Keith Williams, Founder of Factrees, realized that there was a gap in the way distributors, sales reps, and manufacturers connected when he was doing some basic research for a startup tied to the manufacturing industry.
“I was simply looking for manufacturers to validate our business model and realized that I would have to go back to the tedious job of cold calling. I connected with a few colleagues in distribution who suggested I go straight to manufacturing reps because they had the relationships with the manufacturers themselves.
We weren’t really looking for what would be considered hard to find contacts. After all, we were just sourcing for reps in the massive food service industry. After about a week, I felt like I was beating my head against a wall. It was nearly impossible to find these types of companies. Many had no website, contact information was sparse, some identified their lines, some didn’t, and finally, it was hard to find out who their manufacturers were.”
It was then that I thought, there’s got to be a better way.
The seed for what would become Factrees was officially planted. Keith envisioned a “first of its kind” networking platform designed exclusively for manufacturers, reps, and distributors where connecting was simple and information was reliable and actionable. “It’s not like sales reps, manufacturers or distributors want to hide in the shadows,” Keith says. “I thought, why not make it easy for all of the critical players and components of the sales sourcing process to come together. I looked at it from my own perspective and realized how easy it would be to connect with my best prospects if I had basic information at my fingertips, things like product lines, territories, reviews, and other critical information that would help me find the right contacts without wasting my time or the time of the people who I had previously been cold calling.”
A Solution for a Fragmented Industry
Even as the idea for Factrees swirled around in Keith’s head, he thought, “There must already be a solution for these kinds of problems. I wasn’t the only person out there looking for contacts.” Keith decided to dig a little deeper into the industry as a whole and found some sites that tried to solve these kinds of problems, but they were mostly tied to a specific industry and required extremely pricey subscriptions just to see what companies were listed.
“I found horrible interfaces and poor search functionality that just sent me down more rabbit holes. There had to be a better way to connect than word-of-mouth or trade shows.”
He stepped back for a minute and started thinking about the sales and sourcing industry as a whole and realized that there are literally thousands of product categories and…
He kept coming back to “there’s got to be a better way for all these people to connect and do business.”
Solving Problems for Today’s Key Players in the Sales Cycle
With the launch of Factrees, Keith hopes to improve the sourcing process. “My goal was to create a fast, user-friendly platform that brings manufacturers, reps, and distributors together. Factrees takes the guessing game out of the process, allowing the key players to come together with a few clicks. Our vision is for Factrees to grow into a vital tool that connects companies and moves B2B sourcing forward.”
“Even the largest distributors have a very manual process for finding new suppliers or replacing ones that are not working out. I know because I talked to many of them while vetting the idea for Factrees. When they need a newline or it’s line review time, they pull out the rolodex and start calling reps and manufacturers.”
“My ultimate goal with the platform is to tear down any roadblocks that anyone in the sales cycle may be experiencing. Currently, the process has a tightly defined set of participants, with constantly changing players. Reps constantly need new clients, manufacturers drop reps, distributors change lines, and there are mergers and acquisitions happening all the time. Factrees makes it easy for all players to quickly update any new information and stay current, searchable, and open for new business.”
Let’s Connect for a Free Demo
There’s no better way to understand the ideas behind Factrees than to see the platform in motion. Keith is readily available to provide a free demo to anyone who would like to see how the sourcing process is simplified by using a few intuitive steps.
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