A valve and fittings group at a four-day energy show

The situation

The group exhibits every year on one large stand. A procurement engineer from an operator might talk to the valve company about a shutdown, then walk three metres and ask the gasket company about the same job. Each rep takes a card. The tender behind those conversations may not be issued for a year.

Before

After the show the cards went into three piles. An assistant typed them into Odoo over the following fortnight. Nobody linked the two conversations with the same engineer, and the first email he received was a general brochure. When the enquiry finally arrived, it went to whichever company’s name he remembered.

Setting up

The group is one workspace with three companies, each with its own admin, products and catalogues. Reps who sell for more than one company choose which one a lead is for. Odoo is connected once for the group, and each team is matched to its Odoo sales team. The follow-up wording is approved in English and Arabic.

At the show

A rep scans the engineer’s card and taps Instrumentation valves and Asked for a quotation. He dictates a twenty-second note about quantities and the shutdown date, approves the draft the app writes from it, and sends the valve datasheet.

Ten minutes later a gasket rep scans the same card. The app says a colleague met this person today and that Odoo already has an open deal with his company. She adds her visit to the existing lead. The valve rep gets an email saying a colleague met his contact.

In the afternoon the hall’s network gives out. Captures queue on the phones and send themselves at about four o’clock.

After the show

The group’s managers open the Overview each evening: leads against target, by company and by person. Two days after the show, three hot leads have had no call. Their owners’ managers are told, and all three are called that afternoon.