Case Study #1
Industry:
Oil and Gas
Location:
Southern California
How long in business:
33 years
How many employees:
150 employees
Length of engagement:
1 year
Client Situation:
Needed to turn around 2 years of declining sales
Client Challenges:
Top sales for the company was in 2014 at 37 million. Then sales were on a 2-year slide:
2015 – 28 million
2016 – 28.4 million
• New debt: The company recently invested over 4 million for an additional manufacturing plant in Texas via a loan.
• President of the company and others were managing some of the sales team, but not one person dedicated to managing the entire sales team. They were not making data driven decisions to increase sales and did not have a sales culture.
• 95% or more of the bids for jobs were not being awarded and going to competitors.
• Family owned business with 4 family members performing different jobs with different job titles. All four family members have the same power, authority to make decisions, and are making the same salary. One family member works 50+ hours per week while other family members work minimal hours. Too many chiefs and no Indians.
Approach to Solving Challenges
Step 1:
Performed a sales assessment of the company to analyze and determine why sales were going south the past 2 years.
Step 2:
Half day strategic planning session with the 4 owners to talk about why they thought sales were going south. Reviewed 6-page questionnaire that The Novak Group had each owner complete before strategic planning meeting. Came up with a sales goal and a plan of action on how to achieve goal.
Step 3:
For the next 12 months, The Novak Group managed the sales team and took the correct action steps to help the company have its best year ever in sales.
The Process:
• Kickoff Started with a 2 Day Sales Training. Brought team together for an offsite training. This was the 1st time the company was brought together as a team.
• Kickoff: Visited privately with each salesperson and sales support staff to build trust and build personal relationship. Each person that I visited with, completed The Novak Groups questionnaire prior to visit so we could discuss questionnaire and talk about next steps.
• Ongoing Management: Implemented bi- monthly motivational sales meetings to help build sales culture and sales training.
• Ongoing Management: Implemented individual one on one bi-monthly coaching sessions.
• Performance Measurement: Held sales team accountable for entering required data in CRM and completing daily activity tracking reports.
• Compensation: Revamped commission structure to motivate sales team to sell more.
• Culture: Implemented a sales culture and brought everyone together as a team.
• Culture/Communication: Implemented company wide communication to open communication channels from the president, executive team and managers to all employees.
• Compensation/Motivation: International sales office and managers were not being heard or supported. The Novak Group was able to support the international office in many ways; including compensating the sales rep a small salary increase along with a commission increase. He had his best year ever with a $1.5 million increase in sales. He moved his office to a new office 2 times the size, with minimal increase in monthly rent.
• Compensation/Motivation: Helped a sales assistant receive a raise and a bonus based on monthly sales from the salesperson that she was following up for. All incoming leads for the company were being handled by this sales assistant who was underpaid and always thinking about how she would pay her bills. Now she is focused on thinking about how she can help make more sales since she receives a bonus on closed sales.
Result:
• She helped increase sales over 2 million for the salesperson she assisted.
• The Novak Group hired a salesperson to establish new territory.• Kickoff:
Company Result:
Increased sales over 10 million in one year to hit a record-breaking year.
Case Study #2
Industry:
Call Center for Legal Intake
Location:
Southern California
How long in business:
52 years
How many employees:
250 employees
Length of engagement:
1 year 4 months
Client Situation:
Looking to expand sales team and grow the business.
Client Challenges:
Only had 2 salespeople and one of them was struggling and causing disruption within the company.
• Wanted to grow sales and did not know the best approach.
• President of the company was a little too kind and would wait to have the tough conversations with executive staff and sales team. Sales team functioned on its own at times with no leadership/management.
• No tracking of leads and had no idea what their conversion rate was or other sales metrics.
Approach to Solving Challenges
Step 1:
• Half Day Strategic Planning Session with the President. Reviewed and discussed a 6-page questionnaire that was received from The Novak Group prior to planning session.
• Came up with a sales goal and a plan of action to get there.
• For the next 12 months, The Novak Group took the correct steps to help the company have its best year ever in sales and increase the size of their sales team from 2 to 5 salespeople.
Step 2:
Implemented Sales Management 2.0
The Process:
• Started with a half day sales training.
• Implemented bi- monthly sales meetings.
• Implemented one on one bi-monthly coaching sessions with sales team.
• Held sales team accountable for entering required data in CRM and completing daily activity tracking reports.
• Put systems in place for prospecting, presenting, closing and follow up.
• Revamped commission structure to motivate sales team to sell more.
• Implemented a sales culture, brought everyone together as a team.
• Marketing department was exposed in not producing enough leads for the sales team.
• Mystery shopped competitors.
