With increasing volumes of enquiries and tenders won, Western needed to move on from it’s array of spreadsheets and documents for enquiries, sales, tenders and digital marketing…
The challenge
Flowlens analysed the current methods and it was clear that the lack of reporting and analytics for the sales and tendering process was a major pain point. Tender details were recorded across documents and emails, making it virtually impossible to report on tender results.
Western’s website enquiry assignment was also unsuitable as enquiries would go to a central inbox to be forwarded to sales executives. These enquiries were assigned manually and some got missed due to human error. Also, there was no way to monitor follow-up action.
Finally, because data was siloed within the departments, the marketing team had little indication of what existing or prospective customers may want. This resulted in poorly targeted marketing campaigns.
The Solution
Flowlens collaborated with Western through a series of workshops to map their data, workflow and reporting requirements.
The Flowlens Sales cloud software tool manages Western’s enquiry and sales pipeline. Website enquiries are routed to Flowlens automatically, for assignment and qualification, removing manual intervention. Tenders can be logged and reasons for win/loss can be reported on.
Sales Task management and alerts can be used to promptly process and track any task, ensuring that nothing gets missed, helping sales executives meet their targets.
Flowlens Contact Management centralises relevant customer information, meaning that all departments have complete visibility.
Information is also shared with management through Flowlens’ real-time dashboard reporting. Dashboards provide quick access to key performance metrics while reports are available for in-depth analysis.
The Benefits
Flowlens has provided significant benefits for Western Building Systems, reducing manual effort, and increasing visibility. It has provided efficiency savings by streamlining data capture, significantly reducing data duplication and manual processes. Automated routing of enquires and task management ensures that enquires are dealt with efficiently. Silos between sales, operations and marketing have been removed, as information is now shared across functions.
Structured win/loss data enables management to identify why they are winning or losing sales/tenders, enabling better strategic decisions and changes to sales techniques or the product offering. For example the reports may indicate that tenders are being lost in specific market or failing to meet tender criteria.
The joined-up approach results in the complete visibility of the sales pipeline, allowing operations to prepare for future orders, in terms of stock and time scheduling.
Increased visibility for the marketing team provides a complete picture of what customers value and need. This enables targeted campaigns to be sent and managed through Flowlens’ Campaign tool, identifying further sales opportunities.
Declan McCloskey, Operations Director, comments: “The Flowlens Dashboard puts all my sales metrics in one place, savings hours of manual effort each week. By keeping our finger on the pulse, we monitor the sales process from initial enquiry, to win or loss.”
Summary
Website enquiries feed directly into Flowlens for faster follow-up and reporting.
CRM and Sales Pipeline features aid consistent management of the sales cycle.
Drill-down dashboards identify issues and trends quickly, whilst reporting allows deep dive into activities and outcomes.
Dramatic reduction in paperwork and manual effort required to collect and collate key management information.
