Cross-Reference & Equivalency Intelligence
CHALLENGE: The VP of Inside Sales had tried to solve this with training. Twice a year, manufacturer reps came in and presented their product lines — Siemens on Monday, Eaton on Tuesday, ABB on Wednesday. The reps took notes. Within a month, most of the detail was forgotten. The knowledge that stuck was experiential — learned from handling hundreds of customer calls over years, not from a 90-minute training session.
SOLUTION: We spent four weeks in discovery, including three days monitoring the inside sales floor — logging every substitution request, how it was handled, how long it took, and whether it resulted in a sale or a lost order. The team also spent two full days with the senior product specialist, documenting her cross-reference process step by step.