• Set up and hosted after party at annual convention held in Las Vegas, NV. Invited clients, potential clients and vendors to meet and greet, and talk business in a casual atmosphere.
• Implemented and ran weekly & monthly sales contests.
• Helped with processes to self-generate leads.
• LinkedIn training on how to use LinkedIn to generate leads and update LinkedIn profile for greater impact.
Company Result:
Before bringing the Novak Group onboard sales averaged 8.5 million per year. Sales Increased to over 11 million in one year to hit a record-breaking year. Sales were approximately 15 million the following 12 months.
Case Study #3
Industry:
Law Firm
Location:
Southern California
How long in business:
24 years
How many employees:
25 employees
Length of engagement:
2 years 5 months
Client Situation:
No Sales Manager. Conversion rate was low while spending millions of dollars on advertising to generate leads.
Client Challenges:
• Needed to weed out current sales team.
Result: let one sales person go and repositioned one to another department within the company.
• There was no relationship building and little empathy when talking to prospective clients.
• No sales meetings or sales coaching.
• Lack of communication and trust. Low morale and no positive sales culture.
• No strategizing while on the phone with potential client.
• All salespeople are attorneys/salespeople
Approach to Solving Challenges
Step 1:
Half day strategic sales planning session with the owner and CFO. Came up with a sales goal and a plan of action to get there. For the next 24 months, The Novak Group took the correct steps to help the company increase sales 3 million and increase their average conversion rate of 9% to an average of 20%.
Step 2:
Implemented Sales Management 2.0
The Process:
• Started with a half day sales training.
• Implemented bi-monthly sales meetings.
• Implemented one on one bi-monthly coaching sessions.
• Held sales team accountable for entering required data in CRM and completing daily activity tracking reports.
• Revamped commission structure to motivate sales team to sell more.
• Implemented a sales culture, brought everyone together as a team.
• Implemented and ran weekly & monthly sales contests.
• Worked with sales team on the 4 stages of selling: Prospecting, Presenting, Closing & Follow-up.
Company Result:
Increased conversion rate to 20%, which increased sales significantly.
Case Study #4
Industry:
Entertainment & Casino Promotions
Location:
Southern California
How long in business:
19 years
How many employees:
35 employees
Length of engagement:
12 months
Client Situation:
No sales manager or sales culture. 2 partners/owners had different philosophies on how the sales team should be managed.
Client Challenges:
Most of the sales team had no sales skills. They were hired because they were a family friend or referral.
Approach to Solving Challenges
Step 1:
Half day strategic sales planning session with the 2 owners/partners. Came up with a sales goal and a plan of action to get there. For the next 12 months, The Novak Group took the correct steps to help the company build a sales culture, held sales team accountable for sales goals and increased sales for the company.
Step 2:
Implemented Sales Management 2.0
The Process:
• Started with a half day sales training.
• Implemented bi-monthly sales meetings.
• Implemented one on one bi-monthly coaching sessions.
• Met individually with each salesperson to learn more about them, their selling style, build a personal relationship with them, and find out their strengths and weaknesses.
• Held sales team accountable for entering required data in CRM and completing daily activity tracking reports.
• 2-day sales presentation training for sales team.
• Restructured commission plan to motivate sales team to sell more.
• Implemented a sales culture, brought everyone together as a team.
• Implemented and ran weekly & monthly sales contests.
Yearly Goal: If the sales team met sales goal for the year, they would be treated to a vacation in Hawaii (all expenses paid and could bring a guest). Surpassed goal and trip was awarded.
Company Result:
5 million increase in sales year 1. Gross sales went from 27 million to over 100 million in 3 years.
Case Study #5
Industry:
Medical (Lasik)
Location:
Manhattan New York
How long in business:
19 years
How many employees:
30 employees
Length of engagement:
22 months
Client Situation:
Needed to increase conversion rate and expand/grow practice.
Client Challenges:
• Very competitive space with a lot of competition in New York City.
• Staff had very little structure or training on customer service.
• Doctor loved doing surgeries, but did not enjoy meeting with patients.
• No real follow-up program for patients that came in for initial consultation.
• Employee issues including thief of personal property at office.
• Low morale of employees lacking team effort and not working as a team to achieve practice goals.
Approach to Solving Challenges
Step 1:
Performed a sales assessment of the practice to analyze and determine why patients were not booking surgeries with practice. This included mystery shopping the practice and interviewing past patients on why they chose the doctor so we could duplicate success.
Step 2:
Strategic planning session with Doctor. Reviewed 6-page questionnaire that was completed by doctor prior to strategic planning session. Determined daily, weekly and monthly sales goals, and a plan of action on how to achieve goals.
Step 3:
For the next 22 months, Tod Novak and one team member traveled from Newport Beach, CA to NYC to train, coach and conduct all staff meetings.
