Interview from Marketing Tribune, number 17
Author: Guido Schreudering

**The energy market is a complex world in which suppliers, distributors, sales organizations and all sorts of intermediaries are fighting cutthroat competition. And with success, because in 2019 as many as 1.7 million consumers switched energy suppliers. Korina Baar (Total Gas & Power Netherlands) and Aylar Sheidaei (Arcum Marketing), as "business partners," question the success. Together they are working on a sustainable energy market. And they are not just talking about green energy, but especially about a sustainable relationship between 'switching' and 'customer retention'. Software plays an important role in this. **

Most people know Total Gas & Power Nederland (hereafter Total G&P) from its more than 400 gas stations in the Netherlands. Since 2013, the company has also been active as an energy supplier in the Netherlands. As Manager Indirect Sales, Korina Baar is responsible for the business partners channel. One of those partners is Aylar Sheidaei, owner of Arcum Marketing. Her organization works as an external sales organization for several suppliers. She talks about her remarkable role in choosing the CRM and sales software that Total G&P deploys to market. Sheidaei has long used Salesdock as its CRM and ordering platform. "This allows us to work with our sales partners and suppliers from a single platform. We like that and we see more and more parties in the energy world making the switch to Salesdock. It ensures that we work together efficiently."

Total G&P was not yet using the same software in early 2020. Because this supplier is important to Sheidaei, she decided to pull out all the stops to convince Baar to switch as well.

Baar proved not difficult to convince: "from my telecom background, I am familiar with the added value of portals. I had already heard a lot about Salesdock and am always open to new developments. With Salesdock, I saw opportunities to collaborate even smarter with our business partners (external sales organizations) and improve internal processes." She decided to convince her colleagues of the benefits, but not everyone in the organization was immediately enthusiastic. "The resistance is understandable, many organizations have a preference to develop portals themselves. I was convinced that we would find a good solution with bringing in expertise and combining it with our own CRM system."

Sheidaei was so convinced of the benefits for both organizations that she decided to fund a "Total environment" in Salesdock herself. This created a remarkable situation. The sales partner facilitated the software of one of its own suppliers. "Because, in addition to Arcum Marketing, many of our other sales partners were working with this software, the benefits became more and more apparent," Baar says. When Shaeidei showed her Salesdock environment to Baar and her colleagues, something immediately stood out. Through this software, she was also selling additional services from other vendors, which they also sell themselves. During the pilot, it ultimately took Baar little effort to convince her colleagues to roll out the software more broadly.

"We think it is very important that the customer realizes that he or she is entering into a contract with us and stands behind it. With the new software, this became more transparent. For both the customer and ourselves. After the sales meeting, the customer automatically receives a confirmation that must be signed to confirm the sale." "In addition, this software offers the advantage that we can see which salesperson generates which sales," Korina Baar adds. She also believes it is important to make it as easy as possible for the salespeople. "All processes are automated and linked. This virtually eliminates human error in administration. And you see that convenience pays off." The two parties work together while also pursuing their own course. Sheidaei commented, "For us it is crucial that we have our own software environment. After all, in addition to energy, we are also active in telecom and other markets. In this, Salesdock is not only our sales platform, but also our CRM system." Thanks to an internal link, they work autonomously but have the same real-time information. The use of the new software system also continues for Total G&P. "Selling gas and electricity is of course the main thing right now, but we hope to also sell LED lighting, electric transport, energy scans and solar panels through this software in the near future." Baar and Sheidaei agree that there is a lot of focus in the energy world on attracting new customers. Says Baar, "The current way of compensating business partners makes it attractive to attract new customers rather than retain existing ones. Instead, we would like to focus more on the customer relationship." Sheidaei shares Baar's vision: "Investing in customer relationships adds much more value in the long run. This starts with applying CRM properly." When asked about the secret behind the collaboration, a smile appears on both ladies' faces. "Maybe we as women are just a little more focused on working together. We grant each other success. If no one loses, then two win," Sheiadei says. "The female touch," concludes Baar.