Opening a new vertical with one of the largest cement manufacturers in the world.
Enterprise sales case study At a glance
- First signature: mid five-figure annual agreement at one US cement plant
- Expansion: multi-year, seven-figure national rollout across all US cement plants
- Core wins: executive sponsorship, a plant champion who flipped from skeptic to evangelist, frontline adoption, photo-verified maintenance discipline, connection to the company’s core system, and persistence through procurement and legal
The starting point
I was on a trip to Mexico while my business developer lined up meetings with operations leaders in the region. The outreach was simple and timely. He let people know I would be in town and asked if it made sense to meet live or by Zoom.
One message reached a VP who had just relocated to the United States to run US cement operations. He offered a Zoom while I was traveling.
That first call worked because of three things:
- Reactivation, not a cold pitch. He had heard of our platform two years earlier through his network and the venture arm.
- Clear value wedge. Standardize operating procedures at scale and have real visibility that work is done on schedule and the right way.
- Authority and scope. He oversaw a multi-plant US operation with a large workforce and a record of bringing practical tech into traditional environments. He had the authority and the drive.
I showed a focused demo. No jargon. How supervisors can design procedures in minutes, push them to crews, capture evidence, and trigger follow-up when something is missed or out of spec. He asked for a test at one plant with the plant manager as the local lead.
The first champion and a tough start
The site was older with chronic mechanical issues. The plant manager was capable, but already underwater. He listened, then went back to the fires on his desk.
There was also a cultural factor. The executive’s prior environment was more hierarchical. In the US, buy-in matters. A directive alone did not create momentum. Without the plant manager’s engagement the test drifted.
What changed: the executive removed the bandwidth constraint. He reassigned a recent graduate from the talent program to relocate to the plant and own a four-week free test on-site. Our implementation manager would coach daily and translate plant needs into working procedures.
Four weeks to earn the right to a pilot
We kicked off with heads of operations, quality, safety, and environmental. The on-site lead had the right mix of credibility and warmth. People wanted to help her. With coaching, she learned fast and began deploying procedures.
Across four weeks we digitized roughly ten workflows:
- Environmental: checks and compliance rounds
- Safety: weekly routes for fire extinguishers, first-aid cabinets, and AED readiness
- Quality: shift sampling that had lived in spreadsheets for decades
- Maintenance and operations: CILs (Clean, Inspect, Lubricate) that keep an old plant running
CILs mattered most. Skip an oil check or inspection and breakdowns follow. In cement, every unplanned stop means hours to cool down, hours to heat up, high energy cost, and lost production.
Reality check: our end-of-month review was rough. The plant manager criticized his own team’s procedures. He wanted smarter, more proactive alerts. The platform was not the problem. The team had worked without his coaching.
The hard conversation that changed everything
I asked the plant manager for a one-on-one. Direct and respectful. His team had put in real hours. If procedures were off, it was because they did not have his guidance. The output mirrored his engagement. Risky to say, but true. He owned it. The dynamic changed.
We extended the test two weeks. He agreed to two check-ins per week and hands-on involvement in procedure design and alert logic.
The breakthrough: a recurring failure on the dust collectors (baghouses). Logs showed daily cleaning. Operations said it was done. Maintenance said it was not. The plant kept failing and people kept arguing.
The plant manager, with only basic training, opened the digital procedure, edited it himself, and published the update immediately. He added a required before-and-after photo step. The very next shift ran the new version and captured the photos. Within a day the issue was obvious: the team had been cleaning the wrong area of the machine. He corrected the method, and the recurring breakdowns stopped.
That was the aha moment. The platform did not just say a task was complete. It showed how it was done. He flipped from skeptic to evangelist.
The first signature and a smart cost frame
We needed a signature before quarter-end. I sent a simple order form for a mid five-figure annual agreement at the plant. The executive framed cost in a way that operations respected: roughly the cost of one additional headcount per month, but it makes the entire team more proactive. The plant signed.
A quiet year under the radar
The executive knew how to navigate a conservative, global organization. Push too fast and corporate processes block progress. He kept the deployment quiet for a year to build proof. The team set up dedicated connectivity so phones and tablets worked reliably in harsh conditions. The goals were simple. Prove adoption. Prove value. Be ready to connect to the core enterprise system (ERP).
