Cradley Heath, West Midlands-based MMS, which supplies CE-approved health and safety, janitorial and packaging products, rolled out sales-i to 12 internal and field sales staff at its head office in September 2011 to address account slippage. sales-i provides timely alerts about drifting customer accounts and allows sales staff to analyse specific threats and opportunities on the fly, in real time.
All staff using sales-i – whether on desktop PCs, laptops or mobile devices when out visiting clients – have instant access to the same account data, and can spot at a glance if a customer’s spending habits have changed, giving them a chance to act swiftly.
“We have had a phenomenal three months since using sales-i,” says sales director Andrew Cook. “The field sales team no longer has to study internal sales reports to look for strengths and weaknesses in performance; they now get alerts while on the go, prompting them about potential opportunities and threats – so if a customer’s spending has tailed off in the last month they can catch them before they drift.”
It is not only the speed of information access that is making a difference. sales-i also provides granular detail, presented graphically, so sales executives can identify whether sales of a particular product line are down. “Now we can track trends by product, sales history and against the industry norm,” Andrew explains. “This means that even if a customer has maintained spending levels, we can spot if their purchasing of individual items is down. Restoring four products could mean a difference of £20,000 a month.”
The data being viewed is ‘live’ too, so all sales personnel are able to see the latest leakage reports and up-to-the-minute activity on any account, ensuring a fully joined-up experience both in- and outside the office.
“sales-i is a genuinely useful tool,” Andrew says. “If it didn’t produce results, no one would use it – but everyone loves it! Another reason for that is the ease of use. We use the service on demand, so we get the information we need and don’t have to worry about how it all works. We are very pleased with it – particularly the external staff who aren’t known for their ability to absorb change. It gives them the sales intelligence they need so they can react. All the hard work has been taken out, leaving them to focus on closing the deals.”
This reaction, and the 8% rise in sales in October and November compared to the same period last year, have prompted MMS to bring forward plans for a wider roll-out. “Our aim was to try out the software for six months to check people would use it, but the results speak for themselves.”
MMS has eight branch offices and 98 staff across the UK, of which 50 will have use of sales-i in the new year. Further plans include deploying sales-i on tablet devices like the iPad, enabling more spontaneous and convenient access than through laptops while retaining a decent-sized screen.
sales-i’s affordability was the final critical factor in MMS’s attraction to the proposition, Andrew concludes. “We run a tight ship and don’t like spending money unless something gives us real value, but sales-i is a very modest outlay particularly for the huge value it’s giving us.”
About MainMan Supplies Ltd
Headquartered in Cradley Heath, West Midlands, MainMan Supplies (MMS), supplies quality health and safety, janitorial and packaging products at competitive prices. All items in its comprehensive range conform to the relevant CE Standards and include head-to-toe protection, janitorial and packaging material products.
For more information, please visit www.mmsgroup.co.uk.
