Executive Summary
A distribution company, in business for 28 years, selling industrial specialty electrical components, recognized that their sales structure and process did not support their goals. Both the management and sales team were not aligned on sales. Additionally, the sales structure in place promoted a very reactive sales strategy that was not efficient and did not properly incentivize their sales team to proactively sell.
The Big Win
Identified and documented issues impeding the sales team, resulting in a 60% reduction in the cost of sales (COGs) while increasing year-over-year (YOY) sales.
Challenges
- Unrealistic commissions
- Reactive sales strategy
- No customer relationship management (CRM) system
- Lack of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Missing sales leadership and team management
Solutions
- Assessed management team to see how the sales strategy process and structure were set up
- Surveyed sales team to get their perspective on the sales strategy, process, and structure
- Presented the results to show misalignment
- Made staff changes in sales and marketing to get the right people in the right seats. We implemented a Sales Leadership Training program to align the new management structure.
- Established an inside sales team to respond to incoming calls and emails
- Created clear roles and responsibilities for management and sales
- Added shopping cart feature to the website with real-time inventory
- Established agreed upon metrics and KPIs
- Assigned target accounts and market segments
- Created a proactive sales strategy for the outside sales tea
Testimonial
Our Sales Xceleration Consultant had a keen sense of what was missing in our sales organization that when added will produce the results management wants to see but was unaware of how to make the shifts necessary to achieve those results.
— Brian Corekin, Owner
Results
- Clear understanding and buy-in for roles, responsibilities, and goals of all team members
- Reduced COGs by approximately 60%
- Increased YOY sales
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