Sarah owns Green Home Inc. (GHI), a wholesaler and online retailer of eco-friendly home goods. With 10 employees (five in sales), GHI’s marketing and sales functions were disorganized.
Sarah watched her sales team follow up inconsistently, waste time on unqualified leads, and miss sales goals. She knew the need for change was urgent.
Slowing Sales
As a business owner or VP of Sales, it’s scary when sales slow down. What are the causes of the slowdown? What gets in the way of more sales conversions?
Salespeople face challenges including ineffective lead qualification, lack of organized lead tracking, and insufficient lead nurturing.
Sarah realized that:
- The team spent precious time pursuing the wrong leads.
- There was no way to see the sales pipeline.
- Each salesperson had their own methods of maintaining contacts in spreadsheets.
Without effective marketing and sales procedures, efforts were scattered at best.
GHI’s Needs
Sarah met with her sales teams to define new ways to close more sales. They realized that:
- They were networking in the wrong places.
- Online sales needed regular follow-up.
- Wholesale customers needed to be divided among sales reps.
- Follow-up was manual and repetitive.
- Back-up in case of an emergency did not exist.
The team realized the company was vulnerable if a salesperson left with notes and contacts.
GHI’s Action Plan
GHI’s Marketing specialist joined to help devise marketing and sales actions. The team made the following decisions:
- Divide customers into 2 groups: Wholesale and online retail.
- Create different strategies for each customer group.
- Assign each sales rep wholesale prospects to convert.
- Hire an online store manager to manage online marketing and sales.
- Find a CRM and reputable vendor to implement marketing and sales processes.
GHI’s specialist pushed for the CRM to be the backbone to support sales.
Wholesale and Online Retail
Sarah agreed and found a CRM vendor to implement the team’s strategies. For wholesale prospects and clients, the sales team used the CRM for:
- Instant access to customer profiles, including purchase history.
- Scoring leads so sales reps focus on the A & B prospects.
- Automated emails, texts, and “Sales Rep Reminders” to ensure follow up.
- Prospect tracking by rep, by stage, by value.
- 5 common emails, customized for each sales rep.
The team began seeing additional uses.
For online retail prospects and clients, GHI used the CRM to:
- Segment customers based on purchase history and browsing behavior.
- Launch personalized marketing campaigns with product promotions based on customer preferences.
- Create loyalty programs where rewards are based on purchase history.
The team set up reports to show changes in both sides of the business.
GHI’s Growth
Here are 3 key 12-month results:
- Wholesale sales have increased 25%.
- Online sales to existing customers increased 30%.
- GHI is protected when sales reps quit as the records are in the CRM.
Every day the CRM manages GHI’s outreach, segmentation, and relationships.
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“I know we accomplished a lot. We could not have done it without our amazing CRM vendor,” said Sarah.
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