The Process:
• Kick off: Started with a 4-hour customer service and sales training called Making the Human Connection. All staff including doctors attended the training.
• Kick off: Visited privately with each staff member and doctors to build trust and build personal relationship. Each person that The Novak Group visited with, completed a questionnaire prior to visit so we could discuss questionnaire and talk about Tod Novak’s role in the practice moving forward and expectations. This was also a time for staff members to vent and get off their chest anything that was bothering them.
• Implemented Bonus Program: Started a monthly bonus program for all employees to get everyone thinking about booking surgeries and developing the highest level of customer service.
• Ongoing Management: Implemented in person monthly all staff meetings to help build sales culture and share results of monthly mystery shopping results. Mystery shopping helped establish The Hawthorne Effect.
• Ongoing Management: Implemented individual one on one monthly coaching sessions with key staff members.
• Culture: Implemented a sales/customer service culture, brought everyone together as a team.
• Culture/Communication: Implemented company wide communication to open communication channels from the Doctor to all staff.
• Compensation/Motivation: Implemented a monthly bonus based on monthly goals each month for booked surgeries, this was huge in implementing the new sales culture.
• Coaching/Training: The main salesperson for the practice was coming across very phony, rehearsed and not real. I worked with him to relax and be himself, and connect better with patients.
• Leads/Referrals: Lasik practices live and die by lead generation and referrals. The Novak Group hired one person to do follow up with all potential patients that did not book a surgery after 10 days. The Novak Group demonstrated to the doctor that he could pay a follow up person approximately $85k per year with an hourly wage and bonus, and Tod Novak believed they would produce about $500k in booked surgeries. This was definitely worth trying since the doctor and staff had already invested time with the patients.
The doctor agreed to let The Novak Group hire and train this person on how to follow up correctly and created a follow up program that produced not $500k, but $1.2 million in the first year, on lost business that was just walking out the door.
Company Result:
Increased sales over 3 million in 22 months to hit a record-breaking year!
(2 years in a row).
Case Study #6
Industry:
Digital Marketing
Location:
San Diego, CA
How long in business:
14 years
How many employees:
38 employees
Length of engagement:
2 year
Client Situation:
Wanted to grow sales and have a sales expert manage the sales team.
Client Challenges:
• Very competitive space with a lot of competition.
• Clients are doctors. Very tough to get ahold of doctors over the phone and in person during working hours.
• Sales team was being managed by the President on a limited basis.
• There was no training and coaching for the sales team. Best practices were not being shared and salespeople were left to help themselves.
Approach to Solving Challenges
Step 1:
Half Day Strategic Planning Session with the President and Executive Team. Reviewed 6-page questionnaire that The Novak Group had the President complete before strategic planning meeting. Came up with a new sales goal and a plan of action on how to achieve goal and manage sales team.
Step 2:
For the next 12 months The Novak Group managed the sales team, attended conventions and even spoke a few times at conventions and offered 30 minute sessions to attendees to get more traffic to the booth. Took the correct action steps to help the company have its best year ever in sales.
The Process:
• Kick off: Started with a half day sales training. Brought team together for offsite training.
• Kick off: Visited privately with each salesperson and sales support staff to build trust and build personal relationship. Each person that The Novak Group visited with, completed a questionnaire prior to visit so we could discuss questionnaire and talk about next steps.
• Ongoing Management: Implemented bi-monthly motivational sales meetings to help build sales culture, sales training and share best practices.
• Ongoing Management: Implemented individual one on one bi-monthly coaching sessions to keep each sales person on track.
• Real Time Training: Had phone calls with potential new clients to help sale and demonstrate real live training and coaching.
• Performance Measurement: Held sales team accountable for entering required data in CRM and completing daily activity tracking reports.
• Compensation: Revamped commission structure to motivate sales team to sell more.
• Culture: Implemented a sales culture, brought everyone together as a team from all departments.
• Culture/Communication: Implemented company wide communication to open communication channels from the president, executive team and managers to all employees.
• Internal Sales Manager (by title only) that was receiving a small override commission on all sales and the sales team was not happy about the override commission. I was able to find out why he was receiving the override and shared this information with the sales team during a sales meeting. By talking about this and clearing the air the sales team was ok with why this was happening and allowed them to focus on sales rather than feeling like they were giving up some of their commission to someone that was not managing them.
• Compensation/Motivation: Number one salesperson was wanting additional compensation and benefits. By not having this acknowledged it was affecting his motivation. I was able to intervene and come up with a compromise, which then helped the salesperson reach an all-time high for retaining new business.
Company Result:
Increased sales over 35% in one year to hit a record-breaking year.