How Ritchie Bros. Improved Buyer Engagement by 76%

For Ritchie Bros., the world’s largest heavy equipment auctioneer, customer engagement is critical. The company works closely with customers online and in-person to deliver seamless end-to-end solutions designed to streamline the buying and selling process. The complexity of the market, however, demands sector-specific content and personalised engagement. Ritchie Bros. knew that to maximise customer value, it needed to unify content in a single source of truth and unlock insights that drive action.

INDUSTRY COMPLEXITY AND LIMITED INSIGHTS HINDER TRUST

At Ritchie Bros., success is all about building relationships and trust, and it relies on a robust sales team to do exactly that. However, industry complexity and limited access to insights in its previous solution meant that the team struggled to both connect with its customers’ very specific needs and understand what was working and what was not.

The industrial equipment industry contains multiple sectors, each with distinct verticals. While the Ritchie Bros. team knew the importance of messaging that speaks to each audience, the hard part was creating and managing content in a way for sales reps to deliver the right value for each customer. “It’s a two-strike rule,” explained Culkin. “If you send generic collateral that doesn’t matter to them once, customers will give you a pass. If you do it again, they assume you don’t know much about their business and ignore you.”

Even when the team sent targeted, personalised communications, it was difficult to measure impact. “We were sending out emails and wondering what happened,” continued Culkin. “We didn’t know who engaged with it, how long they looked at it, or who ignored it. It made it very difficult to be a needle and compass for our reps.” Ritchie Bros. knew it needed greater clarity into what content generated interest and action to refine its sales enablement strategy, improve engagement efforts, and ultimately maximise potential ROI.

INTEGRATED SALES ENABLEMENT EMPOWERS CONNECTED RELATIONSHIPS

After implementing Highspot, Ritchie Bros. not only provided reps with a seamless, efficient way to access all marketing collateral, sales materials, and training, but it also delivered an intelligent way to engage buyers and build relationships.

First, the team used Highspot’s integrated Spot structure to establish a unified hub for each sector and vertical. This gave sales reps a centralised location to find and leverage the information they needed to build personalised, connected relationships with their customers. To further enhance personalisation, the team also began leveraging Digital Sales Rooms to curate compelling sector-based and persona-based materials in a flexible microsite. This helped the team achieve a 75% adoption rate of Pitch capabilities in Highspot.

Additionally, the team integrated Highspot with their Salesforce instance, allowing sales reps to easily access the right resources for every customer directly within their workflow. With the integration, reps can even send Highspot Pitches directly from the CRM, streamlining buyer engagement. “Highspot gave us a one-stop-shop where our reps can find, send, and track the collateral, all in one tool,” said Culkin. “It literally just takes a couple of clicks. The whole process is so quick, seamless, and easy that any rep can manage it.”

As reps began adopting Highspot in their daily workflow, the team also began leveraging Highspot Analytics to understand how their buyers engaged and interacted with content throughout the sales cycle. This insight provided impactful CRM inputs and highlighted both areas of success and room for growth. With these Analytics, Ritchie Bros. had the information they needed to make data-driven decisions that dramatically improved engagement. “We look back at where we see engagement with Pitch material sent via Highspot and relate that to the amount of business that we’re generating from those accounts,” explained Culkin. “Highspot has opened the door for our salespeople to get in deeper with a customer.”

RITCHIE BROS. BOOSTS ENGAGEMENT, EFFICIENCY, AND ROI

For the Ritchie Bros. sales team, the new “one-stop-shop” was game-changing. Instead of wasting hours searching for content, sellers can quickly and easily find and send relevant materials to their customers. Ultimately, this helped improve rep efficiency with content by 88% and boosted buyer engagement by 76%. “Our engagement numbers went through the roof when our customers started getting sector-specific information. We can tell that this is the content that matters to them,” continued Culkin.

In addition, Highspot Analytics enabled the team to get more from their CRM by revealing how buyers were engaging and interacting with content. That knowledge empowers sales reps to start the conversation at the right time and level, guiding where they can most productively spend their time to maximise ROI. By streamlining sales reps’ access to customised materials and providing detailed analysis into what content was resonating with their buyers, Ritchie Bros. revolutionised sales enablement at the organisation.