Re-Tooling for Effective Sales

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Situation
The company's growth had slowed as a result of two key factors:

• Dated and inefficient sales practices and processes.
   
• Increased competition.

They had to automate their sales, marketing and customer
service procedures to reduce the cycle times whether it
involved signing new customers or renewing existing contracts.
Management recognized they needed a more disciplined
and consistent selling process to streamline and reduce
the amount of time it took to close a sale. The company decided
to call Endurant to assess their process and make recommendations.

Problem
Each sales representative went about selling in a
different way. In addition, communication from the field
was poor. Because there was no process for sharing knowledge
and information, different departments; such as
finance, operations and marketing operated in silos.
Without “big-picture” knowledge, sales took months
instead of weeks to finalize. With the long lag time, market
conditions, vendor costs, competition and projected revenue
streams often changed which effected profit margins.

Endurant Solution
Process Improvement teams consisting of company personnel
were assembled to brainstorm new ways of doing business.
Working as an executive advisory and facilitator, Endurant
helped the groups diagram the current customer management
process and identify specific ways to improve it.
Emphasis was placed on the ability to smoothly transition
opportunities from one department to another ensuring that
each clearly understood their role and responsibilities in the
customer management process. In effect, the approach was
similar to linking Tinker Toys which helped eliminate silos
and tie together independent departments that produced a
seamless customer experience from prospect development
to program implementation. Endurant helped facilitate this
re-engineering by incorporating a variety of methods, tools
and techniques. Some key components of the project
included strategic planning, sales process development,
customer service development, organizational development,
technology assessment and evaluation, and training.

Results
By organizing into self-directed work teams, communication
touch points between departments are much more effective.
The more effective flow of information and knowledge
within the groups assures that everybody understands
what’s going on so the people throughout all the departments
can make smart, accurate decisions that enhance the customer
experience, not hinder it. There are no surprises. No over
selling. Sales expectations are managed and selling cycles
have been dramatically reduced. The new environment has
raised the bar. As a result, expectations are high
and the performance is higher.

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