When Your Field Reps Have to Call Service Reps for Sales Insights - It's Time for Digital Change

We are in a world on the brink of digital transformation. So, what does that mean? It means your competitors could be far ahead of you if you don't have a digital transformation plan for organizational change that includes maturity models, roadmaps, and an agile methodology.  

If you haven't started planning, you're not too late to get in the game. Opportunities exist in all industries, with no exceptions. Many executives say they're thinking about digital transformation but are still researching. They want proof of success. The best way to get that proof is to hear stories about people who are already engaged on the digital side of the equation.

Our organization was part of such a story, which involved an industrial equipment manufacturing company. Their core business was providing diesel engines to their customers. It was a business they knew well and they often knew their customers well.  But they also realized they needed to be at the top of their game to retain those customers and in some cases, they weren't.  For instance, they had no way for field sales engineers to readily look up critical customer data while away from the home office. They needed access to key account details that help them be responsive, and can also put them in the best position to sell more. Unfortunately, with their existing processes, the field sales engineers had to literally place a telephone call into their service desk to gather the sales insights they needed to create an order. Awkwardly, they often they had to do this while standing in front of a prospect, creating the impression that they didn't really know what they were doing and that maybe the company itself wasn't up to speed on who their customers were. 

That ...