Underperforming sales teams are a management problem that can rapidly become an investment nightmare and a drain on company resources.
Client: Briggs Equipment UK
Business: Materials handling equipment supply
Issue: Briggs’s southern regional sales team had not hit its targets nor reached its potential, and was consistently performing less well than its northern and central are counterparts.
Solution: Cathy Bennett of Vertical spent a day with each member of the 10-person sales force to evaluate individual performance and capability as well as the specific area issues which might be acting as barriers to success. She undertook an attitude, competency and experience (ACE) audit of each sales person tailored to Briggs’s customer sales policies.
“I followed up each appointment with a one-to-one review of the approach taken to provide improvement pointers for the next call,” said Cathy. “I also introduced a programme of monthly reviews of each sales person by their sales manager for whom I provided on-going coaching and mentoring, too.”
Result: In the first month following the training programme launch, the southern region achieved a 60 percent increase in sales which was also 10 percent ahead of the central and north regions – the first time it had come out on top in four years.
