Landslide Customers - Government Acquisitions, Inc Case Study

Landslide Customers - Government Acquisitions, Inc Case Study

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Government Acquisitions, Inc Case Study

Definition of Most Effective Selling Process and Better Pipeline Visibility.

What company would not want to enjoy consistent revenues and sales growth year in and year out? But what if your sales professionals sold into a market known for its competitiveness? What if your sales cycle could take months or years? And what if your sales transactions ranged from $20- million complex deals to something as simple a $100 printer? How could you hope to track all these deals consistently and know what selling practices were working better than others so they could be followed consistently? That’s the problem that prompted Jay Lambke, Executive Vice President of Government Acquisitions, to turn to Landslide Sales Workstyle Management for assistance.

Over 17 years, Government Acquisitions had positioned itself as an innovative and trusted provider of government technology solutions, had grown by 30 percent to 60 percent a year, and had reached annual revenues of several hundred million. And the company achieved all this while selling into the highly competitive marketplace of government offices. But as the company and the size of its sales team grew, the ability to effectively manage the numerous opportunities generated by its 15 sales professionals had become increasingly difficult. This made forecasting and predicting closes an unyielding difficulty.

“Over the years, we had defined a best practice process for managing more complex opportunities that led to consistent success in closing business,” Lambke said, adding, “However this process was followed in some deals but not in others. We wanted to find a better way to ensure that our most effective set of sales activities was used consistently by our sales team.” Lambke’s objectives in the change revolved around establishing a formal sales process, improving visibility into the pipeline, enhanced sales forecasting, and ultimately closing more business.

According to Lambke, Government Acquisitions tracked sales deals with a blend of home-built tools, that included spreadsheets and documents but lacked integration. The company’s pipeline report was disciplined, but it was more reactive than proactive, did not link to anything, and lacked thesupport and rationale of a best-practices process. He realized that something had to change and guided Government Acquisitions to enlist the services of Landslide Technologies.

After reviewing a number of sources, Lambke chose Landslide because Government Acquisitions could tailor the Landslide Sales Workstyle Management system to its specific needs. “The thing I liked about Landslide is that it’s not a CRM tool. It is focused on our deals, not just our data. It helped us map out the sales activities and resources we used when do a great job, so that everyone can follow that process onsistently.”
he said.

Staying current on sales deals is critical for Government Acquisitions for another reason. Accurately tracking transactions in the pipeline helps the company to see more accurately the kinds of deals that make sense over time and those that do not. “As a small business,” Lambke said, “we have large business capabilities in many areas. We pick our battles very carefully and don’t go after everything. We concentrate on opportunities and
contracts that fit well with what we do and how we do it.”

In addition to the sales process software, Government Acquisitions’ Landslide subscription includes three modules that Lambke and his sales force have found valuable.

• Each salesperson can hand off administrative tasks such as post-sales-call reporting and updating contact and account data to a VIP assistant, freeing up more time for strategic selling.
• Through an iO channel, each sales professional can create a dedicated website for each prospect that includes critical, prospect-related information as the sales process unfolds.
• And sales professionals have access to Webex on-demand meeting services for webinars and related activities.

“By using Landslide, I expect to see an increase in the productivity and efficiency of my sales team as well as the ability to close deals,” Lambke said.

Perhaps most important, the sales professionals of Government Acquisitions have reacted favorably to the Landslide sales work process management system. Sales professionals often resist traditional CRM tools which they perceive as adding data entry (read non-selling) work into their routines. Since Landslide is built to better manage a salesperson’s Workstyle, the company’s salespersons recognize the impact the Landslide system will have on their personal productivity and are looking forward to suing the tool.

“Even sales professionals who have had a tough time forecasting and keeping track of ongoing activity in the pipeline have accepted the system,” Lambke said.

Landslide is neither a Sales Force Automation (SFA) nor a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), The Landslide Workstyle Management service, was built by salespeople for salespeople to increase their personal effectiveness and productivity. The service helps them to concentrate on doing what matters most and what they do best – closing deals. And the system achieves this without forcing unproductive administrative tasks on them. Specifically, Landslide helps sales people:

• Follow a proven sales process to close deals
• Differentiate themselves by providing one-of-a-kind buying experience,
• Qualify prospects and focus attention on real opportunities, and
• Drastically reduce data-entry time so they stay in the selling mode not in the administrative mode.

Test the Landslide Sales Workstyle Management service yourself and experience first hand how this service can give your sales team a jolt.