New Zealand architectural materials supplier leads the way by "building with conscience"

Insightly makes it easier for Stoanz Ltd to acquire, engage, and support architects.

Sto Group is a German manufacturer of building materials and systems. With roots dating back to 1835, Sto supplies a wide variety of products, including facade insulation systems, interior plasters and paints, acoustic systems, clear coatings, and other innovative solutions. Stoanz Ltd, based in New Zealand, is Sto Group’s authorized distribution partner for Australasia.

Serving the region’s highly regulated and competitive commercial construction sector, Stoanz Ltd needed a more efficient way to track relationships and projects. “Many of our customers are architects who bill their clients on a per-hour basis,” said Tony Clendon, Senior Sales Manager at Stoanz Ltd. “Time is money for architects, so we needed a CRM to streamline our interactions with them.”

Tony Clendon Senior Sales Manager

Feature-rich and intuitive

Stoanz Ltd does more than just supply building materials. For most jobs, the company stays actively engaged throughout the entire lifecycle of the project. “After gaining a specifi

Insightly is the best and easiest to use CRM system that’s on the market.

cation from an architect, we manage applicators and see the project through to completion,” Clendon said. “As we began to evaluate CRMs, we recognized that the ideal software should align with our entire process – not just pre-sale activity.”

After evaluating several CRM providers, Clendon narrowed the search to two finalists. “It came down to Insightly and Microsoft Dynamics 365,” Clendon said. “In the end, Insightly provided all of the sales management features that we needed, plus it was more enjoyable to use.” They quickly learned that Insightly is an ideal CRM for manufacturing firms.

Pain-free onboarding

With the help of Insightly’s customer success team, Stoanz Ltd implemented Insightly in no time. “Although most of our users had no CRM experience, onboarding was seamless,” Clendon said. “Insightly’s customer success team did a great job training our staff and continues to be very responsive whenever we have questions.”

Better data, better relationships

Linking all of the company’s project and relationship data in Insightly has accelerated collaboration and transparency at Stoanz Ltd. “We often have several people working on the same project,” Clendon said. “Insightly has become the internal source of truth for our sales, operations, and technical teams.”

Insightly’s mobile app makes it easier to collect, share, and view relationship data while on the go. “We meet many architects, interior designers, consultants, and representatives from building companies at industry events,” Clendon said. “Insightly’s mobile app is great, especially for capturing new relationship data.”

Monitoring and alerting

Insightly has also proven useful from a risk management standpoint. “Monitoring our day-to-day sales processes is much simpler with Insightly,” Clendon said. “Insightly’s alerting and reporting features help us effectively manage business risks and ensure compliance.”

Interdepartmental communication has also improved thanks to Insightly. “Everything is right at your fingertips, which has reduced internal phone calls by 90 percent,” Clendon said. “For example, our Operations Manager is now able to flag large projects in the pipeline without talking to sales.”

Maximizing CRM value

Looking ahead, Stoanz Ltd plans to squeeze even more value out of Insightly. “Insightly has already made us more efficient and attentive to our clients’ needs,” Clendon said. “Leveraging tasks and document management integrations will take productivity to a new level.”

Choosing a CRM for manufacturing and a creating a CRM strategy for manufacturing has had a big impact.

The customer success team at Insightly will continue to play an important role moving forward. “Insightly’s success team understands our business, which is key for helping us extract the maximum value from our CRM,” Clendon said.