PRESENTING PROBLEM
A startup team with strong industry experience and a great product (per customer feedback) nonetheless was experiencing lagging sales. The two salespeople they had hired had proved disappointing and not stayed long.
ANALYSIS & INTERVENTION
An analysis of their market strategy revealed significant disagreement among the founders about which markets to pursue and the best way to gain traction – high volume/low cost direct sales to “seed the market,” a channel strategy leveraging partners with existing client bases, or low volume/high margin “whales.” Not surprisingly, each founder advocating for their own strategy resulted in no strategy. Each founder implicitly pursued their own strategy via their respective networks but without the momentum of working together or the support of an aligned marketing strategy.
They also agreed that while they understood the importance of sales, none of them enjoyed it. We administered both individual and team Strengthscope™ assessments to learn more about the team’s energizing strengths. The results provided a clear, visual representation of their collective blind spots (Relationship-building, Persuasion, and Execution), strengths that are key for Sales effectiveness. Not surprising that they were easily discouraged and felt exhausted after only a couple calls.
In addition to the insights about Sales, the Strengthscope assessment results also provided actionable insights about how the team members’ respective individual strengths contributed to some unproductive internal dynamics. These insights enabled long-overdue discussions of style differences that had led to tension and mistrust among the founders.
RESULT
The team hired a Sales Director, began giving more weight to the Chief Marketing Officer’s guidance, and generally paid more attention to the external-facing aspects of the business. Within a year they landed their first 6-figure contract and were able to renew existing customers into three-year contracts.
