Rob Jones was promoted to Sales Manager at Smith Brothers (SB), an electronics distributor. He is SB’s first Sales Manager as Randy Smith managed the sales team previously.
Rob faces daily pressures including:
- Meeting sales targets.
- Sales team performance.
- Pipeline management.
- Sales forecasting.
While a great salesperson, Rob never managed other salespeople.
Smith Brothers
The Smith Brothers built SB by the seat of their pants, wanted to take it to the next level, and tasked Rob with the job.
For years, Randy, Sandy, and Andy Smith did the selling. Now, the sales team were professionals, and Rob had to win them over.
Rob, the team, and the owners agreed to:
- Set aggressive and achievable sales goals.
- Launch multiple campaigns based on salespersons’ submarkets.
- Track prospects by stage to forecast revenue and identify where prospects drop out.
- Create a library of email templates commonly used by each salesperson.
- Manage sales meetings with fresh data to review results, identify obstacles, and adjust.
The team did not know where to start. They sought advice from business colleagues.
Randy Smith said, “Everyone said get a CRM to manage our sales team. I did not even know what a CRM was. Good thing the team knew about CRMs.”
Which CRM was Right for Smith Brothers
The team hired a specialist to help refine their needs. They learned about the powers of automation and segmentation:
- Sales funnel – Move a prospect from one stage to the next and trigger a special offer to the prospect and an action to the salesperson to follow up automatically.
- Prospect ranking – Trigger personalized outreach to your “A&B” prospects with special offers.
- Dynamic lists – Every time you add a contact to the CRM, add it to a pre-conditioned contact list using demographic, geographic, and buyer behavior characteristics so the list is always up to date.
Very quickly, the team knew they needed a robust CRM to support its sales efforts.
The team dismissed the lower-end CRMs and the higher-priced mail managers. “Just no bang for the buck,” explained the specialist.
They chose a robust CRM which the specialist configured for them.
SB’s Results
12 months later, here are the team’s comments:
- Prospects say, “Getting emails one day and a sales call the next day catches their attention.”
- Customers say, “Our sales reps know when to call us based on our prior purchases. They keep us up to date!”
- Prospects are tracked by stage in the sales funnel. As prospects move through the funnel, outreach and internal actions occur. Tracking is displayed graphically and in detail, 24/7.
- A&B prospects receive emails that describe products in which they showed interest.
- Sales meetings run smoothly, focusing on exceptions and solutions to obstacles.
The owners and salespeople have more free time to focus on their highest priorities as prospect ranking, automation, and segmentation eliminate repetitive, manual tasks.
Bottom Line
The team has added 2 new salespeople and 4 in the warehouse. Sales are up, new territories are being penetrated, and new products introduced.
“Credit Rob, he is taking us to the next level!” said Randy Smith
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