INDUSTRY
Chemical Company
SOLUTION
Sales Organization + Operations Strategy
Situation
The sales team for our client, a leading specialty chemical goods company, was struggling to meet its revenue objectives and achieve enough sales momentum to fuel growth. They were having difficulty exceeding 1.5 products per sale, which drove high-performing sales representatives away, while under-performing reps remained. The client also struggled to expand into new vertical markets, inhibiting revenue growth. The client engaged MarketSource to build an inside lead generation team to identify potential customers and to surface meeting opportunities for the client’s sales organization.
CHALLENGES
Revenue goal misses
Slowing sales momentum
Sales rep turnover
New market expansion
KEYS TO SUCCESS
Systemic sales problems assessment + diagnosis
Solution-selling
GIS territory optimization
Solution
Through an in-depth sales assessment of the client’s sales team’s skills, current sales process, go-to-market strategy, and supporting technologies, MarketSource diagnosed multiple underlying issues that were blocking the client’s sales success. Our team identified systemic problems, including a lack of structured sales processes and territory planning, an ineffective use of CRM, poor capture and analysis of key activities, limited sharing of best practices, and a lack of specialization and product knowledge among team members.
Our team collaborated with the client’s key stakeholders to design a forward-thinking sales organization with specialized sales functions designed to help the client achieve its short- and long-term sales goals. We shifted sales development rep (SDR) focus and activities to revenue growth and territory management.
We introduced an eight-week training program to improve the client’s sellers’ product knowledge and enhance sales skills and introduced sales coaching and training tools to help our team become trusted advisors on the client’s products. We also implemented a solution selling sales process and formulated a sales playbook for all team members to ensure best practices were documented and employed. We reconfigured the CRM system significantly and incorporated predictive and analytical technologies to optimize territory growth and improve rep productivity and effectiveness.
Results
As a result of these efforts, the sales team’s performance improved dramatically. Within six months, the legacy team had transformed into a role-based sales organization that was positioned and equipped to exceed its revenue goals for two consecutive years. The recovery plan was so successful that the client expanded our original US-based program to include its Canadian sales operation.
2
consecutive years of exceeding revenue goals
Expanded US-based program to include Canadian sales operations