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<\/img><\/p>\nJ\u00e9r\u00f4me Doucet, VP Sales & Marketing, Montel<\/p>\n
The world doesn\u2019t stand still. And neither does J\u00e9r\u00f4me Doucet. As VP of Sales and Marketing at storage manufacturer Montel, J\u00e9r\u00f4me knows how good technology can help businesses roll with the times.<\/p>\n
J\u00e9r\u00f4me is a guy who gets things done \u2013 whether that\u2019s building a new marketing campaign or ensuring things are on track at Montel\u2019s factory. We caught up with J\u00e9r\u00f4me between organizing \u2018lunch and learns\u2019 for partners and hitting the ski slopes with his kids to talk about how to keep business thriving in a world that\u2019s constantly evolving.<\/p>\n
These are exciting times at Montel. We\u2019ve moved beyond traditional carriage library shelving into a lot of emerging markets. Space is priced at a premium right now, so making better use of it can deliver a huge ROI. Our customers range from sports teams and retailers to government agencies and pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s all about helping people to work as efficiently as possible. If a customer has a mobile storage system, we can add programmable features such a \u2018priority aisle\u2019, which opens the most-used aisle as default instead of them having to manually open it each time. There are also some interesting developments going on with vertical farming – we can create controlled indoor environments that eliminate the use of pesticides and have automated irrigation to cut down on water waste, as the plants can feed themselves when they\u2019re thirsty. This technology will really help in places like the Caribbean and countries with the harshest environments where it can be hard to grow food, and we even have a partner developing LED grow-lights that could work with our environment to help NASA grow vegetables on Mars!<\/p>\n
At Montel, we work with a network of 65 authorized Montel distributors (AMDs) who have specific territories and verticals. To work with such a diverse customer base and so many partners, we have to be organized, and that\u2019s where Salesforce comes in. Salesforce helps us operate at our best \u2013 it encourages good practices as well as making us more efficient, transparent, and unified.<\/p>\n
I love the way it handles opportunities. On average we need to follow up between eight and 12 times to turn a lead into an order, and with Salesforce we can set alerts if we haven\u2019t followed up with a prospect. With better visibility we can also manage our partner relationships \u2013 if a partner seems quiet, we can get in touch to find out if there\u2019s an issue. Or if a customer has a project that\u2019s too big for a partner to handle, we can take it in-house and give the partner commission on our sale so we\u2019re not missing out on those opportunities. <\/p>\n
The fact that my team and I have built a global distribution network is something I\u2019m very proud of. We\u2019ve adapted our business in the face of a shrinking traditional market, and are now helping more customers optimize their limited space than ever before. We have a steady network of partners, which means a steady stream of orders for our factories.<\/p>\n
I think the reason we have such healthy partner relationships is that we share our successes, and with Salesforce we can demonstrate the value we bring to them. All of our partners use the platform, so we all have complete visibility of what\u2019s in the pipeline and how orders are progressing, and that transparency builds trust. The same principle applies to anyone you work with: if you want people to buy into your vision, show them how it will make their lives easier; from your employees through to customers, having an aligned vision will help you blaze your way to success.<\/p>\n