1. The Challenge
A leading wholesaler in the gift and homeware industry, with over $6M in revenue, faced mounting operational challenges that were beginning to impact their cash flow. A significant portion of their revenue remained outstanding for extended periods due to late customer payments. In addition to the payment issues, there were inefficiencies across systems, CRM processes, and activity tracking, leading to missed upsell opportunities and lower customer satisfaction. The client needed an embedded, proactive team to help overhaul their operations and drive measurable improvements without overburdening their internal resources.
2. Our Approach
We embedded ourselves within the client’s daily operations, acting as a hands-on execution team focused on driving fast, meaningful change.
Our approach centered around optimizing systems, streamlining processes, and ensuring that all enhancements would be sustainable without heavy reliance on manual work. We prioritized initiatives that would have immediate financial impact, while simultaneously laying a foundation for long-term operational health.
Key focus areas included:
- Improving database health and CRM setup.
- Automating payment chasing activities to improve cash flow.
- Integrating new workflows directly with their existing accounting systems.
- Developing KPIs, incentive structures, and dashboards to monitor and drive performance.
- Training and supporting the internal team to sustain these improvements.
3. Execution Highlights
Throughout the project, we focused on delivering high-impact work while minimizing disruption to ongoing business activities:
- Integrated the CRM with the accounting system for real-time financial visibility.
- Built and automated a full payment chasing funnel, including tailored email and SMS sequences.
- Set up dashboards and reports to provide transparency across debt collection, customer engagement, and upsell activities.
- Designed a KPI and incentive scheme to drive staff accountability and motivation.
- Recruited and trained team members specifically for late payment collections.
- Implemented direct calling strategies to supplement automated payment reminders.
4. Outcome and Impact
Our operational enhancements delivered strong results across the board:
- $200K+ in overdue debt successfully cleared.
- 80% of payments now made on time, dramatically improving cash flow.
- +12% year-over-year return on investment (ROI).
- +12% increase in overall customer engagement.
- +12% improvement in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.
- 40% upsell success rate through better database targeting and outreach activities.
By acting as an embedded team, we were able to validate key operational improvements in a lean and efficient way, saving the client time, reducing risk, and laying a scalable foundation for future growth.
