Vacu-Lug Tyres is Europe's largest independent re-treader of commercial and industrial vehicle tyres and has been in the business for over fifty years. Increasingly, Vacu-Lug has found itself operating in a consolidated market. There are fewer re-treading companies than there were 15 years ago but demand is at the same level or increasing. Due to the rising cost of raw materials the price differential between a new tyre and a re-tread has increased by as much as 30% - and fleet operators have taken notice.

Vacu-Lug has nine sales people who are responsible for 800 accounts in total. "Our customers run large fleets of commercial vehicles. We have, for example, just won the contract to supply Biffa, the waste treatment company," says Vacu-Lug Commercial Manager, Ashley Tasker. "Biffa and companies like them pay a fixed cost each month for Vacu-Lug to manage everything to do with their vehicles' tyres. They have complete peace of mind."

To increase its competitive edge, Vacu-Lug invested in VECTA, a fully integrated set of 'best-in-class' Sales Intelligence tools. VECTA software makes sales professionals more successful by giving them instant access to vital information about customer buying patterns and account status helping them sell more effectively.

"Before VECTA, our sales culture was too reactive. We were reacting to business conditions and circumstances like accounts being lost but we were finding out too late," says Tasker. "One of the major reasons for investing in VECTA was to help us get over this reactive culture and this has been a major success for us."

Vacu-Lug's business is a two-way street and the sales force needs to know more than just what and how many tyres they are selling, as Tasker explains: "Before VECTA, of course we knew we were selling tyres but precisely to whom and in what mix was difficult to assess. Also, we needed to know a lot more about where our tyre casings were coming from."

Today, it is difficult or impossible for distributors to dispose of tyres at landfill sites and before Vacu-Lug deployed VECTA, it was too easy for some tyre distributors to send back considerably more casings than they were buying. "We could be selling a customer ten tyres and they could be sending us 300 worn-out casings back, leaving us with the problem of expensive disposal," says Tasker. "Using VECTA we've been able to set up KPIs so we know how many casings are coming back to our plant against how many re-treaded or new tyres we are supplying to the same customer. By being able to set these KPIs using activity reports which give us figures relating to sales to a particular customer versus casings received, we are able to manage all of our accounts much better and much more profitably."

Some members of the sales team at Vacu-Lug have only ever used traditional methods to service their accounts but VECTA has been met with all-round approval because of its ease-of-use and functionality.

"One salesman increased his personal turnover by 30% in just one week simply by using the Sales Intelligence the software provides," says Tasker. "Quite often our sales executives know more about the customer's stock profile than the customer which is a very real advantage."

Within VECTA, each salesperson has his own portfolio of customers set up and the resulting intelligence tells them exactly what activity has happened in each area. Vacu-Lug is now actually selling fewer tyres at more profit. "Part of that is down to VECTA. We are now able to identify what we are selling and to whom," explains Tasker.

Vacu-Lug has been using VECTA software for about 18 months and the company has seen such successes that it will be expanding the system and integrating it with its bespoke financial software for even more business intelligence. "We are delighted with the software. Our sales people now have a valid reason behind every sales call made. VECTA has given us a management information system that turns sales data and customer histories into useable Sales Intelligence," concludes Tasker. "The sales team is now acting on factual information rather than simply reacting to problems and as a result our sales culture has become more proactive and our business more profitable."

"One salesman has increased his personal turnover by 30% in just one week simply by using the Sales Intelligence the software provides. Our sales executives often know more about the customer's stock profile than the customer which is a very real advantage."

Ashley Tasker
Commercial Manager
Vacu-Lug Tyres