Products and issues: Company developed range of instrumentation products that automated the processing marking and tracking of haematology (and other ologies) samples/slides throughout the laboratory process. These were world beating products and they were sold to other suppliers as branded products and well as own brand.
Background: Family run company – second generation running the company. Profitable and growing fast overseas but static or declining in UK against a growth market background.
Problem: To boost UK sales the company employed three sales people. However they had no experience or background in managing a sales team. There were no targets and reporting was by way of a lengthy written report that was barely read and took the best part of 2 days per month to collate and write for each sales person. There was no CRM system and most of the contact details were originally in a manual system but were in the process of migrating to a contact management system. Over the previous 2 years sales were either static or in decline.
Solution: We were called in to help set up the sales team and manage their performance on an ongoing basis. Initially a simple sales audit was carried out to determine size of issues, analyse what efforts sales people were making, where they were going and were they being effective.
Having analysed the data we set up territories for each sales person and allocated customers to each sales person to manage exclusively. We then set targets and monitored and fed back the information on actual performance each month. A new self funding commission scheme was devised and implemented in lieu of a pay rise in the first year.
Monthly sales meetings were held which were a review of performance for the month, proposed activities for the following month were discussed and both product and sales training given.
Results: All sales staff earned more in the following year than they would have otherwise. (Increase was self funded by paying commission on over target sales)
Sales year on year grew by 21% and indicators were that this growth would have continued in the following year. There was also a commensurate growth in profits.
Family sold company to major multinational halfway through the next year.
Bob Francis
SGBA
