LIXIL launched a digital sales team in 2023 and increased sales to promising customers approximately sevenfold by using data and collaborating with field teams to overcome the challenge of “I can’t entrust my customers to anyone else.”
LIXIL launched a digital sales team in 2023 to improve sales efficiency for plumbing and housing products. The company is building a new sales model by combining customer selection using data and AI with a division of responsibilities between digital sales and field sales. Murakami Hidenori (村上英徳), who led the launch, explains how the team built trust with field personnel and the process through which that trust produced results.
As the housing market continues to contract, LIXIL faced a situation in which improving sales efficiency was unavoidable. Proposals combining products such as bathrooms and kitchens have been central to its efforts to increase the value of homes, and the company has tens of thousands of long-standing business partners nationwide. Despite the market contraction, maintaining and expanding relationships with these partners while reaching customers with limited staff was a challenge.