Back in the ’80s, fashion-forward sales reps migrated their Rolodexes to DOS programs to keep tabs on their top customers and most exciting prospects.
Fast-forward 30 years and Complexica aims to leapfrog the likes of Salesforce with Larry, a ‘digital analyst’ in the cloud that is already helping the like of Bunzl, Dulux Group and PFD Foods to sift datasets to match the right offers at the right time to the right customers.
A key concern for PFD Foods’ chief information officer, Richard Cohen, was how to cost-effectively know when to apply the right tactic to make a sales pitch.
“Instead of hiring hundreds of data scientists to churn through endless sets of data to provide PFD with customer-specific insights and personalised recommendations, Larry will serve up the answers we need, when we need them, on a fully automated basis without the time and manual processes typically associated with complex analytical tasks.” says Cohen.
PFD Foods, or Processed Fish Distributors as it was once called, dates back to 1864 when it operated from the Melbourne wholesale fish markets.
South Australian artificial intelligence company Complexica replaces “timely data analysis”, which restrains sales reps from “identifying high-value prospects, developing insights and personalised offers”.
By contrast, Larry uses “external datasets and machine-learning algorithms” to optimise the sales process by “telling each salesperson customers [or] prospects to visit, conversations to have, products to offer, at what price”.
The idea for Larry was born of a frustration that Complexica founder Matthew Michalewicz had with sales calls.
“As an entrepreneur I’ve been a salesperson for the last 20 years and, as an entrepreneur, you’re always selling.
“And something I always thought could help me in my job was to have my own analyst who could analyse customers, prospective customers, tell me where I should go and what I should talk about. Once I’m pricing a deal, what the price should be. That would have really helped and I think a lot of salespeople feel the same way.”
Larry’s strength is its ability to micro-segment and personalise a sales call by generating “unique and creative conversation points”. Integration is through application programming interfaces to speed and simplify deployment while almost eliminating data migration.
Another critical component of Complexica’s suite is its real-time Customer Opportunity Profiler that analyses sales volumes, social media activity, complaints and other factors that tend to influence a customer’s decisions.
Complexica claims the profiler will increase sales yield, lift sales rep productivity by cutting down on non-selling actions, boost sales success by putting prospects in ‘micro segments’ and personalise customer conversations that will build rapport.
Dulux Group has partnered with Complexica for its Customer Opportunity Profiler to make its in-field salespeople more efficient.
“[It is] a key tool for sales staff to optimise their daily activities, personalise conversations and interactions with customers, and analyse data to generate actionable insights,” says Stephen Mooney, the paint maker’s group sales capability manager.
Bunzl Group is a distributor of products such as food packaging and cleaning supplies for businesses founded in 1854.
For Bunzl, ensuring its 300 account managers spent less time in front of screens and more in face-to-face meetings was a key factor in deploying Larry.
“Complexica’s Order Management System and Larry… empower decision making and enhanced support ," says Kim Hetherington, managing director of Bunzl Australasia.
"This will create more time for our teams to see more customers and provide the Bunzl personalised experience."
Complexica is a finalist in the 'Emerging Innovator' category in the 2018 CRN Impact Awards. For a list of all finalists and further details on the awards, please head to the CRN Impact Awards hub. The awards take place during the CRN Pipeline conference. You can get more information and purchase tickets here.
-1.jpg&w=100&c=1&s=0)
.png&w=100&c=1&s=0)
