Context
Unico is a US midmarket manufacturer of high-end climate control systems, based in the Midwest. Their sales structure includes:
- An internal team of ~100 people
- A vast external sales force—who specify and install the Unico system in customers’ homes—operating through different channels:
- Hundreds of stocking distributors
- Thousands of contractors
What Unico say about working with us
We asked Scott Intagliata, Co-owner & CMO, Shannon Intagliata, Co-owner & VP of Sales and Brian Intagliata, Director of Customer Support what it was like working with Stack, how we’ve helped to improve their sales process and their predicted outcomes for the future.
Key challenges
Unico are successful at building their product, and in generating leads. However, when it comes to their sales funnel, they recognized that something needed to change in order to maintain dominance in an increasingly crowded, competitive market moving forward.
Unico was already doing an amazing job of getting thousands of leads into the top of their sales funnel (~10,000-15,000 leads annually).
So, what were the key challenges?
Challenge 1: ineffective sales funnel
The first thing we discovered was that of the leads coming into the funnel, none of them were being qualified by marketing for the salesforce to work on (SQL). This meant that Unico’s sales reps didn’t know:
- which leads to work on first,
- what the next steps were,
- how qualified each lead was, and ultimately
- how to move deals through the funnel to completion.
Basically, the sales funnel wasn’t as effective as it needed to be.
Challenge 2: channel partner struggles
The second challenge—which became apparent after kick-off on tackling the first challenge—was that channel partners (distributors and contractors) were struggling to sell the Unico system due to:
a) Product complexity: only a handful of elite product specialists could effectively sell it
b) Quoting difficulties: creating quotes was complicated and time-consuming, often taking days
The solution
We knew that to solve these challenges, we’d need to understand the sales funnel, systematize it, digitize it and then educate the salesforce on how to use the new tools and processes for the future.
This would help us build a lead conversion program that could accelerate the deals through their pipeline.
Understanding - analyzing current processes
We spoke with all the relevant key decision makers and heads of departments, creating cross-functional agreement on what was currently happening.
"It turned out, a lot of different processes were being followed, and this was creating chaos, uncertainty and stifling deal progress."
Systematizing - developing ideal sales processes
With a clear picture of the present state of affairs, we worked to understand what ‘perfect’ would look like. This involved:
- Conducting workshops and engaging stakeholders.
- Consulting extended channel partners (distributors and contractors of Unico systems).
- Collaborating with manufacturers’ representatives who were instrumental in helping us understand industry nuances and distribution structures.
Collaboratively, we developed the ideal sales process for Unico, and then the work of creating and digitizing that process could begin.
Digitizing - implementing digital command center
In Stack, the digital command center for sales, we digitized Unico’s dream sales process, mapping out their sales funnel, all associated activities and actions—down to the most granular level, and we created playbooks to address each step.
We then integrated Stack into Unico’s Salesforce, putting all of this amazing information right in the hands of the reps, making it extremely easy to progress deals along the pipeline.
Uncovering further bottle necks
During this process, discussions with Unico’s channel partners led to the further realization that two key factors were greatly limiting the number of systems being recommended and sold to customers:
- Contractors’ confidence in explaining the Unico system
- Their ability to rapidly put quotes together for customers
Transformative field sales app
To address these challenges, we:
- Built a custom field sales app featuring:
- Digital system builder
- Knowledge base
- Quoting engine
- Trained contractors and distributors on the app via:
- In-person sessions
- Online learning
Benefits of Unico's field sales app:
- Selling Unico products is now simple, accessible, and quick.
- Anyone can now sell Unico’s products.
- Sales can be made on-the-go, instantly.
Outcomes
The result: Unico has managed to grow while most people in the industry have been flat or down.
Unico is excited and hopeful about its future sales performance thanks to Stack. Not only will Unico sell more volume, but we have given Unico the confidence that people are selling it in an appropriate way!
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