TENMAT Builds Revenue with PipelineDeals CRM

For more than a century, marine, automotive, aerospace, railway, and energy companies have turned to TENMAT Manufacturing for its advanced industrial materials and components, including bearings, engineering ceramics, temperature-resistant materials, hard metals, and passive fire protection solutions. While TENMAT, which is based in Manchester, England, has a solid history of taking on and meeting manufacturing industry challenges, its North American operations needed a better CRM solution so it could focus on growing the business and increasing revenue.

“We work in an exciting industry where we have built a solid reputation for quality over time. However, to be even more competitive, we had to find a new CRM solution that would work for us,” says Marco Kristen, marketing director at TENMAT. “The business was growing, and we were getting more inquiries, but our sales staff would have to stay the same.”

The company had been using Excel spreadsheets and Swiftpage’s ACT! CRM system, “but we couldn’t organize our day with those tools and risked losing out on big opportunities,” Kristen recalls.

TENMAT sought cloud-based CRM software proven to work well for manufacturing companies. It also needed a solution with reporting capabilities and features focused on helping sales teams manage their sales process. And finally, it had to help sales reps work more efficiently.

To do that, “we needed a CRM that [sales reps] would use and adopt,” Kristen says.

TENMAT’s search for a new CRM system eventually led to PipelineDeals CRM, which Kristen says was “super quick” to implement and learn.

“We found PipelineDeals, and we liked its simplicity. It was straight-forward,” he states. “We made the customizations necessary to make PipelineDeals work well for us in the manufacturing industry, and that has kept us extremely productive.”

TENMAT first rolled out PipelineDeals’ desktop CRM app to its five U.S. and Canadian sales reps in November 2011. Within months, PipelineDeals became part of everyday life, with each sales rep logging in daily to organize tasks, deals, and contacts and to pull up needed reports.

“The first thing in the morning, I see what my tasks are, I know what is going on, and within a couple of clicks, I know my top deals that I need to stay on top of,” Kristen says.

TENMAT has since added the mobile app, which Kristen says “has been proven to be extremely helpful to get contact information while traveling or to quickly check deal background information, quotes/pricing, or previous conversations.”

And in 2016, the company introduced PipelineDeals to its international sales operations. The system is also available for TENMAT’s technical department.

“There’s a great address book, calendar, and diary that keep track of what has happened in the past. We also use PipelineDeals to upload drawings, pictures, and sketches,” Kristen says.

Since adopting PipelineDeals, TENMAT’s North American operations experienced a 20 percent increase in conversion rates. They also met their sales goals. Sales increased 30 percent with the same amount of people and resources.

“The higher conversion rates are related directly to our sales team being more organized and informed about our client data,” Kristen says. “PipelineDeals has given us a way to make business decisions based on the right insights and reports. If you have that, you can understand what steps you need to take to grow your sales pipeline and what actions to take to maintain client relationships and grow opportunities.”

Today, Kristen can’t imagine running his division without PipelineDeals. Instant reports that detail sales performance and job status, together with anytime access to endless amounts of important data related to each individual deal, have become critical to the company, he says.

“PipelineDeals makes our limited resources more efficient. As a manager, I see individual performance, forecasting, and get a quick snapshot of the business, including success rates. That helps us make the best business decisions about our data,” Kristen states.

The Payoff

Since implementing PipelineDeals CRM in its North American sales operations, TENMAT Manufacturing has seen the following results:

• a 20 percent increase in conversion rates; and
• a 30 percent increase in sales, all with the same amount of people and resources.