant structures.”

Varbero shares how Sales Navigator accelerated an opportunity he had been pursuing with one of the internationally-based manufacturing locations. “There had been some initial contact but with periods of inactivity in between. With Sales Navigator, I discovered I had options to reach better decision makers,” he says. “With the correct contacts identified, I was able to set more productive meetings in less time and make much better progress.”

The opportunities go beyond business development. Turtle & Hughes opened up Sales Navigator to the Account Managers on their Distribution team working in industrial and electrical supplies. “They’ve started to use it to mine opportunities for next-generation customers,” says McLane. “Sales Navigator is a tremendous intelligence tool.”

As a fourth-generation, family-owned business that is women-run, Turtle & Hughes prides itself on what they offer in terms of quality within the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) value chain. Insights available through LinkedIn Sales Navigator help Turtle & Hughes find business partners who are seeking suppliers that can meet their ESG needs.

Varbero points out that diversity spend is a significant factor in many of their target vertices, including automobile manufacturing. “When speaking with contacts via InMail, I explain that in addition to being a full-service MRO supply chain services provider, all transactions through our programs are 100% tier-one diversity spend.”

Sales Navigator has been instrumental in refining the process of identifying which marketing efforts are directly leading to sales won. “We’re trying to lock down the pipeline,” says McLane. “We know there’s activity in Sales Navigator and we know there’s activity in our CRM, and between the two we’re able to better identify the ROI on our marketing spend.”

Varbero shares how Sales Navigator helps him use his time more efficiently. “The ability to create segmented lists and organize them by verticals, geographies or regions, or events I attend helps me recall information faster as well as consider ideas for new sales campaigns. I like being able to use the information in several different ways.”

McLane leverages lists on the marketing side as well. “Now when I go to a trade show, rather than collect a business card, I connect with the LinkedIn profile of the person I’m talking to. That LinkedIn information flows through to Sales Navigator and I create a list based on that event. Almost inherently the system begins to pull together watches or updates that I didn’t even have to configure.”

Main features used:

“LinkedIn gives us the ability to manage the noise. It’s one thing to cast out a message through digital marketing. Sales Navigator acts as a refinement tool that allows us to prioritize what we push through to our CRM, so we can efficiently manage our workload.”

Jonathan McLane

Marketing Director
Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply
“LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows us to find decision makers and opportunities with a lot more clarity. It also enables us to engage on a personal level, it isn’t our brand reaching out, it’s a person looking to learn about some of the problems another organization is having and our ability to solve them.”

Jonathan McLane

Marketing Director
Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply

ABOUT TURTLE & HUGHES

Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply is a provider of MRO Integrated Supply Services and Materials. They provide cost-savings and delivers solutions in the following areas of interest for their customers: Data Management, Procurement Services, Inventory Management, Storeroom Operations/Design, Work Order Management, Logistics/Transportation, Business Analytics, Quality Control - LEAN/Six Sigma Principles. Turtle & Hughes Integrated Supply is committed to drive cost out of the supply chain for their client through proper data management, contract negotiation and compliance, asset management, and continuous improvement projects.

Turtle & Hughes Makes Digital Sales Personal With LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Keeping sales personal in a digital environment

Digital tools designed for personal relationships

Main features used:

“LinkedIn gives us the ability to manage the noise. It’s one thing to cast out a message through digital marketing. Sales Navigator acts as a refinement tool that allows us to prioritize what we push through to our CRM, so we can efficiently manage our workload.”