Freudenberg eliminates paperwork and speeds up lead management process

About Freudenberg Sealing Technologies

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies is a longstanding technology expert and market leader in sealing technology and electric mobility solutions worldwide. With its unique materials and technology expertise, the company is a proven supplier for demanding products and applications, as well as a development and service partner to customers in the automotive industries and in general industries.

Since 1929, the company has built a growing portfolio of sealing and vibration control technology products, including customized solutions and complete sealing packages. Together with partners in Japan, China, and India, Freudenberg has formed a global network to offer products of the same high quality worldwide.

In 2017,  the company generated approximately €2.3 billion in sales and employed over 15,000 people.

Business challenge

Originally, Freudenberg wanted to shape and evaluate the lead-taking process at trade shows and conferences they attended.

The company was looking to replace its paper lead sheets. After the sales representatives met with a prospective client, they had to fill out a paper form covering the debate and their lead. Once they returned to the office, they needed to manually transcribe the information to Freudenberg’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The objective was not only to digitalize the paper forms but also to allow reps to utilize and interact with the information stored in the CRM—enabling them to add contacts, select accounts from the system, choose from the topics prepared for each show based on products and segments, and add appointment notes as well. All the data flowed straight into Dynamics CRM and was used by the back office.

As Anika Dingert, CRM Business Consultant at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies put it: Basically we were looking for a tool to help us reduce the workload after trade shows. Our main goal were to eliminate paperwork and speed up the lead management process.

The solution

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies chose Resco Field Sales+ because of its full offline functionality and vast customization possibilities. At trade shows, there’s often slow or unstable Wi-Fi or network connections, and sometimes, there’s no Internet connection at all.

Secondly, the Resco app connects directly to Dynamics CRM utilizing Microsoft web services. No middleware is required.

Many other mobile clients need another third-party solution to connect with CRM, which is something we were keen to avoid. Resco Field Sales+ can be integrated directly with Dynamics 365 and that was really a big advantage for us. As soon as the sales guys save a lead form in the app, the data is synchronized to Dynamics. It is instantly visible to the inside sales colleagues, who can then follow up pretty much immediately, Anika Dingert explained.

The company was delighted to find out that the application works across iOS, Android, and Windows, as they wanted to run it on iPhones, iPads, and Surface Pro devices. To implement any modifications, they only needed to set them up in the mobile project once, and the changes were applied immediately across all platforms.

Once they were using the app at trade shows, the sales guys really took to it – and started asking if they could also use it to manage all their work. So we’ve decided to set up another mobile project and gave them a version that they now utilize on a daily basis Anika added

Benefits

Reducing trade show workloads

With Resco Field Sales+, Freudenberg managed to completely eliminate the paper lead sheets and their manual transcription to the system.

We’ve digitalized the lead sheet and implemented them it into the application – so the sales reps can quickly note down to whom they’ve just spoken. They have all the details on their accounts, contacts, etc. always with them on the road. And they don’t have to spend additional time logging the information into the CRM when they get back from an event, Anika Dingert, CRM Business Consultant at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, confirmed.

Instant and reliable data availability

Previously – if they wanted to access the CRM – the reps had to open a laptop, and if there was no Internet they had to create a hotspot on their phone and connect to that. All of this takes quite a bit of time and for many it was simply too much of a hassle. But with Resco, the team open just one app directly on their phones or tablets and can immediately get a complete picture of the customer they’re visiting, see the last related activities and so on, continued Anika Dingert.

Additionally, when there was no Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity, they couldn’t use the CRM at all. However, Resco’s full offline functionality enables users to access and work with data even without Internet. And when connection becomes available again, all changes are immediately synchronized with Freudenberg’s Dynamics CRM.

Boosting CRM acceptance and availability

The deployment of the mobile client also helped to increase adoption of CRM in general.

The acceptance of the trade show solution by our sales staff was overwhelmingly positive. Once they requested the app for day-to-day use, the Woodford configurator enabled us to come up with a modified version fast and easy. And we’re now exploring opportunities to bring CRM to parts of our company where it had not been used before, Anika Dingert CRM Business Consultant at Freudenberg revealed.

Quantifiable results

Furthermore, using Resco Field Sales+ allows Freudenberg to effortlessly measure the success of trade shows and the performance of sales teams.

How many appointments have taken place, what focus they had, how much of the business has been related to a particular tradeshow or a sales rep. We now see all this information in our system without any extra work, Anika Dingert summed up.