Building Products Inc. (BPI) is a family-owned distributor with 100+ employees, supplying building materials and millwork to retail lumber yards.
At a glance
- Industry
- Construction
- Employees
- 100+
- Proton products
- CRM
In 2021, the sales floor ran on spreadsheets and handwritten notes. There was a CRM — the one bundled with the ERP — but it went under-used, and the team was stuck in order-taking mode.
The backstory: a sales team waiting for the phone to ring
Kyle Schull, BPI's president and owner, wanted a different sales process: salespeople asking fact-finding questions instead of running the same closing line past customers who had already decided what they were buying.
“It got old asking customers over and over again, ‘What do you need? Is there anything else I can do for you?' They always said, ‘No. I called and ordered what I needed.'”
Kyle Schull · President & Owner, BPIWhy Proton: recommendations a rep can open a call with
Kyle found Proton at a conference for distributors, where he met Proton CEO Benj Cohen. What stood out was predictive analytics and product recommendations — the piece that could move BPI from order-taking to proactive selling.
The AI recommendations were a significant factor in the decision, because leadership could see what they'd be worth to the sellers.
Instead of asking a customer what they needed, a rep could open with something specific: “Hey, have you checked your stock on A, B, and C items? We see here that those may be due to reorder.”
The rollout: changing the habit, not just the software
Implementation was built around adoption — weekly calls for management, training sessions for the reps — and BPI took ownership of the training process very seriously. Kyle's read on it: the software was the easy part.
“Proton's very intuitive for users, but getting salespeople to change their habits and use a new system, especially if they're coming from spreadsheets or handwritten notes, is crucial.”
Kyle Schull · President & Owner, BPIBefore
With Proton
Account research
BeforeSpreadsheets, handwritten notes, and a CRM that came with the ERP and went under-used.
With ProtonOne view of account history, past pitches, and whether a category is up or down.
The sales call
Before“What do you need? Is there anything else I can do for you?” — asked after the customer had already ordered.
With Proton“Have you checked your stock on A, B, and C items? We see here that those may be due to reorder.”
Team handoffs
BeforeInside and outside sales worked from separate pictures of the same account.
With ProtonAn outside rep logs a call and inside sales can access it immediately.
The results: bigger invoices, faster follow-up
Proton moved BPI's sales team from reactive to proactive. What changed, in the company's own words:
A 360-degree view of every account
Before a pitch, a rep can pull up a customer and answer the questions that shape it: “What has the history been with this customer? How have we pitched them? Are we up or down in this product category?”
Inside and outside sales both use it, and sales managers and the executive team use it to track performance across categories. BPI credits it with increasing share of wallet with those customers.
Bigger orders per invoice
The “due to reorder” prompt changed the shape of a call. In BPI's words: “The ‘due to reorder’ feature has made our sales team much more proactive in discussing new sales opportunities with customers, rather than just reacting to incoming orders. This has helped us increase the order size per invoice.”
Quotes that actually get followed up
Proton “has increased the amount of sales our team has been able to close,” and the attributed-revenue view is a big part of why: it makes sure pitches and quotes get followed up on promptly.
The counterfactual, in BPI's words — “I don't think they would be following up on all those quotes if they didn't have easy access to the information in the system.”
New salespeople ramp faster
BPI uploaded all of its vendor literature into Proton, “allowing new reps to quickly search for what they need.” That speeds up the learning process for the next generation, who can make recommendations to customers “based on historical data” instead of years on the job.
Inside and outside sales on the same page
When an outside sales rep logs a call, the inside sales team can access that information immediately. The knowledge transfer “ensures everyone is on the same page,” and it shows up in both efficiency and customer service.
The bottom line: a CRM won’t hand you a sales process
BPI's success comes with a warning for anyone shopping. A common misconception is that a CRM will provide the sales process; BPI already knew where it wanted to take its sales team — collaborative, proactive, asking questions — and that clarity is what made the software pay.
Leadership drove the cultural change, including among the older reps. Treating Proton as a value-added tool rather than a monitoring system is what earned the adoption, and the return that followed: $30M+ in attributed revenue a year, a 27% conversion rate on AI recommendations, and $66.2k in revenue per active user each month.
