Steelhead Productions makes custom rental exhibits for trade shows, special events and promotional tours. The company is located in Poulsbo, Wash. and has been in business for ten years. Steelhead attracted new customers and continued to grow until 2005, when the company discovered that they had reached a plateau. They soon began searching for a solution to give them a consistent process and help grow their sales.
“Our current customers were great, but to push past our plateau we knew we needed to keep adding additional customers,” said Sean C. Combs, co-owner and vice president of sales and marketing at Steelhead. “Our sales process was disorganized and we didn’t have a structured sales plan. Our focus became not just maintaining customers but adding customers. And for that to happen, I knew we needed a better sales system.”
Challenges
Even though Steelhead Productions had been in business for a decade, their sales organization was in its infancy, according to Combs. He decided to investigate several options to improve his sales organization’s tracking and reporting, as well as finding a solution that would increase Steelhead’s sales.
Combs says he evaluated several sales solutions including Salesforce.com, ACT!, Goldmine and Prophet. When asked what he was looking for in a sales solution, Combs said he wanted to find a solution that helped him organize the company’s sales process, categorize leads, assist in tracking the leads, and most importantly provide an easy to use system for his sales team.
Solution
After investigating all his options, Combs decided to purchase Prophet as his sales management solution, mainly for its power, ease of use and integration with Outlook.
“Prophet helps give our sales team guidance and structure,” explained Combs. “As a manager of sales, Prophet allows me to get a clear visual of the size of our customer database and sales pipeline. Prophet provides me and my team with a list of opportunities to target, so I can justify how we should spend marketing dollars to close more sales.”
Combs credits Prophet with helping his sales organization get on its feet.
“I kept asking ‘How long does our sales cycle take?’ and I didn’t have an answer until we started using Prophet to analyze our sales process,” Combs continued. “Prophet helped us find out our sales cycle through tracking and reporting. Prophet allows our team to be organized by categorizing leads, qualifying them, and then bringing them through the sales process. I now have viable data to base my sales and marketing decisions on.”
Implementation
One advantage of Prophet that stands out to Combs is its ease of use. Steelhead Productions’ entire sales team was able to begin using Prophet with minimal effort. Since they were already familiar with Outlook, they didn’t have to learn how to do basics like creating contacts, scheduling appointments, setting reminders and sending emails.
“At first my employees were worried and resistant to my bringing in new sales software,” said Combs. “But, once Prophet was installed in Outlook, there was a lot of relief, since they were already familiar with the platform. Because of the integration with Outlook, we had very few questions. The screen looked familiar, as well as the buttons and folders. Prophet was a breeze to learn after using Outlook for 10 years.”
“Avidian’s understanding of the sales process is apparent in every aspect of their software,” commented Combs. “Prophet was quick to install and we were able to get our employees up and running in no time at all.”
“To any business owner or sales manager, constantly improving the sales process is extremely valuable to keeping customers organized and having a management plan,” Combs offered. “I feel totally comfortable holding my sales people to high expectations if I have given them the right tools to succeed. By giving them Prophet, I have raised my expectations to an even higher level knowing we have the right solutions in place. Prophet has played a central role in our becoming more organized and moving forward with our sales efforts.”