Dublin Entrepreneurial CenterFebruary 11th, 2010

Drive Retention & Growth in Any Economy

56% of vendors perceive themselves as being extremely customer

focused....

76% of senior marketers said they were not realizing the full

revenue potential of their existing customers.

but only 12% of customers agreed.

Guessing vs. Knowing

• Hire a superstar salesperson with deep industry expertise and “killer” rolodex• Create a “wow” sales presentation and drill each sales person on how to give it• Focus all sales activity on new accounts and set new quotas• Change the commission plan to incent more new account sales• Require all new closed business to be turned over immediately to “non-sales”

people to do account management and customer service to keep the sales team focused on new accounts

• Do more quotes and RFPs• Require weekly call reports that hit target call goals• Do a weekly pipeline review and require mandatory dollar targets for pipeline

increases• Create a good marketing brochure• Cut prices to attract new business• Offer no obligation service trials and tests• Send more follow-up literature and correspondence of all types to active

opportunities in the pipeline• Do more networking• Foster a spirit of friendly competition among employees to exceed goals e.g.

invoices processed per week per employee• Freeze salaries• Give employees free soft drinks and coffee

What Did They Do?

Improved performance of 2 mid-sized companies that were sold above market value to Fortune 500 companies

Used to drive sales growth for company that reached BusinessWeek’s Top 100 Small Public Companies

Guided Columbus-based company to #28 on Business First’s Fast 50 Emerging Companies

Helped three companies reach #8, #20, & #87

Why Do a Report Card?

GPAGrow – Protect - Add

Relationships

Why Do a Report Card?

1. Collect2. Analyze3. Act

DIY Report Card:

Step 1: Collect Report Cards

1. How would you grade them overall from A+ to F?

2. What are the positive reason for the grade, if any?

3. Why did you originally select them?

4. Why do you stay with them?

5. If for any reason you'd stop doing business with them, what would it be?

6. Have they told others about them? What did/would you have to say?

7. Any additional services or products you wish they provided?

8. Anything that needs to be fixed?

9. Any other feedback or comments about your relationship with them?

10. In general what do you value absolutely the most from any supplier or vendor?

• Record• Transcribe• 3rd Party• Repeat

Collecting Report Card Tips:

Step 2: Analyze Report Cards

Finding the Needles “In general things are very good. The only thing that really bothers me are some of these additional charges we get on our invoice. We pay a monthly fee for their service and a lot of times I wonder why are we getting charged more? Shouldn't this be part of the standard service? “

Fix

Impacts

“They negotiate with the vendors and we do not have to get involved with that. It is an additional cost savings. We consolidated services without increasing costs.”

What Else?

“We are really happy with the existing product. You know, it would be great if they had a reporting piece. We’ve talked to a few others companies about some solutions.”

Step 3: Act on Report Cards

Finding the Needles “In general things are very good. The only thing that really bothers me are some of these additional charges we get on our invoice. We pay a monthly fee for their service and a lot of times I wonder why are we getting charged more? Shouldn't this be part of the standard service? “

Fix

Impacts

“They negotiate with the vendors and we do not have to get involved with that. It is an additional cost savings. We consolidated services without increasing costs.”

What Else?

“We are really happy with the existing product. You know, it would be great if they had a reporting piece. We’ve talked to a few others companies about some solutions.”

• The only thing that really bothers me are some of these additional chargesFix /Address

Conversation Starter

• They negotiate with the vendors…It is an additional cost savingsPositive Impacts

• It would be great if they had a reporting piece What Else?

Customer: Jane Doe, ACME CompanyCurrent Grade: B+

• Take Action Quickly• Be Transparent• Involve Multiple Titles• Do Ongoing Report Cards

Final Cautions:

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

-Wayne Gretzky

Cost of Guessing Return on Knowing

Our Report Card