Case study

Enzymedica

It’s easy, when you’re an established company, with sales systems that have been in place for a few decades, to think that the sales team has a good overview of sales activity. And that’s exactly what Enzymedica thought – until they implemented Skynamo.

Enzymedica is the number one enzyme brand in the US, with an outstanding line-up of digestive enzymes, supplements for food intolerances, and therapeutic enzyme support. The company was founded in 1998, and their systems and processes are pretty much in place.

The company recently began using Skynamo to draw insights into field sales activity. And when they did, they were astonished at what they found.

“There’s a lot of pressure on the retail organization, because it’s the most expensive part of our organization,” says Paul Davison, chief revenue officer for Enzymedica. “You’ve got all these people out in the field, and they all earn salaries, and we obviously want to make the most of that. And what we found when we started using Skynamo is that a full 30% of our customers weren’t being visited, or even called. When I saw that, literally, my mouth was agape.”

This has been a huge help, says Jessica Wegesend, director of sales planning and analysis. They don’t like to micromanage their sales team, so they would simply check in with reps and ask if they were making their numbers and visiting their clients. And clearly, a good proportion of clients were falling through the cracks.

Their reps use Skynamo to track their visits and phone calls, and enter orders, she says, either from home or at the customer, and also to set their call cycle and plan their day. “I spend a lot more time in Skynamo than I did in the previous software we were using – because of the reporting functionality and order integration. With the previous application, I didn’t even really know if the sales reps were using it or not.”

The transparency that Skynamo affords to managers has really helped them to identify which reps need assistance, according to Yasmyn Maccaroni, VP of sales. “Skynamo is a very important tool for our team. The reporting allows me to know who is in the field placing orders versus who isn’t. It allows me to know who needs help and where I should spend my time.”

“Paul adds, “Instead of constantly checking whether reps are where they say they are, we prefer to be in the space of saying, ‘I see you’re working on X account, and I noticed they sell a lot of a particular product. Right now we’re promoting this other product – why don’t you offer them a buy one, get one kind of deal?’ So the idea is really that Skynamo allows us to be a coach rather than a babysitter.”

Enzymedica’s previous field sales product had none of the reporting functions of Skynamo, says Jessica, and there was no order integration. Enzymedica uses Sage X3 as its ERP system, which Skynamo has a standard integration with. “So that was the biggest factor for us. As soon as we found out about Skynamo and the fact that it could connect with Sage X3, we were very interested,” she says.

“Previously, a rep would type up an order and an email, send it to customer care, and then Customer Care would have to enter it into X3, so you’re technically having two people in the company enter an order,” says Jessica. “Now the rep can just enter it into Skynamo, and it’ll automatically import into Sage. And then Customer Care can just check it and make any changes, and then release it and move on. So we’re losing an entire extra step in the orders process.

“Customer changes that are made in X3 automatically flow through to Skynamo and orders entered into Skynamo automatically flow into X3, both of which are huge time-savers and minimize the potential for human error or discrepancies,” she says.

She adds that reps are starting to use the app to enter their calendars, and it’s increasing accountability among team members. “They track whenever they go into a visit, they check into the visit and track their visits or their phone calls. They also enter orders through Skynamo, and then they leave their comments,” she says.

“I’ve been managing sales teams for a long time,” says Paul. “And we used to always say that when a rep is struggling, it’s almost always calendar related. Typically, they’re not where they are supposed to be, or they’re not where they say they are. When I was a regional manager 10 or 15 years ago, part of my routine would be to call and see how they were doing and where they were, and ask about their visit.

“And then you would audit that when you physically went into the field with them. Because while trust is inherent to being a good business, to working well together, I believe you have to trust, but also verify.”

Paul says this transparency has helped the management team to be better managers, as well as improving efficiency for the customer service team. “I think it brings a lot of things to the forefront that we could only just sort of guess about or you had to be Inspector Clouseau about before. It puts the data right in front of our faces. And that challenges us a bit, because now you can’t escape the data – the last visit report tells you exactly where things stand. And this is a major advantage, because it’s data you can use to really optimize the sales team, which supports business growth.”

Finally, he says while e-commerce isn’t going away, face-to-face selling is still a core part of Enzymedica’s business. Skynamo is part of their strategy to give reps the digital tools to go into the stores and act both as advisors to the stores, as well as protecting stores from the digital encroachment of e-commerce.

“People are experiencing digital fatigue and it makes it too easy for people to say no when you’re remote selling,” he says. “Phone selling is one of the hardest professions out there: to get someone’s attention, engage them and get them to make a decision on the phone is really challenging.

“Part of our reps’ job is to transfer enthusiasm, and teach store employees how to sell, and that’s really something you can only do in person.”