Customer relationship management (CRM) is rapidly becoming the backbone of best sales practice. But choosing the right system and implementing it for the benefit of the business can be fraught with difficulties if not properly managed.
Client: Briggs Equipment UK
Business: Materials handling equipment supply
Issue: The Briggs sales team had been left without a customer and prospect database and no visibility at all of its sales activity following its take-over of Finning Materials Handling. Instead, it had to manage sales via multiple spreadsheet records. A CRM need had been identified but the project had stalled.
Solution: Vertical’s Cathy Bennett was seconded on to the CRM project team. She analysed the business needs and secured board approval, managed the tender process and supplier negotiations (including a three-month trial of the preferred system), visited existing customers for their experience and generally acted as a quality assurance check, including the nomination of super-users to act as champions of the system.
Result: A fully researched and configured CRM was speedily implemented and has since doubled the business’s sales returns. The £500,000 investment has been funded by identifying savings in previous telemarketing activity
