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CASE
STUDY: Get
Ready to Grow! 
Challenge
For many
years, Samco Machinery – manufacturers of roll forming machines
for 3 decades – won business on the merits of great products,
strong relationships and the hard work of Joe Repovs (company founder
and President) & Jeff Carson. But in late 2003, Samco wanted to
ramp up their sales effort beyond Joe and Jeff.
Analysis
In analyzing
the existing team's skill set, Focus America concluded that:
· Due to Joe’s
other leadership responsibilities, Samco was too heavily dependent on one
sales person.
· The quoting philosophy
often resulted in re-quoting and impulsive quoting and ultimately a 3%-7%
close ratio. While industry averages where not known, 10-15% was deemed achievable
· While marketing did
a fantastic job generating leads, the sales reps were responsible for lead
follow up in addition to closing new business and managing existing customers.
These vast responsibilities often resulted in leads falling through the cracks.
· While Maximizer was
the corporate sales technology platform, there was no sales process enabling
Samco to truly understand "what's in the pipeline" beyond just seeing quotes.
In addition, the technology requirements, to enable off-site employees to
access the database was frustrating and time-consuming.
Solution
· To
address the heavy dependence on Jeff Carson – another sales person
was hired. Focus America role was to help Samco’s new sales manager
manage and coach the sales team so as to get off to a good start.
· Regarding the quoting
issues, Focus America customized and implemented their Project Analyzer Worksheet
and Test. This tool gave the reps a structured process that disabled them
from “just throwing at quote out” without strategizing.
· To help ensure no valuable
leads fell through the cracks, Focus America created a Business Development
position at Samco with specific responsibilities for lead generation; lead
follow up and cultivation. Focus America did the initial training & ongoing
management for this new role.
· To give Samco full
clarity and visibility of their sales pipeline – as well as improve
off-site access - Focus America switched Samco from Maximizer to Salesforce.com & set
up the Sales Roadmap sales methodology. Focus America executed the training
as well.
Result
As a result of the great work put forth from Focus America:
· After 6 months, the entire
sales team is exceeding their sales target by over 35%.
· The close ratio has
improved to over 25%.
· The new Business Development
Representative has enabled the sales team to confidently offload work and
leads are no longer falling through the cracks.
· The Sales Roadmap
and Salesforce.com have been successfully implemented and, while it’s
still early, all signs show that far deeper and clearer visibility is on
the horizon.
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