Trailer Manufacturer Hits the Road with Precision-Targeted Lead Referral System

Customer Case Study: Lead Referral System for Eager Beaver Trailers

IT Edge CRM’s customer, Eager Beaver Trailers, needed a tailor-made Salesforce solution. With a vast network of trailer dealers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Latin America, sales reps had a hard time selecting a dealer to best serve their customer. They required a tool to help channel leads to the most appropriate dealer. An ideal dealer match is based on a variety of factors, including:

• Customer product interest
• Dealer responsiveness
• Dealer geographic proximity to customer

Salesforce consultants at IT Edge CRM designed a fine-tuned solution. It helps Eager Beaver sales reps make fast, accurate decisions. Now, there’s no question about which dealer to match with new web leads.

Eager Beaver Trailers’ Challenges

Prior to using Salesforce.com as their CRM system, Eager Beaver Trailers routed online lead submissions through a shared email address. Handling and responding to new leads was cumbersome and inefficient:

• Sales reps needed to filter through every lead and respond only to ones in their territory.
• The entire sales team would be notified regardless of the lead’s location.
• After a sales rep determined the lead was in his or her territory, the rep would look up the lead’s address online. Then, they would attempt to determine which dealer was closest, based on their memory of dealer locations.

This combination of challenges resulted in a host of problems. Leads slipped through the cracks or were neglected. Sometimes, reps accidentally assigned leads to dealers nowhere near the lead’s location. These issues potentially resulted in a lackluster customer experience and lost sales.

Custom Salesforce Solution

IT Edge CRM designed a custom lead referral wizard using the Salesforce Sales Cloud, Visualforce pages, and Apex controllers and classes. Sales reps can now quickly and accurately process lead inquiries. First, the lead’s product interest is captured as soon as they enter the system. Then, the wizard sorts dealers by distance from the lead. This process enables reps to accurately identify the nearest dealer with the right product offering. Once reps have found the best dealer match, they are prompted to send a customized email to both the dealer and the lead. The email is a predefined template that pulls in all relevant information, introducing both parties before they participate in a live phone call.

The Salesforce solution improved Eager Beaver Trailers referral system because:

• It automatically assigns web leads to the right sales rep based on state and country
• It facilitates lead referral based on geographic proximity and responsiveness rating
• It helps sales reps follow up with their pipeline of lead-to-dealer referrals and ensures customers are promptly served
• It enables reps to rate dealers on responsiveness as they follow up with leads
• When web leads come into Salesforce, it tags them with a marketing campaign source. This tag follows the lead through to order, enabling better marketing effectiveness reporting

Salesforce Integration and Implementation

Sales reps at Eager Beaver Trailers needed very little training to pick up on the new system. The tool automatically assigns leads submitted to Salesforce via a web to lead form to the location-appropriate sales rep. No data entry required. Working through the tailor-made, multi-step wizard takes just a few clicks. And, once the rep sends the introductory email, the system converts the lead to an account and contact. It also associates that account with a custom object used for following up on the dealer referral.

With IT Edge CRM’s help, Eager Beaver Trailers has streamlined their lead referral process. A customized Salesforce solution enabled them to efficiently and effectively drive more customers to the correct dealers.