Company Background & Mission
Rooted in all things outdoors, Mountain Source is the leading mountaineering, running, rafting, biking and snowsports sales agency based in the Rocky Mountains – serving retailers in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico. They pride themselves on being the source and essential link between major brands and retailers, building relationships through their unparalleled experience, knowledge and first-rate customer service.
Mountain Source services over 450 active retailers, supporting brands including Chaco, Smartwool, Merrell, Fjallraven, Dovetail Workwear, Hanwag, Medterra, Swany and Gu.
Mountain Source is fully committed to the brands they support, keeping them in front of retailers with the information and intelligence they need to positively affect the sale of more products.
Commercial Objectives
Mountain Source is committed to being the best sales agency in the country and the most trusted partner to the brands they serve.
Operating in an industry that is in need of sales engagement, they uniquely blend the authenticity and love for the outdoors with the professionalism that is needed to succeed in business today. Whilst every employee can speak enthusiastically about the brands they serve, they are also laser focused on the commercial objectives of the business including revenue growth, increased market share and customer lifetime value.
“This is not just a job for us, it’s a passion. We love the sports and the brands we serve. But we add value by blending the authenticity of the sports and the passion, with the experience, expertise and tools that are needed to succeed.” said Zach Branson, Partner at Mountain Source.
Challenges Faced by Mountain Source
Like many businesses, Mountain Source experienced major challenges with the global pandemic. It created a blocker to the retail store which is a primary channel for the brands they serve. Whilst purchases do take place online, their customers often care as much about the knowledge and experience gained during the buying experience as the cost of the product.
Times were tough and Mountain Source knew they needed to pivot the business and address these issues head-on to survive. They worked hard to establish a community, both online and offline, that kept their trusted engagement strong throughout the pandemic. As restrictions eased and retail stores started to open up, Mountain Source were best positioned to continue business and drive growth.
Growth presented its own challenges, with the straight up cost of doing business continuing to rise. Whilst Mountain Source is very specific about the brands it partners with, there is always a continued pressure to perform at a higher level with each brand. This demands more tasks, more time and more experienced resources.
Ensuring that the Sales team is efficient and effective is a key challenge for Mountain Source. The team needs to optimise their time for the most high-value activities and have the required knowledge and expertise to authentically represent the brands they serve.
With such a dynamic and fast changing environment, Mountain Source was also up against a lack of insight and visibility into their sales performance. When questions were asked by management, the answers were often retrospective rather than real-time, and often required lots of manual intervention. This needed to change.
Aforza Solution
Going live in under 2 weeks, the Aforza solution has been game-changing for the Mountain Source sales team, providing both a powerful platform to manage the business and state-of-the-art apps to make the individual sales members more effective.
Powerful account segmentation and route planning capabilities allow Mountain Source to narrow down the focus to the accounts that really matter.
This allows them to make a bigger impact with the growing team they have and the visits they make.
They can also drive specific tasks off of these segments, so they are confident that their team is taking the right actions, in the right stores, at the right time.
From a sales visit perspective, the Aforza offline on-device application supports the sales team with seamless pre-call enablement to drive a consistent message from sell-in to sell-through.
This allows the sales team to get access to the pre-call knowledge they need before going into a store and educating themselves on new products coming out in real-time. This stops any disconnects between training and what happens in store.
From an overall management perspective, the Aforza platform is already changing the way Mountain Source does business.
The rich reports and dashboards give them the ability to get a complete 360 degree view of their business, reporting back and communicating with the brands they support in real-time.
This has been a step change to the way they operate, proactively sharing insight and information with management before they ask for it.
What’s Next for Mountain Source
Mountain Source will continue its drive to be a first-choice agency and partner with brands that align with their values and authenticity. As they work with brands, sell into retailers and onboard new team members and retail staff, they are confident in their ability to maximize the sell-in and sell-through process with the Aforza Industry Cloud and Mobile solution.
“We’re going into the fall season with our strongest team, new showroom, and such a powerful platform with Aforza. We are set up for success, driving consistent growth and education while being a first-in-class agency for the brands & retailers we serve.” said Bruce Gorden, Partner, Mountain Source.
If the business challenges and outcomes in this customer success story resonate with you, why not get going with a 30-day free trial and see first hand how Aforza can drive success for your business. Simply sign up using the link below.