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“With Salesforce we can work better with our partners to give our customers an unforgettable experience.”

Jérôme Doucet, VP Sales & Marketing, Montel

The world doesn’t stand still. And neither does Jérôme Doucet. As VP of Sales and Marketing at storage manufacturer Montel, Jérôme knows how good technology can help businesses roll with the times.

Jérôme is a guy who gets things done – whether that’s building a new marketing campaign or ensuring things are on track at Montel’s factory. We caught up with Jérôme between organizing ‘lunch and learns’ for partners and hitting the ski slopes with his kids to talk about how to keep business thriving in a world that’s constantly evolving.

Tell us about the changes you’re seeing in your industry

These are exciting times at Montel. We’ve moved beyond traditional carriage library shelving into a lot of emerging markets. Space is priced at a premium right now, so making better use of it can deliver a huge ROI. Our customers range from sports teams and retailers to government agencies and pharmaceutical companies.

How is smart technology helping you deliver more value to customers?

It’s all about helping people to work as efficiently as possible. If a customer has a mobile storage system, we can add programmable features such a ‘priority aisle’, which opens the most-used aisle as default instead of them having to manually open it each time. There are also some interesting developments going on with vertical farming - we can create controlled indoor environments that eliminate the use of pesticides and have automated irrigation to cut down on water waste, as the plants can feed themselves when they’re thirsty. This technology will really help in places like the Caribbean and countries with the harshest environments where it can be hard to grow food, and we even have a partner developing LED grow-lights that could work with our environment to help NASA grow vegetables on Mars!

How does Salesforce help you break into new markets?

At Montel, we work with a network of 65 authorized Montel distributors (AMDs) who have specific territories and verticals. To work with such a diverse customer base and so many partners, we have to be organized, and that’s where Salesforce comes in. Salesforce helps us operate at our best – it encourages good practices as well as making us more efficient, transparent, and unified.

What’s your favourite Salesforce feature?

I love the way it handles opportunities. On average we need to follow up between eight and 12 times to turn a lead into an order, and with Salesforce we can set alerts if we haven’t followed up with a prospect. With better visibility we can also manage our partner relationships – if a partner seems quiet, we can get in touch to find out if there’s an issue. Or if a customer has a project that’s too big for a partner to handle, we can take it in-house and give the partner commission on our sale so we’re not missing out on those opportunities.  

What’s your biggest achievement at Montel?

The fact that my team and I have built a global distribution network is something I’m very proud of. We’ve adapted our business in the face of a shrinking traditional market, and are now helping more customers optimize their limited space than ever before. We have a steady network of partners, which means a steady stream of orders for our factories.

What advice do you have for new Trailblazers?

I think the reason we have such healthy partner relationships is that we share our successes, and with Salesforce we can demonstrate the value we bring to them. All of our partners use the platform, so we all have complete visibility of what’s in the pipeline and how orders are progressing, and that transparency builds trust. The same principle applies to anyone you work with: if you want people to buy into your vision, show them how it will make their lives easier; from your employees through to customers, having an aligned vision will help you blaze your way to success.

Learn how Montel boosts dealer relationships and accelerates sales and growth with Salesforce.