Sales Growth Through Commercial Dynamics Based on Continuous Improvement 

The company

A company operating in the field of fluids, air conditioning and water treatment which is part of a group that exists for over 80 years. It sells different types of equipment, provides technical advice and carries out project analysis.

The challenge

Being part of a comprehensive business group with a permanent commitment to continuous improvement, the challenge for the company was to improve the commercial area so that the business could continue to grow, ensuring continuous improvement in customer satisfaction.

The main problems experienced by the sales teams and management were insufficient planning and preparation of sales calls, inconsistent sales processes with several tasks with no added value and a lack of indicators. All this prevented the teams from achieving the desired results.

The approach

A diagnosis phase was carried out to identify the opportunities. After this analysis, the main opportunities identified focused on the management of the commercial teams, the sales process, and the percentage of time spent on low added value activities.

The reorganization of the commercial area teams, the review of roles and the definition of key indicators, allowed the creation of high-performance teams.

Implemented actions

The creation and standardization of Daily Kaizen™ dynamics in the sales and support teams, establishing frequent meetings to share market information (prices, competition, etc.), and sales opportunities was one of the key points to ensuring behavioral change and alignment among the sales teams.

The sales process was improved through the creation of standards for planning and preparing visits to customers. Within this scope, VOC (voice of customer) analysis was carried out. This process of capturing customers’ experiences, expectations, preferences, and needs, allowed us to have greater knowledge of the market and develop better sales scripts.

All the planning of visits was no longer done without defined criteria, but in accordance with the typification of customers and sales potential, thus allowing resources to be dedicated efficiently with detailed preparation of commercial interactions with the different customers.

The development of a customer-focused sales funnel has made it possible to support the buying journey until it is closed, and to always know with precision what the capacity of the funnel is to close new business, so as to achieve the sales target defined for a given period.

One of the processes involved was the training of the sales team. The standardization of the training process ensures that salespeople have the necessary knowledge to perform their duties correctly.

The elimination of tasks with no value added for the sales team was another of the project’s goals. For this, after identifying and mapping the tasks, the tasks that did not add value to the sales team were simplified and standardized, and the support team was trained in the new tasks. The purpose was to increase the team’s time dedicated to the sales process to increase their focus and productivity.

Results

The implementation of these improvements resulted in a 32% increase in sales and a 37% increase in margin. All the implementation was carried out together with the teams at the Gemba, ensuring that they developed the necessary skills, so that in the future they will not only be able to maintain the solutions, but also to improve them.

#Marketing & Sales