Jarrett Implements - Tracking Leads and Automating the Sales Process

Jarrett Implements is one of Australia's most successful manufacturers of farm equipment and park mowers. Still a family owned and operated business, it has been manufacturing machinery for over 50 years and has a network of distributors.

Typically potential customers  call to request information or a brochure, or ask a question about a product. These enquires are handled at Jarrett's Head Office, and the required information is provided or a brochure is sent out.

With a constant stream of enquires received and leads referred to distributors, Jarrett wanted a better system to manage their sales and customer tracking. According to the managing Director, Anthony Jarrett, "We looked at our accounting software's CRM and many other CRM programs available. None of them had the flexibility or structure of Commence."

They needed a better way to track the client information, relate the client to their dealer, and then trigger reminders to ensure the leads were being properly followed up.

After understanding their requirements and making some minor modifications to the Commence RM: Australian Edition, Advanced User Systems installed a Commence Workgroup. It was a simple matter to export the basic customers and suppliers information (names, addresses, phone, fax, contact, etc) from the accounting package into Commence. With half a day of training, all the staff at Jarrett were then using Commence to handle enquires and sales calls, with the information automatically shared.

An incoming call is easily handled in one screen, allowing data entry of the client details, and any notes taken during the conversation. At this point a window can be popped up showing a list of postcodes and dealers in that area - it is then easy to quickly find the dealer located nearest to the client. At the same time a follow up can be created, to provide a future task in the calendar to call the client.

From that point, the client can be tracked either directly or by dealer. As reminders come up, Jarrett sales can contact the assigned dealer and check the status of the opportunity.

"We also log our dealers calls when they enquire on availability, cost, detail specs, etc. Their phone call has often been initiated by a customer’s enquiry and therefore a potential sale. They appreciate our follow up and view it as us helping them with their business – it’s a win, win situation!", said Mr Jarrett.

"We're now looking at emailing the customer's enquiry and details to our Dealers directly from Commence to streamline the system."

"Its great having people recording their bit of information and everyone having access to it. If someone is away we can easily look up the notes recorded and know the current status of events. It means your client doesn’t have to repeat the whole story and the story is not changed from one conversation to the next."

Jarrett are also finding it is helpful to manage contact with their suppliers using Commence. By taking notes and creating followups, they can more easily stay on top of supply chain requirements.

With regular visits to distributors, the Commence remote access features are invaluable. "We like the ability of taking the laptop away on a business trip, record the necessary notes and via the internet or on returning to the office, plug it into the network and instantly have all information exchanged between the laptop and network."

Although this is a relatively straightforward implementation of Commence, mainly taking advantage of the Contact Management capabilities, it has helped Jarrett to manage their opportunities more effectively and close more business.