A BBB Sees Bigger Business

The Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Houston is a nonprofit organization funded by dues from its member businesses. However, its own formula for managing lead processing and membership-list development needed restructuring. Sales reps contacted businesses about membership, but different salespeople sometimes placed calls to the same business, creating a two-prong problem: frustrated companies and a high employee turnover rate. Given the organization's nonprofit model, however, the solution had to be effective, with a minimal implementation time frame. The bureau went live in January 2005 with hosted SFA and CRM solutions provider Dovarri and Dovarri's Enterprise Edition. The system delivers custom reports that pull information from Dovarri's database, arming salespeople and managers with needed information. "We can take the knowledge and expand it throughout your sales team, making everybody more successful," says Geary Broadnax, president and CEO of Dovarri. Juan Ortega, regional sales manager for the bureau, says that although his was one of the top producing localities in the Unites States prior to implementing Dovarri, the deployment allowed it to progress despite a challenging and emotional period. In early January 2005, one of the bureau's reps (one of the top producers in the country) passed away, and several people decided to move over to a different department. "I went from a team of 11 to five people in January," Ortega says. "We had a new program and I had half the staff. [But] because of Dovarri, I saw the results immediately." In the past, the Houston bureau averaged just two salespeople in the national top 20, but in 2005 that number increased to seven. The bureau is also seeing a gradual increase in revenue. Prior to Dovarri, revenue was about $700,000, but is now closer to $800,000, according to Ortega. And in October 2005 the bureau had the best month in its history in terms of revenue and number of memberships, according to Ortega. "The key is now just having enough people."