Manufacturer of internetworking products and IBM compatible peripherals
The client is a $160M privately held company that manufactures network connectivity products for IBM based networks as well as products that emulate IBM legacy terminals, printers, and communications devices. In contrast to several competitors, the revenue contribution and productivity of its Inside Sales organization was not meeting expectations.
Objectives:Problems or obstacles to achieving objectives as observed by MultiTrack:
- Generate more leads and insure that these leads are followed up and qualified.
- Increase revenue from installed end users.
- Grow reseller business and make the process more productive and profitable.
MultiTrack performed the following activities:
- Many of the Inside Sales reps had little or no formal training or coaching in selling over the telephone.
- Certain individual Inside Sales reps were not suited for the position.
- Incentive compensation plans promoted conflicts among Inside Sales, the Reseller Field Sales group, and the End User Field Sales group.
- The Inside Sales group was responsible for doing outbound lead qualification of trade show and bingo leads as well as doing seminar registration. In addition, they were responsible for handling inbound inquiries that resulted from direct mail and advertising. Since the reps were measured and compensated only on product sales revenue, they were not motivated to carry out these telemarketing tasks.
- There was no formal installed base marketing program.
Results:
- Interviewed top management personnel to determine focus, commitment, and mission of the enterprise.
- Conducted interviews with Field Sales, Inside Sales, Marketing, and Operations personnel as well as selected customers to determine what people perceived as their goals, obstacles to these goals, and support from management.
- Charted current activities such as lead flow and tracking, installed base activities, conflicts among sales and distribution channels, sales rep productivity, and compensation.
- Created a detailed business plan identifying the goals of Inside Sales as they related to the Corporate mission, problems to be solved, recommendations, standards, sales process automation tools, and implementation procedures.
- Recruited, interviewed, and selected new Inside Sales Reps as well as Telemarketing Reps for focused lead generation campaigns.
- Recommended specific changes in communications methods and compensation plans for Inside and Outside Sales reps to promote cooperation and team selling and reduction of conflict.
- Conducted formal, classroom sales training for all Inside Sales and Telemarketing personnel.
- Recommended the combination of multiple corporate databases for use in installed base marketing programs.
- Provided on-going monitoring and coaching of sales people to enhance the effectiveness of classroom training.
- Created, implemented and measured results of focused, integrated direct marketing programs in the following areas:- Trade show lead follow-up - Proactive telephone and direct mail campaign to introduce a new product line to both end users and resellers - Seminar registration - Inbound response handling from print advertising
- Presented a final report of results and recommendations for on-going improvement.
- Overall reseller sales as well as the revenue contribution of Inside Sales exceeded goal and hit record levels in second quarter after programs were implemented.
- Leads from a subsequent Interop trade show were qualified and fulfilled within two weeks of the show.
- The newly created and staffed Telemarketing group conducted a successful campaign to recruit and register attendees to a nation-wide series of seminars on internetworking.
- A new product line was successfully launched using MultiTrack’s Integrated Direct Marketing program to contact resellers and generate end user leads.
- A new compensation plan was im plemented that promoted cooperation among the various sales groups and attracted new reps to the Inside Sales group.
The success of these programs resulted in MultiTrack being awarded a follow on contract for additional sales training and program implementation.
MultiTrack Case Study No. 2