Today, 85 companies use SmartSales for the everyday management of their sales. In total, we have over 1,100 users who use the application in very different industries: healthcare, hospitality, retail, etc. Gauthier Henroz, SmartSales Sales Representative, tells us about the app's usefulness in a very specific sector: breweries.
More than just a sales representative
Gauthier Henroz has been working at EASI for over two years. He is currently Sales Representative for the SmartSales application and specialises in breweries. A coincidence? Not really: Gauthier has always had a certain affinity with the industry.
“You could start by saying it's a family affair: my uncle worked for Chimay for a long time and currently manages the Orval brewery. It's an area that's always been attractive to me but my true passion started while I was studying in Louvain-la-Neuve. In fact, I participated in the development of 1348, the beer from Louvain-la-Neuve, brewed in partnership with Bertinchamps. This highly fermented yet light beer was marketed in French-speaking Belgium and exported (even to Asia)”.
Gauthier is also sensitive to the challenges faced by so-called “family” breweries. He tells us how SmartSales helps them to cope with these different challenges.
“The brewing industry is unique and has very special requirements”
“Of course, SmartSales is an extremely interesting tool for any company with sales representatives on the road, no matter the industry. Its ease of use and the fact that information can be easily accessed make it a unique CRM tool on the market”.
However, “the brewing sector is unique and has very special requirements”. In fact, breweries need a flexible, efficient and integrated tool that meets their needs.
Knowing your customers 100%
“Part of what makes breweries particular is the diversity of their customers: Cafés and restaurants, retail, retail, wholesalers, events, etc. Breweries work with direct clients –who order directly from the brewery– but also with indirect clients –which place their owners through a middleman. A typical example of an indirect client would be a café or restaurant ordering products through a wholesaler. The brewery's sales representative doesn't directly sell to these clients but only provides sales representation. Therefore, indirect clients are difficult to follow on CRM software because orders don't go through the brewery and don't result in a delivery note or invoice”.
Therefore, breweries require a tool that enables them to keep track of all clients and prospects visited.
“With SmartSales, we can avoid the problem of lacking traceability for indirect clients. The app makes it easy to collect data directly and link a wholesaler to a customer, for instance. We can also encourage indirect clients to take advantage of a promotion or place an order during a visit. It's easy, fast and efficient: purchase orders are signed by the client, collected by wholesalers and submitted automatically. The sale is assured, the sales cycle is shortened and the brewery is able to see the big picture”.
Follow-up of samples and POS
“Another problem that breweries often mention is the difficulty in following up on sample and POS stocks (editor's note: advertising materials at the point of sale: glasses, caps, etc.). It's essential to know which customers have been offered samples or goodies and in which quantity, to ensure the profitability of commercial campaigns. In fact, some clients are happy to receive goodies but actually order very few products from the brewery”.
SmartSales allows people to keep track of stock in real time and to connect this information with clients' details: last orders placed, amount of orders, company size, etc. The activities of salespersons are monitored and measured at all times.
Flexibility and access to information
Finally, SmartSales' flexibility is able to cover any other specific feature of the company.
“The really good thing is that the app can be completely personalized: adding the number of hectolitres ordered to client files, defining new promotional campaigns, connecting a client to a wholesaler, etc. All of this is possible and very simple”.
“The goal of SmartSales is to really make life easier for salespersons: by taking a quick look at the client file, representatives can access all the data. Therefore, there's (almost) no need to prepare for the visit. Likewise, reporting on the activity of salespersons is also made easier through the web manager tool, which complements the app. Information is always up to date and accessible at all times. Finally, a very interesting feature is certainly geolocation: thanks to the app, salespersons know where to go first and clients in the vicinity are geolocated”.
What else?
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