Case Study 1
The Company
Washbox is a portable tool washout bay that retains, recycles, and removes liquid pollution from construction sites.
The Goal
To find an investor, write sales strategy, create a sales team, improve sales,
The Problems
Despite being a groundbreaking piece of technology Washbox was not hitting its sales targets in order to meet it’s goals of acquiring a major investor.
While having a very robust CRM system with over 40,000 contacts; they were using it only to send large volumes of very lengthy, technical emails. The volume of email marketing was having the opposite effect, of lowering the brands perception. The construction industry is renowned for having a ‘blacklist’ which is very difficult to get off. Many companies had blocked our domain.
Most site teams had never heard of Washbox.
Almost non-existent sales process from previous sales hires, marketing companies, social media companies.
Most builders saw the product as an unnecessary expense, meaning no product awareness, or even awareness of the problem Washbox presented.
The market was completely uneducated about the solution that Washbox addressed.
Alternative companies offering sales strategy that cost over 100K just for the advice.
Tool washout is the construction industry’s dirty little secret. With Paint being the global leading cause of PFAS or forever chemicals entering our oceans. So most builders were completely unwilling to talk about the topic, and in some cases hiring legal teams to write a prepared statement around the topic.
No government body to regulate liquid trade waste. This meant builders had no fear of tipping paints, solvents, plaster etc down the drain, because not one fine had ever been issued in Australian construction history.
Had been running at a loss for 12 years.
Our Solution
New Business Solutions was brought in at first to offer sales coaching, advice and thought leadership. Initially we recommended stopping all email campaigns for over a year and switched focus to phone based sales and face-to-face site based sales presentations.
We reached out to the construction teams for all construction projects over Aus$20M with the intent of educating, creating interest, and ultimately placing more units on site. This was then expanded into numerous other sales and marketing campaigns, including managing social media,
Rather than initially writing strategy, we started with market testing and proved that our sales & marketing produced sales. Then expanded the sales process by adding two full time sales staff. A target of 20 Washboxes for initial period would provide ROI. This target was reached in the first 3 months and we proved that a sales led revenue engine meaning that the external investor was no longer needed as the company moved to being profitable. The owner of the business was understandably elated that he did not need to give up part ownership of his business in order to grow.
Case Study 2
The Company
Credwell is a construction consultancy offers advice on National Construction Code NCC, sustainable building design, fire safety, building energy efficiency and disability access to buildings. Their client base is; property developers, architects, lawyers, strata managers, designers and builders around the National Construction Code NCC, sustainable building design, fire safety, building energy efficiency and disability access to buildings.
The Goal
To make the business a saleable asset within the mid term, to reduce the workload on the CEO, and to transform the business so the CEO could spend more time training his staff, which was his core passion.
The Problems
It was quickly established that the main problems were near zero sales effort, and a wonky admin process built on an incredibly inefficient CRM/ accounting package and project tools; coupled with a gross under supply of sales/ customer service. There were 600 outstanding fee proposals with a value of $5k - $250k each. However there was zero follow-up, which meant an ongoing business forecast of hundreds of millions of dollars that had no accuracy. There was outdated marketing and a CEO with a huge market reputation working himself into the grave, trying to keep his 20 staff employed with an uncertain construction industry teetering on the edge. Along came Covid and uncertainty so it was determined to try a short run sales campaign to assess ROI.
Our Solution
New Business Solutions was brought in to help give some sales advice to the director of the energy efficiency and sustainability business. New Business Solutions alleviated sales work from the CEO with the agreed task of following up and closing the 600 fee proposals, to provide quick cashflow. After the short campaign the tenure was extended to permanent one days per week with a focus on closing deals, and account management. We determined that the client relationship was best forged with Credwell’s consultants that would deliver the work, and NBS would work ‘back of house’ initiating meetings and also establishing initial introductions into the many clients and prospects.
The primary objection of nearly all prospects was ‘you’re too expensive’. NBS owned it and maintained the price, price pegging the brand to be synonymous with the best in the market. This is because consultancy sales is all about becoming the trusted advisor.
A full time business manager was brought on to alleviate the business work on the CEO allowing him to focus on training his staff, relationships and delivery that motivated him most.
A second day was added to NBS for pure hunting and prospecting new business. BCI project reporting tool was subscribed. NBS called every single new construction project in NSW with a value over $5M, equating to around 80 cold calls to businesses per day, making phone introductions, sending out capability statements, expressions of interest and creating appointments for the consultants and to improve market perception. Pipedrive CRM was implemented and new workflows created.
A marketing manager was brought in to run social media/ marketing/ advertising campaigns, freshen up capability statements, website etc.
Credwell has persistently increased market share and headcount, despite the global pandemic.
Case Study 3
The Company
A high end preventative medicine practice that services many thousand’s of CEO’s.
The Goal
To make the business a saleable asset within 5 years.
The Problems
Soon after work commenced one of the senior client facing doctors stole the client list and set up a competitor business with an aggressive sales campaign. The business was then dealt a second body shot, weeks later, with COVID-19. Being a Sydney CBD based medical practice, many people were unwilling to travel to the city. Meaning sales dropped to nearly zero overnight.
Based on average sale cost, and a market that was unwilling to spend money on employee benefit programs; NBS determined that new business acquisition would not provide return on investment. We discovered 14,000 ex patients, poor customer service and retention as well as an impersonal email booking confirmation that didn’t align to the businesses image projection of being the highest quality medical service in the country.
Like most small business the cashflow was up and down because the business owner was juggling delivery, business management and fitting in sales. Traditionally new business had come from networking which was no longer possible because of lockdown. There was a large admin cost in producing bespoke medical reports with each one being hand typed. So New Business Solutions attached to the business initially one day per week and then as value was realised it was increased to two days per week. An ROI was established of 2 new patients per day of work for NBS.
Our Solution
•First we started calling the 14,000 lapsed patients at the start of lock-down with a simple human message; ‘how are you coping with lock-down?’
•Secondly we implemented a much higher level of customer service with phone confirmation of appointments with clients/ their spouses and EA’s to start building relationships. This was particularly effective because the demographic was large business c-suite executives and high net worth individuals. They would often need their ear twisted for their own benefit.
•Thirdly we implemented regular Account management and a more focused referral system for corporate clients.
•In the 2020/21 financial year 56 short run sales campaigns were tried to test the new world markets; for example CBD based barristers, EA’s, spouses of CEO’s, flyer drop in affluent areas, top 100 places to work. With 14 of them providing ROI and being implemented in current workflows.
•Finally we implemented rigid sales reporting, KPI’s, weekly sprint sales meetings, accountability, forecasting and budget goals.
Annual goal was achieved with a $1million financial year providing all staff in the business with a bonus of 10% of their annual salary. In total less than 5 known customers were lost to the defecting doctor.
Shortly after starting coaching with our client the CEO won an award at a CEO institute conference against thousands of other CEO’s for best elevator pitch, ‘We help prevent critical business staff from dropping dead’. The business goal is to be saleable in 5 years when the CEO retires.