Merlin formalises strategic partnership with sales-i …

We are pleased to announce our newly formed strategic partnership with sales-i, suppliers of a leading customer intelligence system. Under the new agreement Merlin and sales-i will work hand in hand to promote sales-i’s sales and customer intelligence solution to Merlin’s extensive base of distribution market customers.

sales-i is a perfect fit for Merlin customers and prospective customers whose businesses distribute thousands of parts or products to hundreds or more customers and where competition is tough and customer retention is key to success. Bolstering its business software platform with sales-i’s integrated sales and customer intelligence was the next step in Merlin’s business marketing plan as Managing Director, Clive Mallender, explains, “We sell to wholesalers, distributors, merchants, manufacturers and stockists. Enabling them to have up to the minute visibility of who is buying what and where the sales opportunities lie is a huge advantage. That coupled with sophisticated customer intelligence allows them to spot competitive activity and respond before it’s too late. These are just some of the benefits that sales-i integrated with Merlin will give them and we are delighted to have formalised our relationship with sales-i to bring our organisations closer together and deliver even greater benefits to our customers.”

Merlin and sales-i already have a number of joint customers including one of the UK’s largest, independent distributor of Power Tools and accessories, North West Tools. Iain Entwistle, Sales Director at North West Tools adds, “We already knew the importance and value of sales intelligence and what it contributed to our business and to our knowledge of our customers. A recession is a great leveler when it comes to making more out of fewer resources but this recession had hit harder than before and we knew the difference that having our customer buying behaviour visibility to hand and in the field would mean to the business. sales-i ticked all the boxes.” Iain continues, “sales-i is very intuitive and easy to use which is essential if our sales people are to adopt it. We can instantly see which customers are down, who is buying which lines and who isn’t, sales this month versus last year, money owed, last products bought etc. Most importantly this intelligence allows us to approach customer meetings fully prepared and able to respond to any downward spending trends.”

sales-i enables companies to make better use of existing sales resources by equipping them with easily digestible, immediate customer buying alerts. These organisations are attracted to sales-i’s Software-as-a-Service delivery model too which means there is no hardware or infrastructure to buy, maintain or worry about. sales-i is accessed over any Internet connection and delivers sales alerts to emails and across smartphones and viewing devices like the iPad.

Paul Black is CEO and co-founder of sales-i and delighted to welcome Merlin as a partner, “We have a lot of synergy with Merlin in terms of the markets that we target and the importance that we place on high quality software development and customer service. We have already enjoyed successes with Merlin users who are now also sales-i customers and together with Clive and the rest of the Merlin team we plan to build on this momentum and grow our market share together.”

To have a free demonstration on sales-i’s seamless integration with Merlin Business Software please call our sales team on 01246 457150 or email us on [email protected] for more information