customer story

150 year old British retailer inspires a new generation of musicians

Insightly makes it easier for Millers Music to deliver a best-in-class customer experience.

Millers Music was founded in 1856 and is heralded as Great Britain’s second oldest independent music shop. From its early days as a gramophone merchant through its early-20th Century venture into pipe organ manufacturing, to radio and TV rental, the company’s business model has continuously evolved over its 162-year history. Today, Millers Music exists as a traditional music retail business, offering a full line of pianos, guitars, woodwind, brass, string instruments and related services.

In 2012, Millers Music was sold to a British entrepreneur named Simon Pollard. Shortly after the sale, Mr. Pollard recognized the need for change. “When I took over the business, everything was being tracked with handwritten notes,” said Simon Pollard, Managing Director at Millers Music. “Simply put, we were losing business due to the lack of ownership in our lead management process.”

challenge

The company needed a lead management system that created accountability and set the table for future expansion.

solution

Millers Music uses Insightly to streamline every aspect of the sales funnel, from lead management to opportunity tracking and service delivery.

outcome

With Insightly, the company enjoys a more productive sales team, improved transparency, and fewer missed opportunities.

Simon Pollard Managing Director

Lead management, streamlined

Streamlined lead management was the company’s initial motivation for implementing Insightly. “Insightly serves as a company-wide repository for lead information,” Pollard said. “We

Insightly is a fantastic solution. It basically runs our entire sales process.

bsite inquiry form submissions drop straight into Insightly as leads. Our marketing department uploads lead data from our events, and our sales team uses the Insightly mobile app to add new records from the showroom floor.”

Millers Music utilizes customized lead record fields and forms to ensure a consistent, meaningful data ecosystem. “Our lead capture forms are customized to capture the information we need to properly engage customers,” Pollard said. “By collecting the right data early in the sales cycle, we’re able to better understand our customers, work through more leads, deliver higher levels of service, and be more successful.”

Pipeline visibility

Opportunity pipelines offer additional insights. “Qualified leads are converted into opportunities,” Pollard said. “We have two major pipelines, one for consumers and another for our B2B clients.” During the company’s weekly sales meetings, advanced reports help the team stay on the same page. “Insightly allows staff to quickly monitor their progress against quarterly forecasts,” Pollard said.

Insightly also makes it easier to identify the most viable opportunities. “With a few clicks, we’re able to filter deals based on product interest, preferred financing, and other key factors,” Pollard said. “This empowers us to work smarter, not just harder.”

To provide additional context for each relationship, Millers Music also relies on Insightly’s Gmail integration. “We’re a mobile workforce, so Insightly’s integration to Gmail is important to us.”

Geared for growth

Millers Music has an aggressive plan for expansion throughout Great Britain. “In 2016, we formed The Millers Group and acquired a second store in Norwich,” Pollard said. “The UK music market is ripe for consolidation, and we will be adding additional stores in the near future.”

To accommodate this type of growth, Insightly stands to play an important role. “Insightly is easy to use and evolve,” Pollard said. “It’s supported our growth to date, and we’re confident that it can continue to do so as we expand.”

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