Seco Tools - a Mapping Success Story

Seco is one of the world's largest providers of comprehensive metal cutting solutions for milling, stationary tools, holemaking and tooling systems. For over 85 years, they have been more than just a cutting tool provider. They develop and supply the technologies, processes, and support that manufacturers depend on to maximize productivity and profitability. Their innovation goes beyond their products and services and into their sales teams in the United States.

The Seco North American sales team is made up of 180 technical sales people managing over 10,000 accounts across the United States. They historically had visibility over their accounts but only in spreadsheet format. Managing and allocating support to these accounts by using spreadsheets and normal data did not give the whole picture, just a snapshot which doesn't facilitate fully informed decision making.

Seco wanted a better way of managing the sales reps and their accounts as well as being able to better report on performance across different territories. They knew the technology was out there so they enlisted the help of the Strategic Programs Team to identify a solution that would give them the impactful insights they needed to make strategic decisions for the sales department. Simply put, they needed new insights into their sales activity so that they could action changes to increase their business growth rate.

Their search for the best solution to meet their requirements led them to eSpatial, an all in one mapping software solution that gives them full visibility of their accounts and allows them to identify geographic trends to help them with recruitment drives and retention of key staff members.

While many of the high-level challenges that Seco faced were centered around the visibility and understanding of their market coverage and sales territories, they had a number of other challenges that they believed could be solved by mapping software. There was a requirement for a visual solution that shows sales rep locations, customer locations, prospect locations, current sales volume and future sales potential. They needed insight and a new way of visualizing and interpreting their location-based data.

1. Sales territory management

Managing sales territories spanning North America's length and breadth can be time-consuming when the data lives in a basic CRM or a spreadsheet. Seco required a full view of their sales performance per territory in a single glance with the ability to dig deeper as and when it is required. They needed to visualize their territory performance geographically.

2. Recruitment and retention

Seco faces a key challenge to ensure that its resources, such as Technical Sales Representatives and Application Engineers, are placed in the optimum locations to serve both end users and prospects. Knowing where to recruit was also a big challenge, with some territories being underserved or overserved. Additionally, some Sales Reps have to travel long distances to visit their accounts, meaning they likely spend more time on the road than sitting in front of their customers. Retention of good staff depends on happy staff, so a manageable workload and a reasonable commuting distance will always help.

3. Account management

With over 10,000 accounts to manage nationwide, Sales Managers, Sales Reps, and support staff have a difficult task making sure that all accounts get the attention they need, whether they are prospects or clients. The team frequently reported the inability to serve all their accounts due to their large geographic spread. The reps also need visibility of their accounts to plan their sales calls and ensure they are targeting the best customers at the best times. They need to make the most of their time and visit as many customers as possible to ensure their accounts are attended to. Ensuring that all accounts are assigned to the right reps was also important. Due to the technical aspect, different reps have different skill sets that must be matched to the appropriate accounts.

1. Better visibility of accounts

Everyone from Sales Director to Sales Representative now has better visibility of the Seco Customer and Prospect Accounts so they know where their sales are located and where to best allocate both time and human resources.

2. Balanced territories

The visibility of customers and prospects in line with the locations of Sales Representatives has led to the realignment of existing sales territories ensuring that all reps have a balanced and manageable workload.

3. Better resource coverage

A number of areas lacking coverage were identified when analyzing the location of staff and clients that highlighted a number of opportunities for Seco. This allowed Sales Representatives that were in an area that was overserved to be given an opportunity to relocate and take on a role in a territory with a higher number of accounts. This real location of resources also helps with recruitment challenges.

4. More time spent with more customers

As a result of the balanced and manageable workload mentioned above Seco achieved a higher level of customer engagement that leads to more projects being uncovered offering the reps more opportunities to upsell. These accounts would have previously been left lower down the priority list as they were difficult to access.

5. Higher staff retention

Due to the visibility of both staff and customer accounts geographically, they were able to relocate staff rather than let them go. This means that fewer jobs are lost, time is saved by not having to train in someone new and customers are being better looked after. By placing staff in the right locations and providing them with a manageable workload, Seco has been able to retain skilled staff, reduce staff turnover and better serve their customers.

6. Quicker rep onboarding

New Sales Reps are now getting a quicker understanding of their territory and the accounts that lie within it. With a quick view of their map, and the ability to drill down, they understand their territory and pipeline much faster than looking at a spreadsheet or CRM system. This increase in efficiency and faster familiarization of accounts allows the new reps to spend more time learning about the company, the sales process, and the products they have to sell.

Following the successful on-boarding of eSpatial, Seco could immediately see the value of eSpatial. Within a matter of days of using eSpatial, they found that they were able to really dive into a sales territory. This allowed them to look at not just current sales, but potential sales and common customer segments too which clearly highlighted opportunities for the Regional Managers. This encouraged more dialogue between the managers and the reps leading them to realize andcapitalize on the opportunities in their territory.

Seco now has a more efficient sales team as well as a single view of their sales operations and accounts on a map. This map is also readily available to both the management and executive teams or their own analysis and understanding of the market. They can see where their sales reps, customers, and prospects are along with the corresponding current sales and future sales potential. They have full visibility of their accounts, a better understanding of their market, and can now runfurther mapping analysis to highlight more sales and growth opportunities.

Seco now knows that their sales reps are placed in optimum locations to ensure greater coverage of their market and prospects to increase productivity and customer engagement. When a Regional Manager requests an increase in headcount in a particular territory, Seco uses eSpatial to determine if this increase is justified based on the current salesforce workload and sales potential of the territory.

Senior Executives in the sales function recognized the value of eSpatial and are now using it themselves. For sales professionals and leaders, eSpatial has been easy to adopt and learn how to use. Its workflow has been designed with the sales process in mind. The Regional Sales Managers and their Sales Reps use eSpatial maps to prioritize the customers they need to visit based on variables like last visited, account classification, last year's spend, and potential spend. All of thisinformation is contained on their eSpatial maps and easy to filter to identify the customers that should be prioritized and visited that week.

Having maps created and stored but not shared does not make full use of their potential. These maps are shared with senior management, strategic decision makers, regional sales managers and sales reps. Depending on the sensitivity of the data they can be shared either privately or publicly. They are often used in presentations, reports, and meetings such as End of Quarter Reports as well as being shared as live maps to the sales reps on the road. According to Tracie Clarke, Seco North American Sales Operations Manager, it is rare that they walk into a meeting that doesn't have an eSpatial map projected on a screen.