Instone Power! Play – Rock Solid Success
"This has been some of the best training that we have ever had."
That‘s a remarkable statement coming from of a company that had never used technology to manage sales activities and drive revenue.
That company, Instone, is the largest wholesale distributor of Cultured Stone® in the United States. Instone is based in Millstone, NJ, with distribution centers in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Virginia and, most recently, Chicago. Instone has been providing products and services to designers, builders, homeowners, masons, and contractors for more than 20 years.
"We have a lot to offer cash-strapped businesses," says Instone CEO Gordon Strout. "We can offer an expanded product line, shipping in any quantity so the customer does not have inventory to manage, and better alignment and efficiency within our company."
Still, even with a proven track record of offering great value to customers, Instone was looking for a partner who could help them hone their competitive edge.
"We had a number of challenges we needed to address," explained Strout. "First of all, we felt there was an opportunity to capture more business in our existing customer base. In addition, we were trying to change our go-to-market strategy in Chicago to focus more on exclusivity. Finally, we knew we needed to be doing a better over-all job of monitoring and measuring our sales activities to have a more professional approach that would boost productivity across the board."
To address these challenges, Instone hired Baker Communications to run a Cultured Stone Power! Play. The engagement had a serendipitous beginning. Strout happened to sit next to a Baker Director, William Behr, on an airline flight. Their conversation eventually turned to a discussion of Instone‘s expansion of its products and services, and to Baker‘s success with sales and marketing plays built to leverage Salesforce CRM as the corporate nervous system and enablement platform. Strout was intrigued, and additional conversations with the Baker team led to a decision by Instone to engage with Baker to deploy a Cultured Stone Power! Play. The play objectives focused on growing pipeline and closing more business among the existing customer base while also developing an efficient sales management cadence that would monitor and drive sales performance by leveraging Salesforce CRM.
Through week 16, Instone is already enjoying significant, measurable success:
In addition to the above measurable milestones, the experience with integrating Salesforce CRM has been so successful that Instone‘s reps are asking for even more digital tools to use in the field.
Warren Weatherstone, the Northeast Team Leader, said that what has him most excited about the Baker Sales Play is the impact it has had on the attitude of the Instone team. "Because of this experience, our team has opened up to the idea of coaching and has really come around to embrace the process and technology," he explained.
Sales rep Dan Grimmer was the biggest skeptic at the beginning, because he was already successful with his methodology. Since adopting Salesforce CRM, however, his eyes have been opened. He says "now my coffee goes on at 5:30 am, and I‘m on [the system] by 5:40."
Says Strout, "We are 80% of the way there. Now it‘s just a matter of maintaining the discipline to work this process. The whole thing is a success. In a down market, we are holding our own. Baker coached us on how to tell our own story."
Walter Rogers is the President and CEO of Baker Communications. Baker Communications is a sales training and development company specializing in helping client companies increase their sales and management effectiveness. He can be reached at 713-627-7700.
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