Transforming Technical Sales into Business Discussions with Decision Makers
Title: General Manager
Industry: Engineering Services
Company: $1 Billion, Not-for-profit
Goal: Enable PhD engineers to
convert technical discussions into strategic consulting
engagements with Fortune 1000 companies.
Result: Conversion of stagnant relationships into engagements, producing a 250% return on the CCS investment within 3 months of training.
Faced with a major strategy change at the corporate level, the General Manager needed to rapidly transition his engineers and scientists from passive developers (performing services under contracts generated by others) to active business developers. Ninety percent of the engineers/scientists held PhDs. None of the engineers/scientists had professional sales experience. The group lacked a common sales process or a means to track potential engagements and report progress. Most were proficient at delivering technical presentations, but few felt comfortable engaging in discussions of business value with business executives. Noting an additional challenge, the General Manager explained that most of the engineers/scientists possessed a visceral dislike for the concept of sales, feeling that sales activities were beneath them.
The General Manager held no illusions regarding his ability to convert PhD engineers into sales professionals. Rather, he wished to help his engineers/scientists see sales as a process to be managed, similar to one of their technical projects. He also wanted to increase their fluency in business value as opposed to technical capabilities.
BizLogx provided the engineers with a common business development process, related tools and an approach to prospect interaction based on diagnostic questions and business value rather than extensive recitations of technical capabilities. BizLogx also provided the General Manager with a mechanism to track and proactively manage sales. With a new process view of sales, the engineers overcame their aversion and quickly embraced the methodology.
With the new skills, process and tools, the engineers quickly converted a number of stagnant relationships into sales, producing a 250% return on investment in under 3 months.
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