How a Kentucky-based pharma distributor went from spreadsheets and handwritten notes to a streamlined, AI-powered sales operation.
"It streamlines the sales team to the point that I don't know how we could go back to the way we were doing it."
South Pointe Wholesale decided it was time to leave paper behind. "They used to run off like just paper," recalls one team member. The problem? "Writing everything down on paper, you still get it lost."
They looked at several different CRM options. "We got on a call with Workd and I loved them," says Wendy Fahrenholz, Sales Director. "It was everything we needed to bring in a new sales team and get them started. What they needed at their fingertips — not having Excel spreadsheets to call customers with."
"It keeps up with their customer base. It keeps up with the inactives. It keeps up with their call log every day. They can see what their sales are, how long they've been on the phone, how many calls they've made."
The system transformed how reps work day-to-day. "It allows us to make and date plans and just who to call, what to call, note who we talked to or what we talked about," explains a team member. "If I don't have that, then I'm not going to remember to call them — we talk to so many people in a day."
After about a year, the verdict was clear. "People absolutely love it. Some of them were sort of reluctant at first, but after they started using it, I don't think they would stop."
One of the biggest improvements? Turning trade show contacts into actionable leads. Wendy describes the workflow:
"Katie and I just went to a convention. When we came back, I had a lot of contact names. I went into the CRM, looked up the information — pharmacy name, city and state — and it popped up. I had the name of the contact. Then I was able to see if anybody was already calling this lead, to know if anybody had contacted them before, and to have that call history at our fingertips. That is great information to have."
"I definitely like the fact that we have the CRM now just because it makes everything easier."
"When I first started here, we had all of that at hand. So I got the upper hand because I had everything that I needed."
"I can't say enough about it. It has really changed the way we do business day-to-day."
Watch Wendy Fahrenholz share how Workd transformed South Pointe's sales operations.
Users had no way to share info, holding reps back from executing to their fullest. Client information was collected in spreadsheets, printed out with handwritten notes. Information wasn't shareable — reps couldn't back each other up or pick up where one left off.
Spreadsheets everywhere! Users struggled with multiple sources of truth and no absolute place to look when they needed an answer. Client notes, leads, past orders — all in spreadsheets that sales reps held in their hands. A hundred different sources of truth meant nobody was on the same page.
Team members had to wait for reports to be created and delivered, with no ability to review how they were performing at any given moment. Reports took time to collate and calculate, and the data was already stale by the time they got it. Reviews only happened at designated times.
Access to complete customer details with notes, files, calls, correspondence, orders, invoices, and more. Workd organizes all client data and provides insights into company health, contact preferences, and previously ordered items. Reps can pick up where another rep left off anytime.
South Pointe now has all their data in one platform — client files, items, buying groups, quotes, reports, and more. They save time on all aspects of day-to-day routines, including looking up client info, making reports, creating pricing groups, and generating quotes.
Reps always know how they're performing and how much further they have to go to meet their daily or monthly sales goals. Stats like total sales, calls, items, and more are ready for review at the click of a button. Transparency keeps everyone on the same page.
After two years of implementation, South Pointe has transformed their operations.
Click-to-dial and organized contact lists mean reps spend more time talking to customers, less time hunting for numbers.
AI-powered suggestions and visibility into past purchases help reps cross-sell and upsell on every call.
Reps are armed with product recommendations during every conversation, turning small orders into larger ones.
"This is really a CRM that's based on pharmaceuticals. That's not what you can find out there."
In the highly regulated pharma industry, generic CRMs fall short. South Pointe needed a system that understood their compliance requirements:
"It allowed us to stay up to date with all the federal regulations with everything from the purchasing to the sales to accounting. Everything has to be accounted for and everything has to be precisely done. Before we were doing that, it was just more labor. We had to do things more hands-on than the system being able to do it for us."
New hires ramp up faster when they have the tools and data they need from day one — no hunting through spreadsheets or asking around for customer history.
One of the clearest signs of a system's value? Ask the people who never knew the "before." New team members at South Pointe see the difference immediately:
"When I first started here, we had all of that at hand. So I got the upper hand because I had everything that I needed."— New Sales Team Member
South Pointe is now expanding their Workd deployment to include Voice AI agents for AR collections and customer reactivation — taking the same organized customer data and putting it to work with automated outreach.
Learn about Voice AI AgentsLike South Pointe, you can unlock your potential with real-time analytics, sales automation, and AI-powered insights.