Rakesh Shah, founder of RVR management which focuses on providing Interim solutions for engineering/manufacturing sectors, explains how he managed to turnaround a manufacturing business that was experiencing a decline in its sales revenue.
Brief
The client was an engineering based company, who supplied instrumentation to a number of B2B based market sectors. The biggest issue for the client was that they were losing market share, and sales revenue was declining – down ten per cent from the previous year and approximately 15% the year before. Therefore, as a result a number of sales & marketing managers had come and gone.
The main brief was to recover the sales revenue for the business and to install some form of sales management process into the business. I was recruited for an initial period of three months, this then ended up being extended to 8 months
Execution
The initial few weeks were spent examining the sales/marketing process. There was no clear strategy or measurement as to how the product would be marketed to the client target segment and no marketing communication plan was in place in order to generate new business.
Closer examination of the past sales history had showed up a very worrying trend. For the past five years approx 85% of business was coming from existing accounts and in this business, once equipment is purchased it is likely to last approximately 15-20 years.
Priority 1 – Develop a detailed strategic growth plan for the business; which segment should the client be targeting, what types of accounts, how should the message be delivered, etc. Plus, a clear direction for the business, in terms of where are they now, where do they want to be and how are they going to get there.
Priority 2 – Develop a detailed marketing plan; how should the product be marketed and what new features should be developed into the product that differentiates the clients and adds value to the end customer.
Priority 3 – Focus on sales process, team building and improving product knowledge. Also introduced visual management board based on six sigma principles, which track /measured all the key data. The team where then given ownership to check/review the data and where appropriate carry out root cause counter measure in order to continuously improve/further develop the process.
Priority 4 – Coach/train the team on benefits of six sigma process (e.g. carried out current state /future state map, Kiazen, QDIP boards, 5s etc…)
Priority 5 – Coach/train the team on benefits of focusing on solution selling and taking more of a consultative approach to key accounts.
Priority 6 – Develop a key account management strategy, with key focus on building relationships at all key levels within the business (i.e. key decision makers, and influencers etc.)
Legacy
The sales/marketing transformation programme generated improvements in the company’s performance. The business achieved 21% growth versus the previous year and 26% growth versus the year before. Therefore, in the second half (32% growth v Q3 PY and 45% growth v Q4 PY) of the year the team recovered the decline from the first half of the year and exceeded the target for H2. Furthermore, the number of new leads/accounts introduced into the business increased by 30% and first quarter forecasts and pipelines are in line to achieve the top level stretch sales goal of 25% growth.
Client feedback:
“Rakesh was recruited as Head of Sales to review our sales structure/process within the UK. He introduced a number of initiatives/strategies which lead to developing/implementing a focused approach to sales process/pipeline management. The results delivered were beyond expectations driving strong growth in our equipment sales in the UK in the second half of the year.”
M.Copper – FD
