Drim Daniel FMCG Distributie – HERMES SFA Supp...
250 Pre-Sales & Van-Sales agents in the...
Melinda Instal is in the top 3 most important companies in Romania operating in the field of heating, electrical and plumbing. Established at the end of 2003, it took over the specific division from the parent company (Melinda Impex), and thus became a national importer and distributor of installation materials and sanitary ware operating in all major localities in the country, covering about 90% of the country. .
In addition to the wide range of products for installations and sanitary ware (> 35,300 products), Melinda Instal offers its customers and partners technical support, consulting and complementary services to the products that the company sells. In addition, the company has 10 own brands in its product portfolio: Gobe, BlauTech, Eurad, AquaTech, HeizTech, Lednex, Schelden, Gladys, Blautherm and Verox-Home (the newest brand dedicated to smart home systems).
Both the people in the management team of Melinda Instal and those who work in the operational area are proactive and eager to optimize the company’s activities as much as possible.
The proposal to use an SFA application came from some of our sales representatives. During the selection period I looked at about 10 solutions. Among them were CRM solutions, but also solutions that practically work like a web application, without a database on the phone, that is, they did not work offline like HERMES. The difference was that we saw the experience that Transart has, that is, you had some very well thought out functions, it was seen that the application is used. After that I went to some companies in Odorheiu Secuiesc and from there I received good references and I think that was the main reason why I chose HERMES SFA.
Even though sometimes there were small hops such as the defeat of resistance to change that came from some sales representatives, the implementation of the application went very well.
I invited our best-selling sales representative to my office for a discussion, and he told me that he didn't think this app would allow us to take orders. He told me to be careful and gave a call to a customer, and then he started writing on a piece of paper about 20-30 positions for an order. And he asked me, how do you put it in an application? I stopped, too, but I was confident. The implementation team helped us a lot. I was able to identify the problems and I had an answer to every problem, and that colleague became the promoter of the application. Now he doesn't take orders with his hand, on the chips and so on, so he doesn't go anywhere without the tablet. "
Another reason why the HERMES SFA implementation was successful is that the people on the Transart implementation team have been customer-oriented and flexible about their requirements, so that Melinda Instal is fully satisfied with the product. as well as the services offered.
If I have to refer to the implementation period, I was super pleased with the Transart project team. So they were great guys and the involvement was great.
That's why I gave some references for other companies. I told them that in addition to the existing features, the implementation team matters a lot.
I also encountered problems with different companies because that's not how it was set out in the specifications or we didn't understand that, etc. and these things practically don't get us anywhere.
It really mattered that your people on the implementation team were open-minded. Instead of telling us that this was not in the original specifications, they tried to come up with solutions for the additional requirements and for this reason we were very satisfied.
The results of the implementation of HERMES SFA appeared quite quickly, but the most important factor is that the field sales representatives are satisfied with the way the application helps them to do their job better and sell more.
We wanted to standardize the sales process and we can say that we managed to achieve this for the most part, even though we still have some improvements to make.
The main reason I chose the HERMES SFA solution was to solve the problems faced by field sales representatives, mainly due to lack of information. Our colleagues when they were face to face with the customer did not have information about stock, price and so on. It was a big challenge for them to have a short response time to customer requests and to be able to make an atypical order. And we've basically managed to address these past shortcomings 100% with the HERMES app, and our sales reps appreciate their quick access to the right information as an important success factor in their business. I mean, now I know the stock, I know the price at the time of the phone conversation or the personal visit.
Melinda Instal has over 1000 contractual customers on the distribution sales channel, each customer has his own price list. It is quite difficult to remember as a sales representative all the details, we have 7000 products in stock, ie when you are at the customer you have to give information, and the application also helps you in cross-selling (cross-selling), ie those products that are not requested by customers for a specific order.
At the same time, in addition to the fact that the sales representatives have all the necessary information to fulfill an order, now they can make receipts directly from the field or can collect information about the products in custody.
In the back-office (BO) we set up visit routes for sales representatives, we set up some series of documents for receipts because we also implemented the mobile printer for colleagues in the field so that I can cut receipts in the field, directly to customers. That's pretty much what we do in BO, because most of the information is taken over by import.
The most used functionalities by the sales representatives are taking orders and making price offers.
Another implemented and useful feature is the visualization of the products in custody to the customer. The sales representatives fill in a questionnaire, take some pictures of the products in custody (exhibitors) and then the respective questionnaire is exported, and from there we have the necessary information.
The Cross-Sales part also appeared as a documented process. The process existed before the implementation of HERMES SFA, but it was not seen in the reports because we could not look at this information. The sales reps figured out how to use the offer based on the products displayed after the search and so there were some very nice results due to Cross-Sales.
If you asked me if I would implement it again or if I would recommend the implementation of a HERMES SFA application for another company, I would say a resounding yes because it is important to standardize and digitize a company's processes, so yes, I am a supporter of these developments. investments.
HERMES is the mobile sales and merchandising solution developed specifically to increase the productivity of field agents.
250 Pre-Sales & Van-Sales agents in the...
Throughout the implementation of the SFA, the...
The main reason I chose the HERMES...
