How does your sales team handle a long sales cycle? Do they struggle to set up visits or calls with customers they haven’t spoken with for months? Or do they simply guess what the customer might need and cold-call to find out? Maybe they just wait until the customer decides to call them … if they get around to it.

The Richard Greene Company, a Proven Systems client that supplies industrial products such as controls for factory automation, has never taken a passive approach to staying in touch with customers. The company’s sales reps are highly experienced engineers who understand their customer’s industries. They establish close relationships with their customers and consult with them to solve immediate problems as well as proactively plan solutions for future needs.

All that customer involvement adds up to a lot of footwork for the sales team, so the Richard Greene Company wanted to find a way to improve the connection and streamline communications. That’s where the company’s email newsletter comes in.

An invaluable tool for the sales team
“We were trying to find a better way to keep in touch with customers we don’t get to see very often,” says Rich Greene, president of the Richard Greene Company. “Also, we were trying to make more of an impression with customers we do see regularly.”

Greene says the company decided to outsource their email newsletter production to Proven Systems after realizing that with his company’s small size, they simply didn’t have the staff to dedicate to it.

“Our end product was irregular and not very professional-looking,” he admits of their initial eNewsletter.

Working with Proven Systems changed all that. Proven Systems works with the company on a bimonthly basis to produce a professional newsletter that’s always right on time and filled with timely, relevant topics.

“Proven Systems makes it very easy by scheduling the phone calls and prompting us for the information,” Greene says. “And the newsletter has added to the way we communicate with our customers.”

Real results
Greene says his company’s email newsletter provides an additional way of keeping in touch with customers and prospects, and it enhances the company’s professional image. Plus, the newsletter has produced some measurable benefits.

“We definitely get more Web traffic and, as time goes on, we’re getting more opens,” Greene says. “We’ve also had customers mention an article when we’re on a sales call and have had some application responses come directly from the newsletter via email or phone.”

Working with Proven Systems has not only improved the Richard Greene Company’s customer relationships and opened up a new avenue of communication, but also helped the sales team get valuable feedback from customers — and, of course, more conversions.

“Proven Systems has made it really easy for us to have a professional newsletter that really works for us, without dedicating a staff member,” Greene says. “It’s been beneficial for us in many ways.”