The sales process in the building materials industry involves both large transactions and retail sales, but it always depends on access to real-time information to ensure the efficiency and productivity of salespeople. Using a mobile digital solution capable of integrating data in an automated way improves the management of orders and facilitates the control of all stages, facilitating and streamlining the routine of professionals.
One of the largest manufacturers in the segment hired act digital to improve its sales control system, with the aim of delivering an intuitive, easy-to-navigate platform to the sales team, containing all the resources necessary to increase the results achieved by the company.
The solution was conceived together with this client, through immersion carried out by the act digital squad for an in-depth understanding of all processes and challenges throughout the sales cycle. During the conduct of the project, all pains faced by salespeople were mapped to ensure the development of a tool that, among other benefits, reduces work overload.
Today, the company’s sales team has a mobile platform, which works online and offline, ensuring quick access to a series of data and functionalities. As a result, it was possible to increase the agility, efficiency, and productivity of commercial activities, thereby increasing the company’s financial results.
Client: global leader in building materials
With a century-old history, the company that hired act digital to carry out this project is a global leader in the civil construction materials segment. The brand develops innovative products, which are manufactured and distributed in the market, serving both retail and industry.
Currently, the brand’s purpose is linked to sustainability, focusing on the social, environmental, and economic pillars — the tripod that characterizes sustainable initiatives. In this sense, the company invests in research and development (R&D), an area aligned with product innovation, designed to meet market demands and mitigate environmental impacts.
In Brazil, the company has a robust operation, which includes factories, distribution centers, mining companies, stores, and offices, in addition to the front that operates in R&D. The structure requires efficiency in operations and, above all, in the sales process, as the company operates in a competitive market.
Challenge: integration and agility in sales management
The sales process is the point that guarantees the company’s presence in the market and generates the financial results that sustain all the company’s operations. For this reason, sellers are considered key players. In the organizational culture, these professionals represent all areas and assume numerous responsibilities.
In this context, the sales team is highly demanded to carry out a series of activities throughout the sales cycle, as it is in direct contact with end customers. This is the case of logistical follow-up related to the delivery of products or even financial information related to payments. Thus, they depend on information from the billing, inventory, finance, and logistics areas.
The difficulty of accessing the data necessary for the performance of the function was one of the barriers faced. The old system used to manage orders did not integrate all the information and, as a result, the sales team depended on communication from other areas, a situation that jeopardized the monitoring of fundamental deadlines, such as payment or delivery, generating delays that could be avoided if the processes were monitored in an automated way via the system.
Another problem reported by the team concerns access to essential documents for negotiations and sales that were not available in an easily accessible digital environment. This required professionals to adopt low-efficiency resources to record information, such as notes in a notebook during a visit to the customer to later supply the system, resulting in rework.
All these complaints were collected by act digital’s multidisciplinary squad during the immersion stage to understand what the system usage scenario was. With this, it was possible to list the following demands in relation to the platform:
- Lack of integration of data and documents essential to the daily activities of salespeople;
- Poor usability of the system, with small elements and fonts, which impaired the user experience and led to errors;
- Slowness and difficulty in executing actions in the mobile version compared to the desktop version; and
- System use limited to querying orders, requiring the use of other resources to carry out tasks.
The notes show that, although the system was responsive, its potential for use was compromised by a series of limitations resulting from an unsatisfactory digital experience.
Solution: intuitive digital experience
Based on the mapped pains, act digital was able to structure a mobile digital solution aligned with the demands of the sales team, ensuring an intuitive browsing experience, online and offline. This change ensured greater agility and efficiency in the management of customer orders, in addition to providing professionals with historical, updated, and automated information throughout the entire sales cycle, including data related to customers, inventories, finance, logistics, etc.
Applied Methodology
The project was conducted by act digital in five stages. Get to know the work we develop in each of them!
- Immersion: carried out through contextual analysis of the scenario, qualitative research (shadowing and interviews), and comparative analysis
- Co-creation workshop: collaborative work aimed at defining the features and the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) of the product to be developed
- Prototype: creation and adjustments of the navigable prototype to be used in the tests
- Usability tests: conduction of tests using the navigable prototype to collect user feedback
- Final considerations: conclusion and delivery of suggestions
Results: agility, efficiency, and productivity
In a co-creation format with the customer, it was possible to develop a mobile system for monitoring and controlling all the steps taken from the creation of the order. As a result, the sales team started using a tool that delivers a great user experience and offers practical features that increase the productivity and efficiency of professionals. Check out all the results achieved!
Mobile digital experience: the use of the system has been improved for better navigability
Accessible functionalities: the tool that was previously used only to query orders is now adopted to perform a series of tasks, facilitating the salespeople’s routine
Data integration: information is available for tracking and monitoring the entire sales cycle
Agility, efficiency, and productivity: the new system improved the employees’ routine and reduced work overload
Financial return: the improvements implemented in the system increased the financial results of the company as a whole
How we can help your company
Sales are the heart of operations in the retail and consumer goods segment. It is from the salespeople’s work that the interaction with the final customer takes place. The more efficient and productive the business processes are, the better the company’s results will be.
In this case, act digital made an immersion to understand in detail the difficulties faced in each stage of the sales cycle, addressing all the demands in a mobile digital solution that generates efficiency gains, reduces work overload, and mitigates errors throughout the process.
We have a multidisciplinary team that develops customized solutions, ensuring greater precision in the definition of applied methodologies and technologies. Thus, we leverage the results delivered.
In addition to the tool we describe in this case, we also design solutions based on:
- Augmented reality integrated into the journey
- Artificial intelligence applied to customer service
- Process and data security
- Multichannel support and mobility
Improve the sales process with tools that facilitate management and control. Count on the support of act digital!
