Overview:

A diagnostic tools company for diesel trucks, faced fragmented customer and asset data across Salesforce, a custom SQL database, and their ERP (NetSuite). This led to tech reps spending excessive time verifying customer entitlements and often providing free support due to uncertainty. With the upcoming Salesforce license renewal at the end of 2023, the primary goal was to centralize data and automate subscription tracking to streamline support and proactive renewals.

Key Areas of Focus

Goals & Objectives

• Centralize customer & asset data to give tech reps a single pane of glass during support calls.
• Standardize the sales process, build a pipeline, and enable accurate forecasting.
• Support product bundles with complex product/licensing structures, and synchronize them across Salesforce and ERP.
• Automate subscription renewals (alerts, emails, texts, rep tasks) to drive revenue retention.
• Enable post-sale service contracts, entitlements, and case management inside Salesforce for streamlined operations.

Solution Phases

Phase 1: Pipeline & Forecast Foundation

• Standardize Salesforce opportunity usage.
• Integrate opportunity → ERP quote via connector.
• Reconfigure the product catalog in Salesforce to align with the ERP architecture, incorporating bundles that combine kits and entitlements.
• Outcome: Representatives adopted opportunity tracking, pipeline visibility increased, forecasting became possible, and quotes were automatically generated in the ERP.

Phase 2: Product Bundle & ERP Synchronization:

• Rework product and bundle structure to align Salesforce and ERP item models.
• Build robust middleware to synchronize bundles of assets and licenses between systems without error.
• Outcome: The post-sale process now lives in Salesforce, allowing reps to instantly confirm active support and entitlement details during service calls.

Phase 3: Service Contracts, Fulfillment & Entitlements

• Automate order → service contract creation in Salesforce.
• Create fulfillment tasks: license activation & support code insertion.
• Assign entitlements to service contracts.
• Enable entitlement check at case creation to validate support eligibility.
• Outcome: The post-sale process now lives in Salesforce, allowing reps to instantly confirm active support and entitlement details during service calls.

Subscription Automation

• Renewal Opportunity created upon Onboarding Activation of Service Contract
• Cadences are assigned to the opportunity for continuous engagement throughout the year.

Key Results & Metrics

• Support verification time reduced from minutes to seconds using centralized data.
• Free support leakage is dramatically reduced— cases were only supported when the entitlement is active.
• Salesforce pipeline value increased by ~30%—reps routinely logging opportunities.
• Renewal engagement (~X days pre-contract expiration) improved through automated alerts.
• The company was able to use multiple Forecasting models for the first time to make better decisions.
• Revenue retention increased through proactive renewals and entitlement tracking.