THE CHALLENGE
A seller effectiveness gap that demanded a re-org — and the tech to support it
Swiss manufacturer GF may have 223 years of history, but its appetite for innovation has remained unchanged since the company pioneered new steel alloys and molds in the 1800s.
Par for the course, GF Industry and Infrastructure Flow Solutions, one of the company’s divisions, is currently transforming its inside and remote sales organization. After learning that sellers spend up to 70% of their time on activities other than actual sales, company leaders quickly sought out a solution to change that.
Time spent on other activities than selling
Their issues were tri-fold:
- Their salespeople needed a way to cut through administrative busywork and focus on lead development, revenue generation, and customer satisfaction.
- The company’s massive portfolio — containing more than 60,000 technical products like fittings, valves, and pipes — called for a new approach to content management, seller onboarding, and training.
- Sales leadership wanted to complement the renewed emphasis on selling solutions and rally stakeholders around a common source of truth.
To solve all three, GF moved forward with the sales enablement platform that could do all this and more: Showpad.
“It’s important we understand the customers’ needs, their pain points, the application of our product, the whole project, and all the stakeholders,” says Grégory Quelin, Head of Customer Experience and Sales Effectiveness at GF Industry and Infrastructure Flow Solutions. “And Showpad is the tool for this.”
“It’s important we understand the customers’ needs, their pain points… and Showpad is the tool for this.”
Grégory Quelin
Head of Customer Experience and Sales Effectiveness at GF Industry and Infrastructure Flow Solutions
THE SOLUTION
An enablement platform for the full customer journey: pre-sales to follow-ups
Quelin, who oversees Showpad’s implementation, is a veteran of technology change management and also implemented a new CRM system at GF.
He sees the sales enablement platform adding value in three phases: before a meeting, during a meeting, and in the follow-up.
With all documentation centralized in a single place, sellers preparing for a meeting don’t have to waste time trawling folders for a PDF, brochure, or PowerPoint. Integration with Microsoft Outlook means a seller can email a client materials in advance, make updates to the content in real time, and use a unique Showpad link to track if the material has been viewed and shared.
During a meeting, Showpad enables sellers to be nimbler and more responsive to clients, augmenting a conversation wherever it goes. Rather than having to come to an appointment with content assets found on the website, downloaded, and printed out, a seller can instantly access any relevant document right from a mobile device.
“Having the platform available on their iPad or laptop where they can share and display the content that we are creating — it was just a no-brainer,” says Quelin.
“Having the platform available on their iPad or laptop where they can share and display the content that we are creating — it was just a no-brainer.”
Grégory Quelin
Head of Customer Experience and Sales Effectiveness at GF Industry & Infrastructure Flow Solutions
For post-meeting workflows, Showpad’s Shared Spaces application has become the go-to solution for content sharing on large projects involving multiple teams. Shared Spaces allows sellers to track engagement, gain insights into buyer interactions, and keep the entire team on the same page, ensuring a seamless and informed process from start to finish.
THE IMPACT
A seamless system designed for a modern salesforce
Showpad’s platform has been an immediate hit with sellers, quickly racking up an 80% adoption rate.
Adoption rate of Showpad across GF
It’s also helped the division address workforce changes. Veteran sellers accustomed to working with traditional paper documents have easily adapted to Showpad’s technology.
“Showpad is a transformative tool for salespeople. They’ve realized that on a tablet you have one platform with everything you want,” Quelin says, “and you can even upload materials yourself.”
Additionally, when long-time employees retire, they often take a lot of institutional knowledge with them. Showpad helps GF close these gaps by consolidating information and training to aid with onboarding new reps.
When a seller can pair their expertise on the company’s intricate piping products with Showpad’s slick user interface, clients come away with an impression of “premium professionalism,” according to Quelin.
“Of all the tools we’re using, Showpad is the quickest way to transfer knowledge.”
Grégory Quelin
Head of Customer Experience and Sales Effectiveness at GF Industry and Infrastructure Flow Solutions
WHAT’S NEXT
Building next-gen competitive advantage today with Showpad’s AI toolkit
GF’s sellers have been testing a variety of AI tools to boost productivity. That made them quick studies of Showpad’s AI toolset, which Quelin anticipates being implemented further through the division.
Showpad’s intuitive AI-powered Search has eliminated the need for salespeople to hunt through sprawling content libraries. And the popular AI Asset Summaries function distills takeaways and key facts from GF’s technical documents that can run up to 80 pages long.
This empowers the salesforce to absorb information quickly and helps sellers answer client questions about complex, compliance-critical topics on the spot. Meanwhile, functions like Analytics AI helps leaders at GF measure metrics about customer satisfaction.“I truly believe that in B2B the relationship will remain between two people,” Quelin says.
And every facet of Showpad is built with the same belief. Even as the sophistication of its technology evolves, the product’s purpose remains the same: enabling sellers to better serve their clients.