Massimiliano Picchi - 29 May, 2019 - 5 ’ read

Make the most of your sales with Salesforce CRM.

CRM, Customer Relationship, Sales, Salesforce

VP Sales and GM of Imagicle subsidiary in Dubai, Massimiliano Picchi tells how, in the last 10 years, Salesforce CRM has allowed him to manage a growing sales team spread over three continents by gathering customer and prospect contact information, leads, and sales opportunities in one central location. From Italian offices to the Middle East desert through Miami, Salesforce helped Imagicle in its mission. You. Happy.

Salesforce CRM. What do I need that for?

Imagicle wasn’t born yet when my fellow adventurers and I started using Salesforce CRM. It was 2005, and I worked as a sales manager at Telcen, the company that, in 2010, would merge with Stonevoice to create a third, new company: Imagicle.

Even then, on the threshold of the great challenge that would’ve led us to be the company that today works with over 150 countries, Salesforce was the key element that inspired us to undertake the new path. In simplest terms, in fact, Salesforce can be seen as a real map: a chart that shows your reference points, the position where you are and the fastest way to reach your destination.

We started using Salesforce to make contact with customers and partners more productive and professional, from technical support cases to offer management. But this was just the initial purpose.

(Wanna know exactly what a CRM is? Take a look here.)

Soon after, with the continuous expansion of the company, the time has come when we could no longer rely only on our memory (at least for business matters!).

By then, keeping track of activities on a shared platform would’ve helped us organize them more effectively, and, consequently, increase collaboration between teams.

Over the years we’ve added many other things, from software licenses to special projects, but the purpose has remained the same: to work faster, reduce errors and misunderstandings, and make customers and partners happy.

Last but not least, in order to be able to improve customer experience and provide better services, we wanted to collect as much relevant data as possible.

Today, for example, we can measure the average response time to a support request, thus ensuring we never fail to comply with the promised SLAs.

Besides, we’ve created alarms that immediately report any problems or malfunctions, so that we can fix them before they negatively affect our customers’ experience.

And these are just some of the plus points of using a CRM. Find out more here.

No headaches for your partners.

On the sales side, Salesforce CRM has truly revolutionized the way we work. Our 100% indirect sales system, in fact, makes it essential to provide our partners and resellers with the best tools to optimize the offer for end customers. The only way to do it is knowing all aspects of the project, from the customers needs to technical aspects.

Every time we receive a request, we create an opportunity on Salesforce and start saving all the information we collect (customer name, UC technology in use, reasons for purchase and needs, expected closure date, additional information, etc.), including offers made, special discounts and agreements taken. Nothing is left to the memory of the single seller or his email client.

Normally the UC projects have a duration of 6-9 months, while the most complex may take over a year. A fortiori, having everything tracked and organized in Salesforce helps “not to get lost” and reduces the margin of error.

As a result, the purchase process will be faster and more effective.

If the presales team is involved in the same opportunity, Salesforce becomes the common space where multiple teams work and exchange information, progress made, data coming from the customer’s environment, technical details, etc., to be able to build a customized offer. This will also help post-sales, support, and installation services.

Moreover, when several partners are committed to the same customer, the Imagicle sales team can protect the partner who worked and created the project, providing the right conditions to be competitive and win the customer.

Understand the needs of your customers.

It’s a relief for the end customer to know that Imagicle can manage his relationship in a professional and structured way. UC projects are often complex due to essential details or specific needs – not always evident in the first place – that influence the overall customer success. Salesforce ensures that every detail is taken into account for the whole deployment of the project, optimizing the investment and reducing errors.

In short, it helps us to bring the needs of our customers to the surface, so that we can easily “fish” them.

Best price, best solution and, above all, time optimization, both in the pre-sales and in the implementation phase.

Plus, Salesforce allows us to offer more effective services to customers, such as when they need to renew the support contract, or when they call for assistance.

And, to top it off, having all the customer’s history in one place, centralized and updated, allows us to help the customer over time, gradually modifying or expanding the services as the client’s UC project evolves.

An Imagicle organization.

The advantages of using CRM internally are countless.

For the Imagicle Account Managers, in addition to the things mentioned above, the whole sales process becomes easier and smoother. There is nothing to remember (extraordinary things start to happen, like when you realize you can actually go on vacation without worrying about following every single detail), sharing information with colleagues is immediate, and above all you can get useful statistics for making forecasts, managing budgets, obtaining quotations (and therefore bonuses).

In case of problems or negative numbers, the historical data in Salesforce allows you to do a retrospective analysis and understand the origin of the problem. You may find that there is a portion of the market that is not producing pipelines, a product that is no longer so required or technical issues that have slowed down the implementation of the project – useful data to improve, but also to report the process made to the sales manager and the company’s stakeholders.

Finally, the sales team has all the answers for partners and customers in one place in real time: status of a support case, problems with payments, expiring support contracts, and much more.

That is, a lot of time gained to focus on sales or have some free time to dedicate to personal passions and family.

Make the most of your sales with Salesforce CRM.

Make some happiness happen.

We never get tired of saying it: Imagicle aims to make happy customers, thanks to happy people who produce a happy business.

That’s why customers need to get the most from our UC solutions, and not just the first time they buy, but always.

As we all know, happiness is a virtuous circle.

To make happy customers, it’s essential to have happy resellers with clear and consistent offers over time while protecting their investments and allowing them to trust that all Imagicle people will work in the same direction with them.

To do this, Salesforce CRM has been, and will be crucial to help us work smarter, faster, and easier every day!

#stayimagicle