METER Group aids clients across the world in the food, agricultural and environmental sectors. Combining science, engineering and design, the company develops solutions and services for improving air and water quality, food safety and crop management. After the initial launch and rollout of their Salesforce instance, METER Group realized the impact that Salesforce could have on their business, but they were only able to take it so far. Through a careful and thorough selection process, METER Group selected Codescience Technologies as their Salesforce implementation partner. With METER Group in Pullman, Washington, and Codescience in Indianapolis, Indiana, this cross-country connection produced Salesforce solutions for today with an eye toward tomorrow – a value that resonated with an inventive company like METER Group.

The Challenge

Prior to starting the relationship with Codescience , METER Group had a basic implementation of Salesforce that included many integration and configuration errors. As a result, the METER Group sales team was unable to utilize their instance of Salesforce as envisioned. Their Salesforce ultimately lacked visibility into the sales process and metrics driving the team. In addition, there were also great plans to use the CRM in tandem with Pardot for marketing automation to improve sales effectiveness, prospect nurturing and upsell opportunities, but the original implementation’s numerous issues delayed usage. 

Without the internal skill set necessary to complete the integration themselves, finding a new consultant became a must. METER Group wrestled with selecting a large firm supporting thousands of customers or going with a smaller consulting team serving fewer clients at a time. After experiencing the personalized customer approach and insight for executing METER Group’s long-term Salesforce strategy, the company found its new implementation partner in Codescience Technologies.

The Solution

The first step was working closely with METER Group to take over the remaining initiatives of the original Salesforce implementation. Codescience was able to get those tasks completed quickly so the teams could embark on a new set of sales and marketing initiatives. Top priority was creating a solid integration with the ERP that passed accurate product and revenue information between the two systems. 

Next Codescience reconfigured METER Group’s Salesforce instance to support a workable sales process. New features and functionality delivered on the company’s initial vision for the system. With Salesforce now fully integrated into the sales team’s day-to-day work, it allowed for enhanced pipeline management and better sales forecasting. Improved task notifications and data accuracy also supported a more streamlined process. Using Salesforce transitioned from being just a required task to a vital tool for driving sales and revenue. 

With the foundation now solidly in place, Codescience transitioned its work toward marketing automation and delivering on METER Group’s long-term goals.  The Codescience team created a robust plan for Pardot enhancements based on METER Group’s needs: 

• Automation – METER Group’s intent was maximizing each employee’s effectiveness, while improving efficiencies across sales and marketing efforts. Automation would improve the number of lead touchpoints and conversation rates without increasing headcount. 

• Prospect Management – METER Group’s unique specialties made finding and targeting the right leads vitally important. Pardot’s prospect management capabilities offered a better process for lead nurturing and qualification.

• Engagement Programs – Once a good lead was identified, METER’s sales team needed a better way of keeping the prospect engaged throughout the customer lifecycle. Engagement flows would move the team away from one-size-fits-all activities and introduce automated sales communications with value propositions tailored to the prospect.

The Results

Codescience Technologies integrated Pardot with the newly implemented Sales Cloud and introduced sophisticated system features. METER Group immediately saw efficiency and productivity gains benefiting their bottom line. 

Advanced Analytics – Prior to the implementation, the quality of a lead was a marketing or salesperson’s judgement call. With the new system features, all leads were scored and graded based on characteristics agreed to across teams. The new scoring system allowed sales associates to allocate their time toward the highest quality leads. 

Automated Efforts and Assignments – Using automation rules, prospects were assigned to sales representatives or workflows. The rules also allowed for automated communications based on characteristics like a prospect’s last activity, lead score, or geographic location. The system now executed marketing tasks that could be automated resulting in more communication specific to a lead’s business needs. The sales team then refocused their efforts toward hands-on prospect tasks for closing deals.

Enhanced Engagement – Codescience streamlined lead management even more with Pardot’s Engagement Studio. The feature helped the METER team define lead activities such as clicking an email link or downloading a form and paired it with an automated action like adding the lead to a campaign, assigning a salesperson, or adjusting lead score. As leads interacted with METER Group, the system advanced them through the sales cycle for increased buyer conversions. 

Teamwork and Collaboration – Integrating Pardot and Sales Cloud aligned the work of the marketing and sales teams. Codescience replaced the process of creating duplicate records between the teams with standard task notifications. Not only did this streamline the current process, but it provided a cleaner database. This work paved the way for the METER’s next phase – leveraging Einstein Analytics for system intelligence that generates smarter sales.