Blockbuster Salesforce CRM Helps LocationCinema Quickly Take New Business Idea to Market; Grows Sales by 35 Percent

How to Manage a Remote Sales Force

LocationCinema is a Frankfurt-headquartered agency and event management company that rents out cinemas for corporate events. The concept was the brainchild of Kai Lauterbach, who worked for many years with the CineStar/UFA Group, the largest cinema operators in Germany. "During my time in the film business it struck me how wasteful it was for cinemas to be lying idle during the day," Lauterbach says. "You had excellent properties in prime city locations that were almost empty during normal office hours."

Formed in May 2003, LocationCinema provides a complete event management service from catering to display and acts as an agent for over 600 cinema screens throughout Germany with auditoriums seating 100 to 1,000 people.

Lauterbach's initial challenge was establishing the operation throughout Germany in a short time frame. He hired a network of local salespeople in major cities. "These salespeople had to be located on the ground locally outside of headquarters so my big challenge was: how do I manage them? How do I know what they are doing without wasting time on endless conference calls?"

In addition, Lauterbach realised that he needed to capture the contacts that his sales team were making. "It was of little benefit to have potential future customers isolated on individual laptops or in someone's suit pocket."

Lauterbach recognised that he required a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Initially he considered a client/server-based approach but quickly rejected this because of cost, IT complexity, and lack of flexibility. "We are a rapidly growing company," explains Lauterbach. "Our processes need to change as we develop. We were concerned about the restrictions imposed by client/server systems." In addition, he could not afford to wait three months or more while a traditional client/server application was implemented.

Lauterbach was also concerned about the software and infrastructure costs of synchronising information from a remote workforce spread throughout Germany.

An Affordable IT Solution

Lauterbach had heard about cloud-computing CRM whereby the service is provided on demand for a monthly subscription per user. Following a Web search, he discovered salesforce.com.

Salesforce.com is a global leader in cloud computing, providing the power of enterprise-class CRM software for a monthly subscription per user. By offering the Salesforce CRM application as a cloud-computing service, salesforce.com eliminates the need to buy, install, or maintain hardware, software, or networks.

"One of Salesforce CRM's great benefits is that it is so affordable," says Lauterbach. "We did not need any up-front investment in hardware, software, or consultants. There is no risk, unlike with traditional IT applications." LocationCinema selected Salesforce CRM Professional Edition, which costs €70 per user per month.

Helps Manage the Company

Lauterbach stresses that with a new system it is vital to input clean data. "I had one person clean up our data, which took about 10 to 15 days. Once this was achieved we implemented Salesforce CRM in under a week."

Salesforce CRM is now the company's central information source. All aspects of the sales process are captured and stored, from initial contact to proposal, contract, and implementation. "Now all the data is captured remotely but stored centrally on Salesforce CRM," says Lauterbach. "This has saved us sending approximately 1,000 emails a month."

As part of their daily jobs, sales people input data so they don't have to waste time compiling weekly reports. All the data is instantly available to headquarters, and reports can be accessed at the touch of a button, giving Lauterbach greater transparency of the revenue pipeline. "Previously, sales had to compile Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that were sent to Frankfurt to compile with other data. By the time this was achieved, the information was out of date. Now I have a real-time view of revenue forecasts."

Lauterbach estimates that using Salesforce CRM has increased the time spent on sales by at least 15 percent. "We have axed administration time, which means that our salespeople can spend time more productively with prospects and customers."

The system also helps Lauterbach manage a remote workforce and keeps everyone informed on the current status of the approximately 100 events per month that LocationCinema organises.

The Internet-based model means that Lauterbach can access this information anywhere. "I have to admit that even on holiday in Croatia I logged on and was able to check the status of the business." As UMTS (3G) is rolled out across Germany, he sees potential to access information at high speed from mobile devices such as telephones and PDAs.

Lauterbach is particularly impressed by the ease of use of Salesforce CRM. "I am not an IT person, but even I can easily customise Salesforce CRM to what we need," he explains. "It has more than enough functionality, and upgrades are free. Its flexibility is vital for us as we grow and develop."

He continues, "Since the introduction of Salesforce CRM, our sales have grown by 35 percent. Salesforce CRM helps us manage this growth in business. It helps us keep track of all activity so as to maximise customer service and information sharing across the company. We started out looking for a customer relationship management system—we found something that goes much further than that and helps us manage the company."

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