Flash Forward in brief
Flash Forward (Flash Forward Oy) is a Finnish company specialising in industrial virtual environments. With Flash Forward's virtual environments, industrial customers improve business productivity by saving time and money. This happens when Flash Forward's client organisations are able to virtually visualise and present their products as part of their sales processes, which helps to reduce errors and improve communication between seller and buyer.
In addition to digital showrooming of sophisticated industrial products, Flash Forward carries out modelling of sophisticated logistics solutions and assists public authorities in various modelling projects.
Baseline: need to redesign the B2B sales process to reflect the renewed service
The change in the operating environment during the interest rate crisis created a situation where Flash Forward's expertise in the production and management of large events was no longer in demand. In this situation, the company's management had to reorganise its service delivery to meet the needs of the changed environment.
It was decided to offer the expertise in virtual modelling already accumulated in the event business as a separate service for different industries for sales, marketing and project management needs.
Flash Forward's Lauri Venesjärvi quickly realised that the renewed service offering built around 3D design expertise also requires changes in the way this expertise and service is sold.
Sellai involved in commercialising the new idea and building a B2B sales process for it
In spring 2021, Flash Forward's CEO was looking for a partner to help commercialise the new Digital Showroom service and build the sales process. The choice of partner was influenced by the clarity of the proposed service process as a whole. The pricing of the service was also clear. Instead of making promises, the solution to the problem presented was quickly seized upon. In this way, Sellai's B2B sales consultants also demonstrated their understanding of our situation, which increased my own confidence.
Even in Venesjärvi's own books, Flash Forward's revamped service product was still such a diamond in the rough that it needed to be exposed to feedback from potential customers as quickly as possible. From this starting point, Sellai and Flash Forward agreed on a three-month pilot project.
"Instead of making promises, we quickly took action to solve the presented problem. In this way, Sellai's B2B sales agents also demonstrated their understanding of our situation, which increased my own confidence." - Lauri Venesjärvi, Flash Forward"
At the beginning of the collaboration, Sellai leveraged the diverse industry experience of its B2B sales agents
The cooperation started with defining the objectives and content of the pilot project. One of the objectives was to bring in the diverse views of Sellai's sales agents from different industries already at the design stage. Venesjärvi felt it was important at this stage to have a broader perspective on the sales planning of the new service business, alongside their own ideas and experience.
The practical sales work started with a market research-style approach by first creating a few initial target groups with whom commercial discussions were initiated. This approach allowed a quick elimination of industries and individuals who did not show sufficient interest in virtual environments.
On the other hand, some target groups, who were not so much trusted in the first place, quickly showed interest in the services offered. The sales message was iterated to further address these target groups who had shown (even somewhat surprisingly) interest in the first stage. In addition, the number of sales activities to this target group was increased.
"All the information gathered from the sales interviews was carefully documented. In the early stages of the partnership, I considered this at least as important as the size and number of stores, as it allowed us to proactively address various bottlenecks in sales and service delivery." - Lauri Venesjärvi, Flash Forward
Right from the start, all the data collected from the discussions was carefully documented in the CRM system shared by Sellai and Flash Forward. In the early stages, the collection of data, and therefore understanding, was considered at least as important as the size and number of deals.
According to Venesjärvi, this was important in order to be able to proactively solve various bottlenecks in sales and service delivery based on this growing customer understanding.
From pilot project to ongoing B2B sales work
At the heart of Sellai's approach is full transparency of all data collected from B2B sales activities. Through shared sales activity views (Pipedrive), Flash Forward has had full visibility into the state of the sales pipeline week after week.
The bi-weekly meetings were thus a chance to focus together on sharing lessons and observations. According to Ilkka Laine, Sales Consultant at Sellai, who started the project, it was really fruitful that the Flash Forward team proactively shared ideas that he was able to agile test in the sales conversations he had.
The results of the cooperation
At the beginning of the cooperation between Flash Forward and Sellai, special emphasis was placed on data and customer insight, but as the cooperation continues for longer (currently 17 months), "goals" must also be scored.
Lauri Venesjärvi from Flash Forward highlights the following concrete results:
- Based on a carefully planned and co-constructed B2B sales process, the values of the sales pipeline deals hold true.
- At the time of writing this client story, there are around €100,000 worth of deals in the pipeline that are in the follow-up/negotiation stage.
- Even lost deals are not lost in the big picture: the consultative and expert way of conducting conversations implemented by Sellai, combined with the activation of old target group contacts, is now built into Flash Forward's B2B sales process.
Future
The cooperation between Flash Forward and Sellai has been extended until 2023. The cooperation is valid until further notice. This cooperation and contract model is advantageous and flexible for the customer.
At the time of writing this customer story, the sales consultant who worked on the Sellai project is introducing the new sales consultant to Flash Forward's service product and sales. According to Flash Forward's CEO Lauri Venesjärvi, the opportunity to train new B2B sales consultants is an excellent part of Sellai's service model and helps to create continuity in the cooperation.
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