Sales Training Success: CustomerCentric Selling® helps transform and improve the way Descartes sells and connects with its customers.
Key Player
VP of Sales
Goal
In order to respond to the needs of targeted organizations, and to differentiate itself from its competitors in ways that enhanced the Descartes capabilities, newly appointed VP of Sales for then Cube Route which later was acquired by Descartes, Bill Green entered into discussions with CustomerCentric Selling® Business Partner, Chris Kavanagh. Green recognized that it would be necessary to enhance the sales process in place and institute a sales methodology capable of providing the foundational elements necessary for expansive sales growth.
Current Situation and Capabilities Needed
According to Green, the following challenges were identified soon after his arrival at Descartes:
- To ensure that the incumbent sales team was provided the appropriate tools required to meet their targets and attract sales professionals to the US markets underserved by the organization.
- To analyze the sales pipeline for qualified opportunities and begin to forecast revenue.
- To target vertical markets with companies significantly larger on average than the current customer base.
- To be sensitive to the cost of sales pressures and maximize the use of technical expertise available within the organization.
CustomerCentric Selling® provided Descartes with these capabilities.
Results
Within days of the company’s initial CustomerCentric Selling® workshop, these results were realized:
- The pipeline was re-graded to reflect the new methodology to better recognize and manage opportunities resulting in more accurate forecasting.
- The sales team’s individual talents were determined and matched to the best selling responsibility for each individual.
- The Inside and Regional Sales teams began to make use of the Refocus Meeting strategy resulting in two significant opportunities being re-engaged after lying dormant for over ninety days.
- Active opportunities were contacted in order to further qualify as Goal Shared and satisfying a metric of 25% of Active suspects moving to the next prospect milestone, which satisfied a CustomerCentric Selling® core concept of No Goal, No Prospect.
- CustomerCentric Selling® deliverables, such as SDP’s for the targeted conversation list, were underway with scheduled release within two weeks.
- Commitment was won from Sales Operations to complete the configuration of Descartes’ sales automation software to reflect the new Descartes sales process.
Customer Closeup
Descartes, a leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) logistics solutions, is delivering results across the globe today for organizations that operate logistics-intensive businesses. Descartes’ logistics management solutions combine a multi-modal network, the Descartes Global Logistics Network, with component-based ‘nano’ sized applications to provide messaging services between logistics trading partners, shipment management services to help manage third party carriers and private fleet management services for organizations of all sizes. These solutions and services help Descartes’ customers reduce administrative costs, billing cycles, fleet size, contract carrier costs, and mileage driven and improve pick up and delivery reliability. Our hosted, transactional and packaged solutions deliver repeatable, measurable results and fast time-to-value.
More information on Descartes can be found at www.descartes.com.
For any questions about this client, please contact Chris Kavanagh at ckavanagh@customercentric.com.
Benefits to Descartes:
- Improved client interaction based on aligning value with needs
- Single process with a common set of tools and templates to guide sales
- Revenue forecasting accuracy improved by over 30%
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.