Sales management: Creating magical moments at Gimborn
These days, the pet food business is a booming sector. At the same time the pandemic has caused a number of restrictions to many organizations, making professional sales management more important than ever. Today Mark Lukianchuk, General Manager of Intelligent Commerce from Aurea and Klaus Eichhorn, founder and Managing Partner of SYNERGY had the opportunity to discuss the CRM challenges of consumer brands together with Lars Tekathen, Head of Sales Support Nat./Int. at Gimborn.
What does sales management mean to you and what are the current challenges?
“Sales management is the task of translating corporate and marketing goals into tangible and attainable targets. The decisive factor here is the result at the end: our customers complete their orders, the end-customer is happy, and his pet is optimally cared for. This is especially important at a time when our sales force is not allowed to visit customers because of pandemic restrictions. Our field sales force’s limited ability to visit our customers is not only a special challenge for us, but certainly for many other companies. Aurea CRM helps us tremendously with this challenge.”
How important is CRM for managing the field sales force?
“During these unforeseen times you can’t manage a field sales force successfully without CRM. For me, the implementation of Aurea CRM, 7 years ago, was a prerequisite for establishing modern sales management in the company. Today, more than ever, it allows us to manage sales activities and bring business goals to the sales reps. In CRM all the data we need is accessible in order to control sales measures. Completeness is an absolute must!
If you allow (data) gaps, it makes the analysis results less meaningful. Therefore, the entire sales process is also stored in Aurea CRM: From classification, task management, visit planning, customer call support, order entry; this also includes new product introduction to the evaluation of the results history.
We also load data from the SAP system into CRM. This gives us a 360-degree view of the customer, helps every employee – in the field as well as in the office – and for me is an important tool for accurately managing sales.”
Where has CRM been particularly helpful in the pandemic?
“In the last 12 months we had two separate lockdowns that affected field sales visit activity. Because of the consequent work with Aurea CRM, we were able to switch over immediately and the field sales force has been able to manage their customers, in part, by phone from a home office. At the same time, we were able to serve the trade organizations that allowed visits more accurately. This sounds simple, but again, all the data is in the CRM and we can quickly see where there are discrepancies and what would be beneficial. On this basis, we can control specific actions, distribute tasks with job cards, etc. In this way, we simply succeed better – despite the lockdown – in being close to the customer. Even though our goal is to go back to the dealer to the full extent, to the point of sales, as soon as possible.”
What is the best thing in your CRM implementation and what do you miss?
“In Aurea CRM it’s definitely the App for the tablet, especially its offline capability. The specific industry processes such as listing, POS and order are highlights in Aurea CRM. What would I wish for? We are on the right track. I can imagine that artificial assistants will become more important, unobtrusively pointing out deviations and patterns to the sales force. Regarding the service partner, we are lucky to have SYNERGY. We’ve trusted in their experience for years, their deep skills in Aurea CRM but as well in their understanding of our business, their role as a networker and their holistic view in all aspects of CRM and its challenges in the future.”
What will sales management look like in the future?
“I’m no prophet, but what’s required is that sales measures will be increasingly targeted and dosed; it’s a matter of ‘the right info, the right argument, at the right time in the right place’. In our industry, this cannot be done efficiently without CRM. From a controller’s point of view, I also see the growing importance of making sales activities transparent with valid figures on processes and touchpoints.”
Thank you very much, Mr. Tekathen! I wish you success in sales management also in the future!
Gimborn is a pet food specialist and market leader in specific segments for cats and dogs. Gimborn is one of roughly 50 clients serviced by SYNERGY – an Aurea partner with more than 20 years of CRM experience.
