In a world full of 'screaming competition', Sepa Green Energy stands out with a down-to-earth approach in the energy market. And that is appreciated; SEPA Green has been showing stable growth for years. But letting that going to their heads is not an option, the customer approach remains personal and 'no-frills' no matter what. To keep growing healthily, the sales processes had to be digitised, without compromising the current way of working. And that's where Salesdock came in.

SEPA Green was founded in 2012. Since then, more than 15,000 (mostly business) customers have been using the Enschede-based supplier's green energy. We spoke to two of the three board members: Theo Berntzen (commercial director) and Marco Vink (operations director). Indispensable back office employee Bryan ter Braack also chimed in. We talked about SEPA Green itself and the drive to digitise in which Salesdock plays a central role.

Challenge

Growing while remaining authentic

Anyone entering SEPA Green breathes in the good atmosphere of this convivial energy supplier. In the Enschede office, you see how 'the farmers feeling' with cows has been incorporated into the corporate branding. You feel it immediately: these are people you like doing business with. You can trust them. And that is exactly the way they do business. Theo Berntzen: "We like honesty. Of course we are a commercial company and we make a healthy profit. But we don't want to sell with our foot in the door. We work on the basis of trust. And that has brought us where we are today."

SEPA Green works with agencies that close contracts with customers. A working method that Berntzen says is in line with the personal approach they pursue. "Our customers conclude the contract with the agent. And that is someone they trust. Someone they can turn to if there should be any problems". Over the years, the sales network got bigger and bigger. Marco Vink: "At the beginning, we were happy with every contract that came in. Customisation? No problem! Actually, we kept working like that, but in time we ran into ourselves. Customisation for 30 customers is very different from customisation for 1,000 customers."

Independent agents delivered contracts with a 'wet signature',which were then typed over to be processed in the system. "Quite analogue and out of date," laughs Berntzen. Back office employee Bryan ter Braack worked his ass off to manually process all the individual agreements. Vink: "The number of clients increased and sales continued to rise with contracts with positive margins. No contracts cast in concrete, no tacit renewals or other purple crocodiles. We noticed that it was appreciated by our customers". Yet the realisation dawned that things needed to start standardising and digitising to continue growing healthily. Success could become a pitfall and, sober as they are, they fortunately recognised this in time.

The green energy supplier went in search of a suitable solution that made processes more efficient. "For us, it was crucial that with a new system we did not have to make any concessions to our flexibility and personal approach," Berntzen explains the challenge. Ter Braack: "With most systems we looked at, we had to make too many concessions to our working method. A devil's dilemma, since on the other hand it was simply no longer manageable to keep doing everything the way we did."

Solution

Efficient customisation

During the search for a suitable platform, Theo Berntzen's paths crossed with Mark Hekkelman, one of the founders of Salesdock. "At that time, Salesdock was really still in its infancy phase," explains Theo, "but when we spoke, my interest was immediately piqued. He seemed to understand exactly what we were looking for." Although Salesdock's existence was still early, SEPA Green had the confidence to partner with this software provider from the same region. "There was an immediate click with Salesdock: doing business based on mutual trust. Honest and committed".

The two parties worked intensively to achieve the desired digitisation and professionalisation within SEPA Green's unique and personal working method. In small steps, the processes were digitised and the salespeople switched to the system. "The agencies now easily create beautiful proposals from Salesdock, which the customer can digitally sign," Berntzen says of the solution. Vink adds: "If the customer agrees then everything is automatically processed via Salesdock in our energy system KAS from EABO". Agents are free to modify the quotation themselves within agreed frameworks. "This way we continue to offer customisation without having to check and enter everything manually," adds Vink.

Results

Growing together

Berntzen does find that he has to "educate" agents to make full use of Salesdock. "Because we work with external sales people, it is not easy to get everyone on board with the new way of working all at once. They are generally top performers, but some are still of the old school. We don't want to force anything on them, of course." Fortunately, he gets mostly positive reactions to the new platform. "Most agents are very happy with the new system. We have made it even easier for them to sell our contracts." "And we have made it easier for ourselves to process everything," ter Braack adds. At the time when SEPA Green stepped in, Salesdock was still in development. Vink says that SEPA's needs were being listened to carefully. "I really feel that we have grown together. Salesdock is getting better and more advanced, such as the Energy Flex Flow with which many parties now work together efficiently. We can continue to grow partly thanks to Salesdock".