Background and Challenge
The client, a leading Asian animal feed company, had established a dedicated sales team to market its products, and in 2013 invested heavily in expanding its sales force from about 20 to 100 sales representatives.
The business is focused on South China, with some coverage in Central China, and sales reps do some direct selling, but a large proportion of sales is through distribution partners. Although the expanded sales force added approximately $1 million in costs, the investment had not translated into commensurate revenue growth.
Approach and Recommendations
- Provided a systematic review of its sales practices, formulate an action plan with improvements, and help embed these into the organization
- Communicated with management, sales reps, distributors and customers to understand our client’s current sales strategy, sales enablers and sales process
- Analyzed our client’s sales data, sales reps’ income and other relevant data to diagnose potential problems in the sales process, and benchmarked with three case studies
Results
- We helped the client identify six key issues that limited the client’s sales force effectiveness and were difficult to solve with their internal resources, and several key issues that the client could tackle with internal resources to achieve quick wins
- We also developed a prioritized, high-level action plan that included key activities, risks, resources required, proposed timeline, a etc., to address those quick-fix issues internally
- We also submitted a proposal as requested to help the client address key issues that are difficult to solve with their internal resources only
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