Solution: We immediately conducted a sampling of their customer base to understand how their customers buy and how they perceived their commercial partners. This included both high and low end customers. This approach provided us with more valuable information than had been obtained previously through the client’s attempts at customer surveys and feedback. Many customers were not aware of the company’s full product offerings and one call sparked a conversation that lead to a new sale of product the customer had previously been told was not available. It had since been added to the product line but no one had reached out to let them know.

There was no formal sales organization in place, simply order takers in the form of Customer Service personnel. (Many businesses refer to this arrangement as “sales”. It is not.) At one time they had made an attempt at creating a sales team but that was short lived due to lack of focus, leadership and strategy. We created a sales process that was mapped to their customers purchasing cycle and identified new sales roles that we helped recruit and train. In addition we transitioned them from an under utilized CRM system that was more of a customer support database than sales tool to a sales focused CRM strategy with specific measurements and forecasts.

This client had a competent customer service department in place, however, much of their processes were paper based and management was too focused on individuals’ use of time instead of customer service’s impact on the customer relationship. We removed their paper and created a customer support process that placed the highest value on solving problems. We also trained them to capture key customer data such as new and updated email addresses, roles and titles that would directly benefit marketing efforts.

Based on all of the above, we customized and integrated a CRM tool and trained all sales and customer service reps in its use.

Results: Company is now a proactive, sales driven company with an effective sales strategy and the right people, systems and processes in place to grow.