The Problem: Losing Money in the Pipeline

While their sales numbers were impressive their conversion for large ticket enquiries stood at 21% while for small-ticket ones was only 16%. This meant there was a big opportunity for growth.

The founder and his general manager came to us while looking for a sales training firm that would help train their people on closing skills.

Like in all other such enquiries our sales experts sought to understand their sales situation including their sales processes, tools, and sales approaches. The expert then spent time with the sales team during one of their sales meetings and listened to their conversations.

From this gaps evaluation, we identified various aspects that if addressed will highly improve their conversion rates.

Diagnosis: Identifying the Causes of Leaks

The sales process though generally clear had various bottlenecks and leaks that lost most of the enquiries. We identified big areas that many of the enquiries didn’t progress and came up with various solutions.

There were blind areas that the organization took for granted such as conversation starters, trust-building, and persuasion processes that the salespeople were unaware of. We recommended various solutions to address the gaps.

Treatment: Sealing the Leaks

We designed and rolled out 6 months learning programme for the whole organization that included a sales for non-sales people curriculum. The programme went beyond lessons to application. There was a massive transformation on how the people handled various sales and sales related tasks.

The expert recommended various changes in the sales approaches to speed up the sales cycle time and remove various buying obstacles.

We came up with performance metrics and tools to support the sales process and track activities and results from sales efforts for each sales person and sales initiative. Based on the outcomes various adjustments in how the company approached were made as well as various learning modules developed.

The managers were trained and coached on how to get the most out their sales teams. They became more than supervisors to an essential sales support system.

Each sales person’s sales aptitude and personality profile were assessed. Some people roles were adjusted so as to take duties they are best suited for. Those who remained in sales were helped to best appreciate their sales strengths and then guided on how to adopt a selling style that is most natural to them.

The Results: More Money in the Till

By the end of our engagement, the conversion rates had taken a steep growth trajectory. One sales person’s closing rates had moved from 12% to 69%. The lowest improvement was doubling the closing rate to 26%. Overall, the company’s large ticket sales over the period had tripled without increasing the number of new enquiries significantly. This was mainly due to increased closing as well as upselling, cross-selling and less discounting due to superior negotiation and persuasion skills. Small ticket closing stood at 27%.