Sales Development

Argent International, located in Plymouth, Michigan, was founded in 1977 by businessman and entrepreneur Fred Perenic to supply the auto industry with a new concept—self-adhesive nameplate tapes.

The timing was right and since then, Argent has expanded its product line to become an important solution provider to OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers for solving exterior NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) problems and interior BSR (buzz, squeak and rattle) problems, often replacing traditional fasteners and assembly techniques with their adhesive-based solutions.

When the auto business suffered in 2008–09, Argent’s sales dropped almost 60% in two years. The timing was right for the company to join the TAAF program.

AMS wanted to grow the value of their firm within 10 years by expanding product offerings and acquiring new customers in both current and adjacent markets. However, their marketing plan lacked focus and effectiveness in achieving these goals because of the bandwidth of their team.

AMS got off to a quick start in TAAF by using its matching funds for three projects designed to address their marketing needs: refining and implementing their marketing/sales strategy; updating their website; and generating leads. AMS selected outside expertise to help them tackle each project.

With one of the consultants coordinating all 3 projects, AMS placed primary focus on the website update as the centerpiece of their efforts. They knew that an improved website could work to generate more traffic and leads. A digital marketing firm in Cincinnati that provides inbound marketing services, including top-notch websites, was called in to help AMS better communicate the value they bring to clients.

To help the company recover from the worst economic conditions it had ever experienced, GLTAAC’s assessment identified key areas for use of TAAF funds. The first area was to help implement a new cloud-based ERP solution, which drove efficiencies throughout the organization, and also helped the sales team by lowering costs.

The next step in Argent’s plan was to maximize the effectiveness of its 6-person sales team. That team was composed of accomplished industry sales veterans (15-20 years each), but they never had the opportunity to get formalized sales training—this was the ideal time to help them take their game to the next level.

Argent and GLTAAC shared the cost of a six-month, $30K sales training program that has paid big dividends.

The company has exceeded its sales goals for every quarter since the training ended in the summer of 2104 and the firm’s recovery has exceeded that of the auto industry itself.

“We were seasoned sales veterans who were successful, so we were doing something right, but this training gave us a formula that we could use from the initial call to the close of the sale—as opposed to just following our instincts”, says Joe DelBrocco, Sales Manager for Argent.

“After the training, we had more focus in our sales activity and a better return on our time investment. And our sales numbers speak for themselves.”