Why is no one using the CRM?

Daniel Roberts became national sales manager at Tradelink in 2014. He says, “When I started, we had some pretty inefficient tools. We were using this CRM we’d built internally. It probably had some decent functionality, but it was clunky and slow and didn't play well with our other tools. It was the exact opposite of what I look for in a sales tool.”

“Also, the way the CRM had been launched to the sales team didn’t help its cause. It had a stain on it from the word go because it had been jammed down the team’s throats without consultation. So, what I saw was a sales team pushing back against technology because there was no real upside in it for them, it didn’t enable them to win.”  

“Coming into my new role, I wasn't about to flog a dead horse by trying to force the sales team to use a tool they hated, that wasn't even driving the right financial results.”

Hit pause and find out what the sales team really need

When Daniel realised how disenchanted the sales team were with the CRM, he hit the pause button and reset, to find out what the team really needed. He learned that despite having a directive from management to use the CRM, the team were still doing things their own way.

Daniel says, “When you try to understand the drivers for that, it was change fatigue and lack of faith in the value of the CRM. But most importantly, none of the sales team felt that the business understood their needs, because we weren’t putting information in their hands to help them make more informed decisions and sell more.”  

“You could sum up what the sales team were looking for in one word. Help. Help me reduce my admin. Help me increase my conversions. Help me know how I’m doing. Help me with relevant timely info so I can be more credible in front of customers.”  

Easy to use, flexible, and customised to our needs

Daniel recalls why Tradelink chose Numerik. “After consulting our team, we knew we were looking for a sales tool to help us be more efficient, along with real time info to improve decision making at the sales coal face. Numerik was recommended to us by our sister company in New Zealand, PlaceMakers, who’d invested in Numerik, and were seeing good results.”

“One of the main reasons we chose Numerik was its ease of use. We knew our salespeople didn’t have a great track record with adopting technology. So, its simplicity trumped everything else. We did look at other sales tools, but they were clunky. And they were off the shelf, so if you wanted to make changes, it was costly. When we saw Numerik was flexible enough to slice and dice it seamlessly for our needs, it made the choice pretty easy.”  

“Also, we liked the energy Numerik poured into us and the tailored approach they took. The way they understood our business, and configured Numerik to meet our needs was bloody fast. They said, ‘Numerik will help you and your sales team sell more. It's not a governance tool.’ That message really sat well with us. And it was a good message to share with our team. They could see what Numerik would do for them, and it got them onboard from the start.”

Personalized onboarding and ongoing support

Daniel remembers what it was like for the Tradelink sales team to start using Numerik. “We kicked off with a small trial, but it quickly morphed into a full rollout, because we could see the team were using Numerik and enjoying it. Talk to anyone in our sales team, they'll tell you Numerik’s been one of the best things we've put in. That's reflected in the high usage we see.”

“The Numerik onboarding process was really personalised. Numerik built solid relationships with my sales managers in each state, took the time to understand each team’s needs, and tailored training sessions in bite-sized learning chunks. And they don’t rest on their laurels. They’re always checking in, asking what else we need, and telling us what's working well in other businesses. They regularly showcase updates to the tool, so the team know what’s new.”  

“Once we had our base Numerik set up sorted, that wasn’t the end of the journey. They’re always innovating, always asking what else do you guys want to do? What's going to help your sales team? How can we make Numerik work better for you? That commitment to going above and beyond was in evidence from the get-go, and it’s never let up, that's for sure.”

Speedy forecasting & easy promotions

Two of Daniel’s favourite Numerik features are forecasting and promotions. He explains, “Forecasting’s directly linked to sales team incentives. A salesperson can see instantly on their phone what happens to their incentive if a customer orders more. Seeing their incentive dollars ticking up in real time drives salespeople to use forecasting.”  

“I get a forecast from my managers twice a month. That used to be an arduous task, where they’d have to pore through data and chase their team. Now it’s easy for the sales managers to do forecasting because their sales team are live forecasting on a daily basis. And you know, sales guys hate detail, so that shows just how easy Numerik is to use.”

“We’re also running promos through Numerik. We just launched a promo for a new product from Rheem, incentivising every sale with a $10 bonus. Adding that promo to Numerik was so simple. We’ve a leaderboard showing who’s selling the most Rheem units. And the sales team are loving it, it’s sparked good-natured competition between states, and banter on the chat.”  

An increase in sales and engagement

The Numerik functions offering best ROI for Daniel and the Tradelink team are forecasting and promotions, but he also rates the tool’s power to grow engagement and sales. “It’s driven more engagement from our sales team because it’s so easy to use, and grown sales with real time incentive tracking. I was just talking to our Queensland sales manager and he said the thing he’s most proud of this year is that 100% of his key account managers earned an incentive in the first quarter. And I can safely say Numerik has driven that growth.”  

Daniel also appreciates having useful data at his fingertips. “I can benchmark customer spend in a region, find the average sell price for a product, or see how sales are tracking this month in seconds on my phone. Finding data in a heartbeat to help you shape a conversation with a customer, or understand where to spend your time and energy, is pretty cool.”  

‍Numerik’s become the sales team’s go to tool

Daniel says, “I just had a call with our New South Wales sales manager while he was getting his car serviced. We were talking about a key customer and I asked if they were maintaining their monthly average spend. I pulled up our internal BI tool to check. But he’d already jumped on Numerik, and he was able to tell me the customer’s average spend in the last 12 months while standing in the car dealership waiting room because Numerik’s so much easier to use.”

“Numerik complements our other business tools. It’s like a layer on top. We recently adopted Salesforce, and as part of that we had to get really clear on our tech stack, and what we use each tool for. We use Numerik for forecasting, promotional activity, and incentive tracking. But because it’s so easy to use, it’s also the sales team’s go to when they want data quick.”  

“We’ve varying skills across the sales team, along with many levels of experience around use of technology. We recently adopted other software, and we had to develop a detailed change and launch plan that will take time to embed. However, the Numerik uptake was quick, clean and simple, because the team found it so easy to use, they all just started using it.”

“The team love Numerik. They say, ‘If you're going to invest in a new tool, just make it as easy to use as Numerik, because Numerik helps me do my job’. If someone was on the fence about choosing Numerik, I’d send our most change averse salespeople to speak to their team. Because when even the tech cynics in our team are using it and being advocates for the tool, that speaks volumes. I don't need to say anything else about how great Numerik is.”

Book a Numerik demo and find your go to sales tool

Numerik’s built by sales professionals, for sales professionals. That’s how we deliver the increase in sales and engagement Daniel Robert’s seeing at Tradelink. To test drive the best sales tool on the market, book your Numerik demo today.

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