Reorganizing Secures Solid Sales Growth

Issue:
An emerging Contract Sales Organization (CSO) employed a 25-person field sales force and a 10-person internal call center team. Their primary contract with a wound care product manufacturer was not growing to meet contractual sales projections.

Analysis:
We interviewed the CSO’s senior management to assess their perspective, determine issues and obtain all related sales and contact data. We also interviewed the wound care manufacturer’s executive management team, to understand their issues and perspective. Further, we interviewed members of the CSO’s internal and external sales teams, to ascertain their perspective.

Insight:
After interviewing all parties and reviewing data (call cycles, customer contact frequency, monthly sales, trial usage data), we ascertained that the key issues were:

• • Product trials with key institutions and wound care centers, leading to more consistent and routine usage
  • Call frequency by the external sales force, with target institutions and key personnel
  • Call frequency by the internal sales force, including their ability to contact, build and maintain relationships, set appointments for the field sales force, and elicit product trials

Recommendations:
We recommended that we directly manage the internal and external sales forces to add structure and direction. We also recommended supporting the wound care company as the direct client liaison. This would take advantage of our expertise in strategic leadership, clinical background, and institutional sales.

Results:
The CSO accepted our recommendations; we began implementation immediately. Wound care product sales grew by 15% ($285,000) within the first six months of implementation.