Impacting Underperformance and Positional Turnover

A manufacturing client in Indianapolis was having significant underperformance and positional turnover with their independent sales reps throughout the country. What they observed was that the owners of the sales rep companies were frustrated because their sales reps weren't producing at an expected level of sales performance. This had a direct impact on the rep organization and also on the manufacturer who relies on independent sales organizations and reps as their connection in client relationships and sales opportunities for their product.

Our manufacturing client had us establish a benchmark and values base for a successful independent sales rep within their sales rep network. This benchmark and values base became the foundation for providing feedback to the rep organization principals about the selection of sales reps within their companies. The manufacturing client hosted sales rep training on their line multiple times throughout the year. Prior to instituting the benchmark and values base the rep organizations would send anyone they wanted to the training. This was done at a significant cost to the manufacturer who subsidizes the training for their reps. After establishing the benchmark and values base the only sales reps that attend training at the manufacturers cost are those that align with the benchmarked behaviors and motivators.

The use of the values tools has been the primary contributor in helping both the sales rep organizations and our manufacturing client conduct highly effective training with highly capable and aligned salespeople. This values alignment has resulted in reduced subsidy costs for the manufacturer on non-aligned salespeople. It has also increased selection success for the rep organizations and has impacted not just our manufacturing client's line but all other lines that are represented by the sales organization. Additionally, our manufacturing client reported to us this week that they will achieve a record sales year in 2008 . A large part of that success is driven by the organizational transformation work we have been doing with them both externally with their sales reps and internally with their direct employees. The values instruments have literally helped us chart an expected culture of the company and the impact is shown in the quantifiable measure of record margin achievement to match record sales achievement.