Case study

WD Agency

Skynamo gives Health & Wellness start-up a healthy leg up

WD Agency is a sales agency representing well established brands in the Health & Wellness industry. They found their niche in addressing the struggles small to medium-sized brands face in finding a voice in the industry. There are established companies out there looking after similar brands but, apart from the excessive costs of such services to smaller brands, their voice often gets lost in a basket of similar businesses managed by these companies. WD Agency makes sure these smaller brands are looked after and receive the attention they deserve as an individual brand.

A business born from conviction and passion

‘A big driver behind our business vision is the conviction that health and wellness products should be more affordable for end-users. And it begins by making things more affordable for retailers,’ shares WD Agency’s founder, Werner Daniel. ‘I like to think of myself as an ‘agent of transformation’ who offers health products at affordable prices.’

Working with brands like Wazoogles and Good Life Organic, amongst others, that share their vision to offer super foods at much lower costs in sustainable packaging, is also very important to WD Agency’s success. Arriving at the best possible solutions for the stores WD Agency serve, requires teamwork among like-minded people.

Skynamo helped make it all possible

Daniel started putting out feelers to figure out whether starting this new company could work for him. Having been in the industry for fourteen years, he ventured out with enough experience and connections to be known and trusted. This meant people came on board quite easily. He knew, however, that becoming an established niche wellness company did pose its fair share of challenges.

‘The first few days after I started, gave me a taste of what things could’ve been like without Skynamo. I was forced to create a classic call card and take orders using those. This meant that I had to type out the names of all the products on the order forms and transfer them from Excel to emails to complete the order process. Having such a big product basket as our ours, that was extremely time-consuming.

“Without Skynamo, I would likely have needed a really big team around me and probably another 50 hours in the day to operate the way I do now!’, laughs Daniel.

‘Those video clips about how Skynamo changes daily life for sales managers and for sales reps really do tell the story very accurately. I often refer to those when I talk to the brands I’m working with. Skynamo saves you a heck of a lot of time when you’re doing in-store order taking for such a huge product basket. It was so easy to set Skynamo up and now it’s saving me a huge amount of time.’

 

Skynamo means more confident, more reliable salespeople and more sales

Before Daniel used Skynamo at his former company, he could only remain out in the field visiting customers until about 2:00 pm every day. After visiting customers, he had to start driving home so that he could type out and submit his call cards from his handwritten notes. He had to do this to have the orders processed on time. He used to carry a massive briefcase containing all his documents everywhere he went, and on the occasional day he left the briefcase at home, he was totally lost and unable to operate without it.

‘Before Skynamo,  I was basically forced to see fewer customers and took a lot of time every afternoon to send all my orders through,’ Daniel explains.

Whenever Daniel had to recall an order while on the road, he had to search through the massive file he carried, and no matter how well-organized he was, a lot of time was wasted searching for documents. And once a document was found, he still had to wait until later that afternoon to correct it after all his visits. ‘Every visit meant I had to do a full background research on my previous visit to that customer: who I spoke to, what we were discussing, what they ordered the previous time, etc.’

Daniel further shares that as a salesperson using Skynamo, he had a lot more confidence because he became much more reliable. When customers called him with a query, he was able to simply tap to their details on his device and answer questions or solve issues immediately.

‘Skynamo increases the amount of time reps enjoy in the field to see customers, helps them to be more effective, and to cut out errors and deliver a better service to customers. If we look after customers, they will look after us. The better service we give them the more likely they are to continue ordering products through us,’ tells Daniel. ‘Organizing your day and increasing your productivity is so much easier.’

No micro-managing, only teamwork

‘I really don’t enjoy being a micro-manager who tracks my employees every step of the way, but what Skynamo allows me to do is work alongside my sales team. As a manager, I don’t have to constantly check up on my team, because they give me feedback as they go. I only really need to follow up from my side when something urgent needs to be discussed.‘

‘Skynamo is a solution that motivates my team to do well, because they can track their own performance and they can also see first-hand how their efforts are affecting customers,’ shares Daniel.

Editor’s Note: It was with deep sadness that we learnt about the sudden and tragic passing of Werner Daniel shortly before the publication of this case study. His wife and business partner, Chantal Deacon Daniel, approved the final version of this case study and asked us to share that in the weeks following Werner’s passing that his diligent use of Skynamo to capture all customer engagements and orders alleviated some of the challenges she would have otherwise faced in taking over the business. We are truly moved and inspired by Chantal’s strength and determination to build out her and Werner’s dream. We wish her continued strength and success.