MSB’s digital marketing services are real-world tested and proven successful. As you’ll learn in this case study, they were even life-changing for Vista Equipment’s Glenn Russell.

We helped Glenn realize a new vision for his company using best-in-class digital marketing solutions.

The result? His sales increased and his workload decreased. He concentrates on the big picture instead of the little stuff. Now he’s got a team of seasoned marketing leaders at his call. And he got more of what’s most important to him.

How’d we do all this? First, let’s back up and learn more about Glenn.

A process unfolds: From “hitting it off” to creating a plan

We met him in 2018 through another client. He and MySalesButler CEO Bryan Wachs bonded immediately over sports and a shared sense of humor. As Wachs recalls, “We hit it off.” When the conversation turned to business, Bryan asked him how things were going.

“Up and down,” responded Glenn. “Plus I have no time for my family.”

Vista Equipment sells undercarriage parts for bulldozers, excavators, and other heavy equipment. Glenn brokers components from dealers and ships them to projects around the world. Construction companies call him when a dozer track wheel snaps mid-project.

He made a living, but his income was all over the place. His phone rang 24-7 since some of his customers were overseas. And he spent hours maintaining a network of local Craigslist ads and too little time closing sales and developing his business. He was overworked and missing out on family time.

Glenn was still passionate about his business but admitted that he needed help. He was open to ideas.

Bryan started a dialogue with the MSB team. They began to tease out a new vision of what Vista Equipment could be on the internet.

“I think his biggest need was a different vision of his company and business model,” Wachs explains. “He saw himself as a broker. We saw him as a resource that could be scaled on the web. Because his business was all about relationships over 35 years, with people who knew he could deliver, we decided to make him a resource to people who didn’t know him.”

Move the needle, and fast

As Chief Marketing Officer, Bryan focuses on what MySalesButler can do immediately. As he says, “What’s the low-hanging fruit that we can make the biggest effect with?”

The first step? Getting Glenn “found” online. And filtering out those low-value phone calls that took up his time but didn’t lead to sales. MySalesButler presented the plan to Glenn. He was hesitant at first. Bryan counseled him that it would require patience.

“When we looked at Vista’s competitors, some of them were doing really well with one tactic, but nobody was hitting on all cylinders,” Wachs explains. “We told Glenn that if we execute our strategy on all cylinders, it’s going to take time, but you will start performing.”

Glenn’s passion prevailed. He agreed.

Since that initial introduction, we’ve been on an organic and evolving process of learning more about Glenn’s needs as a business owner. He made it easy on us. His expertise in the industry played a huge role in the success of our strategies.

Glenn sells parts and vehicles but is known as an elite source for components. He has a reputation for honesty, good prices, and accurately matching parts with vehicles.

“A lot of the vision came pretty quickly by listening to him,” Bryan observes. “We could see right away that he was one of the best sources for undercarriages. Let’s focus on that niche.”

Case Study: The larger strategy unfolds

John Walden, MySalesButler’s Senior Strategist and COO, set about making Glenn’s lead generation process easier. That meant moving away from Craigslist.

First, MySalesButler built a new landing page for the existing Vista website. Then they moved Vista’s digital advertising to Google. Now, a search for “bulldozer undercarriage parts” returned results that led off with a Vista ad. This moved the needle more than concentrating on keyword and SEO-based search results.

“If I can put an ad in front of a person at the top of Google’s search,” Walden explains, “I don’t have to have top search rank on my website.”

The ad drove people to the new landing page, designed to handle elite leads.

Glenn saw the results immediately. He’d also been freed from having to maintain dozens of localized ads.

Next came Facebook ads, as Walden recalls.

“We had no idea whether Facebook was going to work or not. It worked. We hit it out of the park. On a regular basis, we produce 200-plus leads a month for him at around $15 a lead.”

Walden notes that Vista’s average sale is $4,500 and they close about 10% of all leads each month.

With higher-quality leads pouring in, the next step is to manage them. One of Glenn’s biggest pain points is spending a lot of time on phone calls with people who never become customers.

“We want to reduce the amount of energy Glenn has to spend on inbound,” says Walden.

A team relationship that goes beyond business and numbers

A 2018 conversation about sports began a successful journey that continues today. Bryan Wachs points out that it’s not a ‘vendor’ relationship, it’s a true partnership. An organic process of learning and transferring knowledge.

“I don’t believe that you can be a marketer and a vendor,” Wachs says. “You have to become an extended employee and member of that team.”

John Walden agrees, adding that Glenn Russell now has “people” (MySalesButler) who are handling things like inbound leads for him, so he can spend more time growing Vista.

He adds “If you take this important piece of the business, and you say, ‘you don’t have to think about that, we’ve got it,’ in a successful and consistent way, an entrepreneur can look at developing other aspects of their business.”

Glenn has taken it to heart. He even tells his suppliers “Yeah, I have a team now.”

That’s not all that’s changed for Glenn. He keeps having record sales months. He isn’t on the phone for hours a day. But maybe the biggest life-changer for him is that he can finally spend more time with the people he loves.

“He took his whole family on a vacation to Hawaii for Thanksgiving in 2019,” says Wachs. “He’s never been able to do that.”

Part of the process with MySalesButler is the development of a relationship that goes beyond business and numbers. We believe in the emotional space that this work can provide. Glenn’s story is a testament to it.

“The driving force for me,” asserts Wachs, “is how do I help entrepreneurs? Because I know how hard it is to be an entrepreneur. I’m constantly amazed, humbled, and honored to be helping people. It’s always personal. You’re affecting people’s lives through commerce.”

In this case study, you met a man who’s seen firsthand how that works.  For us, it’s just the beginning of helping Glenn Russell realize his vision for Vista Equipment.

And it all started with a chat about sports.