Neither of us were terribly knowledgeable about buying office furniture (which means we UNDERSTAND where your prospects are coming from); we got a few recommendations of who to call - visited a few showrooms, spoke to a number of sales people.  Before we got too far - we got distracted with a small crisis - and the project was delayed… but afterward we noticed something odd. 

Hardly any of the sales people we had spoken with (6 in total) had followed up with us, only one contacted us more than once, and nobody sent us anything in the mail.

Missed Opportunity Costs

Now, our budget wasn't that big - about $25k… but doing some quick math, we figured that could be maybe $4-5k in gross margin - right?  Even if we assume the sales team stays on top of everything - there must be a few times things get too busy - or somebody just forgets to call or send a letter… not too often - say 5 - 10% of the time (which is very conservative).  But, spread that out over a year - even with small pipeline of 100 prospects.  That's 25-50K worth of gross margin that is basically being ignored.

The Bigger Picture

We did some more research and actually documented the sales process for a number of companies.  We discovered that not only was there a real need for a solution that helped the sales staff stay connected with prospects, but the dealerships needed a more effective way to communicate with and market to existing clients as well.

We knew software alone wasn't the answer - nobody really needs another contact management solution… there are plenty of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) products and Sales Force Automation (SFA) tools on the market.  And while the current service providers like Structured Web do a pretty good job from the e-commerce perspective, we felt they were leaving a significant need unfilled.

So, we set out to build a better mouse-trap… and we believe we have!

If we can assist you in any way, don't hesitate to ask!