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Why the PSS is Unique |
Case Study
TRANSITION FROM
"FARMERS" TO "HUNTERS" A regional coffee retailer with 80 coffee shops and a commercial sales division in which salespeople acquired new corporate business and then then managed those accounts. As their account base grew, more time was devoted to current account management ("farming") than new account growth ("hunting"). The business grew for more than ten years as they entered new markets. But commercial sales growth in existing markets had stalled. Salespeople had grown financially comfortable and focused virtually all of their energy supporting existing accounts. While the company had a customer service team dedicated to commercial accounts, the salespeople were adamant that the customers expected a high level of support from them. By the time this issue was proactively addressed, many of salespeople had not acquired a new account in years. Their prospecting ability (and motivation) was minimal. The company decided to change the sales compensation structure to give greater weight to new business, but before implementing this they wanted to ensure that their salespeople had adequate skills to achieve new business acquisition goals. Phase 1 - Assessment Since virtually every employee in the retail stores as well as the commercial salespeople had at least some selling role and responsibility, the company decided that every one of the would complete the Professional Selling SkillMap assessment. This meant that some individuals who were primarily commercial support or retail service staff (but who did have some sales responsibilities) would be completing the assessment along with commercial salespeople. Phase 2 - Group and Individual Analysis The assessment results allowed the organization to highlight specific strengths of their top performers as well as specific weaknesses of those who were struggling. Not surprisingly, all their top performers did not all have the same strengths, and all their bottom performers did not all have the same weaknesses. At the individual level, the variance between top and bottom performers was even more dramatic in specific skill categories including prospecting, handling rejection, territory management, self-motivation, handling adversity and sales cycle management. Since these were the skill categories with the greatest difference between high and low performers it was determined that this would be the initial focus of the training initiative. But when they ran aggregate reports by job title (see below) they saw that their account SERVICE associates in many cases had selling skills and capabilities equivalent to (or greater than) the commercial SALES associates. However the sales associates were much more highly compensated and was accountable for achieving specific sales goals.
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In-Store Retail Service Associates Commercial Sales Representatives Commercial Account Service Associates
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A closer look at the comparative skills between these three groups caused the company to review whether or not they had the right people in the right roles. In some cases they reassigned commercial service associates to sales roles (based upon their selling strengths) and in other cases they reassigned commercial sales associates to service roles (because of poor results and an indicated deficit in selling skills). When the company ran aggregate reports reports form a geographic perspective they found that there was significant variation between regions (see example below) and most importantly, they saw that their highest skills salespeople were operating in the region with the lowest natural growth potential. And conversely, their Western Region commercial sales representatives had the lowest level of selling skills and capabilities - but this is the are where they have the highest growth opportunity. So in addition to a significant training initiative, the company began to look at their placement of sales representatives - and started the process of aligning their sales talent with markets where they had the greatest growth potential. This meant moving individual from one market to another, which was very disruptive, but also produced quick results once the new high-performance salesperson was settled into a territory.
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Western Region Southern Region Eastern Region low market share high market share average market share high growth opportunity no growth opportunity modest growth opportunity
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Phase 3 - Targeted Training In addition to making changes between job functions (moving some service associates to sales, and some sales associated to service - based upon skill sets) and between geographic areas (aligning highly skilled salespeople with high-growth-potential markets) the company also embarked upon a comprehensive training initiative focused on:
Phase 4 - Reinforcement Onsite workshops were delivered in every region, reinforced with e-learning courses and audio CDs distributed to all salespeople.
Phase 5 - ROI Analysis Shifting employees to new job functions based upon their results and skill sets had minimal impact in terms of costs, although it did drive some unplanned employee turnover and there were costs associated with the new hires. Overall though, the ROI from aligning employee sales responsibilities with their inherent selling skills produced a +200% ROI in the first year. There were significant costs associated with transferring sales agents into new territories, including relocation costs, etc. But after 6 months the effort had produced enough incremental new revenue to cover the coasts, and at the end of the first year, ROI was 28%. Training costs included materials, logistics, travel, etc. and after 6 months the company estimated they had achieved a 32% ROI.
MORE CASE STUDIES MULTIPLE SALES CHANNELS An organization focused on the high school and college education markets, with separate sales channels for distinct product categories including:
The business had separate management, sales, training and marketing support for each channel even though they were often operating in the same accounts (schools). This created confusion with customers, inefficiency, and new account sales efforts were not integrated, which limited the ability for cross-channel leveraging of resources to gain new business. Read full case study
RESISTANCE TO TRAINING Non-compete agreements are difficult to enforce in this industry, leaving the company with few options to drive business growth with new product sales. Read full case study
TRAINING
NEED, BUT NO TRAINING
BUDGET The sales force was quite frustrated as they realized that the company's leaders were more interested in maintaining financial ratios than investing in their salespeople. At the same time, sales leaders were under increasing pressure to drive short term sales (without incremental short term spending). Read full case study
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