Customer Benefits
Often in the trade show business, one sale lead can generate others — and at Eaton Hall Exhibitions, FileMaker Pro keeps them organized. "When a new exhibitor comes on in a certain category, FileMaker Pro lets us retrieve other prospects in that space, so we can talk to them about why they too should be exhibiting," observes Scott. "It's much more effective sales tracking for our sales reps. We also have the ability to review and isolate data in ways which no other application can duplicate, such as defining and identifying prospects within a combination of business area and geography. This lets us direct the sales efforts of a small number of sales reps to the prospects whom we believe would be the most likely to be a good match for us."
With all the development of the application done internally, it's a real savings of money as well as time. "I'm sure we could have spent as much as $50,000 on the time developing our internal databases," declares Scott," but we've been able to get these databases up and running much, much more quickly doing it ourselves. Minor changes to layout appearances are even done by our administrative staff or sales people now. I've been impressed with what non–technical people on my staff have accomplished in FileMaker Pro."
Using FileMaker Pro's built-in remote sharing capability, we share our files live, in real time, using a third–party hosting service that costs us just $10 a month…We can deliver better customer service with rapid access to information — by sharing on the web we can all serve any customer at any time!
— Scott Goldman, President, Eaton Hall Exhibitions
After years of experience with multiple versions of FileMaker Pro, one might think Eaton Hall Exhibitions had figured out everything they could do with the application — but earlier this year, they discovered a benefit they'd never explored before: FileMaker Pro's ability to share databases through remote hosting. "Our firm is based in New Jersey, but we have contractors in Massachusetts and Colorado who are experts in our field, and who do work for us and other clients in our industry," Scott explains. "They run their own businesses but need access to our data on customers and speakers to do the work they do for us. Now, using FileMaker Pro's built–in remote sharing capability, we share our files live, in real time, using a third–party hosting service that costs us just $10 a month."
This discovery brought a dramatic change in the way Eaton Hall Exhibitions does business on a daily basis. "Previously, we had to divide up accounts based on a strict alphabetical list to avoid conflicts between staff and contract sales people, and we had to update files by shipping CDs back and forth so we could have some idea of what's happening in the field," continues Scott. "But now, because the file is accessible to everyone, we can assign any individual account to any sales rep — and our data is much more timely, because we see it as it happens! We can deliver better customer service with rapid access to information — by sharing on the web we can all serve any customer at any time!"
