Delta Associates

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Sales Training Success: CustomerCentric Selling® helps Delta Associates define a sales process, better manage the pipeline and improve performance.

Key Player
Principal, Delta Associates

Goal and Current Situation
Delta Associates Principal, Steve Gerst, was led to CCS® by a conflict he had with how selling made him feel when speaking with prospects and customers. Being fairly new to the sales role, Steve felt ‘insincere’ when initiating conversations with prospects and customers. Until CustomerCentric Selling®, Delta Associates had no sales process in place yet had a team of sales people comprised of respectively different approaches that failed to align with the business, but more importantly, their customers. Their primary goal was to implement a unified, repeatable sales process with a common language to follow that is aligned with not just their business, but their customers.

Delta Associates also operated with the attitude that they had the best mouse trap in town and their customers would recognize instantly the value they deliver and therefore the sales team did not need to “sell their services.” Their customers would come to them, which many did, but they also did not close many others.

Moreover, Steve admittedly realized a problem with how he managed his pipeline, referring to ‘illusions’ of how he approached it. He found that he was not objective in how he managed the pipeline, and therefore not realistic about when opportunities were actually forecasted to close, assuming they were ‘only a call away.’ Since no sales process was in place, these ‘pipeline illusions’ became a perpetuating challenge that failed to yield its promised revenue and results.

In summary, the sales challenges Delta Associates experienced prior to CustomerCentric Selling® included:

• No process with different approaches yielding to misalignment with customers and the business
• Inaccurate pipeline management and forecasting
• Low sales performance and selling confidence resulting from lack of expertise in knowing how to best handle the customer experience

Capabilities Needed
After completing the CCS® workshop delivered by Co-founder Gary Walker, Steve discovered an epiphany about how Delta Associates can greatly revolutionize how they approach sales opportunities. Steve has made plans for his whole team to go through the same CCS® workshop so everyone is aligned with the same approach, process and language. Delta Associates did not want to be perceived as salespeople, but as solution providers. They recognized that the CCS® selling process is about helping customers identify the “pain points” that they can help them solve. Their goal is now to partner with their clients – not sell to them. This approach allows them to use tools that better understand their clients’ situations and how they can help them overcome them. The entire process is defined by the customer, which drives the business with aid of Solution Development Prompters™ (SDP’s) that assist in the natural development and progression of the customer experience. Steve is now better armed with how to help his customers justify reallocation of precious training budget dollars when most are being cut.

CustomerCentric Selling® provided Steve and his team with the capabilities needed to achieve their goal.

Results
As a result, Steve’s pipeline and forecasting accuracy has greatly improved and his sales performance is extremely positive. CustomerCentric Selling® has enabled Delta Associates to:

• Approach opportunities by partnering with the customer – not selling them – which allows for a deeper understanding of the customer and his/her challenges, needs and goals where a solution can be defined
• Prevail in sales performance despite the current economic downturn with a sales process that works for the business and for customers
• Re-align the business to align with the customers and their needs
• Feel sincerity and confidence in how sales opportunities are approached and handled
• Greatly improve sales performance and pipeline management with a sales process that reflects the business and needs of the customers

Customer Closeup
For more than 14 years, Delta Associates has helped professionals in the consumer products industry boost productivity, increase efficiency and surpass their most ambitious goals. Their best-in-class skill-development workshops, software tools, and consulting services empower their clients to compete and win in an environment increasingly driven by business analytics. They team with retailers and manufacturers to improve their category management, sales, marketing, and merchandising capabilities across the organisation. Their clients have included more than 400 companies-dozens of them on the Fortune 500 list-in 50 countries around the globe.

Benefits to Delta Associates:

• Greatly improved sales performance and customer communication
• Improved pipeline management and accurate forecasting
• Defined sales process that reflects the business and the needs of the customer
• Confidence and feeling of sincerity in how sales conversations are handled, where customers are being helped and not sold

More information on Delta Associates can be found at http://www.delta-assoc.com/

If you have questions about this client, please contact Gary Walker at gwalker@customercentric.com.

About CustomerCentric Selling®
CustomerCentric Selling® (CCS®) is a proven methodology for predictably improving revenue growth and sales performance. Founded in 2002, CCS® helps clients worldwide to implement repeatable, auditable and scalable sales processes that, when combined with Sales Ready Messaging®, guides marketing and sales to have meaningful conversations with customers and prospects. This results in winning high-value deals, retaining and growing client relationships and improving the predictability and accuracy of sales forecasts.

CustomerCentric Selling® is regularly named to the Top Sales Training Companies list. Clients such as Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Business Objects, Rockwell Automation, EMC and Raython have deployed CCS® worldwide. For more information, vist www.customercentric.com, or call Jill Perez at 800.993.1228, ext.706.