Case Studies
Sales Training
- Client: Local
bicycle retailer and repair shop -
The Bicycle Shop -
Grayling, Michigan.
- Situation: Owner,
(Bob Smith), wants to attract additional new and repeat customers
by positioning his shop's professionalism and expertise as a
point of competitive advantage against other northern Michigan
bicycle retailers.
- Challenge:
Training needs to be both inexpensive and quick. Bob
doesn't have enough staff to fill in for each other while sales
floor personnel
are attending training. The shop is still operating in
full swing for late summer and fall business when a (beta
test), training class is offered to Bob's co-workers.
- Solution: An
8-Step training program customized to focus on retail sales and
formatted for a 3-hour small class featuring one-on-one sales
training was conducted. The class was also specifically
targeted to focus on the bicycle industry.
- Results: A training class at a local hotel suite during
a weekday afternoon was held. All floor sales
staff were able to train as a team. All attendees reported being
"highly satisfied" with the training on exit
questionnaires. The sales staff returned to the shop with
new motivation and excited about trying out the new techniques
they had just acquired on prospective customers.
Business-to-Business Sales & Consulting
- Client: State
wide
commercial battery distributor -
Complete Battery Source
- opens a new store in Prudenville, Michigan capable of serving
a large territory. The company operates six Michigan
locations primarily in the southeast portion of the state.
- Situation:
The new store would like to pursue an outside sales professional
at a low cost. The Prudenville store has been been
successful but does not have the recourses to employ direct
outside sales persons at this time. Their downstate
Michigan stores do have some field representation but few
northern Michigan businesses get called on, particularly on the
west side of the state. The store owner, (Chad Buzinski), finds himself
working inside the business each and every day and has little
time to pursue in field customers. The market is wide open and his
competitors do have some route sales staff working in the field.
- Challenge:
To expand the sales and reputation of the company and its full
line of battery products throughout more of northern and western
Michigan. Also, grab a larger share of the commercial battery
market specifically in territories west of highway US-127.
- Solution:
The battery retailer enters into a non-binding commission sales
agreement with Oak Forest Sales & Consulting, LLC.
- Results:
The company has been able to pick up a good amount of new
business and expand its customer base while being professionally
represented at a low operational cost. All parties
involved have ended up benefiting on the mutual arrangement,
including of course, the customers themselves!
Internet Sales
- Client:: Statewide
emergency equipment reseller -
Time Emergency Equipment
- has two locations. One retail outlet is in Roscommon
Michigan and the other is in the Detroit area.
- Situation:
The owner wants to have an on-line presence and allow his
clients to see products and prices, however he wishes not to
take Internet orders and prefers to generate phone calls and all
inquires to either one of his offices.
- Challenge:
Set up an all new web site which eventually has an extensive
on-line catalog with nearly 100 pages in depth. The
company would also like to eventually maintain the site on their
own behalf as the owner, (Bob Edwards), happens to be very
proficient with graphics and development of the raw page ideas
and schemes for most new web pages.
- Solution:
The web site is set up over a period of a couple years and is
built category by category. New pages, products and
prices are updated periodically. All pages are set up to
look similar and the entire web site is entered into hundreds of
search engines and search subscriptions.
- Results:
The company experiences growth and is able to easily notify its
broad client base of new products and prices while at the same
time gaining a professional on-line presence in its industry.
The company takes over maintenance of its own site after about 3
years of development.
Computer/Software Training
- Client:: Northern
Michigan medical equipment provider
Vital Care.
- Situation: The
company has just taken on one of Tom's products, the
EMERGENTag™
but needs programming and product education regarding this
computer compatible device.
- Challenge:
Train all in store staffers at 3 different locations in a short
time window and bring all employees up to speed on the product.
- Solution:
Tom arranges to train the nursing and office store at the
corporate office and then visits all three stores and trains
their counter staff on each site while store managers take over
the individuals stores front end.
- Results:
All employees end up getting trained on the product in less than
one weeks time. At last report, each store is now
successfully selling 2 to 3 of the units in their showrooms each
week.
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