Granite Telecommunications is a leading communications services provider to multiple location businesses throughout the U.S. and Canada.  They provide one-stop solutions for voice, data, broadband Internet, wireless, managed services and secure network options.  Imagine receiving one invoice from one supplier that encompasses all of your communications services….that is exactly what Granite provides to their customers. Time savings, cost savings, and good service…what company doesn’t want that?!  And, if that’s not enough, they are dedicated to maintaining the satisfaction of their customers and employees. Their track record proves it.

Being the one-stop-shop for communications solutions, coupled with their stellar customer service, has fueled significant growth for Granite (can’t hurt that they’ve also been voted one of the best places to work and one of the most charitable companies in MA numerous times).  And, as we know, with growth comes challenge.

Challenges

• An initial lack of a well-defined system to manage the Granite sales process for a large sales team (initially 200 but currently 450 sales users, with plans to add 100 new reps in 2016 and another 100+ in 2017!)
• Difficulty managing/measuring activities against results
• Lack of internal communication and collaboration between sales and service
• No tracking mechanism for business trends and opportunities

Solution

• The activity management process was re-designed and implemented throughout the sales organization from new hire on-boarding through to senior sales management
• Activity management dashboards were developed and are now being used at every level of the organization
• The Opportunity process was refined to be more organized and manageable, which has led to the implementation of formal pipeline reviews, sales management coaching, and improvement of performance at every level

Future

• Granite is planning on deploying the Service Cloud and rolling in 100-150 Customer Service users in the near future to bridge the gap that has existed between their sales and service teams
• They plan to utilize Chatter to redefine the way they collaborate internally, providing both Sales and Service the same platform to share information

“This is the second company where I have led the Salesforce implementation.  My success with Salesforce at Admiral Metals prior to joining Granite and now our great success at Granite is built on a very strong three-way partnership that we have built between Granite, Salesforce and the BlackIron Group.  We relied on BlackIron to guide and support us and we now consider them our proven, trusted partner and we look forward to working with them again as we continue to grow and expand.” –Tony Kenneally, VP Sales Operations, Marketing & Granite University, Granite Telecommunications, LLC