Sales up by 23% in only 3 months

Established for over 50 years the company used many ageing sales and marketing techniques and had relied too heavily on its perceived position and strengths within the marketplace.

Little care had been taken to secure the customer base beyond a small number of key accounts, leaving many accounts open to approaches from the increasing number of more aggressive competitors entering the marketplace. Too little was known by the company regarding these competitors' strengths and weaknesses, which left the company in a poor position when countering.

Current sales and marketing activity lacked integration and tended to respond to short-term need rather than any planned strategy. This resulted in disappointing levels of enquiry and poor conversion rates. In addition, early signs of erosion had been too easily dismissed or ignored as part of a more normal trading cycle

An initial study was completed and findings presented to the board and senior management team within 2 weeks of commencement of the project. This clearly defined immediate steps that could be taken to stabilise and then rapidly improve the situation to deliver the required turnaround in the companies fortunes, reversing the trend seen during the previous three years of trading.

Working closely with the client, immediate steps were taken to integrate the roles of sales and marketing to make better use of existing resource and budget. Much of this focussed on the existing base and past enquirers, allowing the company to engage this group more effectively to maximise opportunity in the short-term, in addition to securing the base from competitors. Marketing programs were immediately developed to support this and to deliver heightened levels of opportunity from many of the key target sectors identified.

Ageing enquiry capture and handling procedures were improved to enhance conversion rates whilst simultaneously reducing sales cycles. Intelligence gathering was implemented to gain a fuller understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and how these may be best exploited in a competitive context.

The Result
In the first three months following implementation of the plan, sales increased by 23% over, sales enquiry levels were increased by 47% with conversion rates improving from 1:5 to 1:3.

Over the following three months sales input levels continued to increase over production output and by month six the order book stood at a little over £1.1 million. A firmer base had been created onto which a more developed marketing strategy could be developed to ensure sustainable development for the company's future inline with the initial aims.