The Quin Global sales team started using Numerik in late 2021. Chief Technical, Marketing and Innovation Officer Carl Fowler explains how things were before Numerik came on the scene.

“The main thing was we didn't have visibility of what each sales guy was doing and how they were performing. Also, we had no good commission mechanism driving performance. There was a commission structure, but it was difficult for the sales team to understand where they were against their targets and what their reward would be.”

“The other problem was, we didn't have a forecast for the three months ahead of us. We had a budget with targets, but no trackable sales forecast aligned against that. As a result, we really struggled with Board buy-in for sales projections. Now with Numerik, we’ve six months of data where our sales forecasts and budgets are aligned, so the Board trust the numbers.”

Return on investment in four weeks

Another challenge for Carl and his team was using multiple systems to track sales. Carl says, “We were using Monday.com for our pipeline, Phocas for BI, Google sheets to track performance, a database in Access, Excel, and a costly NetSuite forecast system, which was built for us. Plus, we were having email discussions about our forecasts.”

“My dream was to get our sales team running with only three systems. NetSuite as our single source of truth, a CRM, and a tool for forecasting and sales management. And that’s what we have now. We use Pipedrive for our CRM and new business pipeline management, and Numerik for numbers, targets, and commission on sales to existing customers.”

“The bottom line is, we saw return on investment for Numerik within four weeks because we stopped running all of those other systems, and Numerik cost less to license. So even before you look at the increase in sales Numerik delivered, the tool was beyond cost neutral.”

“Another return on investment is the time we’ve saved not having to run so many systems. So, before, you had finance spending hours working out commission, whereas now commission is calculated automatically daily. I never do any manual reporting now, nor do my sales managers. We’ve saved so much time.”

The best sales tool we’ve ever used

Carl and his team did their due diligence before they invested in Numerik. “We looked at other tools. And we wanted to make sure we’d investigated all the tools we already had. We tried building something ourselves. Didn’t work. We tried NetSuite for forecasting. Disaster. We looked at whether we could use Phocas or Pipedrive to forecast, and that didn't work either.”

“My West Europe sales manager has used Salesforce and other sales tools. And he said to me the other day that Numerik is by far the best sales tool he’s ever used due to its simplicity, its forecasting ability, and the team spirit it creates.”

“Numerik is genuinely a no brainer for any organisation. It’s so quick and easy, and right in the palm of your hand. I'm no longer involved in sales day to day, but I’ve more control and comfort than ever because I can see what's happening on Numerik by the minute. I can trust the data, and it hasn't let me down. So, I don't think there is a better system.”

Seamless training and install

Carl explains that the Numerik install was seamless. “With all software implementations there are questions, challenges, and unknowns. But the Numerik team are very good at addressing any concerns.”

“Training also went very well. Numerik did a particularly good job training our sales managers. That’s important because as leaders, we’re helping our team implement the new system, so we have to be knowledgeable about it ourselves. I’m a great believer that if you don’t understand a new tool, how can you expect your team to? So, the focus Numerik put into onboarding your leaders is even more important than the time they spend training your frontline team.”

“Lastly, Numerik has made it so easy for sales management to understand where they need to put their energy. I can look at my phone now and see who’s behind target, and which customers they need to speak to, and that helps me coach my team.”

Genuinely transformational business insights

Carl explains, “There’s no doubt that the direction and clarity Numerik has given our sales team, sales managers, directors, and Board has absolutely transformed the business.”

“We used to pay our sales team commission on invoices. But because we manufacture our own product there can be a lead time between orders and fulfillment. And the sales team cannot control when an order will go out. There might be a supply chain or production issue that delays dispatch and invoice, and that used to impact on the sales team’s commission.

“Now we’ve changed to paying commission on sales because that’s what the sales team control. And if delivery falls outside our invoice month it doesn't impact our salespeople. If we limit their earning potential with something they can’t control, that's a problem. Focusing the sales team on what they can control has revolutionized the whole company because we’ve zero conflict between sales and operations. Before it used to be very fraught.”

‍Growing sales and improving customer service  

Carl says, “Because we’re manufacturers, we used to forecast sales by units of product. However, we’re now getting the sales team to think about money. And shifting their mindset in this way has seen a fantastic shift in performance. It’s been genuinely transformational.”

“I never realised the negative impact thinking about product had on the sales team’s performance. We could determine the future by forecasting units of product. But we were taking the energy out of the sales frontline. So Numerik has challenged the status quo, changed how we run the business for the better, and created positive cultural change.”

“The team genuinely do love Numerik because they can see by the minute where they're at against their target and understand their earning potential. And that’s really important for people who are hungry for sales. Their enthusiasm shows in the sales numbers. We've not missed target since we got Numerik. And I honestly don't know where we’d be if we didn't have it. I don’t believe we’d be hitting these numbers. In fact, I can hand on heart guarantee it.”

“Numerik’s also enabled us to serve our customers better. We’ve greater visibility of what products are being ordered, and that’s helping us fulfil orders more efficiently. Meeting our promised delivery date has risen from around 64% to 98% this month, which is amazing. Our goal is to raise our service to such a quality that price becomes of no consequence, and Numerik has played a vital part in making that happen.”

Book a Numerik demo and start your transformational journey  

Numerik’s built by sales professionals, for sales professionals. That’s how we deliver the transformational business results Carl Fowler is seeing at Quin Global. To test drive the best sales tool on the market, book your Numerik demo today.