OHV
55 employees
Salesforce customer since 2018
Salesforce customer since 2018
Products used
OHV provides a personal touch for private and institutional investors, with the help of Salesforce
As anyone in finance will tell you, disruption brings risk. The natural response to risk for most financial institutions is mitigation – like the European Central Bank’s €750 million emergency bond purchase in response to Covid-19, for instance. But for savvy organisations, disruption also creates possibilities.
“Disruption presents opportunities,” said Erik Bakker, Managing Director and CEO of Dutch financial institution OHV. The organisation began life as an institutional financial broker back in 1932 and has since navigated many disruptions and expanded into providing advice and executing transactions for private investors.
“But these opportunities can only be unlocked if you have trust. Wealth management is a people business. As an asset management firm we’re selling trust. Since Covid-19, many say trust is harder to build because you are not having face-to-face interactions. With Salesforce we’re overcoming this challenge.”
One central challenge in this brave new world is that bonds offer increasingly diminished yields because of the ECB’s huge investment in the bonds market. As a result, institutional and private investors are on the hunt for alternative opportunities that offer high yields and low risk. At the same time, banks are lending less to businesses that require capital to fuel growth.
“Disruption presents opportunities,” said Erik Bakker, Managing Director and CEO of Dutch financial institution OHV. The organisation began life as an institutional financial broker back in 1932 and has since navigated many disruptions and expanded into providing advice and executing transactions for private investors.
“But these opportunities can only be unlocked if you have trust. Wealth management is a people business. As an asset management firm we’re selling trust. Since Covid-19, many say trust is harder to build because you are not having face-to-face interactions. With Salesforce we’re overcoming this challenge.”
One central challenge in this brave new world is that bonds offer increasingly diminished yields because of the ECB’s huge investment in the bonds market. As a result, institutional and private investors are on the hunt for alternative opportunities that offer high yields and low risk. At the same time, banks are lending less to businesses that require capital to fuel growth.
OHV empowers impact investors by connecting with Salesforce
OHV is turning this challenge into an opportunity. “What we see is that the banks are lending less and less but companies are still looking for funding,” says Vera Van Kesteren, Managing Director of Voordegroei, OHV’s lending platform for Dutch SMEs. Voordegroei loosely translates into English as ‘For Growth’ – which is exactly what OHV intends to deliver for investors and SME’s alike.
“Uniquely, we’re matching institutional and private investors with Dutch SMEs. Since Covid, ‘impact investing’ has become more relevant. This means investors want more than high yields; they want reassurances that their investments are having a positive impact on Dutch businesses and the economy. Salesforce allows us to give those reassurances by linking all parts of our business and ensuring all the information we need is in one place.”
“Uniquely, we’re matching institutional and private investors with Dutch SMEs. Since Covid, ‘impact investing’ has become more relevant. This means investors want more than high yields; they want reassurances that their investments are having a positive impact on Dutch businesses and the economy. Salesforce allows us to give those reassurances by linking all parts of our business and ensuring all the information we need is in one place.”
Salesforce’s 360° view puts customers at ‘the centre of everything’
OHV is using Sales Cloud, Pardot and Community Cloud to connect its business. “We really care about our clients and the relationships we have with them,” said Erik. “In order to really put them first we decided to build our company on the Salesforce 360° platform because that really puts the customer at the centre of everything. We offer a personal experience and personalised advice and services every step of the way.”
This customer-centricity is helping OHV work towards its long-term ambitions. “Our goal is to become a nationwide investment firm that offers more than just yield for our clients,” Erik continued. “Our solution is tailor-made services and instant contact between our clients and colleagues. By using Salesforce, we are able to do this. We adopted Salesforce in 2018, and it’s become our way of life since then.”
This customer-centricity is helping OHV work towards its long-term ambitions. “Our goal is to become a nationwide investment firm that offers more than just yield for our clients,” Erik continued. “Our solution is tailor-made services and instant contact between our clients and colleagues. By using Salesforce, we are able to do this. We adopted Salesforce in 2018, and it’s become our way of life since then.”
