by Rich Vurva

If you run into an account manager from the Binkelman Corp., chances are his BlackBerry mobile device will be at his side.

The wireless handheld units offer phone, e-mail, text messaging, Internet browser and calendar applications. But that merely describes the technology powering the tools. In truth, they’ve become the lifeblood of the sales organization.

The Toledo, Ohio-based power transmission distributor outfitted its 10 salespeople with BlackBerry 7250 wireless handheld devices in January of 2006. The communication tools have helped salespeople respond more quickly to customers, check orders when they’re out of the office, receive alerts notifying them of account activity and gain access to other critical customer data.

The mobile technology enabled salespeople to be more responsive to customers and also helps Binkelman management keep abreast of the activities of its sales team. Since the sales force went mobile, the quote-to-order ratio improved by about 7 percent, company sales are up, and salespeople are spending more time in the field and less time in the office.

Binkelman’s decision to give wireless technology to account managers was the most recent step in a three-year effort to boost the sales team’s effectiveness. In the past, salespeople were aggravated by the amount of time it took to get critical information out of the company’s ERP system. They either had to be in the office or at home connected to the Internet to access customer data, or rely on office support staff to get them information they needed.

“They didn’t have information at their fingertips to make good decisions,” says vice president of operations Brad Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald made it his mission to change that. He started asking questions and listening to what the salespeople said they needed to do their jobs. One of the things he realized was the amount of frustration salespeople felt with their current processes.

“Very few people in the building had access to information in a timely fashion. We had information, it just wasn’t readily available,” he says.

Management was equally frustrated with the sales team’s inability to respond faster to opportunities. But if an account manager didn’t learn about a request for quote (RFQ) until a day or two after it arrived in the office, he couldn’t be faulted for not responding sooner.

Today, the system is set to notify salespeople about pertinent account activity. Account managers have flexibility to decide what events trigger alerts. For example, a salesperson can choose to be notified by e-mail every time the company responds to a customer RFQ, or every time an order is entered into the system for a specific dollar account.

“He can click on a link that drives him to the details on that order. There’s also a link to the contact at the account so he can call the customer and discuss it with him or contact customer service if anything needs to be changed,” says Fitzgerald.

Faster response time
Fitzgerald believes the ability to respond more quickly to customer requests can help set Binkelman apart from the competition, particularly when customers increasingly view some products as commodities differentiated only by price.

“Companies that can respond quickest have an advantage. The people who can respond to opportunities and have the right information at their fingertips can differentiate themselves from the competition,” he says.

Salespeople use the wireless unit to log into the company’s Web site, then enter a secure, password-protected SQL database that ties into Binkelman’s Infor ERP system. They can view everything pertaining to a specific account, from accounts receivables, open orders, quotes and back orders. Or, they can get a bigger picture perspective and review information such as their top five accounts, margin trends, or sales by product category.

“It has been a great tool for me. I don’t have to come back to the office or call in to find out what’s going on. It’s all right at my fingertips,” says account manager Scott Tomasewski.

When salespeople leave the office or home, they sign out and indicate what customers they plan to see that day. A database automatically e-mails them account activity for each customer, such as open quotes, order status and deadlines. Salespeople can review the information before they visit a customer, or at least know it’s available if an issue arises while they’re out of the office.

“I can follow up on some of things when I see the customer. It gives the customer the right impression. It lets them know you’re very in tune with what’s happening in that account,” Tomasewski says.

If salespeople have accounts that are product sensitive, the system helps them analyze account activity. They can set alerts to display customers that haven’t made a purchase within a specified time frame. Some account managers instruct the system to notify them whenever the company ships an order over a specified dollar amount or above or below a certain margin. The tool also helps them keep abreast of purchasing trends.

“Information was available before, but being in outside sales you don’t have a lot of time to print out reports. With it being available at my fingertips, I can look at it while I’m on the road waiting for a meeting,” Tomasewski says.

Tomasewski recently learned the benefits of remote connectivity when he was called out of the office for three days to attend a family funeral in Cleveland. While he was away, a customer contacted him to request a quote.

“Instead of having to wait until I got back to the office to respond, I was able to forward the information to my customer service team to get the ball rolling,” he says. Without access to real-time data, he might not have been able to deal with the problem until he got back into town.

He believes his ability to react quickly allowed him to win the quote.

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2007 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2007.

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