Management + Systems

With over 40 years’ experience in product/application know-how and customer service, Orbital Fasteners, based in Hertfordshire, UK, is a well-established online and telesales distributor of over 26,000 fixings, fasteners, tools and power tool lines.

In common with many other fastener businesses, Orbital Fasteners Ltd has a comprehensive range of products and a substantial customer base – making the process of identifying market trends and customer buying patterns a constant challenge. Recognising the need to be responsive and agile in time meant that Orbital Fasteners placed a high priority on its IT solutions, particularly in relation to sales and marketing.

Pinpointing the information necessary to guide timely sales activity in the right direction can be time consuming and inefficient – potentially leading to sales people relying on ‘gut feeling’ and the feedback of customers. As a consequence, sales people can be significantly disadvantaged during sales conversations, particularly where the customer might avoid telling the sales person they’ve bought elsewhere at any given time.

Orbital Fasteners recognised the impact of the ‘gut feeling’ approach and elected to adopt the Vecta Sales Analytics & CRM software to improve productivity and information available to its sales team.

Identifying winners, losers and deserters
As a growing company, Orbital Fasteners prioritised opportunity optimisation and since working with Vecta has benefited from the ability to quickly identify and handle issues such as attrition or spend changes. The company has also been able to equip its sales team with the tools to prepare effectively for every call, gain a real handle on buying patterns and new opportunities, and concentrate on great customer relationships. Orbital Fasteners has been able to identify those customers spending more (winnners), spending less (losers), or who have stopped buying (deserters), which has proven to be a highly beneficial exercise and can be done in seconds whenever needed.

Other benefits that the company has experienced using Vecta include improved sales revenues month-on-month, increases in sales to its existing customer base, a more proactive and planned approach to scheduled sales calls, improved information flow within the business and improved visibility and management control.