Sales Training Success: UBS increases revenue, cuts time from hire-to-first sale in half and dramatically improves forecasting accuracy.

Business Problem
Specializing in providing a full range of document imaging services, the CEO of Reams Document Imaging, now Unity Business Systems, faced the challenge of developing a strategic plan for growth and the tactics to achieve success. Having an existing sales and marketing staff that possessed a mix of talents and energies, he was committed to increasing revenue without raising the cost of sales.

The marketplace was state and county governments. An initial analysis uncovered the following barriers to achieving his goal:

• With no defined sales process, forecasting was less than accurate as qualification and pipeline grading vary with each salesperson.
• Sales cycles could drag on from six months to two years.
• Without the development of coordinated messaging tools, the salespeople had to rely on available marketing materials, which did not support the sales philosophy on which he wanted to build.
• The time it took from the date of hire until the first sale was made was 6-8 months.

The CustomerCentric Selling® Solution
After initial conversations, it was determined that the goal of the CEO was to improve sales and revenue performance through the introduction of a consistent, repeatable sales process.

Specifically, he wanted to:

• Have all sales and marketing personnel use the same methodology.
• Provide the sales team with sales messaging tools that supported them with the capability to conduct business-level discussions with all levels of state and county executives.
• Establish a centralized source of sales information upon which accurate forecasting could be based.

CustomerCentric Selling® provided Unity Business Systems with these capabilities. After conducting a customized CustomerCentric Selling® Workshop with the entire sales and marketing staff, the results included:

• The volume of the sales funnel has increased by 70%
• Time for new salespeople to produce their first sale has been reduced by 50%
• The sales forecast has been at least 80% accurate for the last two quarters
• Gross revenues have increased by 60%

When asked to comment on the improved sales performance, Carl Long, CEO of Unity Business Systems said, "CustomerCentric Selling® is the cornerstone of our strategic plan for continued growth and market dominance. In sales, there is no prize for second place. CustomerCentric Selling® gives our salespeople the competitive edge by teaching them how to develop deals they are sure to win."

Benefits to Unity Business Systems:

• The volume of the sales funnel increased by 70%
• The time for new salespeople to produce their first sale has been reduced by 50%
• Sales forecasts were at least 80% accurate for at least two straight quarters following implementation
• Gross revenues increased by 60%

More information on Unity Business Systems can be found at www.unitysystems.biz

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