Sales integration requires careful planningSales integration requires careful planning

Merging two large organizations into a united, smoothly operating entity that retains the strengths of each while promoting a new identity is tricky. Integration takes time and typically requires some reorganization.

When J-M Manufacturing Company Inc. merged with PW Eagle Inc. this past summer, the new combined company, called JM Eagle, became the world’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer. In September, JM Eagle announced a new regional sales strategy that it said would serve customers more efficiently.

Dennis Campbell, newly named COO for JM Eagle, sees the merger as “an opportunity” to take the best of two industry leaders and optimize their sales strategies into a single, efficient sales group. “Each company went about their business in different ways,” explains Campbell. “JMM had a very efficient call-center approach from a central office location. PW Eagle has always focused on regional direct selling, with sales people in the field in the West and Central regions where its business was concentrated. Both companies have used independent sales reps as well. In putting the strategies of these two companies together, we are taking the best attributes of each, and make the combined company better than [each was] alone.”

The result has been what Campbell calls a “hybrid model” of both the centralized approach and the direct sales approach. “We’re approaching the markets on a team basis, with the efficiencies of a central call center and a high level of support using direct selling,” Campbell points out.

JM Eagle manufactures a wide array of PVC and HDPE pipe for a wide variety of markets. Major end-use markets include water works and sewer systems; the electrical markets that include telecommunications and fiber optics; and plumbing and irrigation markets.

In many mergers, a certain amount of rationalization takes place, but that wasn’t the case when it came to JM Eagle’s sales force. “We didn’t reduce our head count and, in fact, we’re strengthening the sales force,” says Campbell. “We’re redistricting in some cases, as there were duplicate independent reps, so we’ve consolidated. But we’re actually looking to add sales people.”

Campbell says the company understands that it is people who make the difference in a business relationship, and therefore it’s important that JM Eagle maintain those people who’ve built the relationships over the years. “Our customers are doing business with the people, not the company,” he says. “In our opinion, the centralized sales model works, and for some it’s the best way. Other customers require more attention and more face time. We have to offer both to our customers.”

The strategy depends on the customer and on the products, Campbell notes. For a customer who has been purchasing the company’s products for many years, or for established commodity products, the centralized model works well and allows them to place phone orders or use the company’s advanced Internet system for order placement. However, adds Campbell, high-touch, face-to-face selling is important for new products. “As we introduce new products it’s more important to reach specifiers in order to persuade them to buy a new product,” he says. “On new products, like our C909 (molecularly oriented PVC pipe) product, we have to spend time educating customers face to face.”

JM Eagle’s strategy isn’t a “sell ’em and leave ’em” tactic. Sales people track their customers’ jobs to ensure successful installation. On big jobs, for example, JM Eagle sends someone to the job site to ensure installation is going well and the customer is having success with JM Eagle’s products. When it comes to the importance of its sales force, Campbell says the company understands how vital to the company’s success a good sales strategy—and a good sales force to implement that strategy—really is.

“Nothing happens until you sell something,” says Campbell. “You can have a great factory, and great processes focused on being a low-cost producer, and all the other things. But if you don’t sell anything it’s all a waste. You have to have an effective, high-powered sales team in place. It’s the backbone of a successful company.”