Mercury Bearings Ltd is one of the UK’s leading independent suppliers of industrial spare parts and specialist components. 

• 60,000+ products 

• 7 field users 

• £8M annual turnover 

The Overview

With 3 branches strategically located across London and South East, they hold a large stock of products to deliver quality items without delay to their customers. 

Mark Costello, Managing Director at Mercury Bearings Ltd, said, “Our company’s USP is excellent service. We deliver the items people need when they need them. We have a strong reputation for being able to source difficult and unusual items.” Mark added, “And if we can’t source it, we can often make it.” 

The Challenge

When Mercury Bearings Ltd first contacted Sugar, they were struggling with a paper-based CRM and a disjointed sales reporting system. 

“The CRM side was cumbersome and difficult for me to use to analyze calls made, the spread of calls, and future required activity. Consequently, it was difficult to ensure accounts were being seen on a broad basis and not just convenience.” Mark continued, “We didn’t have easy access to product sales and long-term historical reporting. As a result, it was challenging to spot trends in sales habits, and by the time a decline or rise in sales had happened, we were behind the trend.” 

With an experienced sales team with little to no experience with CRM computer systems, gaining buy-in from the team was also a concern for Mark. ”Many have been with the business for over 10 years, some over 25 years. They are not used to working with a CRM system or the disciplines usually associated with field sales management.” 

The Solution

Mercury Bearings Ltd knew they had to act to offset the growing threat to their market share from online retailers, local independent distributors, and large national competitors. When their ERP provider, Merlin, recommended they check out Sugar Predict (formerly sales-i), Mark quickly saw the value. 

“Once I saw the demo of Mercury Ltd uses Sugar Predict to deliver outstanding service to their growing customer base, I knew it would prove effective in sales management.” He continued, “It could provide detailed info on sales, at £, product and GP level; allowed the user to be specific on details they wanted to access; had an easy-to-use reporting system both for the reps and management; and it was cost-effective. 

Crucially, Mark was impressed by how easy the system was to use and how fast the team bought into the software, even for those sales reps who were entirely set in their ways of working. 

The Results

The power of the insights provided by Sugar Predict has helped shape the growth of Mercury Bearings Ltd from day one. 

“Sugar Predict has provided solutions to most of the issues we had. It provides relevant and flexible reporting; is easy to update activities; and provides effective reports for management to use for monthly 1:1 meetings with the reps.” 

When asked about the buy-in from the team, he told us that “its ease of use has won over most of the older reps!” 

Mark and the team at Mercury Bearings Ltd have taken advantage of many of the features of Sugar Predict to drive sales. “We use product sales reports, sales, and margin comparison reports, and Sales Gap reports which are produced monthly – the ability to manipulate them in Excel is excellent.” 

Mark has also used the system to help develop and manage the team, “I use the standard sales reports monthly; I work through each rep’s call follow-up reports and talk through key developments with each individual at their monthly 1:1 meetings. Overall, management is better informed as to rep activities and the results of that activity, and the reps are better informed about their customers.” 

As a result, Sugar Predict has made a significant positive impact across the business. Mark said” “We have grown our sales in a number of accounts as a consequence of the reporting facilities in Predict. We certainly cover a broader spread of customers than used to be the case, and my reps are better informed about their customer trading positions than they have ever been.” 

The Future

After almost three years, Mercury Bearings Ltd are still reaping the rewards of having quick, easy access to their business data thanks to Predict. 

However, Mark recognizes that maintaining a high level of system use is critical to their continued success. As such, regular refresher sessions and in-depth training for new staff members is an area he continues to focus on. 

“As we grow and Sugar Predict evolves, we need to keep up with developments to ensure we are getting the most out of the system.”