Lafuma Mobilier: A Digital Selling Journey

It’s been almost a year since Lafuma Mobilier launched their first aWorkbook digital catalogue and a lot has changed over those 12 months. When Lafuma Mobilier first approached us, they were looking for a solution to present both their products and their incredible selection of marketing material to support the European sales teams.

Until they adopted aWorkbook, the process of creating their printed catalogues was done manually. This was often time consuming and, as is always the way with printed catalogues, they can become outdated almost as soon as they are printed.

After a detailed meeting to determine their project requirements we got to work with collating the product information supplied to us. When a new brand comes on board this is our first job: to assess the data we are sent and identify where a brand might need our help. When we review data, we are looking for, and resolving any inconsistencies with the data we receive after all, nothing beats a well-conditioned set of product information!

Not only do we ensure that the product information is accurate, we very quickly develop a deep understanding of a brand’s product ranges. As the Lafuma Mobilier digital catalogues support their sales teams across Europe, this meant assessing, reviewing, and harvesting information across 7 different languages and 5 separate product ranges. We soon began to understand why producing these catalogues manually had taken a long time.

As we collated, reviewed, amended, and collaborated with Lafuma Mobilier, our projects team ensured that every product nuance and attribute was captured in aHub, our product content management platform. With all the information in one place we could easily identify and fix inconsistencies to ensure the finished result was perfect.

Once all Lafuma Mobilier’s well-conditioned, accurate product data was ready in aHub, we began building their digital catalogues, taking the pain out of their catalogue creation. Our knowledgeable and experienced projects team make sure every part of the catalogue is sales launch ready, leaving Lafuma Mobilier free to focus on the task at hand – selling!

Upon launch, the sales team found the tool invaluable, enabling them to showcase a wealth of product information in an easily accessible format that supports their sales conversations. With aWorkbook the Lafuma Mobilier sales teams can seamlessly switch between product ranges, depending on their customer channel, and guide buyers through tailored product selections supported by brand materials such as videos, images, and 3D renderings.

©LAFUMA MOBILIER – Pierrick Verny

Finally, the process of maintaining that data after the initial product launch is equally as important as collating it to begin with, and now with aHub, Lafuma Mobilier have a platform where their category managers can collaborate without the risk of overwrites, either online or via accurate, well-structured Excel files for offline editing. Lafuma Mobilier are confident that each time we provide their data back to them, it is in a readable format that is constant but most importantly accurate.

We thoroughly enjoyed working on the Lafuma Mobilier project but what are their thoughts 12 months on? Hedda Grell, International Assistant at Lafuma Mobilier, shared some insights with me:

How did you find the process of building aWorkbook?

It was a very easy process. I can send all the information by Excel sheets (product and colour code with a price list for the different workbooks) and Hark Solutions is taking care of everything else. I think it´s the same for our marketing department. They only have to send over all pictures and product information and aWorkbook is managing the rest.

What benefits has the sales team seen since adopting aWorkbook?

The collection can be shown easily to the customers. The information is very clear, easily accessible and the product selection can be made directly during the appointment with the customer. Reps show and work with all product details even before our internal workbook has been printed. They can also custom fit a product offer to their customer

How would you rate our software and data conditioning services?

This is one of my favourite services. When working with different files in our company there is always a risk of a mistake. So everything has to be checked and rechecked manually. Now when I´m sending a new file to aWorkbook I will very quickly be informed if there is a mistake or if some information has been changed or is missing. Moreover, I can ask for an overview with “ALL” our input information on aWorkbook. This is helping a lot to verify if some information is wrong or missing.

How have you found our working relationship?

Great!!! aWorkbook team is very patient, helpful, and always kind and available. I´ve worked especially with Laura who is very reactive. She has been answering my questions the same day and has remained very calm even if I asked the same questions several times to understand the way how things were working.