Fonecta aims for faster market growth by investing in key customer relationships
Fonecta
Fonecta is a pioneer in digital marketing and digital reputation management with tens of thousands of business customers. Fonecta aims for faster market growth through continuous development work.
Fonecta, well-known to all Finns, has reinvented itself several times. The company, once famous for phone directories and directory services, is now a leading player in the fields of digital marketing and online reputation management. Fonecta currently serves tens of thousands of business customers and is eager to grow at a faster pace in the market. A third of the company's revenue comes from key customers, and Fonecta aims to assist them even more effectively in the future. Therefore, the company embarked on developing its key customer operations.
Antti Tukia, Sales Director at Fonecta, who specifically focuses on large customers, has witnessed significant changes that have kept Fonecta a strong brand despite major shifts in the company's operations and the business environment. How does Tukia see the current situation of the company?
- Fonecta is a strong and well-known brand, widely recognized in our industry. We are a major player and a trusted expert. Additionally, we have been a long-term partner for many of our customers, Tukia explains.
While Fonecta has a strong market position, a successful history, and a very extensive customer base, the company aims to continuously improve its operations. One crucial focus is the development of key customer operations.
Fonecta's most important customers are multi-location Finnish companies that invest heavily in digital advertising. Since 2016, Fonecta has been Finland's only official LinkedIn partner, attracting many international LinkedIn advertisers as customers. The company aims to build deeper relationships with these international customers in the future.
Tukia mentions that Fonecta previously had very deep relationships with key customers, but with the renewal of its offering, these relationships now need to be rebuilt.
"We used to have a team of one hundred people dedicated to key customers. At some point, the focus shifted to small and medium-sized customers, but now we are returning to key customers."
- In the past, we had a team of a hundred people focusing on key customers. At some point, the focus shifted to small and medium-sized customers, but now we are returning to key customers. This is a significant project because we now collaborate extensively with media agencies.
To make the alliance between Fonecta, its partners, and key customers work, customer relationships need to be managed and developed in a systematic and long-term manner.
Transparent Customer Relationships through a system
Fonecta's business used to focus on data and analytics, so the company's ability to both analyze data and lead practical actions with information has been top-notch all along.
Now, the company wants to systematically manage key accounts and also ensure that the system supports actions.
- We have had plans for key account management, but they have not been implemented in systems or practical work. Customer relationships have largely been the responsibility of customer managers, but now we want to make relationships transparent. The ambition is to make customer relationships so transparent that, for example, I can see the entire customer relationship from lead to invoicing.
"We have had plans for managing key accounts, but they have not been implemented in systems or practical actions"
With a common desire, it became clear that Fonecta needed an insightful partner to help refine the plans and build them into the CRM system they use, Salesforce. Biit was able to offer Fonecta a packaged Key Account Management (KAM) solution, which Tukia appreciates for its clarity.
- Salesforce has been a significant part of everything we do for a long time. Although we have a lot of expertise ourselves, we needed a partner to customize the system and chose Biit.
"Salesforce has been a significant part of everything we do for a long time."
Biit's KAM package is a comprehensive solution built on the popular St. Gallen model. It includes a framework, system changes, and workshops where the plan is refined and integrated into practical operations. This is not just about technical implementation but also about developing practical activities.
As Fonecta had already done a lot of thinking about developing its key account management, the project started with a Fit/Gap analysis. This compared Fonecta's groundwork with the KAM package model, leading to an understanding of the operational model that needed to be built into the system.
The project was completed in two weeks
Fonecta is known for its hyper-fast development projects. Tukia mentions that they run projects like these in three months, while it might take others up to three years. This also poses challenges for partners. The system must also be one that supports agile development.
"It only took a few weeks from the start to have the new key account model described in our system"
- With Biit, we stayed on schedule. The promises were ambitious, but so were the actions. It only took a few weeks from the start to have the new key account model described in our system. We probably would have been even faster if there hadn't been Christmas and New Year in between, Tukia laughs.
Following the fast development project with Biit, Fonecta has a clear model documented in the system for key account management and the ability to systematically manage accounts. According to Tukia, this is the first significant step towards deepening key account relationships.
In the future, Fonecta wants to better understand how their customers succeed and build metrics that accurately track success.
Tukia is very satisfied with the collaboration with Biit.
- Sales management seems to be in Biit's blood, and it really stands out. The collaboration has been clear and smooth. I particularly like that, as a sales manager, I understand what is being discussed in meetings. The collaboration clearly takes into account who is talking with whom at any given time.