Eurotainer enjoyed an outstanding year - thanks in part to the “Membrain Effect”

I love it when a client coins a phrase for us. We are extremely proud to be the sales platform for Eurotainer, a global provider of intermodal equipment for lease, based in France with offices on four continents.

Recently, my team spoke with Chris Daly, Eurotainer’s Global Marketing Manager, about their experience with Membrain. We were thrilled with their response, and I especially loved that he coined a whole new phrase - the Membrain Effect. Here’s what he had to say.

Making the best of pandemic downtime

“When the pandemic started,” says Daly, “our managing director realized we were going to be hunkered down for a while. So we decided to make the best of it.”

The sales team invested in assessments with Objective Management Group (OMG), to determine their strengths and weaknesses, and areas for improvement.

The assessments revealed many areas for growth, with a focus on three primary skills to improve on the team:

• Managing pipelines
• Managing the sales process
• Qualifying prospects

They began work with an OMG approved consultant, The Peterson Company in the Netherlands, to begin working on the needed skills. They also needed technology to support their efforts, but they were confident they did not want a CRM. Several members of the team had been through CRM implementations at other companies, and they knew what a hassle it would be.

“We did not want to spend all that time implementing and updating the system constantly, feeding the system,” says Daly. “Most CRMs are massive systems that are too cumbersome to use, frankly.”

They tested several non-CRM technology options, and found them all lacking. The Peterson Company suggested they speak with me at Membrain.

Instantly impressed with Membrain

The Eurotainer sales team ran a trial with Membrain and were immediately impressed. Four things stood out instantly.

1. Simplicity of use and setup
   “The simplicity of use and setup was unbelievable,” says Daly. “It was easy to load, easy to get it set up, easy to get it running with our system. It was running on day one and completely implemented within a week.”
2. The visual display of the pipeline
   “Using the tiles and other views for the visual display of the pipeline was fantastic,” says Daly. “It’s exactly what we needed. People log on every day and boom, their pipeline is right in front of them. We didn’t have that before. Our people were using notebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and post-it notes to manage their sales pipeline.”
3. The global view of the team pipeline
   “Membrain gives us a global view of the pipeline for the management team,” says Daly. “That really sealed it for us, the simplicity of setup and the display of the pipeline for users and management’s ability to see into the pipeline globally.”
4. Improved qualifying
   Sales stages and steps are loaded into Membrain. The interface helps salespeople to slow down and ask more questions, and qualify prospects more effectively.

Implementation was stunningly easy

Daly says he cannot overemphasize how easy and fast implementation was.

“We wanted something that would help us with our sales process and our sales pipeline,” he says. “And Membrain definitely does that. But the thing is - it did so quickly. We had to move quickly, we needed to solve our issue, and we wanted to do it fast. Once we decided on Membrain, everything was there the next day. The entire implementation took barely a week.”

Membrain elevates sales conversations

In addition to solving Eurotainer’s primary needs, Membrain has helped their salespeople elevate the conversation with their customers.

“We had salespeople before Membrain who would say to customers, ‘Oh, you want to lease from us? Okay, here’s a quote,’” says Daly. “Membrain slows it down. It encourages them ask the questions - when do they need the asset? How many assets do they need? Why do they need the asset? What needs to be in the asset? Where do you need it? Do you have the infrastructure to operate this type of asset?”

These questions help Eurotainer’s customers do business with Eurotainer more effectively, and they help salespeople qualify more effectively, and Membrain helps them do it.

Membrain highlights what’s important

“The alerting functions in Membrain are fantastic, fantastic, fantastic,” says Daly. “You get the weekly updates, daily updates, and when you log in, you see different colors and alerts. Our management team gets alerts when a deal is in red, when there’s been no action. It’s like having someone tap you on your shoulder to remind you, instead of having to go out and figure it out.”

Membrain is an international solution

Eurotainer does business all over the world. They have offices in the US, all over Europe, throughout Asia, and in South America. This means that they must constantly navigate different cultures, different types of business, different environments, different languages, and different currencies.

Membrain makes it easy to navigate international complexity. It’s also one of the few sales platforms that easily translates currencies.

“When we were trialing some other solutions, we were always hitting roadblocks with currencies,” says Daly. “Several could only use one currency. Others had trouble bringing consistency to the reporting level.”

Membrain easily navigates multiple currencies and converts them back to base currency at the reporting level.

“Membrain was customizable, to match our business,” he says. “That flexibility really sealed the deal.”

The Membrain Effect

“Let me put it this way,” says Daly. “I believe there is a Membrain effect. We’ve had a very good year. Business changes happening globally have driven much of that, but there is definitely a Membrain effect at play here. My colleague in Japan said that I didn’t make these words up, “Membrain effect.” Our company has had a very good year in Japan and our use of Membrain's Active Pipeline Module supported this success. It’s a thing - the Membrain Effect.”

As we move into 2022 and the third year of the pandemic, more companies are realizing the necessity of slowing down and reassessing how they do business. If it’s on your to-do list for the new year to improve the way you sell - Membrain and our partners like OMG and Peterson can help. Who knows, you might enjoy the Membrain Effect, too.