Cement Company
SITUATION
Major cement producer needed help to develop a new sales methodology to increase revenue in a down market.
DRIVER GOAL
- Add 0.7% market share in North America, without reducing price relative to the competition.
- Attain new customers with 180,000 tons of new business.
RESULT
- Attained volume and financial benefits in excess of plan by 11%.
- Developed a new Sales structure defined by four integrated processes aligned to the Driver Goals and future business growth strategies.
Case Study
Increase Sales Force Effectiveness
Issue
A major cement producing company (cement and admix) engaged The Highland Group to develop a new sales methodology and increase the effectiveness of its Sales organization in a down market.
Highland Approach
The Highland Group began with an assessment of the current Sales organization and then designed and implemented a new organization structure defined by four integrated processes designed to achieve the Driver Goals and future growth strategies.
Actions Taken
Target Account Acquisition – Developed and implemented an aggressive Target Sales Task Force process to acquire top ranking strategic accounts (a team selling approach to acquiring new business).
- Developed questionnaires, a knowledge base repository, account qualification tools, meeting agendas, a “model” presentation for prospects, and other tools.
- Created procedures to standardize the process for distribution to the Sales organization.
- Generated enthusiasm among the Sales organization.
Sales Effectiveness – Developed and implemented an effective sales process focused on growing market share while maintaining the current customer base.
- Developed a new Professional Selling Skills (PSS) methodology training program and delivered it to the Sales organization in the U.S. and Canada.
- Developed and documented “Individual Target Account Selling” and “Maintain Accounts” processes and tools.
Sales System For Managing (SFM) – Created a framework to standardize forecasting, budgeting, planning, reporting and managing.
- Designed and implemented tools for forecasting, planning and account optimization.
- Chartered a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) team to fully integrate the SFM process in an interactive system.
Organization Effectiveness – Enhanced the current organization structure to support the new sales and management processes. Developed a new Integrated Sales Organization model.
- Redefined the Sales regions, territories and job descriptions.
- Developed a skills assessment tool and training program to ensure continuous skills improvement in the Sales force to meet the demanding market conditions.
