Until recently, HCA Securities, Harbor Capital’s broker dealer, had limited marketing activities, primarily with institutions. That changed last year with the creation of an expanded sales and marketing group to build new relationships with broker/dealer channels, 401k and registered investment advisor markets.
Deb Well, newly hired as HCA Securities’ Director of E-Business, took one look at the existing database and knew it needed to be replaced. Well did a comparative analysis and decided on Sage SalesLogix because it could be easily customized for the unique needs of Harbor Capital and HCA Securities.
Smooth Sailing with Sage SalesLogix
“Given our multi-channel environment, I couldn’t see going with anything but Sage SalesLogix,” she says. “Our industry is changing at the speed of light — and only Sage SalesLogix gives us the flexibility we need to compete.”
Harbor Capital and HCA Securities now use Sage SalesLogix to manage every aspect of their customer relations with potential mutual fund investors. Sage SalesLogix stores information on every sales meeting, phone call and e-mail, and tracks where a prospect is in the sales cycle. Sage SalesLogix has also automated fulfillment, helping to send quarterly fund information to those who have opted in to its “blast e-mail” programs.
“E-mail is one of the cornerstones of our business, and Sage SalesLogix allows us to capture all electronic communications in one place,” Well explains. “Whether a message was sent via Outlook or from Sage SalesLogix, anyone can access it, even from the field. For tracking interactions via e-mail, Sage SalesLogix is about as close to perfect as you can get.”
Harbor Capital and HCA Securities sales people go to Sage SalesLogix for cross-channel information before setting up meetings. If traveling to Denver, for instance, a rep can see which advisors, banks or consultants are due for a visit, obtain contact information and coordinate appointments to maximize their time.
Enhanced E-mails and Reporting
Well has designed numerous parameter-based reports. “We no longer have to create ad hoc reports for sales people because they can do everything themselves in Sage SalesLogix,” she says. “We’ve also written both snapshot and in-depth reports for management, so they can see what’s going on in the field. They love having access to critical business data with the simple click of a button.”
"We just had the best sales year in our history, increasing net cash inflows by more than 50 percent over last year. I doubt that this would have been possible without our outbound marketing and sales strategy in place, supported by Sage SalesLogix."
- Deb Well, Director of E-Business
Harbor Capital Advisors, Inc.
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Harbor Capital and HCA Securities have implemented other special features such as a customized import methodology script for data from the major clearing platforms used by the Registered Investment Advisor channel. A custom view was created to give the sales representatives a view of the competitor funds a potential mutual fund investor is using or that are vying with Harbor for an existing opportunity. Additional custom views provide detailed information on registered investment advisors and the Harbor funds recommended at various broker/dealers.
“One of my favorite features in Sage SalesLogix is the ability to send attachments with e-mails to large groups of contacts, and to answer e-mails for other people,” says Well. “Sales reps out in the field can forward requests or questions and we can reply transparently on their behalf, as if reps were replying themselves. This represents an enormous time-savings for everyone. Both e-mails and attachments can be archived in our Sage SalesLogix records, which gives us an all-encompassing storehouse of information.”
Well credits her Sage SalesLogix business partner for smooth implementation. “We couldn’t have done it without them,” she says. The reseller had worked with Well at her previous company, and worked hand in hand in every aspect of designing and implementing Sage SalesLogix at Harbor Capital. They are currently reviewing ways to continue to enhance the system.
Can Well quantify the benefits of choosing Sage SalesLogix? “We just had the best sales year in our history, increasing net cash inflows by more than 50 percent over last year. I doubt that this would have been possible without our outbound marketing and sales strategy in place, supported by Sage SalesLogix.”
