Saalasti improves international equipment and maintenance sales with Salesforce
Saalasti is a third-generation family business founded in 1945 that manufactures the world’s leading biomass processing equipment. Long experience and continuous development work enable customers to have first-class technology and reliability year after year. In addition, customers are served with versatile maintenance services after delivery. Saalasti also does its part to restrain climate change, because all the electricity and heat energy produced with the products comes from renewable energy sources. However, the net sales of around 34 million euros and company which has daughter companies in other countries (Sweden, Spain, Chile and Canada) in addition to Finland needed a comprehensive system for sales management. Read Salesforce customer case Saalasti and learn more!
Salesforce customer case Saalasti
Saalasti’s sales were managed in the ERP system. You could see what was sold and to whom, but there was no overall picture of the offers and the different stages of the sales projects. Managing the sales of several companies in different countries was difficult at times. So, a CRM solution was needed to support forecasting and everyday work.
Several systems were compared at Saalasti, of which Salesforce® was selected as the solution due to previous good experiences and the recommendation of the daughter company Cross Wrap. Cross Wrap’s positive experiences with Ceili led to the fact that Ceili was also selected as Saalasti’s partner. This is how we started implementing Sales Cloud for Saalasti.
Lead production, and equipment and maintenance sales in order
ERP integration was an important part of the implementation of Salesforce Sales Cloud®. As essential data about maintenance sales is imported from the system into Salesforce. Salesforce’s opportunities therefore have product information with device serial numbers sold to the customer in question.
Based on the serial numbers, maintenance sales and procedures can be carried out easily after the device is sold. Saalasti can monitor both device sales and maintenance sales from the same system. Several devices can be sold to the same customer, so the internal management of a single customer also became easier.
“ERP integrations always bring their own challenges, but the integration provides a lot of benefits, for example for reporting. However, the integration should be planned carefully, and enough time should be reserved for it with a suitable partner.” – Milla Hämäläinen, Project Manager & Consultant Team Lead, Ceili Oy
When you see what is being sold and what kind of quantities, sales forecasting is possible. Saalasti can see at glance which products sell the most and which maintenance services are most needed. The probability of a sale can also be predicted in a completely different way. And all customer-related contacts and other additional information can be seen from the same place.
“Now we have an authentic overall picture of sales opportunities and their development. Predictability and transparency are on a completely different level when you don’t have to call different people and ask about the situation of sales opportunities. In retrospect, it seems crazy now.” – Markus Rekonen, Sales Director, Saalasti Oy
Clarity with customizable reporting for the complex projects of an industrial company
At Saalasti, like many industrial companies, the business consists of Main projects, i.e. projects that include different suppliers. One project can therefore be connected to several offers and opportunities, of which, for example, only one is realized. Because of this, it is important for Saalasti to monitor averages that give a true picture of the size of the offer pool.
Salesforce’s reports can be fully customized to the current business need, which enables, for example, the calculation of average offers, goal setting, and supplier pool management. In addition, you can create your own views for different country companies, different business roles or different teams. All this is also risk management.
In addition, Saalasti’s bonus calculation is based on the sales processes stored in Salesforce and their data. With this, everyone is encouraged to use the system as part of their daily work, i.e. they are more likely to be committed to the new system.
Salesforce customer case Saalasti – The most significant benefits of Salesforce from the point of view of different roles?
- For the salesperson: managing his own work, managing his own sales pipeline and handling customers
- For the sales management: forecasting, comparison with goals, bonus management and the overall picture
- For maintenance sales: forecasting possibility when you are able to see which devices are going on sale and which maintenance services are usually connected to them
- For everyone: transparency and a working as a team vision (a certain kind of culture
How did the collaboration between Saalasti and Ceili progress?
Saalasti’s sales director Markus Rekonen thanks Ceili for the well-managed cooperation:
“The collaboration went very well and a big thank you to Milla in particular for that! The management of the project was precise. We were suitably pushed forward if things were going to get stuck in place due to our other everyday busyness. When Ceili provided a clear project management and scheduling, it helped the project tremendously. I also take the level of technical competence of the people of Ceili as a matter of course: it is at an excellent level. Whenever there was a question, there was also an answer. I do recommend Ceili warmly.”
Ceili’s project manager Milla Hämäläinen is satisfied with the nice cooperation:
“Saalasti had a great team working with the Sales Cloud® implementation. It included sales director and the people responsible for new sales and maintenance sales, as well as the CEO from time to time. In this way, it was possible to represent every unit that will use the Sales Cloud® and ensure that it is built in a way that serves all business operations. Sales director Markus was really committed, and it was great to see how he saw from the beginning the value that this joint project would create for them. The strong desire behind doing things also set the criteria for continuous use of the system after implementation. It was nice to work with Saalasti, the chemistry worked well, and the relationship of trust and cooperation was really good from the beginning.
We proceeded with the sprint model, that is, we held workshops, built in practice, demoed, tested, and then workshopped again, built in practice, demoed, and tested. In this way, progress was agile and any suggestions for improvement were immediately heard and put into practice. The important ERP integration work was also started in time to be completed within the project schedule. The duration of the overall project was about four months + further development and support services.”
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