TURNING

AROUND A WEAK

PERFORMING

SALES TEAMBy Erik Van Rompay

CASE STUDY PRESENTATIONParis, 8 october 2009

Actually available

I am an interim

executive

specialised in

turning around

high-tech

companies

http://vanrompay.online.fr

WHO AM I ?

Act

ually

ava

ilable

I present today 2 CASES…

“it is full part of my portfolio… but gives a

restricted view of my “360 degrees” turnaround activity”

CASE 1 : Retail company (entertainment products)

SITUATION (view given by the board)

- sales revenue dropping since 2 years- an old product line at the end of life- new product line is a disaster (nobody wants it)

MY MISSION : restructure the activity so

the company can sell their new product line

Team = 9 sales people (+ 2 admin)

STEP 1 : AUDIT

AUDIT 1 : Market situation

- Pricing of the product lines (old & new)- Comparison with the 2 main competitors

- Result : pricing + positioning are weak but OK

AUDIT 2 : Prospect Decision Criteria

Answering the question : Why does someone want to buy with us ?

18%35%28%19%

Oral skills

(& demo)

Written

documents

Sales

relationship

Brand name

and image

STEP 1 : AUDIT

RESULT : - Brand name : poor as the company was a

newcommer (and did not deliver).- Brand image : poor (the sales reps didn’t even

posses a presentation of the company)- Sales relationship : poor (no methodology)- Written documents : poor -> one A4 sheet with

only text to present the new product line- Oral presentation : poor -> not prepared and

not consistent- Team : 9 individual sales people so 9 different

styles to sell the products

AUDIT – case 1

AUDIT 3 : sales incentives

There was no sales incentive to sell the new product line !Even worse… the sales rep got 30% more revenue by selling the old products !

AUDIT 4 : product quality

Poor delivery & badly packaged (not sexy enough)

AUDIT 5 : Customer needs

OK (the first 2 users loved the new product)

ONCE

YOU KNOW

THE PROBLEM

YOU HAVE THE

SOLUTION

THE ACTION PLAN

CREATING A

VISUAL

IDENTITY

CREATING OF

A STRONG

SALES PITCH

CREATING A

MARKET

RECOGNITION

SOLVING OF

THE

INCENTIVES

ISSUE

EDUCATE THE

SALES REPS TO

SELL THE NEW

PRODUCT-LINE

Newcommer = Higher Innovation

Full Sales Documents Package

STRUCTURING

THE SALES

CYCLE

DELAY AUDIT+IMPLEMENTATION : 3 MONTHS

SALES ON SCOPE 3 MONTHS LATER

REPACKAGING

THE PRODUCT

Also.. the 9 individual

sales people working

independently… became a

a united sales TEAM

CASE 2 : Internet Startup

SITUATION (view given by the board)

- sales revenue dropping fast since 6 months- no software upgrade in the past 6 months

(unable to deliver new releases/bug repairs)- “we” are too expensive so we don’t sell our

products at the right price (so request to do heavy cost-cutting)

- Market with strong competition

MY MISSION : solve the problem

7 salespeople (+1 admin)

STEP 1 : AUDIT

AUDIT 1 : Market situation

- Pricing of the product line- Comparison with the main competitors

Result : pricing + positioning are at market average so OK (for the time being)

AUDIT 2 : Prospect Decision Criteria

Answering the question : Why does he want to buy with us ?

18%35%28%19%

Oral skills

(& demo)

Written

documents

Sales

relationship

Brand name

and image

AUDIT – case 2

RESULT : - Brand name : Strong (so OK)- Brand image : OK- Sales relationship : poor (no methodology)- Written documents : OK (just needed a slight

tuning)- Oral presentation : OK

Main problem identified:- no methodology to track prospects, neither to

identify the leads to track in priority

AUDIT – case 2

AUDIT 3 : sales incentives

In line so OK

AUDIT 4 : product quality

- Poor delivery- Unstable product & unstable platform

AUDIT 5 : Customer needs/requirements

No time to execute- Several board members confirmed the

product itself was perfect…

ONCE

YOU KNOW

THE PROBLEM

YOU HAVE THE

SOLUTION

THE ACTION PLAN…1

CREATING OF

A NEW SALES

PITCHSOLVING OF

THE

TECHNICAL

PROBLEMS

EDUCATE THE

SALES REPS TO

IDENTIFY REAL

LEADS

STRUCTURING

THE SALES

CYCLE

DELAY AUDIT+IMPLEMENTATION : 2 MONTHS

SALES DID INCREASE…. But not enough

COST

CUTTING

NO

IMPLEMENT

SALES

REPORTING

LAUNCHING

OF A QUICK-

WIN to the

market as a

sign that the

company was

again

marketleader

…

AUDIT 2 – Alignment

As we did not execute

AUDIT 5 : Customer needs/requirements

We didn’t identify a major “sales” problem :- all our documents and salespitch were made

for IT people (IT Directors, webmasters…) but it was mainly Marketing and/or Sales people that were deciding the purchase of our product.

SOLUTION : reworking all documents AND all the

sales pitches to have, depending on the client and

the decission process, a different sales approach.

RESULT – case 2

Sales up by 70% after 6 months

The company catched up and sales numbers were again on scope as defined in the 3 years business plan.

To be noted : this all requested intensive changes …

and 5 of the 7 sales people left the company within

the year. This did not disturb the sales numbers

neither other activities in the company.

If you have any

question…

don’t hesitate

to email me…

vanrompay@online.fr

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

ATTENTION