Success Story

Knowledge Factor, Inc., formed in 2000, is the first company to develop a business process re-engineering program that targets a company's most important asset - its people. Despite spending billions on training initiatives, US companies still only achieve a 55% level of competence among employees. Knowledge Factor increases this to 95% through its patented Confidence-Based Learning™ (CBL) process that increases the confidence with which knowledge is held - the state of mastery.

Since introducing its flagship product, the CBL System™ in 2005, Knowledge Factor experienced rapid growth that required the company to expand its sales force. Knowledge Factor was able to build an experienced sales team, but because its product was so revolutionary, it was difficult to define a typical buying cycle and sales process that was repeatable and predictable in an environment where there was a lot of entrenched resistance.

• There was a significant "educational" component to the sales process that required sales people to convince prospects that their existing training programs were leaving their companies exposed to significant risk of misinformation and doubt among their employees, and to guesswork on the certifications and assessments their companies were using. Most companies aren't even aware that the problem exists until it's pointed out.
• Many companies have invested millions in their existing training programs and are in denial that another process can improve what they're already doing.
• The implementation of CBL represented a "threat" to entrenched training departments because it exposed shortcomings of traditional training programs and provided powerful metrics that, for the first time, made training departments accountable for results.
• Because prospects usually have not heard of Confidence-Based Learning, there is typically no budget set aside for a CBL purchase.

Knowledge Factor's VP of Sales, Tracy Hawkey, determined that because Knowledge Factor was small but growing rapidly, it was in an ideal position to consider implementing a sales process that could become part of the company culture as the organization grew. Having previously run global sales for a multibillion dollar technology company, Mr. Hawkey had been exposed to just about every selling process and tool available. But after researching the market, he and his team settled on CustomerCentric Selling® as an approach that could address all of the issues stated above and meet several important objectives:

• Bring consistency to, and shorten, the sell cycle for all prospects
• Accelerate the process of identifying and qualifying individuals within organizations who were the best champions for such an acquisition
• Create a consistent methodology for the sales team that would improve the accuracy of sales forecasting
• Become such a part of the sales culture that future additions to the sales team could be trained and supported by anyone in the organization and could come up to speed on the process rapidly

The results have been significant:

• Responses to introductory emails and phone queries have increased at least five fold.
• Sales cycles for initial pilot implementations have been reduced by 30-50%.
• The quality of the sales pipeline was immediately improved, with better-qualified prospects coming in and older opportunities moved out, improving forecasting accuracy by 60-70%.
• Marketing and Sales have been able to join forces with a single set of messaging that has been embraced and implemented in all outgoing sales and marketing activities.

"I know from experience the importance of having a single sales methodology across the entire organization," said Hawkey. "It lends consistency to every aspect of our engagements—from prospecting, to messaging, to forecasting and closing. CCS gives us a platform that addresses all of these areas while at the same time being an effective tool for helping us refine and control our messaging and approach. For us, it's a little like a Six Sigma approach to selling that allows us to constantly improve the process."

For more information on Knowledge Factor, visit the company on the Web at: www.knowledgefactor.com.

Published by Bizlogx, LLC.
Copyright © 2007