Case 8: Brains before brawn in selling!

Client: A manufacturer and importer of metal cutting tools and inserts, the client is the Indian subsidiary of a Swedish Company. It is well known for its wide and innovative range of products.

Background: The Company has grown by over 50% in the year ended 2004. Now, technology and worldwide reputation are becoming crucial for survival. As a result multinational corporations are dominating the Indian market. The client has been able to improve the machining productivity and costs of their customers by offering technology enabled products. They have improved internal efficiency, boosted unit margins and profitability.

Task: Improve effectiveness of their sales team. The client wants sales engineers to become consultative in selling. Rather than merely honing their selling skills, they believe their sales engineers should be able to develop and execute strategies for each sale.

Methodology: A specially designed Management Development Workshop will familiarise the entire sales team and their managers with the conceptual foundation for creating and implementing strategies in business-to-business selling. Follow through consulting will help embed the methodology in their sales and management processes.

Sales engineers and managers are being introduced to a toolkit for strategy formulation. It helps in mapping and deeply understanding customers’ real and perceived needs. It uncovers the nature and relative strengths of influences different players wield on any sale, and how they change with time. This uniquely rigorous sales method helps in overcoming one’s weaknesses and leveraging strengths. It helps sales people map and manage the dynamic forces that impact each B2B sale.

Follow-up Coaching will make them adept at using the methodology. It will help managers to develop strategies for enhancing team performance, ensure that sales are predictable and eliminate the ‘feast-famine’ syndrome common to most sales teams. It will establish the methodology as an integral part of the client’s business process and ensure it is used for every sale they chase.

Results: The methodology currently being adopted will improve strike rate and sales force productivity while lowering sales costs and improving price realisation.