How an SMB embraced digital transformation during a pandemic
Indiana-based equipment reseller SIGMA Equipment carried out a new CRM during the pandemic. At a company launched in 2003, and working from homegrown systems until last year, the implementation was a long time in the making.
SIGMA Equipment began as Sigma Packaging and has continued to serve factories mostly with the buying and selling of packaging and processing machines in the food and beverage, medicine, health and beauty, and consumer goods industries.
The implementation of the CRM from Insightly came at a time when SIGMA Equipment was experiencing important changes in the necessities of factories during the pandemic, as well as internal organizational change.
Building a team to confront with the challenges.
SIGMA Equipment was seeing an increase in demand for packaging and processing machines during the pandemic, which sped up their need for change. Based on the Division lead for the Appraisal Division, Randa Doleh, the marketing software before the new CRM had been developed internally.
“Given our rate of growth, we couldn’t continue to trust the recent software,” said Doleh. “We needed a scalable answer.” Implementation of the Insightly CRM got the green light.
SIGMA Equipment had taken on the task of looking for a CRM answer in 2019. At that time, they also developed their marketing team to contain a Marketing Director, Marketing Manager, and Marketing Specialist.
Reacting quickly with an out-of-the-box solution
When their company was employing new marketing personnel and choosing software in 2019, they couldn’t have known the kind of change that was leading their way.
The public health problem that came with the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the food supply chain, making more consumers stock up on packaged and processed foods. As a result, the mid-market business customers that looked to SIGMA Equipment for machinery came to the company in droves.
Given our niche market, SIGMA has grown because of the software we use,” Doleh described. She said that she was “impressed with the flexibility that came with the Insightly CRM, out-of-the-box.” It facilitated departments within the organization to develop customized answers while also being related. This allowed for more strategic decisions to be made when it came to helping customers and managing development.
“The main use for the CRM is for departments to communicate with customers,” Doleh said. “This spans across multiple divisions, and we all need a full perspective of the customer.”
Having this full view of the customer functional to numerous teams also opens up strategic chances across departments. “If I’m in a meeting with our sales team, I’m allowed to take a step back and see what other departments can profit, which means we’re able to rise our result,” Doleh stated.
Smaller organizations are ready to change
Ohio-based business growth consultant COACT Associates, Ltd. works closely with many SMBs and sees the everyday advantages of implementing a CRM. They use the CRM from Insightly themselves.
A lot of smaller organizations don’t have access to great systems and reporting facilities,” said Jennifer Nietz, Vice President at COACT Associates. “We encourage them to carry out a CRM package. We’ve been on a couple of platforms ourselves.”
She adds that especially for an out-of-the-box system like Insightly, smaller organizations benefit from a user-friendly solution. “It’s comparable to Salesforce,” she said. “But for a small factory, we think Salesforce is too vital. They need to catch the key and fundamental information on customers and the sales channel. What we find is that clients just aren’t following this element, and if they do so, it’s on an Excel spreadsheet.”
Changes in buyer behavior are an important reason why industries of all sizes need to adjust, according to Nietz. Even in the B2B space, “buyers are making their own decisions before engaging directly with the organization,” she said.
By simply ramping up their website, organizations will see an inflow of possible customers and not necessarily have the infrastructure in place to deal with the volume. Real-time access to customer records in a CRM across departments will enable a company to keep growing.
“In some examples, there’s almost too much volume, and businesses can’t keep track of customers manually,” Nietz said. “I think there’s more of a realization that if you don’t go digital, you’re behind.”