Problem:

A friend of mine was newly hired as a sales manager for a local roofing contractor. We went out for dinner to celebrate his new job. Of all the concerns he addressed after working for one day, the one that intrigued me the most was that “there had to be a more efficient way of converting prospects to customers.”

Analysis:

While at dinner, I asked about the current conversion process. On the back of a napkin, I drew a process diagram. Then after answering a few more of my questions, I drew an improved version on another napkin. Everything that happens, whether it’s simple or complex, will follow some sort of process. My friend could immediately see the benefit of a documented process. However, the process was not the only problem:

• There were no measurements in place. How many prospects? How many customers? What are the costs involved? How much revenue is gained? How many prospects did each salesperson convert to customers? Without measurements like this, you cannot tell how effective your sales force is.
• There was no compliance control in place. Because there was no documented process, there was no way to determine if salespeople were serving the customers well. Compliance is more than whether or not a process is followed. It also allows for improvements to be made and new ideas to incubate.
• New salespeople were not setup for success. There was a high turnover in the sales staff, which caused the sales manager to constantly train new staff that would leave anyway.

Solution:

1. Document the current sales process. From the napkin copy, I converted it to a CAD drawing, and let the employees review it. Suggestions for improvements came long before the current process was completed.
2. Document the new sales process. The new sales process incorporated many of the suggested improvements, but also maintained the purpose of converting prospects to customers efficiently.
3. Develop training materials. The company wanted an easy way to onboard new sales employees, train them, and set them up to be successful. The training materials included the new sales process, graphical descriptions of how to conduct each step of the process, access to all the forms used within the process and documents of methods that the sales staff could use to increase their conversion rates.

Results:

The company took the documentation and implemented it in the sales department. Within 3 months, they increased their sales staff from 4 people to 6 people. The current sales members made less errors by following the process. The new sales members picked up the process quickly and started converting prospects to customers within their first two weeks of working. Company sales had a 25% increase in the first quarter after implementing the new sales process.

Although these items could have easily been within the scope of my work statement, the company was enabled and encouraged to do the following:

1. Track the prospects and customers. From that, a conversion rate can be determined.
2. Measure the production days. Production days are the number of days between starting a roofing contract and ending the contract. Faster turnaround keeps money in the bank instead of the assets.
3. Measure the sales performance. This indicator allows for management of growth and resource planning.