portatour® is not a magic wand, but an indispensable tool that has revolutionized our field force.
Jan Markus Eichert,
Field sales manager
HELA Gewürzwerk Hermann Laue GmbH is a German company with a long tradition, now in its fourth generation. With around 600 employees worldwide and 120 years of experience, HELA stands for innovation and quality and is a competent partner for retail, gastronomy, industry and trade. Originally a specialist in spices, the company has developed into a leading supplier of ketchup and spice mixes as well as product developments in the B2B sector. Hela is the second largest branded company in the overall ketchup market.
Jan Markus Eichert is national field sales manager in the retail sector and leads a team of 17 sales employees who look after around 4,000 customers. With his experience and innovative spirit, he drives the further development of the sales force. In a dynamic market that constantly presents new challenges, Eichert saw the need to use modern technologies to increase the team's efficiency and flexibility.
Before the introduction of portatour®, route planning at HELA was largely analog. Routes were planned manually using tools such as Google Maps, which was time consuming and often not very efficient. However, the limitations of this system were becoming more and more apparent. Manual planning often took up an excessive amount of time that could have been better spent on customer calls.
Special tasks, such as short-term customer inquiries or special campaigns, were particularly problematic, as they often led to inefficient routes. In addition, there was a lack of dynamic adaptation of planning to current requirements. The desire for greater efficiency, planning security and time savings ultimately led HELA to portatour®. The software promised an automated and flexible solution that takes fixed visit rhythms into account while at the same time leaving room for spontaneous changes.
We were travelling in a wonderfully analogue way. Although we no longer had a Falk Atlas, planning was time-consuming and inefficient.
Jan Markus Eichert, Field sales manager
The introduction of portatour® was a complete success at HELA. Thanks to well-maintained CRM data and intensive preparation, the transition went smoothly. The software is intuitive and easy to understand, which facilitated acceptance within the team. After just a few weeks, all field reps were able to work with the new system.
A special feature of the implementation process was the support provided by two field reps who already had experience with portatour®. They acted as advocates and helped their colleagues to get started. Even skeptical employees, especially in the older age group, were quickly convinced. According to Jan Markus Eichert, after the first training sessions and a month of use, all employees were completely convinced of the functions and advantages of the software.
The program is intuitive and self-explanatory. After the training courses and one month, everyone was completely enthusiastic.
Jan Markus Eichert, Field sales manager
In addition to route planning, HELA also decided to use portatour® Territory Optimization, the automatic territory planning from portatour®. Before the introduction of the tool, the sales territories were rarely optimized, usually only once a year and by external service providers. This was not only costly, but also time-consuming.
With portatour®, HELA was able to make its territory planning more dynamic in the long term. If customers disappear in a sector or new priorities arise, the software reacts immediately. This flexibility has not only increased efficiency, but also distributed the workload more fairly within the team. In addition, territory planning enables a more strategic approach. New listings or regional focuses can be implemented more quickly and in a much more targeted manner.
portatour® makes work easier, but does not replace thinking. Our employees work with the system to get the best out of it.
Jan Markus Eichert, Field sales manager
Since the implementation of portatour®, the day-to-day work routine in HELA's field force has changed fundamentally. Route planning, which previously took half a working day each week, is now a matter of a few minutes. Field sales employees can concentrate more on their core tasks and have more time for customer visits. The savings in kilometers driven are particularly impressive. Each field service employee drives around 42 kilometers less per day, which - extrapolated to all employees and their working days - means an annual saving of 155,000 kilometers. This not only drastically reduces travel costs, but also protects the environment.
According to Jan Markus Eichert, another advantage is the integration of special tasks into the planning. Customers are no longer forgotten because portatour® automatically takes overdue visits into account and plans them. This in turn leads to increased efficiency and significantly increases customer satisfaction. The automatic territory planning has also ensured that the workload within the team is now distributed much fairer. In addition, the successful introduction of portatour® has prompted HELA to expand the system to other business areas. With 33 additional field reps and almost 10,000 new potential customers, the company will concentrate on two additional sales branches in the future.
Thanks to portatour® we can now concentrate on what really counts - our customers.
Jan Markus Eichert, Field sales manager
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