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“Our large sales force is under performing. Turnover is killing us. How do we compete to win?”

Companies that rely upon large sales forces, such as real estate brokerages, financial services companies, and direct sellers, too often accept the high price of turnover and under performance as a cost of doing business. This resigned approach is easy, but it’s lousy stewardship on many levels of people, leadership, and profitability.

Turnover is typically an expense of neglect originating with the company leaders who “created” the system and culture. Top ranking officers need to own this deficit of performance and invest in improving the overall system of recruiting, training, tracking, and leading. Invariably, patterns of performance gaps are traced to ill-defined expectations and/or explanations. Muddled messages created confused results.

On-Purpose Partners serves sales-force dependent clients by:

• Clarifying the purpose, vision, mission, and values of the sales organization and, if needed, the company
• Assessing the marketing strategy and selling system and its context within the larger business operation
• Crafting the sales strategic story for engaging the company’s investors, team members, and customers
• Identifying recruiting, on-boarding, training, compensation, products, competition, and trends for the best patterns and behaviors of success that we can document, train to, and measure
• Creating a sales force training and development architecture and delivery system by using various learning modalities:
  • Accelerating training development by leveraging a combination of built-from-scratch programs and third party tools and programs, including On-Purpose® curriculum and train-the-trainer program
  • Linking personal purpose to the purpose of the organization and integrated both to performance and right behaviors
  • Documenting needed competencies and metrics from new salesperson to top sales leader
  • Designing rollout strategies to speed field training and transformation to improved success methodologies
  • Delivering train-the-trainer programs for existing sales leaders to model and train within the field
  • Providing keynote speaking at regional and national conferences

“We’re a best kept secret so we’re forced to do business as a commodity. We’re losing sales and market share. What can we do?”

This was the lament of the CEO of a $30 million, family owned business that had been in business since 1914. What do you do when your legacy company’s operational expertise and distinctive customer advantages are assimilated across your industry by word but not necessarily in deed? As more competitors enter your market and sell customers that they do what you do at a lower price, but they really don’t, it’s hard to compete and win your share of the business when your customers are price-driven commodity buyers?

Our advice was to change the game so you can win serving on-purpose customers. This engagement involved:

• Re-affirming and updating the company Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values
• Providing Chief Marketing Officer services and assembled a specialized team to bridge gaps in marketing talent and provided strategic services: persona development, website redesign, social media design and posting, lead generation and follow-up, etc
• Defining the terms and conditions where our client and their customer could all win and profit
• Determining internal gaps in the customer journey and experience and fixing them
• Training to a culture of customer care and communication
• Codifying systems and repairing

Within a month of launching a new website, two new customers signed contracts that more than paid for the CMO Services.

“Help me find our company crusade. Given our size and reach, how can we truly make the world a better place?”

The CEO of a US-based, multi-billion dollar global enterprise lamented to Kevin W. McCarthy that challenge facing him. There was more to their business than just business but he was unsure how to tackle this challenge. When dealing with a company that does business in over 120 countries worldwide, there’s a level of complexity that can only be answered by sophisticated simplification to what matters most and emphasize and align this.

The assignment began with the CEO and was carried forward in conjunction with the Director of Worldwide Strategy. The US market was their first and most mature consumer good market. The focus began at the point of greatest challenge which was declining domestic sales. The thought was that a success in the US would provide a roadmap for other markets as they matured.

Our work first involved clarifying the corporate Purpose, Vision, Missions, and Values (PVMV) and creating an On-Purpose Business Plan to bring it to life. Additionally, we developed specific metrics to measure progress from country to country. Both independent research conducted by our firm plus participation in focus groups hired by the Client revealed insights in need of correction and realignment. A fresh marketing strategy to increase customer touch points and purchase opportunities was created and presented to the Board of Directors. This was approved for use. Finally, a world wide concept for the field sales team was provided for the client executed upon.

Some of the specific aspects of this engagement involved:

• Clarifying Purpose, Vision, Missions, and Values
• Researching and participating in the front line customer activities with the sales force to assess the core business opportunity
• Refreshing and modernizing the company’s strategic story
• Assessing the culture and crafting a unifying cultural concept to stimulate team (Home Office and Field) cohesiveness
• Mapping of customer touch points to assess and then create new opportunities for customer awareness and purchases
• Leveraging a more fully integrated multi-media and online presence
• Designing a corporate university architecture to train the operations team and sales force

Given the size of the client, once the strategy was formulated, the client executed the plan. Stock price increased 90% over the next 2 years.