July 28, 2025
Vallen is one of North America’s largest industrial distributors, with a legacy spanning over 150 years. Today, they operate across 400 locations, serving thousands of customers in industries like manufacturing, transportation, and aerospace. What sets their team apart is their technical know-how, massive product catalog, and strong customer relationships.
But as the business grew, leadership needed a smarter way to increase revenue — one that didn’t rely on expanding the sales team. Instead, they set out to make their existing reps more efficient and effective.
Vallen’s inside sales team had the potential to be a major growth lever, but reps were stuck in reactive mode responding to non-selling activities.
"The inside team was very reactive,” explained Scott Bierwiler, VP of Industrial Sales. “They wanted to be proactive but needed the help of a system to support their proactive selling activities."
Reps spent the majority of their time on reactive non-selling tasks like, expediting orders, looking up PODs, and mining customer information.
“Everyone had their own way of doing things,” said Ryan Barnett, Inside Sales Manager. “None of it was scalable.”
The company had a legacy CRM, but it didn’t help the team prioritize or plan their day. “It was more of an order processing tool than something that drove proactive sales activity,” Ryan shared.
Because the system didn’t surface next steps or deliver actionable insights, adoption stayed low. That meant follow-ups slipped through the cracks, inbound requests ran the day, and managers were left guessing about what was working and who needed support.
Leadership knew they needed to get reps back to selling. As a first step, they launched a Center of Excellence to handle the customer service tasks that were pulling reps away from revenue-driving work.
It was a smart move and it gave sellers more time back in their day. But reps still needed a system that could guide them on how to use it.
To truly move the needle, Vallen needed a way to turn this new time into revenue.
They weren’t looking to add more reps — they wanted a tool that would help their existing team focus on the right accounts, every day. That’s where Proton came in.
Proton’s CRM provides Vallen’s reps with everything they need to know, including who to call and what to sell. Now, reps start their day with a clear game plan, complete with:
The impact was immediate. Reps started recovering lost deals and running better customer conversations because they had the data to back it up.
To really keep reps focused on revenue-driving activities, Vallen also worked closely with Proton’s team to build custom sales pipelines for high-value use cases, including:
Vallen also uses Proton to manage large bids and market baskets — opportunities that require coordination across multiple teams. With shared visibility, reps can now collaborate across functions without endless email chains.
“It’s not just a reporting tool, it’s a sales growth engine,” said Dane LeBel, Director of Inside Sales. “We’re giving the sales team a sports car, not a ball and chain.”
With this new tool, sellers deliver more personalized and proactive service to customers.
For example, one rep used Proton to catch a reorder opportunity for PPE gloves that would’ve led to a major stockout across multiple sites for their customer. That one conversation turned into a replenishment order across all the customer’s sites and opened the door to new quoting opportunities.
“Being a proactive partner is our identity,” explained Dane LeBel, Director of Inside Sales. “What better way to do that than calling your customer daily with a way to make their jobs easier or save them money? That's what Vallen does and there's a lot of synergy there with Proton.”
Aside from preventing stockouts, Proton also helps Vallen’s customers by making it easier for reps to find product substitutes.
When a product is out of stock or discontinued, the system automatically surfaces in-stock alternatives. What used to take multiple calls or back-and-forth emails now takes just seconds, and reps can do it while they’re still on the phone with the customer.
“Proton makes us look like experts,” said Ryan Barnett, Inside Sales Manager. “The customer thinks we know everything—because the tool does.”
Vallen’s sales managers benefit too. With Proton, they can see all their reps’ activity, deal pipelines, and call notes in one place. This visibility has made their one-on-one’s much more strategic.
“It helps me to be more effective as a leader,” said Ryan Barnett, Inside Sales Manager. “Now I can proactively see what’s going on within my sales team.”
Proton also provides a shared system that brings inside and outside teams closer together.
Dane LeBel, Director of Inside Sales, explained, “When an inside sales rep enters call notes or quotes for the day, the account rep can see that activity and is able to show up to that customer the next day ready to follow up.”
By giving reps a clear plan and offloading non-selling tasks, Vallen transformed its inside sales team from a reactive service center into a proactive growth engine. This has allowed Vallen to significantly increase their sales per ISR across the organization.
With Proton, the team spends less time toggling between systems and more time having meaningful conversations with customers. New reps ramp faster, tenured reps close more, and leaders have the visibility they need to steer the business.
That shift is cultural as much as operational.
“I’m seeing reps be more proactive,” shared Ryan Barnett, Inside Sales Manager. “They’re coming to me with questions like, ‘Hey, I saw this metric in Proton. Can you help me dig into what’s driving it?’ They’re taking ownership of their business and they’re excited about it.”.
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