DM Merchandising Increases Sales by Adding Customers Quicker & Selling Products Faster
CLIENT:
DM Merchandising is a leading manufacturer and distributor of gift merchandising for retail outlets across North America. Everything from impulse merchandise, seasonal gifts, travel/tourism related products, and point of purchase materials. Not simply a reseller of foreign made products, DM prides itself on its in house design teams and decades of experience in merchandise manufacturing.
CHALLENGE:
The company's challenge is similar to many sales & marketing organizations, losing a prospect before they actually make their first purchase. In order to defend against unscrupulous competitors looking to gain access to DM's large catalog of products and pricing, DM had built an in-depth customer vetting process to maintain secrecy. Unfortunately it also delayed real customers from working with them.
It was common that by the time an envelope stuffed with product glossies would finally arrive to the customer, they would have lost interest. This problem was magnified by the fact that once lost, these prospects rarely came back for a second attempt, instead taking their business to a competitor.
SOLUTION:
DM didn't believe there was a solution. They wanted to give new customers immediate acces to their catalog of products but were convinced that keeping the competition out was a priority.
We believed they could do both. Keep the competition out AND be more responsive to new customers. We know the power of software automation and were confident we could devise the proper strategy of assigning leads, vetting them to be legit (non competition), and giving them restricted access to the site.
STEP ONE:
Create process to shorten time taken to authorize a new client
It was taking up to 2 full weeks for new client applications to be accepted, entered into the system, and for sales support to reach out. Needless to say this was negatively affecting new sales. A new holistic system was created that focused on a single action being taken in sequence with an automated follow-up procedure to ensure each step was being completed in a timely manner.
Prospect fills out a sign up form on the web site.
New account request is placed in a queue which distributes prospects amongst all Sales People
Sales-people contact a prospect and extend provisional (2 hour limit) access to DM’s complete catalog
Once initial order is placed within 2 hours of provisional access, prospect is converted into a client and is automatically setup as such in internal ERP system.
STEP TWO:
Convince Client That the Process Was not "too" complicated
At first glance the client was shocked at our proposal. They looked at it and said "What the Hell" that is even more strenuous than our current process. How are we going to shorten our lead time by adding MORE steps?"
Our response? Yes.
It IS more complex, with more moving parts than before. BUT the simplicity of this larger, more segmented process was that every participant (customer, sales person, accounts person) would be presented with a simple task, at the right time. they don’t have to think or memorize anything, it just pops up.
That is business application software at its best.
IMPLEMENTATION:
Since WRP was responsible for creating both the public website and for designing the company's intranet, we had the benefit of adding more complex functionality across the company. The system has been in production and operating since 2008.
RESULTS:
- Conversion Rates much higher due to more responsive sales force to customer issues
- Decreased time it took to bring new customers on-board from 2 weeks to less than 1 day
- Cost reduction by moving physical mail to online
CLIENT'S THOUGHTS:
"This single function sped up our new customer on-boarding system so much it was able to pay for the entire project in the first six months. To get that much ROI was beyond our expectations. Igor and his team went above & beyond for DM Merchandising and it's why we continue to use them to this day"
DM Merchandising
NEXT STEPS:
Have a difficult problem and not sure whether a custom built business application would be good for you? Contact us for an initial consultation, but be warned we might try to talk you out of building your own software, we don’t do failed projects and custom software is not for the faint hearted!
For clear, concise feedback on whether we are a good fit, contact us.