Selling the Sellers
Situation
An industry-leading supplier of enhanced voice, video and data services (including local and long distance phone service) to business customers, needed to boost fourth quarter new account sign-ups. The new president of the company was challenged by a multi-dimensional network of sales channels. The key to growth was motivating an existing telecommunications sales network to sell new voice and data service offerings. The potential to provide existing hardware customers with voice, video and data products at competitive pricing was large and immediate. However, the tools and motivation, which the sales force needed to ensure success, proved elusive.
GOALS/OBJECTIVES
Goals
- Increase fourth quarter new accounts by 20% over prior year.
Objectives
- Develop hardware/service bundling programs and pricing which are attractive to customers and provide new sales opportunities for sales force.
- Create new momentum for a stagnated sales force.
- Demonstrate true “change for the better” from the new leadership.
STRATEGY/TACTICS
The strategy was developed to exploit the potential revenue and customer service synergy of bundling telecommunications hardware sales with voice, video and data transmission services. Incentive plans, and a sales contest were developed for the sales force, which strongly motivated them to embrace and execute the bundling strategy. New positioning was created as well as an updated corporate identity and sales promotion materials, while remaining within the corporate branding framework.
Results
Sales from this division increased $1.3 million over the same quarter for the previous year, more than double the original goal of the strategy. The new president of the division said, “FabCom’s approach was ingenious. They didn’t just focus on creative, but offered creative business solutions, which dug deep into our core issue and provided immediate positive results. I wish we would have discovered them ten years earlier.”
