Hambleside Danelaw Ltd has been manufacturing glass reinforced polyester (GRP) & injection moulded products, for over 40 years.
- 15,000 customers
- 1,000+ products
- 20 sales-i users
The Overview.
They provide roofing solutions for pitched, flat and industrial buildings under the brands Danelaw, Zenon & Dryseal.
From their central Daventry location, Hambleside Danelaw distributes their products to roofing professionals and builders’ merchants across the UK. As a company, they strive to differentiate their offering through quality, innovation, education and outstanding customer service.
The Challenge.
Before Hambleside Danelaw Ltd implemented sales-i they had very limited access to their sales data. Their existing ERP system was adopted to serve accounts focused functions.
Ian Weakford, Sales and Marketing Director at Hambleside Danelaw commented that their ERP system was “primarily designed as an accounts tool and frankly useless for sales analysis.” He continued to add, “It was also not available for the external sales function” which was an area where he saw an opportunity to progress.
Due to the siloed data in the ERP, Ian and his team were unable to track sales trends or react to changes in the market in a timely manner. Ian stated how his biggest concern with the existing setup was that “From a management point of view, decisions were being taken on gut feel rather than hard evidence.”
The Solution.
When one of sales-i’s plucky sales team explained how sales-i unlocks siloed data and provides the actionable insights that Hambleside Danelaw Ltd was looking for, Ian didn’t delay and booked a full demonstration of the system.
When asked what made sales-i the perfect choice for his company, Ian said: “sales-i was easy to use and had all the features (and more) I was looking for.” He also noted that the product safeguarded against data corruption and was highly affordable.
Ian Weakford, Sales and Marketing Director"sales-i was easily integrated into the business. The users quickly saw the benefits. It really does help us run our business with a much clearer understanding of what’s going on and most importantly what actions we should be taking."
The Results.
Giving his team access to the valuable sales data has enabled them to research and create their own insights to better plan their sales efforts.
“The field sales team can now identify gaps & trends with sales-i. It gives them the opportunity to take a proactive approach with clients and prospects.”
Ian has been especially impressed with the team management elements of the system which has streamlined the reporting and mentoring required for his role as a manager.
“sales-i was easily integrated into the business. The users quickly saw the benefits. It really does help us run our business with a much clearer understanding of what’s going on and most importantly what actions we should be taking.”
With the field sales team armed with the sales-i app, Ian says they always have access to the latest data and insights to best serve their customers. “A salesperson can talk to our customers with a much greater understanding of the account status and present the information in a professional way. It allows us to take control of a meeting as we now know a lot more about the account status than the customer.”
Ian told us about his favourite sales-i insights “Gap analysis, variance reports and Snapshot. We can quickly spot issues and opportunities to increase sales or plug gaps, at any level, ie, overall business, sales division, sales region, account or product.”
The Future.
Ian concluded that “sales-i has become an integral management tool that helps us develop our sales strategies with a much better understanding of our customer’s buying habits.”
After 4 successful years working with sales-i, Ian plans to continue to explore the capabilities of the system to guide the company’s continued growth. Ian attributes part of the continued support for sales-i within Hambleside Danelaw to the excellent support and ongoing care from sales-i’s customer care teams.
“When we have had the odd data glitch or user query, the sales-i support team have been very responsive. They are easy people to deal with.”
