The Fabrication Sales Dilemma: Fish or Cut Bait?

Sales teams within many of today’s lean fab shops, job shops, metal service centers,

are often asked to wear many hats ranging from prospecting to creating, sending, and

following up on quotes. Unfortunately, this creates a “fish or cut bait” dilemma for many

organizations.

A Move to SecturaSOFT

Russel Metals is one of the largest metals distribution and processing companies in

North America. The Company primarily distributes steel products and conducts

business in three principal business segments: metals service centers; energy products

and steel distributors.

A couple of short years ago, after making the decision to upgrade its quoting system,

the company brought in SecturaSOFT. Almost immediately, that decision began paying

huge dividends.

“Bringing SecturaSOFT in to replace our outdated quoting tools has led to a complete

process overhaul in our sales department – for the better,” explained Sales Manager,

Dustin James. “Our quote throughput has increased by fifty percent. Putting more time

back into the hands of our sales team allows us to better serve our customers.”

James explains the benefits of SecturaSOFT software extend far beyond quoting. “What

SecturaSOFT really does is put time back into the hands of your salespeople. This frees

your staff to focus on upstream sales activities like prospecting, follow up, and business

development.  We couldn’t imagine life without it at this point.”

Integration

According to James, another benefit of the program is its seamless digital integration. A

modern API allows the software to communicate with ERP and other production,

process, and business applications.

“As a sales manager, the last thing I want is to discover that our estimating software

operates in a silo,” said James. “At Russel Metals we routinely pull data from

SecturaSOFT quoting software for use in other places. Something like creating a parts

library to build a repository of data for future use and references should be basic

functionality and easily accomplished.”

Usability

Additionally, James cites usability as a key indicator. “The software has to follow good

practices and be easy to learn and use,” he said. “This accelerates the onboarding

process and makes it possible to pull in others as needed to create quotes. People

come and go, and as a fabricator you don’t want to be at the mercy of a select few with

a complex skillset.”

Eliminating the Catch 22 of Quoting

When you’re creating estimates, you’re not filling the top of the sales funnel or

developing new business. Similarly, the funnel will dry up without a steady flow of leads.

Until now, this catch 22 has created a frustrating dilemma for many fabrication sales

departments.

Created especially for fabricators (and now machine shops!), SecturaSOFT’s

automated quoting system alleviates the fish or cut bait quandary by accelerating the

estimating process.

For Russel Metals a switch to the industry’s leading estimating solutions is providing

their sales team with a tool to minimize quoting time and maximize upstream sales

activities.

Contact SecturaSOFT to see how we can help your sales department to catch more fish

and keep a steady surplus of bait on hand!

 

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