There is no shortage of off-the-shelf sales-support software out there — some more effective than others. But a really effective sales tool needs to be tailored to the business, in-tune with the customers and pliable enough to adjust to an ever changing landscape.
When developing a suite of iPad apps for the Essity sales force, we married our insights about their business and the customer’s journey down the sales funnel to create seven iPad apps that work a lot smarter.
The Essity sales model relies on partner distributors to make the final sale with the end customer. Often these distributors are also selling competitive products. With that in mind, the sales support tools need to both reach the end customer and position Essity well with the distributor as well.
Avenue started designing the solution by traveling down the sales funnel with the customer. By analyzing each stop along the way, we discovered that there were different needs and different decision points that the journey hinged on. Each one influenced whether the customer continued on, or stopped in their tracks.
After identifying the key decision moments along the funnel, we knew that a suite of apps were required – one for each of those seven key moments. All a sales rep had to do was open the right app for the right customer and deliver the focused messaging needed at that time to help keep them moving. Like the Tork Insider which allows reps to select from a library of up-to-date sell-sheets, presentation decks, news, images and videos to custom-tailor presentations for each potential customer. Or Tork Snapshot which allows customers to take pictures of their spaces and place Tork products in them to visualize how they might look.
Choosing to make seven different apps as opposed to one, all-encompassing app, makes good business sense because it:
The apps have proven to be a success story for Avenue and Essity. A new team at Essity is now dedicated to supporting their usage and analyzing the data in order to continue to refine their effectiveness.
The feedback from distributors and customers has been overwhelmingly positive, providing another path to brand affinity for Essity products. All Essity asked for was a little help. All we did is what we always do: add a layer of strategic thinking to deliver solutions beyond what was asked for.