Appco Group supports the world's leading conference on fundraising

Fundraising is an integral part of Appco Group Support, Appco’s Charity Division. This is why the company has agreed to be one of the sponsors for the 30th International Fundraising Congress (IFC).

IFC is the world’s leading conference on fundraising and is renowned for its learning and networking opportunities. The event attracted 900 participants from over 55 countries. As well as to agreeing to support the IFC financially, Martin Gaffney, Appco Group Support’s Managing Director, is hosting Appco's international charity partners at the event to discuss the ways charities can benefit from direct marketing.

“Appco Group Support is the largest face-to-face donor recruitment agency in the world we understand the need for fundraising skills in the Charity Division,” he said.

“Therefore we are extremely proud to be associated with the prestigious IFC, who provide visionary leadership in the field of charitable training, education and dialog."
The campaign supported by Appco Group worked as a survival guide for fundraising leaders with talks on finance and working with donors.

Appco Group’s Energy division build successive growth strategies

The Energy Division has been one of the foundations that Appco Group has been able to build on during its phenomenal growth over the last 10 years. As many governments have deregulated their utilities sectors, the company has been a key player by providing major Energy companies the most valuable contribution of increased customer acquisition volumes.
Appco Group specialises in face-to-face new customer acquisition in the Energy sector and offers a range of channels including residential door-to-door, business-to-business, in-store, shopping centres and events.
Appco Group has acquired over 10 million new customers over 15 years in 11 countries and has added billions of dollars in value for the clients.

Appco Group: Business models that focus on professionalism

The direct sellers are called out to by Appco Group Chairman Chris Niarchos to move from just pushing sales and customer acquisition and to follow the “brand ambassador” model.

The company strives towards ensuring that Field Representatives are always professional, ethical, and knowledgeable about the client they are representing and remain courteous and polite at all times.

"Our business model has created thousands of jobs and opportunities and that comes with responsibilities, which is why we follow all codes of practice and operate within the law. Unfortunately there are some Organisations who don't operate this way and it is leading the entire industry to be tarnished with the same brush, “says Chris Niarchos, reiterating how Appco Group of companies stands apart.

Appco Group: Annual Meet held for business development

A six-day event, held at the luxurious five-star Hilton Vilamoura resort in Portugal was a great experience for the world-wide team at Appco Group.
They came together to share their best practises, discuss future strategy, and of course, enjoy some much-needed Rest &Relaxation. Appco Group Chairman Chris Niarchos believes the informal get-together which has proven to be an ideal backdrop for idea-sharing and networking, away from the daily pressures of conducting a business.
He stated that, “Instead of the best of our business being elitist and keeping the secrets of their success hidden, we are very fortunate to enjoy a sharing culture”
With more than 300 delegates from across Europe, Appco Group has proven be a growing business empire.

What's Appco planning in Indonesia?

Appco Group is bent on bringing about revolutionary changes in the Indonesian market in the coming years.

The recent entry of Appco in Indonesia no doubt marks the beginning of a new chapter, for the whole marketing community in the South East Asian country. Companies as well as the ordinary people have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Appco on the scene, especially since they have heard and read a lot about the Appco Group.

Appco, on the other hand, has planned moves rather carefully, with an aim to make the most of the new territory at its disposal. The target is to open 200 offices in Indonesia by 2020, a thing not at all improbable for Appco. be introducing, of course gradually, to the Indonesian population some of the most popular of international brands and as usual will be employing face-to-face marketing, B2B Marketing and Event Marketing techniques to promote these brands. Appco's presence in Indonesia would also result in generating lots of opportunities in the direct marketing sector.

Direct Marketing is resurging again

After much hype about electronic media and the new ways to reach consumers, companies are still ultimately turning to the personal approach to woo customers, increase market share and build their brand.

The Appco Group, Southeast Asia’s largest face to face contact company has been winning new business around the region and creating extraordinary success stories along the way. In this edition we focus on Singapore where almost 300 Field Reps are out contacting the public through a variety of channels including Residential, Events and Business to Business.

Clients such as SCB and HSBC banks as well as the country’s largest telco, Singtel are all aiming to increase the size of their Appco outsource sales force by 100% by year end while the programmes being run for the Charity sector clients, Singapore heart Foundation and Singapore Cancer Society have already generated over 3 million dollars of new funding.

It’s all about the People!!
An extremely successful internal training and promotional structure attracts graduate degree holders and entrepreneurs to join Appco’s team primarily because of the opportunities to advance quickly through the ranks into managing their own office. The quality of people in the sales force representing Singapore’s biggest names is therefore second to none and is often credited with being the industry standard . With 11 offices and client demand meaning expansion plans to grow to over 20 offices in the next 12 months it’s easy to see why this is the “go to” firm when it comes to Outsourced sales teams

So why all the buzz about outsourcing your sales team?
Return on investment, cash management and massive customer base increases to name a few. Managing your own sales team in house has traditionally been the best option for service companies in Telco, Banking and Insurance but with Appco’s arrival into Singapore these traditional ideas are changing. An outsourced sales team means a fully focused, highly motivated team that has the fit and feel of your organisation without the fixed overhead. The idea certainly isn’t new but handing your brand over to just any company has long been the risk companies have had to balance with the hunt for more market share. With Appco, clients have track record, testimonials, experience and professionalism through a culture of customer service excellence that gets ingrained into new recruits and is part of the organisation’s DNA. Appco believes that the true measurement of its performance is not how our Field Representatives behave with positive customers but with those that don’t sign for a service on the spot.

Can face-to-face sales ultimately replace above the line media?
Probably not, nor would Appco want it to. The complement of a broad media campaign and targeted direct sales to “finish the job” is now being touted as the ultimate combination in Marketing and Sales. This is being played out in Singapore with an island wide promotion of Singtel’s new MIO TV system. TV, Billboard and Newspaper are all exposing the Singaporean consumer to the features and benefits of the new technology but the customer will still be unclear about all the features, have questions or be too busy to get down to a Hello outlet all of which will result in less take up simply because of a lack of personal touch.
Appco solves all those problems by not only closing the partially convinced customer that needed more information but also those that didn’t even know the product was in the market.

What’s next in Singapore?
Expansion in our Telco, Fundraising and Credit divisions as well as new programmes in our Lifestyle Division which engages clients such as “Room Service”, Singapore’s best Food Delivery Service and the very stylish 789 restaurant down at the Esplanade are all developing well and we look forward to focusing on this new sector of the company in future editions.