How an AV Company is Helping its Sales Team Thrive with PROLIFIQ CRUSH and Salesforce
Immedia has been adjusting to suit the needs of a transforming world. For an organization that offers commercial AV services based heavily on companies being in the office, COVID-19 has required Immedia to pivot its business objectives to keep customers satisfied. In addition to those challenges, Immedia has also focused on training its dedicated — but young — sales team. To stay one step ahead of customer needs, while also equipping salespeople with the necessary tools to thrive, Immedia turned to PROLIFIQ CRUSH, an account management app available on the AppExchange.
Chris Majoros, Vice President of Client Development at Immedia, began his career in sales as a Lanier copier salesperson, where it was commonplace to buy a van, haul around copiers, and cold call businesses. In other words, he’s learned a thing or two about how to sell over his career, and now he’s trying to impart those lessons onto his team.
We spoke with Chris about his career, Immedia, and the technology helping drive results for his youthful sales team.
How has COVID-19 changed your business operations and the needs of your customers?
Chris Majoros: That’s a great question. Until about July, it was business as usual. Since Jeff Emmons founded the company in 2004, we’ve grown to a $25 million commercial AV integrator, so things have been going very well. That includes having a great second quarter. But when COVID hit, many projects were being put on hold and clients were waiting for guidelines on how to bring people back to work.
Many of our customers want to get back to the office, but they just aren’t sure how to do it. What we’re finding with our clients is that they want to make sure that the technology they invest in is going to meet safety requirements. For example, there is technology out there that can sense how many people are in a conference room. So if you have eight people in the conference room and you’re only allowed six, the technology will send an email that lets you know that the room is overcrowded.
What keeps you and the rest of the Immedia leadership team up at night?
Majoros: Before COVID, my main business objective was to contact the client directly and present our value proposition regarding why they should choose Immedia as a long-term partner. But right now, my role is to focus on locating new enterprise clients while maintaining the relationships we have with our current clients.
From a corporate standpoint, one of our challenges is that our sales team is relatively young. However, what they lack in experience is made up with fire in the belly. It’s my job to take that energy and teach them how to sell, how to manage accounts, and also get them focused on being able to develop relationships at the right level.
Are you using a different approach or a different technology for training your young sales team?
Majoros: We use Salesforce exclusively. It runs our entire business: from prospecting and sales to engineering, project management, and long-term service. Salesforce is deeply ingrained within our organization. Before, our salespeople were not trained in the art of account management. Now, over 70% of our revenue is from repeat enterprise clients, so we had to change our focus.
From an enablement standpoint, we are showing our sales team how to create and use the account management process by leveraging PROLIFIQ CRUSH, which we found on the AppExchange. We were fortunate to find a solution that gives us the ability to put everything in one place, and also map out our relationships. Now, we show the team where there are relationship gaps and create next steps to expand the relationships we desire in the account.
Most of our staff are younger, but they’re also highly technically oriented. Training on sales techniques for both selling and managing an account can be a slow process. That’s where CRUSH is really helping us by keeping it all in one area of account management.
Once up and running with PROLIFIQ CRUSH, what kind of results did you see?
Majoros: I think the most important results for us are collaboration, understanding our current relationships, and being able to map out next steps. After creating an enterprise account plan, we create six to eight objectives for that account, and we put them in CRUSH. Our salespeople must accomplish these objectives; in fact, their pay plan is tied to it.
We’ve measured a 100% increase in collaboration between departments and that has been incredibly important. From a relationship standpoint, the app allowed us to be able to map out who we know and who we don’t know. Or, better yet, who we want to know, and why we want to know them. It’s really been a huge part of our success.
We were also able to secure 52 new opportunities in just 60 days with PROLIFIQ CRUSH, which was really exciting for us. Additionally, being able to implement account management strategies in 90 minutes has allowed our sales team to gain a better understanding of their goals, while also making it easier for them to track their progress.
One of the other things we do is, prior to our company meetings, we distribute a survey. I’ve created the survey with about 30 questions. The results of the survey are incorporated into CRUSH prior to the meeting so that we can get the answers and be prepared to collaborate.
How are you planning to continue leveraging PROLIFIQ CRUSH, Salesforce, and other AppExchange apps moving forward?
Majoros: We continue to monitor the AppExchange. If we’re in a situation where we have different things that we need, whether it’s accounting software, software to manage our service department, or email marketing software, we always check the AppExchange first.
The vision going forward with PROLIFIQ CRUSH is to be able to not just accomplish those line objectives for an account, but also monitor performance, check how we’re doing against those objectives, and then turn it into a repeatable strategy. It’s all about building the relationship and knowing where you are within the account.
After working at companies like Xerox and RICOH in the past, what advice do you have for other organizations trying to build strong sales teams?
Majoros: Communication and being able to build trust within your team are the top priorities. Chances are good that they’re going to be younger than you for sure, and that requires a completely different management style than it did when I was starting out. So be open, have good communication skills, listen, and be humble.
For Chris Majoros and Immedia, utilizing Salesforce and technology found on the AppExchange has been a driving force behind growing as a business, and withstanding changing circumstances. Thanks to Chris discovering PROLIFIQ CRUSH on AppExchange, that young sales team seems to be growing up by the minute.
For account management and other solutions, visit the AppExchange today.
