During an Applied Net session in 2020, Applied’s Bo Brown spoke with Tom Gilroy, of Gilroy Kernan & Gilroy, to gain first-hand knowledge on how Tom’s agency uses Applied Epic for Salesforce.
Throughout the discussion, Gilroy spoke on both the successes and challenges he has experienced with this new agency management solution and what he recommends for those planning on going through the Salesforce implementation process.
Playing the Long Game
When asked who or what their target customer looks like, Gilroy stated that the Gilroy Kernan & Gilroy team looks for corporate clients with a strategic approach to risk. “We are looking for that lifetime customer,” Gilroy said. “For us, it is someone who really has that strategic mindset and is willing to work long-term toward risk strategies and improvement.”
Gilroy sees Epic for Salesforce as something that will create a lifetime partnership with clients moving forward. “When I talk about a long-term relationship, to me, that means a lot of data that we are going to be constantly reviewing and going back and forth on.” Gilroy stressed that the sales side will help bring people in, while the Epic side will focus more directly on maintaining relationships and providing service to customers.
Utilizing the Integration
Annually, as with many agencies and brokerages, Gilroy’s team sets a companywide revenue goal — this could be, for example, around $1 million (USD). Salesforce can then be set up to serve as a guide for prospecting and realizing this goal.
For those interested in using Salesforce, Gilroy recommended using the “crawl, walk, run” method when starting out. “If you bite off too much at one time, it is going to be really tough to handle and overwhelming,” he shared. “In the beginning, start with a core focus of what you want to do.”
Gilroy also gave feedback on the implementation process of Salesforce. “It is a beast of a system and that is why it is so great,” he said. The integration with Epic is unique agency to agency, so it was important for Gilroy’s agency to work with the Applied integration consultant as well as to hire a third party consultant on Salesforce.