How Order to Cash Software Leads to Stronger Equipment Sales
1/13/2024Formed in 2019 by acquiring several smaller dealerships, the Northeast division of United Ag & Turf needed a business technology solution to bring cohesion to its various locations. After researching the available options, United Ag & Turf’s management team chose Anvil Enterprise – a centralized dealer CRM and equipment inventory management application built on the powerful Salesforce platform.
The new equipment dealership brought together twenty-five turf-based John Deere locations. From a systems standpoint, very few of these dealerships used the available John Deere business resources. And virtually none of them used more sophisticated technology, according to Brian Marshall, United Ag & Turf Corporate Systems Director.
Using order to cash software to address identified needs
Although it was clear to Marshall that a solution was needed to centralize and simplify invoicing and workflows, order to cash (O2C) software wasn’t on his radar as a fix to these issues. After all, why adopt a new system when purchase orders and settlements had always been conducted manually and had worked just fine until this point? Fortunately, as a newly formed dealership, the company did not need to overcome this stubborn mindset.
“We knew out of the gate that we needed something in place to centralize invoicing and settlement processes, and everything that goes along with them,” says Marshall. “From past experience, I knew the value a workflow system brings to the table, but I also knew that I did not want the staff working in multiple software platforms.” In fact, the dealership needed adaptable O2C automation software that could support these established processes.
Marshall also recognized that as a rapidly growing entity, United Ag & Turf would evolve over time. These changes would continually put new demands on the business system. The right O2C solution would have the headroom to evolve with the dealership.
“What we needed at 25 locations is different from what we need now at 50-plus locations,” says Marshall. “It’s ever-changing for us. Add to that the complexity of managing a second division. From a back-end standpoint, these divisions need to be handled as separate entities, but still piggyback onto the same business system.”
When sales process needs take priority, O2C software leads the way
Because the bulk of United Ag & Turf’s business was turf-based sales, only minimal CRM functionality was needed. However, a strong back-end system was needed to accommodate the high volume of sales during peak seasons, ensuring smooth operations throughout the dealership.
“We call our peak season the ’90-day War’,” says Marshall. “It’s three months of unrelenting turf sales, and we can’t afford to have a business system that slows things down.”
In sum, United Ag & Turf needed an order to cash solution that could:
- Centralize and standardize processes across locations
- Unify business systems into one efficient, integrated tool
- Promote faster sales processing
- Offer enough flexibility to adapt to unique processes
- Possess ample capacity for growth and expansion
- Improve efficiency of admin staff to handle growth without requiring extra resources
“Out of all the systems out there, adopting Anvil Pro was the right move for United Ag & Turf,” says Marshall.
Continuously reaping dividends with Anvil Pro’s O2C solution
Anvil Pro promptly addressed United Ag & Turf’s primary concern by providing scalable Order to Cash software that seamlessly united their geographically dispersed operations. Equally significant, this feature allowed both the sales and admin teams to work within the same system, enhancing efficiency and collaboration.
“The time savings for both teams is incredible,” says Marshall. “Instead of having to collect, scan, and email over all the paperwork, once a deal is signed sales reps can simply mark the quote as sold and send it straight to the admin team. Everything is already put together in the system by that point.”
The admin team sees the same boost in efficiency, as they receive the order packet directly.
“Invoicing doesn’t need to print everything out, organize it, and verify that it’s all there. You can see it all readily in Anvil Pro,” he explains. “Making the entire process visible has helped us across the dealership. Sales, invoicing, settlement, and management can all see what is happening through the whole process. If something gets stuck, everyone knows why.”
Marshall also values the flexibility Anvil Pro provides the dealership from a process perspective: “Instead of having to work in a one-size-fits-all box, the Anvil Pro team tailored the O2C software feature to fit the processes we laid out. And it has been flexible enough to keep up as we continually improve our business processes.”
Overall, Anvil Pro’s Order to Cash software has empowered United Ag & Turf’s team members to handle more volume, on both the sales and admin sides of the process. “We’ve found that Anvil Pro gave us the capacity to grow our locations without adding resources,” he says. Consequently, this leads to an overall increase in the dealership’s profitability.
Enhancing ROI via system integration
Beyond O2C solution, Marshall strongly values Anvil Pro’s ability to simplify operations by consolidating as much functionality as possible into a single business system. “Forcing the staff to jump back and forth between two or three software platforms to do their job is counterproductive,” he says. “If you can keep people in one place, the happier everyone is going to be.”
Although Anvil Pro started that process for United by bringing together the CRM, John Deere EQUIP business system, Inventory, and O2C functionality and data, the dealership continues to move operational tasks to their Anvil Pro platform.
“For example, the Tractor Zoom team helped us adapt a feature Deere developed that allows dealers to process an equipment deposit,” says Marshall. “We can now fully process any payment through Anvil. That was the last piece of the puzzle we needed to completely remove our salespeople from outside systems. They now work only in the Anvil Pro platform to complete their daily tasks.”
Additionally, he sees much more potential for further O2C systems unification to bring significant savings to the dealership.
“I have a list of ideas as long as my arm that I’d like to implement,” says Marshall. “We currently pay for three different software services right now that I know Anvil Pro can replace at a cost savings approaching $250,000 a year.”
Go beyond O2C software and enhance sales with Anvil Pro
Bringing systems together can have a powerful impact on your operations and your bottom line. As United Ag & Turf discovered, adopting the right dealership order to cash software to meet your sales needs can mean the difference between stopping at sales workflow hurdles and leaping over them. Find out what Anvil Pro and Tractor Zoom’s suite of dealer solutions can do to increase profitability and efficiency at your equipment dealership.