How the Lake Companies Doubled New Leads

The Lake Companies is the largest provider of Enterprise Resource Planning software in the Midwest.

James Wendt, Business development representative, has shared how using Badger Maps has dramatically improved his ability to find, qualify, and grow accounts in his territory.

Badger Maps helped The Lake Companies overcome challenges with territory management and development by making their sales data as accurate and actionable in the field as possible.

James noted that Badger helped representatives like himself “[find] opportunities he would have missed entirely” as well as increase their productivity and get more meetings in each day.

As a result of using Badger, James was able to navigate his territory more easily, cutting hours off his typical routing process. This increased familiarity helped him gain and qualify “50% more new opportunities” than he could have found without Badger.

The Lake Companies is one of the largest Midwest providers of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. Their main work is providing and installing SyteLine ERP (CloudSuite Industrial) software solutions to their customers.

James Wendt is a business development representative for The Lake Companies. His job is to hunt new opportunities, qualify them, and pass on the lead to an Account Manager.

For over 30 years, The Lake Companies has cultivated a methodology that gives them an “unfair advantage over competitors” in the eyes of their clients. James strengthens The Lake Companies' mission with helps to keep this motto alive.

The challenge of managing a large territory as a business development rep in a large, complex industry, is keeping your schedule productive while maintaining the hustle that creates high quality opportunities flowing into the pipeline.

James receives a large list of leads every month. This data isn't actionable in a typical CRM, and with the frequency that James grows his territory he needed a system that was as adaptable as his sale process.

When James is forced to sift through data instead of sell, everyone involved loses money. Qualification is a time consuming process, every potential account has a massive ROI associated, so James was intent on finding a solution for the out-of-date territory management practices so many reps fall into.

James compared the time before Badger as "sifting through sand," while saying Badger is the metal detector he needs to find the hidden cash in his territory.

Building a Better Sales Process

The Lake Companies didn't want to be stuck with any single CRM. Their sales process was heavily invested in an Outside Sales process. People like to know who they're buying from, relationship selling will always be king in a high-value sales cycle.

A lot of relationships means a lot of data, and handling all of it is a time consuming process. Instead of setting up spreadsheets in a complicated CRM each day, Jim uploads his data into Badger in seconds, and his Account Specialist at Badger saves the routes, notes, and check-ins he needs for his active clients.

This helps Jim find and grow new business without losing track of existing customers, and his company saves a huge amount of time on admin work and helping him manage his territory. Jim has the freedom to nurture deals without losing time to busywork that isn't directly connected to ROI.

Missed Opportunities

James manages a large volume of leads, and he's responsible for transforming the right ones into promising opportunities every month. This requires him to balance lead generation with prioritizing and pursuing new leads.

James ran into a common problem. He would schedule two meetings with very promising opportunities, but there were hours (and miles) between both appointments. Most reps would spend that time catching up on email, but James knew that burning daylight doesn’t help you hit quota.

Instead, he uses Badger to build out his territory in-between scheduled meetings. His lead generation process got a complete upgrade when he was able to find qualified opportunities in the field.

Disorganized Territory Management

With so many people to visit, routes take up a big part of The Lake Companies' territory management process. It's easy to ignore the costs of poor routing in terms of gas, time, and opportunities. James didn't.

James knew that staying ahead of his routing was the only way he could cover his territory effectively. There are only so many opportunities you can reach in a day, maximizing that number is the difference between a great quarter and a disappointing performance review.

After having to run a few in-efficient routes, the issues became apparent. Before, he would zig-zag around his territory and manage his opportunities reactively.  

Routing became a priority for James, and he started seeing his day in terms of how he should spend his time instead of the sudden emergencies he had to deal with.

With Badger, James can optimize his territory management. He's able to see all of the active opportunities he has in play and filter them to highlight the most valuable, and convenient, accounts to visit. 

Finding (and Prioritizing) Ideal Opportunities

Badger helps James find all of the potential prospects in his territory. A single search generates all of the qualified leads in his area. James can look for businesses in the industrial space and make a contact in minutes while he waits for his next scheduled appointment. 

With Badger, a quick "Places" search generates all of the nearby accounts in the area you're focusing on. These leads are immediately available as additions to your route for your route or as accounts to be added to your territory. 

Territory Intelligence

Badger allows reps like James to handle their entire day in the field like never before.  Optimizing routes for each day, organizing his active opportunities by priority, and generating new leads can all be done in the Badger app.

Badger provides James with valuable territory intelligence.  The data that typically stays hidden in a CRM when it’s time for a face-to-face meeting is uncovered in Badger clearly.

The status of the accounts you’re managing is clearly highlighted and filterable, so you can focus on the opportunities progressing the fastest and prioritize your schedule time without anything slipping through the cracks. 

Onboarding new Reps

Badger has also helped streamline the onboarding process for new reps at the Lake Companies.  

New reps get a very informed view of their territory and prospects in the area using the Badger app. Knowing the city by heart is no longer a necessity for reps since Badger takes them around town in the most efficient way possible.

James helped a new rep get up-to-speed on Badger by showing him how easy finding valuable leads close to home was.

Instead of travelling miles away to the customer hub in his territory, and leaving his new wife at home, the new rep found a promising account close to his home address and got up-to-speed on his sales process much faster. 

Badger helped The Lake Companies accelerate their business development cycle and optimize their lead generation.  

James transformed the Lake Companies' sales process, allowing him to discover opportunities at scale and build better relationships in his territory.

James uses Badger Maps to increase the accuracy of his activity, optimize his schedule, and follow-up with leads he could have lost entirely.  

As a business development rep, relationship selling is the key to moving deals forward, and Badger gives James the ability to manage his entire process in a single app.