Aetna Plywood is a leading wholesale distributor of building products serving contractors, fabricators, and architects across the Midwest.
As a large company with customers spanning many territories, Aetna wanted to centralize account information, create a lasting record of each account’s activities, and improve inter-department communication.
Building Results CRM from DMSi Software delivered everything Aetna had in mind and more.
Instead of relying on notebooks, emails, and spreadsheets, Aetna’s sales staff now finds everything they need in a central location. As Kim Diaz, Aetna’s system administrator, explains, “Everything to do with a customer is captured in the CRM: contacts, buyers, sales analysis, merchandising dollars, how many times we’ve called them. It’s all right there in one bucket.”
Centralizing information has improved collaboration among staff. “There’s a lot more communication with inside reps,” says Diaz. “If a customer calls our inside sales desk, the inside rep checks the CRM and sees everything happening with that account.” The benefits go beyond Sales; communication has improved across departments. “If a customer tells their rep, ’I had three sheets of damaged goods last week,’ the rep enters a note in the CRM, tags the warehouse manager, and the warehouse manager is notified about it right away – all without sending separate emails.”
Aetna is seeing successful adoption of the platform among its sales staff. One reason Diaz credits for the success is the voice-to-text feature in the CRM’s mobile app. Instead of typing notes, Aetna’s reps simply dictate them by speaking into their smartphone. “95% of their work is done in the mobile app,” says Diaz. “As soon as they leave a customer meeting and before they drive away, they dictate their activity notes, tag people, and schedule follow-up tasks using the app. It takes 5 minutes per appointment.” The app’s ease and convenience make a huge difference in adoption.
In addition to contact management, Building Results CRM helps sales reps set and track goals, gain better account insight, and grow their pipelines. Calendar and territory management features help reps manage time and focus on their priorities. “Now they’re seeing more customers in a day than they used to,” says Diaz. “Every day they have a plan, they know where they’re supposed to be.”
The centralized calendars and customer records are valuable tools for Aetna’s sales managers to guide their teams. Instead of open-ended questions, managers review each rep’s scheduled activities and logged results. “Managers can see in a snapshot what each rep is doing every week. They can make sure each rep has a plan, knows where they’re going,” says Diaz. “The manager and the rep are looking at the exact same thing, so it’s a more focused conversation.” Managers are better able to help their reps focus on high-value activities instead of constant firefighting.
Aetna also uses Building Results CRM to track sales-related information, such as merchandising. “It’s a big deal for us,” says Diaz. “We spend a lot of money on merchandising. Now we can run a report to see who has displays, which ones need replacing, how much we’ve spent. We can track it all in one place.”