Growing into new markets can be a huge boost for companies that are well prepared. It can also be a big challenge, if you’re not. From managing new lines of services, to keeping new types of customers happy, this kind of growth can present as many problems as it does opportunities.
From a sales perspective, new markets represent both new sources of revenue and new potential pitfalls. Salespeople need to learn the profiles of new stakeholders, how to have effective conversations with them, potentially entirely new industries, and certainly new ways of interacting and managing the sales pipeline. New markets generally call for new sales processes, and without the right support, that can mean dangerous levels of complexity.
Stabtech faced this problem head on, recognizing that they needed the right technology to support their preparation and management of growth.
Stabtech is a privately owned contracting company in Sweden that specializes in innovative and effective solutions to foundation-related problems, including chip sealing, settlement damage, and ground reinforcement. Their vision is to provide “fundamentally better solutions” and they’ve built a 9-year reputation on their strong customer focus.
Stabtech has historically relied almost exclusively on new business. While they have always worked with large projects, the nature of the work resulted in few repeat customers, because once the problem is solved, it’s solved.
When the company expanded into shoring, with a focus on sealing water leaks, however, that changed. The number of repeat customers significantly increased. The company’s leadership, Emil Belfrage and Tomas Vintheden, realized that they needed better ways to manage long-term customer relationships and expand further into the new market.
“Our world shifted dramatically when we entered this new business area,” says Belfrage, CEO. “Our needs were both for a CRM and a case management system.”
Initially, they sought a CRM that would integrate with their existing case management system. However, when they found the right CRM, that quickly changed.
Belfrage says they needed the CRM to make it easier “to follow up and visualize” the sales process, and they needed it to make their lives easier, not harder.
“It was this ability that attracted us to Membrain in the first place, and then Membrain has grown into the organization and taken over several parts that we previously had separate systems for.”
Membrain allows Stabtech to create their own processes and fields, and to do so without expensive external consulting and coding.
“What makes Membrain different compared to many other systems,” says Belfrage, “is the possibility of customizations. My employees can request practically anything from the system.”
They can change process steps, fields, labels, units, or almost anything else with a click of a button.
“It means a lot to our employees and makes their daily lives easier,” he adds. “It makes them appreciate the system and enjoy using it, feeling that the system adapts to us, and not that we adapt to the system.”
This flexibility also reduces costs for the company.
“If you have even one person internally that knows Membrain, you can do basically everything yourself,” says Belfrage. “With other systems, where you have to rely on the supplier for changes, even small tasks like creating a quote template can end up costing a lot of money.”
Membrain’s incredible power and flexibility makes it possible for a company like Stabtech to place their whole company into the system. They use it to manage everything from prospecting to project implementation at the customer site.
“Our technicians use Membrain Go to keep track of project implementation,” says Belfrage. “So now the whole company works in the same system.” No need for a separate case management system–Membrain does it all.
Stabtech continues to hold true to their vision of “fundamentally better solutions.” At Membrain, we’re proud that we are the “fundamentally better solution” that helps them grow.
George is the founder & CEO of Membrain, the Sales Enablement CRM that makes it easy to execute your sales strategy. A life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space and a passion for sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don't settle for mainstream", he is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills, and processes. George is also the author of the book Stop Killing Deals and the host of the Stop Killing Deals webinar and podcast series.
Find out more about George Brontén on LinkedIn
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