In most cases, when a client does not wish to be named in a case study, it’s because of legal requirements, not wanting any PR whatsoever, or a host of other privacy/security issues.
In this case, the reason iQuoteXpress’s (IQX) client – let’s call them Company X – gave for not wanting to be named in this case study is that Company X did not want its competition to learn about a tool they’re using to beat said competition: IQX for creating, sending, and tracking sales proposals.
Accelerated growth… slowed by Excel-built quotes
Company X is a US-based industrial equipment supplier serving multiple industries across nearly 40 countries. Its products are used in the manufacturing of everything from musical instruments to furniture to aircraft aluminum.
As a horizontal company in multiple competitive vertical markets, Company X needed flexibility, customizability, and above all speed in creating sales proposals. What it had was anything but.
According to its Sales & Marketing Director, Company X, was using “an outdated system that incorporated spreadsheets from Excel and required manual quotes to be created each time we made a new quote.” The process was time-consuming and error-prone – two descriptors that rarely lead to winning new business or maximizing efficiencies.
The company turned to IQX, and from here, we’ll let its Sales & Marketing Director speak for himself via a little Q&A.
Why did you choose IQX? What were the determining factors of your company’s decision?
The reason we chose IQX was the ease and convenience to customize the product to our unique situation and industry. Additionally, we found the IQX team to be extremely helpful and truly involved in our success.
What problems were resolved by implementing IQX?
IQX has helped us organize the data so that our sales team can be uniform in the presentation [of quotes], and it makes training new employees much easier as the rules and processes put in place force the quote to be built in the correct form. In the end, we have seen increased accuracy and efficiency from our sales team.
What were the immediate or measurable benefits of using IQX?
The immediate benefit was that our team was spending less time building quotes and more time talking to the customer about the proposal. This has increased our ability to output quotes in a single day without having to expand our staffing, we are seeing roughly 20-25% more quotes completed daily with an increased accuracy.
How have your sales processes (proposals, reporting, forecasting, etc) improved since you implemented IQX?
The proposals have become much cleaner and clearer for the customer to understand as the document is professionally built and tailored to the needs while allowing our team to manage their customers through open proposals to closing with visibility and allowing the management team to track month to month volumes.
For us, the most effective part is that we can set the parameters to what options go with what products so that nobody can incorrectly quote a product. Additionally, we enjoy the ability to modify descriptions on the fly for updates and changes as needed to existing products.
Has IQX changed your sales representatives' everyday work?
Absolutely. They spend more time talking to the customers and on the phone and less time in the systems doing things like re-quoting and updating paperwork. We’ve been able to quantify that the labor spent in proposals has decreased, and are currently achieving record high quoting volumes without additional expenses for adding staffing.
Overall, how has your partnership with IQX improved your organization?
It has made our sales team perform at a higher level with much better synergy throughout the company. We have been able to remove functions from employees who were supporting the sales team and refocus their time and energy on other projects. This has allowed us through resources we have already invested in to complete projects we previously didn’t have the bandwidth to support.
How would you rate the initial and ongoing support received from IQX?
10 out of 10 – their team is very receptive to our needs and responds quickly and professionally.
With these kinds of improvements helping them get a leg up on the competition, it’s no wonder Company X wants to keep its new “secret sauce” under wraps. But for us here at IQX, this is a customer success story we’re pleased to shout from the rooftops.
