Phoenix Contact: Globally connected thanks to Salesforce

Rapid growth led to complex sales processes that needed to be managed collaboratively with a cross-border CRM solution.

The company was required to develop a system that had global relevance and at the same time achieved maximum user acceptance.

The biggest task here was to implement long-established, local processes globally and to make users receptive to the overarching goals.

The system was to be rolled out quickly and without major disruption to all international subsidiaries.

Salesfive introduced Marketing Cloud Account Engagement to map marketing automation processes. Clusters were formed for this – taking into account the local proximity of the national companies to each other – in order to exploit synergy effects. With the introduction of Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly Pardot), we were able to provide a standardized solution for lead management and at the same time replace analogue manual processes with automated digital ones.

Salesforce thus forms the central platform for lead management at Phoenix Contact, on which the marketing and sales departments can work even more closely together and a seamless transfer of prospect data is ensured.

In this project, we were not only required to design the corresponding IT architecture and introduce the necessary software solutions, but also to support the internal change management at the traditional company in its transition to a global group.

In particular, this involved demonstrating the advantages of the new IT world and closer cooperation to the employees in the national companies, even if this meant the end of familiar procedures.

A key success factor for a successful rollout and good user acceptance is a methodically targeted training concept. In addition to our experts, Phoenix Contact employees were also actively involved in the training sessions in the countries in order to explain local processes and their implementation in Salesforce in the best possible way. We therefore defined key users in each country at an early stage, who played a decisive role in the development of the country-specific template from the outset.