At the end of January, we spoke to Nikesh Modi from the Field Sales Team and to Holly Simmons, Senior Sales Leader for OTC/RMI, about the new structures that were being introduced as part of Project Flywheel. As part of this process, the external and internal sales teams were brought into the same channel and focused on winning the small project business that we have been missing out on as a company as we focused on larger value business.
One month later, with the new structure now bedding in and with the teams having undergone training on the Salesforce CRM (customer relationship management) system, we catch up with Nik and Holly and ask how things are progressing.
Nik, how has the new structure been working so far?
“A lot of the time last year we missed out on jobs because we didn’t get the quotation out in time. Merchants will often be given a project and they’ll ask the suppliers and manufacturers for quotations, give a deadline and then go back to the contractor with the quotes. If we have a longer response time and we miss that deadline then we’re not even in the running for the job. If we don’t do that part in time, it also gives the merchant concerns: Are we going to be able to supply them in time? What is our customer service like? However, now we have moved to the new structure and have the focus on small projects, it has already provided me with examples of how the internal and external teams can work really well together.”
Do you have any examples?
“There have been quite a few but here’s one I dealt with. A couple of weeks ago, we received a price inquiry on an open spec at 11am, got the quotation out to the merchant at 2pm and 20 minutes later the order was placed. This particular merchant had an issue with us because we had been slow with a quotation last year. I explained our new arrangements and asked them to give us a chance. The next day they called with this job, we won it and it’s nearly £6,000 of taking share business.”
How do you see Salesforce affecting this?
“Salesforce will accelerate that in that it enables us to be more responsive in front of the customer. It allows us to see how far along the enquiry is, say, if it’s in pre-sales or estimating. Right now, if a merchant phones me and asks me to explain a quotation, I can’t see it unless it’s been sent to me and that increases the calls we have to make to the office. We have to wait for the answer and the internal team are having to take the time to answer my call. Once Salesforce is live, it’ll all be there to see for everyone so I can easily answer queries from a merchant. It’ll be the same for the Non-Res and Res teams too.”
“Project Flywheel and Salesforce is being implemented to help us work towards being a more customer centric company. With the new trade team structure – Holly’s team and the Field Sales Team collaborating – this aids us in achieving customer centricity. Even with Salesforce not being live yet, customers are already noticing this new customer centric approach and its rubbing off extremely well. Once it’s live, it will be a game changer.”
Holly, how have things been going for you and your team?
“I think we are all growing in confidence in the new structure. It’s the same job as before really but more focussed on the small projects. Previously we might treat these are low priority but because we have the structure around the small projects it makes them our priority. Before it would have got lost in larger value and volume but now because it’s ours we make sure we prioritise it.”
What do you think of Salesforce, having had the training?
“Everyone has just seen how intuitive and user-friendly it is compared to the current CRM system. Everything seems a lot more streamlined. You can definitely see the potential from a mobile point of view. Once external sales have had a meeting, they can log everything, add a photo of what’s in the showroom and it’s there for everyone to see. It’s really going to cut down on admin time. It’ll reduce the little jobs that don’t take a lot of time in themselves but you get so many of them that added together they do take a lot of time that we’ll now be able to spend on better things.”