 |
 Client Support Login
|
|
|
|  |  Dealer Profile: Capital Office Products October 30, 2008 Capital Office Products in Daytona Beach, FL, has found a cost effective way to acquire, manage and grow a large volume of customers cost effectively. Three years ago they started a call center. According to Tom O'Hanlon, call center sales manager, they initially began the program as a way to maintain and grow existing customers. Three years later new customer acquisition has grown to be the largest side. "In the beginning", said O'Hanlon, "we just intended to offer a higher level of support to existing customers - someone to call them-keep in touch and maintain them and grow the business. It all just evolved to new customer acquisition". O'Hanlon went on to say, "As we saw the competitive environment get more volatile and we asked our 'maintenance' reps to be come more proactive in growing business, new customer acquisition was a natural progression". Three years and a lot of hard work later, Capital Office Products now has 12 new customer acquisition reps and 7 account maintenance reps. Combined they cover 3500 customers with each maintenance rep covering between 400-600 customers. As a key to their success, O'Hanlon went on to say, "When an inside rep acquires a new customer they keep it for a 90 day period of initial growth. Once we feel we have an established level of business the new customer is turned over to a maintenance rep to penetrate and grow the customer ongoing". O'Hanlon was quick to point out, however, that the rep that got the customer still checks in once in a while and helps maintain the relationship from both ends. In essence Capital has an inside version of the traditional "Hunter-Farmer" program! GoldMine CRM and sales Force Automation software plays a vital role in Capital's call center. Having all of the customer information on once screen when contacting a customer helps the rep to strategically structure their call. They have notes from past activity that helps to sustain the relationship, and information to use to grow the business; they also have direct connectivity to from DDMS to GoldMine, giving invaluable sales history that greatly enhances the customer penetration process. Said O'Hanlon, "Our reps know where they have been, where they are, and where they want to go with a customer at all times". "GoldMine helps greatly with new customer acquisition as well", O'Hanlon related. "We can track a prospect in the prospecting cycle; the reps always know what the next step is and what needs to be done strategically to 'get their share'. O'Hanlon is big on 'numbers' or 'playing the numbers game'. "We make sure the reps know 'the law of large numbers' - the ratios needed - and how all this can correlate to income for them. We want them to be the master of their own destiny". Capital leverages GoldMine's capacity for assisting with the promotional effort. There are ongoing campaigns with targeted faxing and html e-mailing. These are targeted efforts to customer and prospect segments established in GoldMine as well as to the entire database. And each rep also has the autonomy to instantly e-mail or fax promotions during the call process. Capital takes advantage of every tool their technology gives them. The call center has resulted in considerable growth for Capital and they continue to grow, even in these trying times. Capital is first-call United Stationers and a member of Tri-Mega.
|  | |||||||||
 |
Print
This Page
Print This Page