Optimio: The road from feelings
to hard data with Raynet
4/28/2024
Customer stories
The Optimio team grew bigger and the marketing agency started looking for a tool that would help improve the way they stored data, and provide a better overview and control over incoming inquiries. After visualizing the entire purchasing process, they opted for a CRM solution, which, among other things, allowed them to make better decisions about their next steps based on real numbers.
Optimio are marketing gurus who have been creating growth marketing strategies for over 14 years. As a team, they cover all the important areas of a full-service marketing agency, ranging from research to execution.
What will you find out?
- Why Optimio moved away from Excel to CRM software
- How the company was able to replace feelings with hard data
- Where they see future challenges for their business
From Excel to CRM software
The first impulse to switch to a new system came when Optimio was about to expand its sales team. The existing spreadsheets that the marketing company had used in previous years were effective up to a point, but the tool did not provide enough control and a good enough overview – especially in the long term.
We accepted the inconsistency and limited options available in Excel. There were no records of individual calls or rejected minor inquiries, which resulted in the company losing out on a lot of data,” says Optimio co-owner Mark Zacek. He also adds that as long as business is going well, data like this is not needed as much: “But when more challenging times come, you need to be able to manage people better. And for that, data is vital. We knew we would need CRM software.
Marek Žáček
Co-owner Optimia
Another crucial moment came, according to Zacek, when he and the other company co-owner attended an industry training course, and one segment was dedicated entirely to managing and evaluating sales: “At that moment we said OK, we are ready, because Excel will never do this for us.”
3 things the CRM software was supposed to solve
- Bad overview of the status of inquiries
- ineffective decision-making (not backed by numbers)
- Unoptimized workload of individual teams
3 key requirements for new CRM software
- Easy integration into daily work
- Well organized database of client data
- Customer support in their language
Simple way to record activities
Based on the training mentioned above, Optimio carefully outlined and visualized the entire purchasing process – what it should look like and how to evaluate the collected data. According to the set parameters, the selection of a suitable tool began.
During the CRM software selection, the team tested several tools, among which Raynet stood out due to its user-friendly interface, which new users could easily get used to.
Some of the competing tools we tried were very complicated and difficult to use, RAYNET came on top in this regard.
What Optimio liked about the system as well was that along with funnels, it has activities that can be linked to contacts, so it is easy to see what is happening and when. Keeping track of activities like this, whether it's tasks, meetings, or phone calls, helps build strong relationships with clients. In addition, scheduled activities are visible in the calendar, making it easier not to lose track of your next steps.
The decision-making process took some time. The point at which we decided to go with Raynet was when we set up our whole process and tried to see how it would work in practice. The CRM software had to meet the overall flow that we required. And it did.
The most significant change? Data instead of feelings
One of the concerns during the process of integrating the system into the company was whether individual team members would be able to effectively incorporate the new tool into their daily work. The other concern was related to the time that would need to be allocated to recording data into the CRM system. However, after training with Raynet consultants, all obstacles were resolved step by step.
“I am a mathematically inclined person and the funnel we have set up now allows us to have really insightful and substantive discussions,” Zacek points this out as one of the main benefits. In the spreadsheets that Optimio used previously, only certain data was stored, so as a result the company lacked an overview of, for example, which inquiries did not work out or which partnerships were ongoing. Basically, only jobs in progress were visible.
When the questions came along about what was next on the horizon, we had nothing to go off of. Now I can backtrack and say to the reps, well, there's no deal here, what do you have before? You don't have audits? If you want a deal, you need to have at least 4 audits. To do that, you need to interview X number of companies, that means X number of calls, and so on. This is what RAYNET allows us to manage easily, and that's probably the most important change.
Thanks to the implementation of CRM software, Optimio gained more insight at all levels. This allows management and salespeople to better plan their steps for the coming months and base their decisions on real numbers.
Current challenge
The next step that the company is planning is to process data from individual departments, which will help get a better view of the future, and optimize the workload across teams, be it marketing or sales. The information gathered will also help streamline collaborative discussions and better prioritize projects moving forward.
I can imagine that if we had not two salespeople, but five for example, and the pipeline was five times bigger, we would have these discussions on a 14-day basis. This is the way we want to go. That is exactly why we implemented Raynet.
One of the challenges that Optimio is currently conquering is the search for company types that have a higher long-term success rate when entering into cooperation — not only in terms of industry, but also other parameters such as turnover. From the data collected and the subsequent evaluation of a sufficient sample, the company hopes that it will be easier for sales reps to reach out appropriately to selected customers and better target their needs during communications. All this could be recorded in Raynet.
“So we know what style of communication works for a specific customer and with what probability of success. I imagine that this is exactly what CRM software – Raynet, is the ideal tool for,” Mark Zacek stated about their plans.
Thanks to Raynet, in Optimio, they:
✔️ Acquired a tool they can use to record all the necessary data.
✔️ Have a better overview and control over incoming inquiries.
✔️ Can make better decisions about next steps based on real numbers.
