Backcountry is the parent company of four business units that specialize in gear for wilderness adventures and outdoor sports, including biking, skiing, snowboarding, climbing, fly-fishing, hiking and camping. It operates: Backcountry, MotoSport, Competitive Cyclist and the Germany-based Bergfreunde. Backcountry and MotoSport use Sugar for sales, mostly B2C.
Finding the Right CRM Partner
Choosing a CRM – whether you are moving from an old one or implementing one for the first time – is a challenging task that must leverage C-level support.
Peter says Backcountry started with a field of about 20 candidates, then short-listed Sugar, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
Cost-efficiency and scalability were keys, as usual.
But Sugar’s personalized sales approach won the deal.
“I really liked that the Sugar rep listened and proposed a solution without trying to do a lot of upsells; it was a natural process. It took two weeks to get all the stuff signed and purchased and developing,” says Peter.
“Of all the third parties of Sugar’s size or bigger that I’ve worked with, this was the smoothest experience I have ever had, and the relationship and gotten better and better,” he adds.
Backcountry and MotoSport went live with Sugar within two months.
Peter used in-house developers. They had no prior experience with CRM but found Sugar’s documentation clear and easy to follow, Peter says.
It led to that dramatic moment of proof.
“The business processing was the big thing. I knew Sugar could do it, but when I saw it happen for the first time I was like, ‘Oh, man, this could be huge for us,’ ” Peter says.
With millions of data points, being able to identify a customer by phone number or by searching the email topic filed is huge for his sales staff.
Planning the Long Journey
Already, the Backcountry business units are identifying unique ways to expand Sugar’s capabilities.
MotoSport, which sells dirt bikes and gear, is working on customizing some of the Sugar fields to accommodate more specifics about its catalog. Information such as manufacturer, make and model of its bikes.
“I know we will be finding more uses for Sugar as we grow into it,” Peter says.
