A tile distributor's reps promising samples on site

The situation

Tiles and stone are chosen by hand and eye. The six reps visit construction sites, contractors’ offices and design offices. Most conversations end the same way: send me that one, in the larger size. The sample that arrives on time is the one that gets specified.

Before

The promise was made out loud, on a floor slab or over a drawing. The rep wrote the finish in a notebook when there was a pen. The sample room worked from phone calls and sent what it could work out.

Setting up

The company has no CRM, so the manager exports leads as a spreadsheet. The admin sets up the ranges, each with its catalogue, and builds a form for each way of meeting. The site visit form has one required question: which finish and size is the sample? The two people in the sample room get sign-ins.

On a visit

On a construction site the rep scans the engineer’s card. With a signal, the app reads it in about ten seconds. She chooses Site visit, taps Porcelain slabs and Within 30 days, and answers the required question: travertine look, matt, 60 by 120. The next action, with its date, becomes a task: the sample, by Thursday.

In a design office she chooses Client meeting. The designer wants the whole stone range, so she opens WhatsApp from the lead, with the message and the catalogue link already written, and taps send.

What the manager sees

The manager opens the team’s tasks and assigns each sample task to the sample room, with its date. A rep whose lead has had no follow-up after a day gets a reminder. The Overview lists what was asked about, range by range, and how each lead was met: on a site visit, in a client meeting or by referral.