The Farley Group supports growth with stronger data and collaboration

The Farley Group is a trusted leader in the design, manufacturing, and maintenance of custom air-supported structures for sports facilities, event spaces, and commercial applications.

Teams were overwhelmed by paperwork and emails

The Farley Group stands out for its exceptional maintenance and support services, fostering long-term customer relationships that have lasted over 20 years in some cases. It has the largest service team in the industry, which travels across North America to install, repair, and maintain their domes.

As the company grows, so does the complexity of its operations. In the last two years, The Farley Group expanded its workforce by 45%, and with that growth came the need for more efficient communication and workflows. But outdated, manual processes were holding it back, with the company heavily reliant on emails and handwritten work orders.

This approach led to lost information, inefficiencies, and communication gaps between sales, service, and project management teams. It also made it difficult to access key business data, impacting visibility and slowing down decision-making.

Recognizing the potential for even more challenges as the company continued to grow, The Farley Group's leadership decided it was time for a change. They issued a mandate to do more digitally - consolidating its legacy systems, reducing manual work, and preventing duplication of effort along the way.

Greater visibility of sales leads and opportunities drives better business decisions

In 2023, The Farley Group transformed its operations with Sales Cloud, Salesforce CPQ, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, and AppExchange solutions.

Sales team and senior managers now have clear visibility of every lead and every sales opportunity in Sales Cloud. They can easily track the source of each lead, how long it’s been in the pipeline, and even why an opportunity was lost or closed. This data-driven approach gives leaders insights into conversion rates and growth trends, helping them make smarter decisions and maximize resources.

The integration between Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud Account Engagement has streamlined and automated workflows. For example, leads captured through The Farley Group’s website are instantly fed into Sales Cloud, where they’re assigned to a marketing contact, nurtured, and then connected with to a sales rep once they’re ready. Leads from other channels, like Google ads or word of mouth, also flow into Salesforce, with clear visibility into their source. This allows marketing teams to focus on the most effective lead-generation strategies.

To make things even more efficient, The Farley Group is developing dashboards that will highlight key trends, helping the team fine-tune their sales and marketing efforts. These reports will be sent directly to leadership, making it easier to review performance at a glance.

Automated workflows streamline lead nurturing and quoting

Leads are now nurtured with automated, templated emails designed to gather more information and move prospects further down the funnel. With these workflows standardized in Salesforce, leads are warmer, responses are quicker, and conversion rates have improved.

Marketing teams also benefit from Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, making it easier to send regular updates, like holiday closure notices or important announcements, without missing a beat.

Once all the necessary details are gathered in Salesforce, sales teams can quickly generate quotes using Salesforce CPQ. This eliminates the need for manual data collection and emailing quotes. With everything stored in one place, teams can easily track quote statuses, review changes, and see why updates were made. Plus, with DocuSign from the Salesforce AppExchange, customers can sign contracts digitally in minutes, speeding up the entire process.

Information at their fingertips improves service team efficiency

The Farley Group’s service team is particularly excited about the improvements brought by Service Cloud. Equipped with iPads, they can now manage requests - such as new lights, new nets, or HVAC checks - more efficiently. As soon as a request comes in, they capture all relevant details in Service Cloud, where they can instantly access customer information, site drawings, past communications, and any outstanding requests. This eliminates the need to dig through emails, making it easier to prioritize tasks and respond accurately. Using drop-down menus to specify request types also helps gather valuable metrics and identify trends.

With MileStones PM+, an integrated solution for project management from the Salesforce AppExchange, service reps can view full project details from their service screen at the click of a button. This provides visibility of responsibilities, deliverables, and timescales for complete transparency.

Smoother processes result in better customer experiences

The Farley Group has replaced time-consuming handwritten work orders with automated ones in Salesforce. Using simple templates and drop-down menus, work orders are now created in half the time, reducing manual errors like incorrect work numbers. This also benefits the accounting team, who can now invoice more accurately without needing to decipher handwritten notes or make calls for clarification – halving the workload associated with work orders for them as well.

With streamlined processes and better data, The Farley Group can offer a smoother customer experience. They can track customer preferences, set clearer expectations, and better meet diverse needs. For instance, they now seamlessly provide PDF project plans to government and municipal customers, helping them understand timelines and comply with funding requirements.

The flexibility to integrate new capabilities supports future growth and change

The Farley Group’s digital transformation is just getting started. Next, the company plans to integrate a quality management system from the AppExchange to replace outdated Excel spreadsheets and streamline file management by automatically attaching job files. It’s also rolling out Salesforce Maps to help field sales and service teams plan more efficient routes, identify nearby leads and customers, and visualize sales data geographically.

With all its data in Salesforce, The Farley Group is positioning itself to explore AI-powered capabilities in the near future, like using Einstein to automate email nurturing and enhance lead engagement.

Salesforce is at the heart of The Farley Group’s operations, connecting data and powering workflows across all functions. It’s not just about individual productivity - it’s enabling the team to collaborate more seamlessly, with one of the biggest wins being a dramatic reduction in email volume and the time spent sifting through them.

As new needs arise, The Farley Group has full confidence that it can find the right solution on the AppExchange, and that integrating it will be straightforward. With Salesforce’s intuitive interfaces, adopting new features and training teams is quicker and easier.

Looking ahead to further international growth, Salesforce will be a key driver in ensuring The Farley Group’s operations remain efficient, scalable, and ready for expansion.