"I researched just about every CRM that was out there - we decided on BigContacts."
We are a Paint Manufacturing Company specializing in sales to paint dealers. Our target customer is an independent paint store owner who sells paint to the retail and commercial painter.
We had no way of tracking our customers in an efficient way. We relied on hand written reports that were submitted weekly by our outside sales representatives. The information was not trackable, was not accurate, nor was it useful in increasing our business.
The best example I can give is we had a sales representative leave a territory, when the new sales rep came in; he had no information about his customer base. He did not have even a contact name for the stores he was to visit. Secondly, we had no data to communicate electronically with our customers, therefore closing a great opportunity to promote products using electronic formats.
We have been on BigContacts for about nine months, since that time we have had a large territory realignment. BigContacts allowed us to have a seamless transition for each rep, they were able to view all that was being done with that customer with the prior rep and “hit the ground running” with each new customer. The information we have gathered in just the first nine months, is more that we had gathered in the past 54 years! We use electronic information for survey’s using Vertical Response which we just started using and for blast emails for monthly promotions.
From a time perspective we have been able to view a customer at a glance to see if he had been visited by his sales rep and the outcome of that visit. We have used this as our Regional Sales Managers spend time with their reps in the field to be better prepared to go to see a customer. There is no more just remembering what happen, you actually see what happen on the past few visits with that customer and you are ready to discuss the things that have been previously addressed and resolve or close those items out.
The time saved is that our field personnel now use net books to record their calls after the sales call. All the information is fresh in their minds and they are not struggling to remember what happen on the visit that happened a week ago. Mangers now can scan through BigContacts to get a real view of what was accomplished. We have also used BigContacts as our over 400 dealers call into the factory for special quotes or other information, we immediately look to see if the quote was issued for that product. We also communicate with the reps, as they see that we did something with their customer, they review the customer before the call, bring up the notes and they are not surprised by the customer with information. Everything is right there in front of them.
I researched just about every CRM that was out there. I test drove at least four of them with the free trial. We decided on BigContacts for multiple reasons:
1) The ease of use: BigContacts was very simple to use and easy to understand. We were converting salesman that had been using paper for the past twenty years and were not quick to embrace the computer age. Everything is right in front of you and easy to understand as you move around the main page. It was learned easily and quickly by our people and is being used more and more daily.
2) Web based: We like the web based system over a network system that would be integrated into programs such as Outlook. The outlook button on the calendar is simple and easy to use. Our outside sales people use net books and have instant access to their customer’s information.
3) Price: Although not the deciding factor, those being effectiveness and ease of use, BigContacts was well within our budget without compromising on the features we were looking for in a CRM.
We are extremely happy with the results we have had using BigContacts, the online help and videos for support are of great support when users have questions. I highly recommend Big Contacts to potential users, and know that the choice we made was the right choice for us.
Chuck G.