What we learned that year
- Quality: stable in existing tools, minimal lift
- Environmental: skeptical after past failed attempts
- Maintenance and operations: where the platform moved the needle, since runtime and repair time drive economics
Adoption was the proof. The most expensive tool is the one nobody uses. Weekly cadence, photo evidence, and alerts made the work real for crews.
ERP alignment mattered. Corporate IT was investing in the core system. The plant manager put it plainly. A small fraction of the workforce can use the ERP. Everyone can use a simple mobile work app that feeds it. That unlocked a long series of integration meetings across regions. Many were repetitive. We kept at it.
Outcome of the year: the pilot site was recognized internally as the most improved plant in its group. We did not claim sole credit. Leadership and discipline mattered. But the shift to procedures, schedule, evidence, and alerts played a role. It opened real expansion conversations.
From a plant win to an enterprise plan
The executive introduced me to other plant managers. Our new champion shared his story, including the day the baghouse photos ended finger-pointing. Most peers were skeptical, just as he had been. Many argued for headcount. The executive pushed for leverage through tools and process.
We shaped an enterprise proposal:
- All US plants under one agreement
- Multi-year term with a staged rollout
- Year one: expand to half the plants
- Year two: expand to the remaining plants
- Year three: full sustainment
- Data in one place: procedures and results backed up in the ERP
I expected a smooth path. I was wrong.
A quarter lost to red tape, then a live alert that flipped finance
At seven figures per year and multi-million total value, local leaders could not sign.
- IT approval was mandatory. The executive secured support from the corporate innovation team, framing the rollout as a regional innovation program.
- Finance needed a business case. We built a simple what-if model. Even a 1 percent lift in runtime at a typical plant meant eight-figure annual revenue. That made the case for strong ROI per plant and many-times return across all plants.
In the key finance session a real-time alert popped on the plant manager’s screen. An issue was developing that could have caused downtime. Finance saw how the team could act before a breakdown. The leader in that meeting had operations experience. It clicked.
Procurement almost broke me
By then I had well over a year invested. Many still did not want the project to happen. Many did not believe it could.
Procurement took the handoff. Weeks passed. When I finally got time, I learned they thought this was a local push from one plant, not a VP-sponsored initiative. I reset the facts. VP sponsorship. A year of field proof. IT support. ERP connection plan. A business case tied to runtime and repair.
Even aligned, the process was rigid. Meetings slipped. Every step followed the letter of the process. It felt like a black hole. This is where many enterprise deals die.
Lesson for sellers: this feeling is normal. Procurement can seem indifferent to impact. Do not quit. If your sponsor and champion are real and your field proof is real, procurement can delay but not kill the deal unless you let it. I chased every miss, pushed every follow-up, leaned on the sponsor when needed, and refused to let momentum fade.
Then came legal. Tickets, queues, no clear timelines. More waiting. More pressure on the sponsor to unstick the process.
The signature and what came after
Legal cleared the language. Procurement released the packet. The agreement was signed. We landed one of our largest contracts to date and opened a new vertical in heavy industry focused on standard operating procedures, maintenance discipline, and connection to the ERP. That win became the springboard to land another major manufacturer in the months that followed.
What I would repeat
- Anchor on executive sponsorship and a real champion. Without both, this would have died
- Earn adoption at the frontline. Weekly cadence, photo proof, and alerts make the system real
- Prove value with one clear moment. The baghouse photos ended a recurring failure and the blame game
- Frame cost as leverage, not software. Equivalent to one headcount that lifts the whole team
- Integrate to the system of record. A simple mobile work app that feeds the ERP makes sense to IT and finance
- Model what really moves results. Even a small runtime lift can justify a program across all plants
- Be relentless through procurement and legal. Expect the black hole. Plan time. Keep sponsor pressure steady
What I would avoid
- Do not escalate by blaming your champion. Have the hard talk privately and win a partner
- Do not spread thin across low-value use cases. Focus where uptime and repair time move the economics
- Do not rely on presales habits after signature. Bring in strategic implementation that drives adoption
The simple idea that guided us
Execute standard work correctly and on time and plants run longer with fewer surprises. Runtime goes up. Time to repair goes down. Breakdowns go down. Planned stoppages become the norm. Everything we did proved that idea in the field and connected it to the ERP so operations and finance could trust it across all plants.
Want to explore how I can help your business open new verticals and win in traditional industries? Let’s talk or connect with me on LinkedIn or check delasotta.com/insights.
