Ernest F. Mariani - CRM Case Study

How Pipeliner CRM Empowers Ernest F. Mariani

Ernest F. Mariani Company is a food and beverage equipment and parts company located in Salt Lake City, Utah, with facilities in Phoenix, Arizona and Kent, Washington. From their Salt Lake City location, they supply everything a convenience store would possibly need in terms of equipment, including displays, dispensers for hot and cold beverages, cold cases, coolers, walk-in coolers and much more. Mariani’s Phoenix facility processes sugar and high-fructose corn sweetener and distributes them there.

Ernest F. Mariani Company is your one-stop-shop for all of your beverage parts and equipment needs

The Problem

Prior to trying and purchasing Pipeliner CRM, the company had conducted a fairly extensive search for a solutionSolution Solution is a combination of ideas, strategies, processes, technologies and services that effectively helps an organization achieve its goals or hurdle its challenges. to fit their needs. Mariani Company Chairman and CEO Wil Fiedler says, “I knew as a company we needed something to assist in tracking and developing sales as well as new customerCustomer Customer is an individual or an organization that purchases a product or signs up for a service offered by a business. development and to improve customer and internal communications, but to this point, we had not found anything.”

Over time, Mariani Company invested in three different solutions, none of which proved satisfactory. Since they hadn’t found anything, they were more or less operating by hook or crook. “Quite honestly, until Pipeliner came along, we were just fumbling in the darkDark Dark is a description for the state wherein a prospect have become unresponsive to calls, invitations, emails and other attempts at engagement (e.g., Mr.Brown has gone dark.),” Fiedler says.

Enter Pipeliner

A chance phone call from Pipeliner CRM’s Nikolaus Kimla began the company’s relationship, and Fiedler agreed to a productProduct Product refers to anything (an idea, item, service, process or information) that meets a need or a desire and is offered to a market, usually but not always at a price. demonstration. Understandably, he was dubious due to his past experiences. “I was very skeptical going into this meeting. I knew it would be very easy for me to turn down his offer to try their software as I was not expecting anything better from Pipeliner than I had with other CRM software companies.”

Quite honestly, until Pipeliner came along, we were just fumbling in the dark

Pipeliner personnel walked Fiedler and his staff through a demonstration of what Pipeliner could do for them. They were actually impressed—but still skeptical.

Part of the reason for their lingering doubts was the substandard support Mariani Company had received from previous CRM vendors. “Support was poor at best,” Fiedler reports. “I was thoroughly disappointed in the lack of concern, assistance and support of software companies. Once the sale is made, you are on your own.”

Amazing Customer Service

But once Fiedler and his company had gone through the trial phase, they were impressed enough to purchase Pipeliner CRM. And when they did, they were pleasantly surprised at Pipeliner’s support in helping Mariani Company tailor CRM to its precise needs.

Says Fiedler, “I have never in working with software companies received the support, dedication, and service we have had from Liz, the designers and support staff as we have had with Pipeliner.” Fiedler’s IT people were highly impressed with the way Pipeliner support staff helped to integrate Pipeliner CRM into Mariani’s system, which none of the other CRM vendors had been able to do.

Pipeliner worked closely with the company in training users as well. While doing so, Pipeliner’s support staff consistently suggested further ways to utilize the software, raising its value to the company.

Diverse Use

In addition to precisely tracking leads and opportunities, Pipeliner CRM serves Mariani Company in a variety of ways:

• It is used to compare customer purchases. If one customer is not purchasing some of the items a similar customer is buying, the company uses that information to promote sales and options to other customers.
• Pipeliner is used to figure the costs of acquiring business.
• It is used to evaluate targets salespeople set for themselves, and to check that they’re actually landing those opportunities and leads.
• The company uses Pipeliner CRM to figure closing percentages of leads and opportunities.
• Company management monitors notes so they can assist where needed in helping salespeople close business.
• For the company’s Phoenix facility, they’re now working on ways to track information to help them develop a better understanding of oncoming business.

Changes to Company

Fiedler says that Pipeliner CRM has brought numerous positive changes to Mariani Company. “Pipeliner has opened our eyes to our sales landing percentages. We’re now able to see specific customer needs. We’ve isolated problems we were having internally with communication that Pipeliner is helping us to smooth out. Because there’s now a record, it has greatly improved our communication with customers.”

Pipeliner CRM has really provided some great information, from our standpoint, as to what we need to do, where we need to go, and how we need to get there. It’s been a real productive tool for us.

Fiedler concludes by saying, “I would most definitely recommend Pipeliner CRM to others. You can’t go wrong—you can build this thing how you want to build it. Plus, what a great organizationOrganization Organization is a cohesive group of people working together and formally bound by a shared identity (e.g., one team, company, club, etc.) and a common purpose (e.g., business growth, athletic victory, etc.). to work with! I thank Nikolaus, Liz and everyone at Pipeliner who supported us through the process with patience and persistence.”