Manutan furnishes its sales organization with LinkedIn Sales Navigator – and establishes all-in value with a six-month pilot

The workplace solutions provider used a six-month pilot of LinkedIn Sales Navigator to drive adoption across its 17 European countries, turning sceptics into champions and proving the value of an all-in approach for boosting efficiency, accelerating deals and driving sales excellence.

Choosing a technology to embed sales excellence across Europe is a big decision. Florence Rocheteau, Sales Excellence Director for the B2B retailer specialised in the distribution of equipment and supplies Manutan, used a six-month pilot of LinkedIn Sales Navigator to ensure her choice would deliver the value her organization needed. By embracing the pilot as a change management opportunity, she succeeded in activating Sales Navigator at scale across different countries, turning sceptics into advocates, building momentum – and proving impact. As a result, Manutan has been able to go all-in with Sales Navigator with confidence, through an All-in Enterprise Program that is delivering a big increase in new customer meetings.

A group-wide platform to secure more of the meetings that matter

When she first stepped into her role as Sales Excellence Director for Manutan, Florence had a clear set of priorities. She needed to help her sales teams across 17 different European countries secure more meetings with potential new customers, and do so more efficiently.

“The equipment that we sell isn’t usually the top priority for procurement teams and they have a large number of suppliers to choose from, so it can be difficult to get traction,” explains Florence. “The most difficult part is often to get the first meeting with a customer, to find the right contact and to engage with them. We need to find different ways in and try different personas. When you can’t get through the door, you need to ask yourself how you can get through the window instead.”

Florence knew that more consistent use of sales tech could play a big role in raising sales productivity. And the experience of teams that had already adopted LinkedIn Sales Navigator helped to highlight the way forward. “We didn’t have a common CRM, and we knew that we needed a tool where our sales community could share contacts and insights,” she says. “The fact that some countries were already using Sales Navigator meant that we had champions in place, and we knew the tool would give us the support we needed.”

Embracing change management through technology

Starting with a six-month pilot meant that Florence could gauge the appetite for using the platform, before investing in an all-in package of licenses to cover the entire sales force. It also gave her a valuable window for changing sales behavior, overcoming barriers – and driving adoption. Bi-weekly meetings with a dedicated LinkedIn pilot consultant provided expert guidance, reviewing progress and helping to plan each phase of the roll-out.

“It’s really important to approach adopting LinkedIn Sales Navigator as a change management process, and LinkedIn provided really good support in doing that,” says Florence. “Having somebody on your side who’s able to take ownership of activating the technology is really valuable. That’s the key to success when it comes to showing impact and convincing the business to move forward.”

The plan that Florence developed with her LinkedIn pilot consultant involved monitoring levels of Sales Navigator activity across different teams using LinkedIn dashboards, working with country Sales Managers/Directors to address any challenges their salespeople were facing, and delivering manager coaching from LinkedIn consultants via video conferences. Group-wide competitions helped to drive uptake of new features like Relationship Map, getting salespeople into the habit of exploring buying committees and finding new routes in.

This focus on changing behavior produced amazing results. “I rarely used LinkedIn in the past, but after testing Sales Navigator, I discovered a huge range of solutions that were relevant to my day-to-day,” says Miguel Garcia, Key Account Manager for Manutan in Spain. “I was able to find and reach out to interesting company contacts, and map over 30 accounts that I wouldn’t have been able to identify using traditional sales techniques.”

Signposting the route to value

Prior to the pilot, Manutan had reports of success from individual Sales Navigator users, but it had never attempted an organization-wide roll-out – and had no systematic way of proving value. Florence worked with Manutan’s leadership and the LinkedIn pilot consultant to agree the metrics they would use to test the impact of an all-in deployment. 

“It’s important to choose your battles, decide on the functionality that you need to see the sales team using, and then measure the adoption of that functionality in whatever way you can,” she advises. “We focused on measuring the number of new meetings that Sales Navigator enabled for our teams, and the amount of time it saved them. It was important for us to make sure we were gaining efficiency and not adding a tool that made their lives more complex.”

Clarity on the measures of success meant that Florence and her colleagues were able to track the value delivered by LinkedIn Sales Navigator throughout the pilot:

•        Over 130 new meetings and conversations enabled by Sales Navigator
•        Average of 1 hour 10 minutes saved per salesperson, per week
•        2.3x increase in decision-maker connections
•        Important new decision-makers identified and engaged across key accounts
•        90% satisfaction rating across Manutan’s sales team

Based on these results, Manutan has rolled out LinkedIn Sales Navigator across its entire sales organization, with an All-in Enterprise Program of 106 seats for two years.