Manufacturing Solution: Salesforce Sales Cloud Deployment Unlocks Business Potential

Nystrom manufactures and sells a broad line of specialty building products to construction professionals and architects in the commercial construction industry.

CHALLENGE
Nystrom had enjoyed solid growth for years by selling quality products via a transaction-based sales approach. Future growth acceleration depended on 1) transitioning to a relationship-based sales approach to better understand and service customers and 2) pursuing geographic expansion via partners. Key challenges included:

• CRM/ERP Limitations – existing systems did not provide the 360-degree customer view needed to truly support relationship-based customer sales.
• Geographic Expansion – lacked a platform to efficiently share lead and customer information with over a dozen partners responsible for sales across the country.
• Quoting – quoting via their existing ERP system was difficult and time consuming for Sales reps.
• Pricing – needed system to support complex, dynamic pricing. Sales representatives sometimes relied on institutional knowledge, notes, and experience to price SKUs.
• Discrete Business Unit Support – Nystrom’s two business units may sell to the same customer at times, but also compete against each other at times. They needed to selectively cooperate while also limiting visibility to each other’s customer bases, quotes, etc.
• Sales Performance and Forecasting – the executive team did not have timely or accurate visibility into sales performance or forecasting via their ERP system.

Nystrom’s existing CRM system limited its ability to pursue their strategies, so they selected Salesforce to enable their vision. Nystrom evaluated five Salesforce partners before selecting Demand Chain based on depth of experience.

SOLUTION
Demand Chain partnered with Nystrom to identify their current and future needs and mapped out a multiphase approach. This project included:

• Salesforce Deployment – deployment of Salesforce Platform w/ implementation of Sales Cloud (Accounts, Contacts, Orders) helped consolidate multiple data sources into a single “source of truth.” Replaced prior CRM (Synergy).
• Sales Process Optimization – complete review/optimization of Sales process to fully take advantage of the power of Salesforce.
• Lead Source Integration – integration of Dodge construction project and lead data directly into Salesforce using Dodge Link.
• Pricing/Quoting Enhancements – incorporated integration for pricing products and estimating freight charges. Pricing/quoting complexity now handled within Salesforce, enabling efficient creation of hundreds of highly customized project “quotes” per month.
• Direct Contract Generation – Nintex integration to drive quote creation directly out of Salesforce.

RESULTS
Nystrom’s leadership and end users consider the Salesforce project a major success. Staff adoption of the new system has been strong. Major benefits include:

• Expedited lead access – integration of Dodge prospect data directly into Salesforce reduces lag and expedites outreach—critical in a highly competitive landscape.
• Faster quotes – sales reps can easily access the same relevant information, reducing the time it takes to create and send quotes to prospect–accelerating quotes out the door.
• Increased partner sales – Nystrom is now able to instantly share customers and leads with its territory partners across the U.S., improving service and increasing sales.
• Improved business insights – Salesforce reports and dashboard improved visibility into sales performance and forecasting.
• Efficient Quote Generation – Each business unit can instantly deliver generate custom-branded external facing quote documents via Nintex.
• Better Business Unit Support – Each BU sees only the client, quote and invoice information it needs.
• Relationship-Based Sales Enablement – foundational platform now exists to engage with and serve their customers’ needs more holistically.

Based on the success of this project, Nystrom is working with Demand Chain as it continues its journey to deeper relationship-based selling.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“Demand Chain helped us improve the process in the way we sell, quote, price, and send proposals for our products. They provided solid recommendations and executed well. During the project, they demonstrated creativity, flexibility and responsiveness. We consider them a trusted partner as we pursue the next phases of our evolution.” – Pat Irestone, CIO – Nystrom, Inc.

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