Case Study
B2B Electrical Products and services
5% increase in
annual turnover
Service line
Business Excellence
Syngroup Office
Milano / Italy
Geography
Europe
B2B Electrical Products and services
Background
Our client a leading distributor of electrical products and services to the industrial, construction, maintenance sectors as well as public and private commercial businesses.

The company employs 27,000 people in 26 countries.
Syngroup was approached by the Italian arm of the business where our client had concerns about the performance of its sales organisation. Sales had been stagnating for some time and our client felt that the sales process was outdated and ineffective. In addition the sales organisation structure was no longer fit for purpose.

Objectives
  • Increase turnover through better interaction with the existing sales network
  • Replace passive sales behaviour with proactive engagement
  • Equip the sales team with the tools and methods to achieve higher margin on sales
  • Introduce order and discipline to the sales management process
Focus area
Sales
Sales Management Process
Sales behaviours
Margin
Our Approach

Our approach targeted 3 separate areas:

  1. The initial task involved a redesign of the sales management process. It was crucial to keep the sales team engaged and open to change, therefore a ‘workshop’ approach was adopted. This allowed sales representatives to share challenges they were experiencing on a daily basis. Taking their specific challenges into consideration and combining them with ‘best-practices’ that we knew were tried and tested, enabled us to develop a process that met all the requirements.
    In addition, ‘leading’ KPIs were introduced to take control of ‘inputs’ versus focussing exclusively on output. For example, the business started to measure the number of meetings that sales were attending rather than focussing purely on sales achieved.
    Weekly sales performance calls were also added to the process. These involved area managers and the executive committee.
  2. We recognised that changing the mindset of the sales team would be challenging and to increase certainty of success, we engaged a coach /facilitator who specialised in this type of challenge. Through this process alignment and trust were both strengthened. The coach also focussed on developing important soft skills to improve interaction. The aim was to transition sales from ‘Product push’ to ‘Solution pull’
  3. As the new process came into use, we accompanied sales staff to client meetings. In advance of each meeting , we spent time with individuals, ensuring they were well prepared, that they had the most up to date sale collateral with them and were familiar with any new products. In addition, we helped them to think about their objectives for the meeting and what would be a good outcome.
Results
5% increase in annual turnover
Improvement in the quality of client interaction
Improved visibility and control of the sales pipeline
Methodologies
  • Process design
  • Coaching
  • Facilitation