LMC: How BizMachine Helped Increase Average Orders by 9%

Read our interview with Petr Procházka and discover how BizMachine helped LMC find new business opportunities in a saturated market using data.

Petr, how would you describe your company DNA?

What characterizes us is the drive to constantly innovate. LMC was founded in 1996, and something has been continuously improving ever since. Every success motivates us to take the next step, not to stagnate and rest.

Do your innovations impact revenue?

In this regard, LMC is one of the strongest links in our group. We currently have revenue exceeding one billion CZK, which is 50% more than five years ago. Of course, the economic situation and companies' need to invest in finding people had a big impact. But we know this won't work forever, and we're trying to prepare for the future and work smart. For that, we need systems capable of providing and evaluating important data.

Thanks to BizMachine, we increased the average order from new SME clients by 9%, removed over 20,000 companies without potential from our portfolio, and have accurate, up-to-date data in our CRM without any worries.

When exactly did you realize you needed to take your data work to the next level?

In our fairly advanced Microsoft CRM system, we had tens of thousands of companies that all looked the same to us. We needed to precisely segment them into groups and assign appropriate types of packages and services. The biggest stumbling block was small and medium enterprises. We knew at most the number of employees, the field of business, and whether they advertised with us or not. Then we'd call them and work with them completely blind. We added data to the system purely based on gut feeling. At that time, our biggest CRM breakthrough was implementing Street View. Thanks to that, we could also assess a company based on whether it was located in an interesting space or was a garage operation. But many things couldn't be read from it. Paradoxically, when I presented our solution at a conference, I received recognition that we were far ahead on the local market.

That's when we approached you, saying we help companies with data and can find new business opportunities.

Yes, when we installed your extension in our CRM system, a significant change occurred for us.

What did that change involve?

We needed to integrate data from many sources, perform analysis, and determine the sales potential of each company in the database. Based on that, we wanted to assign appropriate products and possibly a sales rep. We didn't want to send our salespeople on business trips to some workshop in the middle of nowhere unnecessarily. And we actually achieved that thanks to you. Some salespeople saw a significant decrease in the number of companies in their portfolio, but their efficiency increased.

By connecting the data, we discovered you had great potential with companies that had previously bought very little from you.

Yes. It was a large group that we had mostly overlooked. Originally, we tried to offer more products to companies we already knew, but we'd reached our maximum there. When someone gives you money, you tend to keep going back. On the other hand, you leave companies that could grow beautifully lying fallow. You just need to call them and start working with them.

How?

Some customers only need phone communication or a virtual meeting. A salesperson should only travel where it makes economic sense. When we at LMC focused on small companies, the numbers suddenly skyrocketed — even twice the average. Recently, revenue from some large companies declined, and the profit flowing from small companies beautifully compensated for the loss.

Are you sure that thanks to your advanced CRM system, you're a step ahead of any company that doesn't work with data?

Absolutely. I have measured that the changes we made have a positive impact on revenue. For new SME clients, we managed to increase the average order year-over-year by 9 percent. It's because we know exactly where we're calling and what product to offer. Additionally, we removed more than 20,000 companies without potential from the system, saving resources for hundreds of hours that our call center would have wasted. Most other companies segment their customers by revenue history, but I don't believe that's the right approach.

How would you evaluate our collaboration in hindsight?

It wasn't demanding at all. I think it was our easiest and most useful project. We provided data and insights. You did most of the heavy lifting on your end (laughs). You looked for key factors and connections so we could properly classify our customers and rate them as interesting. We just attended a few workshops and approved incremental progress.

Did the implementation seem time-consuming?

Not at all. The whole thing took about six months. Within a month, you had the regression analysis done and brought us results. We then tested for about three months whether the results held up. And everything really worked. Then you tracked down additional factors that could influence the rating of companies in our database. Now the CRM system is updated every month and I don't have to worry about data becoming outdated.

Companies are often afraid to share their data because they think they're giving away their know-how. Was that an obstacle for you?

We weren't afraid. I think the success lay in maximum openness and trust. I can only recommend working with you. As one of the few companies, you truly know what you're talking about, and your team really understands business. I liked that you're proactive and come up with additional ideas yourselves. What you promised, you actually delivered. That's also why I recommended you for other projects within our group in Poland.

In your opinion, should all large companies — and even some smaller ones outside HR — consider working with an analytics company like BizMachine?

I think in the future, absolutely everyone will be forced to think about data in a sophisticated way. Even a farmer can work more efficiently if they know the probability of rainfall and can calculate where different crops will thrive. I compare companies that work without data to going into battle with slingshots while fighter jets are flying against them.

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LMC works with 18,000 companies, helping them find candidates or manage recruitment. It operates portals like práce.cz and jobs.cz, through which 5 million people have already found employment.

More information can be found on their website.