This case study was originally posted on the Bravo Business Media website.
Holt Supply’s website now dynamically calculates profit margins thanks to Bravo Business Media
Background
Holt Supply is a family-owned business that’s grounded in three business areas: plumbing wholesale; heating and cooling wholesale; and bath, kitchen, and lighting showrooms. The company has showrooms in Champaign, Bloomington, and Galesburg, Illinois.
One of the owners, Jean Holt, assumed the task of growing the showroom side of the business and making it profitable. Her goal was to develop the company’s website into one that provided transparent, upfront pricing to retail customers.
Challenges
“We offer consumers pricing fairly consistent with Internet Minimum Advertised Price (IMAP) policies set by manufacturers,” said Jean. “We reserve the right to sell to plumbers, builders, and designers at levels lower than IMAP, which is expected by our trade customers. Staying at or near IMAP for consumers has stabilized our pricing and margin expectations.”
Being able to provide tiered pricing in the showroom meant the administrative dashboard of Holt Supply’s pricing system was very intricate. “Before Bravo, our salespeople had to calculate the right price by setting the profit margins for every item on every quote,” said Jean. “Not only was this tedious, it also led to occasions where errors were inadvertently made due to confusion in multipliers, mark-ups, divisors, and so on. There had to be a better way.”
Solutions
After investigating options at a trade conference and speaking in-depth with a Bravo Business Media representative, Jean decided that it was the right time to invest in transforming Holt Supply’s website to support growth in the showrooms.
“Bravo’s representatives were so kind and genuine, they just put me at ease,” said Jean. “So I thought it was worth giving Bravo a shot, even though it was a significant investment for a family business.”
Bravo Business Media created a showroom website for Holt Supply that automatically handles all of the necessary calculations.
“My sales team is so thankful for Bravo,” said Jean. “Bravo took math out of their daily duties.”
Jean is thrilled with the work Bravo has done for Holt Supply. “Bravo has been a pleasure to work with,” said Jean. “The prompt, knowledgeable Bravo team listened our needs and goals. They produced a helpful showroom quoting tool that looks professional, and our staff enjoys using it. Bravo Business
Media helped us get better.”
Results
Easy, Error-Free Quoting
Now that the intricate back-office calculations are done automatically, Holt Supply’s sales team no longer has to manually do calculations, and there are no more errors on quotes.
Enhanced Productivity
Because the system built and maintained by Bravo Business Media handles all of the calculations and
creates attractive-looking quotes that are neatly presented, Jean’s sales team has more time to focus on selling.
Improved Employee Satisfaction
Now that the sales team can easily produce attractive quotes for customers, they take greater pride in their work. “I really feel they are happier as a group,” said Jean.
Increased Sales
Now that Bravo has made producing quotes faster and more efficient, the Holt Supply sales team can put more quotes through the funnel with less effort.