A Case Study on Optimizing Services in the Art Sales Sector

At a leading art sales provider, delivering top-tier services and managing extensive inventories is just the beginning. As they expanded their operations, they encountered several challenges that hindered their efficiency and growth. Here’s how we helped them overcome these hurdles with a tailored CRM solution.

The Challenges

Before our intervention, the art sales provider was grappling with several major issues:

• System Disorganization: Following the migration from Microsoft Dynamics and various individual spreadsheets to a new CRM system, the data was poorly aligned. This disorganization affected the management of their extensive art inventory and dealer operations.
• Integration Complications: The new CRM system was not effectively integrated with the art sales provider’s proprietary inventory system, leading to disruptions in day-to-day operations.
• Inadequate Change Management: The transition to the new system was hampered by inadequate change management practices, resulting in resistance from team members and ineffective use of the CRM system.

What They Wanted to Achieve

The client had two main objectives with our intervention:

Short-term Goals:

• Streamline and Document Processes: Ensure all sales and operational processes were clearly defined and documented to support the integration of new teams and systems.
• Seamless Integration During Expansion: Facilitate the integration of a newly acquired art brokerage network, ensuring that both existing and new team members could adapt without disruption to their day-to-day activities.

Long-term Goals:

• Comprehensive Change Management: Implement effective change management practices to support ongoing technology transitions and ensure continuous alignment with organizational goals.
• Enhanced User Adoption and Efficiency: Foster widespread adoption of the new CRM system across all teams, enhancing overall operational efficiency and collaboration within the expanded entity.

Our Solutions

We kicked things off by establishing a robust sandbox environment in early February 2023, which was crucial for piloting our tailored CRM solutions with a select group of Los Angeles-based dealers. This initial phase allowed us to test and refine the integration of HubSpot with the art sales provider's existing systems, ensuring that everything was aligned with their specific needs and operational workflows before proceeding to a full deployment.

Key Actions Included:

• Migration and Custom Integration: We migrated individual data from Microsoft Dynamics and various spreadsheets into the new HubSpot environment. This migration was essential for managing sales through newly designed pipelines, tailored specifically for the art sales context.
• Pilot Testing and Feedback: Following the sandbox setup, we engaged in a focused pilot testing phase with the select user group. This step was crucial for testing real-world application and gathering initial user feedback to ensure the solution met all operational needs.

Thorough Training and Support: Extensive training and support were provided throughout the pilot phase to ensure all users were comfortable and proficient with the new system. This preparation was key to enabling a smooth transition and full adoption of the CRM.

The rollout began with final user acceptance testing and training sessions, leading up to the full team go-live on June 21, 2023. This careful, phased approach ensured that the art sales provider was fully equipped to leverage their new CRM capabilities.

The Impact 

Immediate Benefits:

• Enhanced Data Management: The new CRM system provided robust data management capabilities, leading to improved accuracy and efficiency in inventory and sales management.
• Increased Deal Volume: A significant increase in the number of deals created, as evidenced by the "deals created" chart in HubSpot, which showed a jump from 10-15 deals between January to March to 500-1000 deals from August to December.

Long-term Benefits:

• Sustainable Growth: The streamlined processes and enhanced CRM capabilities have positioned the art sales provider for sustainable long-term growth, enabling them to manage a larger volume of transactions and client interactions more effectively.
• Enhanced User Adoption and Operational Efficiency: The thorough training and pilot testing phases facilitated high levels of user adoption, which translated into ongoing improvements in operational efficiency and sales performance.
• 
  (You can see this solution reflected in their reporting.)

What’s Next?

Our commitment to advancing our client’s business continues as we focus on further optimizing their existing HubSpot setup to incorporate additional teams within their organization. By refining current processes and implementing new workflows, we aim to boost efficiency and empower team members. This ongoing dedication to enhancement ensures that their HubSpot instance will keep evolving, aligning with their business growth and facilitating improved collaboration and productivity across various departments.

Final Thoughts

This art sales provider is now setting new standards in the industry, with CRM processes as robust as their gallery services. By tackling their CRM challenges head-on, we've helped them forge a more efficient, transparent, and reliable system—transforming their operations and reinforcing their market leadership.

Read our customer review page!