REMMERS and the portatour^® route planner

About Remmers

The Remmers Group was founded by Bernhard Remmers in 1949, and is still an independent family-owned company today. The company specializes in the manufacture of chemical construction products, wood paints and coatings, and industrial lacquers, and employs around 1,600 highly qualified experts.

The Remmers field sales team works on the front line. The personal relationships that they maintain with customers are the lynchpin of the whole business relationship, so the field sales representatives play one of the most important roles in the company. Bernhard Remmers himself was always conscious of that. His maxim was: “If my sales force is doing well then so am I.”

Why automatic route planning?

Maintaining such close ties requires structured sales route planning and regular contact. Because in larger territories in particular, it is easy for customers to fall off the radar here and there. Remmers already started using portatour^® on a small scale back in 2013. But after rolling out SAP C4C as its new CRM system in 2016/2017, the company opted for a C4C-integrated sales route planner as part of the package. So the portatour^® project was put on ice.

However, the new route planner lacked the range of features that the field sales team was familiar with from portatour^®. Consequently, Remmers decided to go back to working with portatour^®.

This decision received firm backing from the company’s field sales representatives, especially those who had enjoyed working with portatour^® before.

Norbert Neundorf, Sales Manager Wood Coatings and Paints

The portatour^® relaunch

At the end of 2020, Remmers, portatour^®, and an external service provider began setting up automatic data exchange between SAP C4C and portatour^® via the API. With the technology in place, the relaunch kicked off with a smaller group. After an acclimatization phase over the first few weeks, the field sales team was productively on the road with portatour^®.

During the rollout we did a two-week road show in Germany, giving half-day introductory training workshops in the various sales regions. Every single team member was brought right up to speed with the new tool.

Bernd Eilers, CRM Project Manager

Day-to-day field sales with portatour^®

portatour^® made the field sales team’s daily working life easier. They can now get a proposed sales route for several weeks at the touch of a button. The route plan factors in pre-agreed customer meetings, then fills the gaps with suggested calls to customers whose locations are a good fit for the route, and who are due for another call based on specified intervals. The support that portatour^® provides has been very well-received by the team – even those who usually struggle with technical and digital tools.

Any initial distrust of sales calls proposed by an artificial intelligence evaporated very quickly, because portatour^® saves you time and mileage in meeting your own and management targets, and helps you optimize your daily itinerary. It even takes account of the latest traffic.

Bernd Eilers, CRM Project Manager

portatour^® has also made it easier to document post-call reports. Many users take advantage of their smartphone to dictate a report right after the call. This means they no longer have to think about it, but also know exactly where to pick up at their next meeting with that customer. The tedium of working through all that when they get back home is a thing of the past.

portatour^® is a real time saver when it comes to arranging customer calls based on certain criteria. In just a few clicks, your required target groups are set up and efficiently scheduled for the coming weeks.

The majority of Remmers’ field sales representatives are now working with portatour^®, and their feedback says it all: “portatour^® is clearly organized, easy to use, and great to work with.”

Successful results

On average across the team, portatour^® enables Remmers’ representatives to make two additional customer calls per day, because the system takes care of route planning and reporting that would otherwise have to be done in the evening. This frees up about an extra half day each week, which is now spent with customers.

Time is something that you cannot buy or turn back, so saving time is crucial.

Norbert Neundorf, Sales Manager Wood Coatings and Paints

The system also delivered big savings in terms of mileage.

portatour^® reduced my annual mileage by 20% and permanently cut it from 39,000 to 31,000. At the same time, it increased my sales because I am calling on the right customers.

Norbert Neundorf, Sales Manager Wood Coatings and Paints

portatour^® is saving Remmers around 20% in fuel costs, one repair shop visit per company car per year, and a summer tire set per 3–4 year vehicle leasing term.