Pardot powers personalised approaches to target audiences
Every part of the sales and customer service process is managed through Salesforce. While the pandemic has temporarily put a stop to the face-to-face meetings and roundtable discussions brought investors and SMEs closer together, OHV now relies on webinars and digital marketing activities to provide a human touch that feeds its sales funnel. Pardot is used to connect such marketing activities with OHV’s sales teams.
“With Pardot, we can segment all our target audiences and tailor a specific approach for each one,” said Erik. “Recently, we launched a new website for our sister company, Fresh Funds, which connects private investors with SMEs. Thankfully, we could easily connect Fresh Funds to the OHV Pardot account and start collecting leads from the new website and send them a monthly news update.”
“With Pardot, we can segment all our target audiences and tailor a specific approach for each one,” said Erik. “Recently, we launched a new website for our sister company, Fresh Funds, which connects private investors with SMEs. Thankfully, we could easily connect Fresh Funds to the OHV Pardot account and start collecting leads from the new website and send them a monthly news update.”
Sales Cloud streamlines onboarding process and allows full visibility
Leads are automatically fed into Sales Cloud, meaning that every step of the sales process is then carried out through Salesforce. OHV has recently adopted Sales Cloud’s InBox functionality, meaning that all email exchanges with prospects and clients are stored in the cloud, giving full access to the company’s customer relationships at the click of a button.
“This has sped up the process and made using Salesforce even easier and more efficient than it was before,” said Vera. “Every exchange is automatically stored. We can use templates for emailing prospects and established clients, meaning the whole process is far more structured. It gives us full visibility of the process and allows us to provide a far better level of service. For our customers, onboarding is easier and takes less time.”
“This has sped up the process and made using Salesforce even easier and more efficient than it was before,” said Vera. “Every exchange is automatically stored. We can use templates for emailing prospects and established clients, meaning the whole process is far more structured. It gives us full visibility of the process and allows us to provide a far better level of service. For our customers, onboarding is easier and takes less time.”
Community Cloud empowers and incentivises partners
OHV has used Community Cloud to build a portal for the many intermediaries that operate in the financial market. “There are huge networks of intermediaries who advise private clients on how to invest their money and, on the other side, advise entrepreneurs on how to access investments and work with financial institutions,” explained Erik.
“Our Salesforce portal means third parties can upload documents to speed up processes and follow the status of each opportunity. This has delivered a much more efficient and structured way of working for everyone involved. It enables closer contact with the advisors; they are more involved and feel part of the family. The end result is that they are more inclined to do business with us because it’s so much easier and more efficient.”
The company uses dashboards to monitor metrics, like as leads per account manager and conversion rates. It’s also building a database to support the implementation of Einstein Analytics and the application of Artificial Intelligence to its operations. Voordegroei, which currently provides funds for growing SMEs, is also looking into connecting investors with start-up companies.
“Our Salesforce portal means third parties can upload documents to speed up processes and follow the status of each opportunity. This has delivered a much more efficient and structured way of working for everyone involved. It enables closer contact with the advisors; they are more involved and feel part of the family. The end result is that they are more inclined to do business with us because it’s so much easier and more efficient.”
The company uses dashboards to monitor metrics, like as leads per account manager and conversion rates. It’s also building a database to support the implementation of Einstein Analytics and the application of Artificial Intelligence to its operations. Voordegroei, which currently provides funds for growing SMEs, is also looking into connecting investors with start-up companies.
Salesforce allows clients to navigate a ‘galaxy of opportunity’
One thing’s for sure: Salesforce will be with OHV every step of the way. “Wealth management is predominantly a people business. Historically it was hard to manage and scale close client relationships manually. Salesforce changed everything,” said Erik.
“Now we have the data of all our ‘people’ in one system, which means we can generate endless insights from it. And this is just the beginning. Salesforce offers a galaxy of opportunities – and as a company of just 55 people it can actually be difficult to comprehend the vastness of the possibilities ahead of us. That’s where our Salesforce account manager comes in. Ultimately, Salesforce is a people business too.”
“Now we have the data of all our ‘people’ in one system, which means we can generate endless insights from it. And this is just the beginning. Salesforce offers a galaxy of opportunities – and as a company of just 55 people it can actually be difficult to comprehend the vastness of the possibilities ahead of us. That’s where our Salesforce account manager comes in. Ultimately, Salesforce is a people business too.”
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