MÜPRO and the portatour^® route planner

Why automated route planning?

Before portatour^®, field sales force did not have a standard process at MÜPRO when it came to planning day trips for the sales team. "Basically, every sales employee had their own procedures. MÜPRO was therefore faced with the challenge of finding a standardized solution that would be efficient and also save time, because anyone who has really worked intensively on the tour for the coming week has already spent 2-2.5 hours on planning. Fortunately, that is now a thing of the past."

The huge time savings are also reflected in the team's feedback, as Mitchell Glindemann explains: "This is particularly noticeable when planning over a longer period of time. At the touch of a button, we can plan through two weeks and include a handful of customers in the next schedule at the same time. This is really good and we have uniform planning according to certain key parameters, which is of course also nice from a sales management point of view, because this means that there are no longer any qualitative differences in planning between the individual field reps."

We can easily plan through 2 weeks at the touch of a button and include a handful of customers in the next schedule at the same time.

Mitchell Glindemann, Area Sales Manager

Why did you choose portatour^®?

Due to the circumstances already mentioned and, above all, the question of how to increase the amount of customer calls, Mitchell Glindemann became active: "This topic had been on our minds for some time and we wanted to get a handle on these things as quickly and effectively as possible. When we finally introduced a new CRM system, we first tested a product from a competitor of portatour^®." In the end, however, this tool did not prove to be the right solution for MÜPRO. In the course of research during an internal sales meeting, they finally came across portatour^®.

"I was familiar with the name, as the software has been around for some time and I had already heard of portatour^®. We signed up for a demo and actually had access right at the meeting. That was really super easy." The demo version of portatour^® was projected onto the screen and equipped with some data: "We then quickly created a customer for a territory. The import was also really easy. And in no time at all we saw a result, ran through two or three cases and portatour^® really impressed us." Mitchell Glindemann and his colleagues were impressed by the performance and speed of portatour^® Route Planner. "We then presented it to our managing director, who also found the software to be very good, and since then we have been using portatour^® and are extremely satisfied with it."

We signed up for a demo and actually had access right at the meeting. That was really super easy.

Mitchell Glindemann, Area Sales Manager

The implementation of portatour^®

The introduction of new tools is often associated with a lot of effort and teething troubles. With portatour^®, MÜPRO had neither, according to Mitchell Glindemann: "First, we received a pilot training session from the portatour^® support team. In these 2 hours, we were once again shown very clearly the advantages of the software. For example, the fact that it doesn't impose rigid specifications, but is also flexible." MÜPRO then took over the training of the employees themselves on portatour^®: "They quickly saw the flexibility that was suddenly offered to them and that they can actually forget about route planning now because the system does it for them." While some new and younger colleagues asked about automated route planning themselves, field reps, who have been "on the road" for longer, were initially skeptical.

"As a salesperson, you have to keep a lot of balls in the air, want to keep an overview and don't like to give up control. But if you put a little trust in it, you will quickly be convinced of the advantages you gain by using portatour^®. One colleague, for example, got to know his territory in a completely new way after almost four years thanks to portatour^® and rediscovered forgotten customers." Anyone who has been working in a specific territory for years will not discover many new things. The surprise is all the greater when portatour^® suddenly sends you home via other routes and takes you to customers, some of which you haven't visited for years. For MÜPRO, this leads to new sales in specific cases.

For example, after almost four years, a colleague got to know his territory in a completely new way through portatour^® and rediscovered forgotten customers.

Mitchell Glindemann, Area Sales Manager

The user-friendliness of portatour^®

After the user training by the portatour^® team, the rollout took place relatively soon: "We held internal training sessions with the colleagues who would later be using the software. Data was imported, we tried to optimize a few things for ourselves and looked at how to deal with fixed appointments or how to control certain things. You can really say that portatour^® works very simply, which made training our colleagues very straightforward." The simple connection to the in-house CRM system has also been a source of great enthusiasm at MÜPRO: "With other providers, this is sometimes really difficult, but the way the data now gets into SAP is really impressive. It simply works brilliantly." When it comes to user-friendliness, Mitchell Glindemann praises the user interface in particular, which is easy to find your way around: "It's really well designed, easy to use and you can also do more complex things. Everything looks very simple at first glance, but portatour^® is quite powerful under the surface."

You can really say that portatour^® works very simply, which has made the training of colleagues very uncomplicated.

Mitchell Glindemann, Area Sales Manager

The biggest strengths of portatour^®

For MÜPRO, the real game changers with portatour^® are above all its immensely high speed and flawless performance: "There hasn't been a single failure since we started using it, the software has never reacted slowly and it is particularly important that portatour^® also works offline if there is no reception. With other programs that don't work at all without an internet connection, this can sometimes lead to annoying situations." The fact that portatour^® also works wonderfully offline is a regular source of delight for MÜPRO's field sales force: "You can simply do your work and as soon as you're online again, everything is transferred." From a sales management perspective, Mitchell Glindemann particularly benefits from finally having a much better overview. He has also learned to really appreciate reporting.

Thanks to portatour^®, we now have the opportunity to support our employees in a targeted manner by being able to intervene in route planning as supervisors if necessary. Furthermore, portatour^® enables MÜPRO to focus on a specific industry for a certain period of time: "For example, I can now mark a new employee who still has a little to learn and send him to smaller customers with a special product so that he can gain a little experience. With portatour^®, colleagues are already automatically on their way to the right customer, but this way we can support people in a more targeted and efficient way than before."

You can also simply do your things offline and as soon as you are online again, everything is transferred.

Mitchell Glindemann, Area Sales Manager

About MÜPRO and Mitchell Glindemann

MÜPRO is a fast-growing, internationally active group of companies with subsidiaries and sales partners all over the world. As a leading solution provider and premium supplier in the areas of fastening technology, sound insulation and fire protection, MÜPRO can draw on more than 60 years of industry experience in design and production. The company's system solutions, which are characterized by high quality and cost-effectiveness, are used in all areas of building services as well as in industrial and plant engineering. In addition, MÜPRO offers its customers a wide range of variable products that are manufactured to order.

The company accompanies the entire development, manufacturing and delivery process and supports its customers with technical elaborations and project support on site. The pre-assembly of components, special packaging and deliveries or cost-saving delivery options are reliably implemented on site. MÜPRO also has many years of expertise in special areas of fastening technology such as clean rooms, tunnels or fastening for heavy loads. MÜPRO Maritim, based in Hamburg, specializes in fastening tasks in shipbuilding.

Mitchell Glindemann holds the position of Area Sales Manager for the North-West Group and his team comprises 9 people. A total of 34 field reps use portatour^®.