Client Stories > Demonstrating Sales Negotiations ROI in a Highly Competitive Market

Demonstrating Sales Negotiations ROI in a Highly Competitive Market

Demonstrating Sales Negotiations ROI Transportation Industry

Demonstrating a Return on Sales Negotiations for a Transportation Company

Client Case Study

Situation — Demonstrating Sales Negotiations ROI

With over $5 billion in annual revenues, Ryder is a world leader in supply chain and transportation management solutions.  The company’s 30,000 employees work with clients in three primarily business segments:

  1. Fleet Leasing and Maintenance
  2. Dedicated Contract Carriage
  3. Supply Chain Services.

The company completed a multi-year restructuring program that resulted in a more streamlined approach to every facet of its business.

Complications

Operating in a highly competitive market, the company’s organizational focus after the restructuring was growing top line sales, growing margin (particularly on national deals) and increasing customer retention.

A formal Negotiation Needs Analysis identified the following issues that impact Ryder’s ability to achieve their business goals:

  • More sophisticated buyers
  • Incomplete analysis and preparation for deals
  • Tendency to “shoot from the hip” rather than use a fact-based approach
  • A large “inventory” of legacy deals where value had been given away
  • No definition of a “Great Deal” for Ryder
  • Little autonomy by the field in closing deals
  • A good sales process in place but no formal organizational negotiation process
  • Cross-functional areas acting independently, each with its own goals and objectives (often at odds with achieving a “Great Deal” for Ryder)
  • Lack of training and process implementation and reinforcement

Approach

In order to address these key issues, we recommended to Ryder that rather than just run a series of training events, it implement a cross-functional, organization-wide Negotiation Solution which included sales negotiation training, sales coaching, and consulting.

Focusing on the “big picture” business results that Ryder was looking to achieve, the Ryder negotiation strategy was developed by gathering key representatives from the Executive Team, Sales Management, National Account Sales, Legal, Pricing, Human Resources, Finance and Marketing. The first step was to identify and agree on what measurable results would signify a successful initiative, and then develop the key actions to produce those results that included:

Approach (cont.)

  1. Strategic Sales Clarity
    Defining a common goal or organizational negotiation strategy linked to the company’s sales strategy
  2. Process
    Agreeing on a common negotiation process integrated with the sales process including:

    • A SWOT form for every deal over $500K
    • Collaboration meetings with Legal, Pricing, Credit, Lease Finance, and appropriate Senior Management will be held for every deal over $1,000,000 prior to an offer being submitted
    • Negotiation process language being incorporated in the scorecards of each Managing Director of Sales, Regional Director of Sales, Director of National Accounts, and Director of Business Development
    • Completing a Consequences of No Agreement “gap” analysis of value propositions before reacting to competitive pricing
    • Incorporating the methodology of Multiple Equal Offers in every proposal
    • Including Fuel and insurance in at least 1 MEO for every deal
    • Not agreeing to concessions but, rather, trading for something of greater or equal value
  3. Performance Coaching and Skill Building
    Skill development combined with coaching process implementation
  4. Impact and Accountability
    Measuring results and continuously improving

Results — Demonstrating Sales Negotiations ROI
In twelve months:

  • $13.4M in incremental revenue
  • $3.2M in incremental incremental operating profit
  • 109% increased average closing ratio
  • 17% margin improvement
  • 271.5% return on investment

Related Information

We turned to LSA Global to help us take our executive selling and solution selling skills to the next level.

Their ability to formally assess our sales situation, identify key sales skill gaps, develop a plan to measure the results, and fully implement a key sales initiative has been outstanding.

LSA delivers the full solution; not just sales training.  I recommend them to any organization looking to transform its sales force the “right way” to sell higher and wider.

Daniel Heckman
Director of Sales-Enterprise Accounts

Avid

The sales negotiations training program was awesome. The facilitator was excellent. We are immediately able to see the relevance and apply it to our specific. The preparation and energy was very apparent. The facilitator did a great job keeping everyone engaged and focused on what mattered most to our success.

I am very pleased with the results and like the very relevant and applicable sales negotiations tools. Great job!

Jack Lord
Vice President of Sales

Blackhawk Network

LSA custom designed and delivered the best sales training session that I have ever attended.

They focused on our industry, our customers, and our competitors. The materials and facilitators were world class.

They were passionate about helping our global sales force understand the fundamentals necessary to be successful and not leave money on the table.

I recommend them to any sales force looking to drive profitable revenue and beat the competition.

Carl Dickenson
Director of Sales

Cutera

LSA always delivers the right sales and sales management solutions to meet our unique needs. I especially appreciate their ability to deeply understand our business and our culture so that they can design the most valuable and impactful outcomes for us and our clients.

Sarah Parks
Senior Project Manager

Hyperion

LSA Global’s sales negotiation training and assessment process provided the sales negotiation tools and practices that have significantly enhanced our negotiations process. Their facilitators understood our business, its challenges, and framed the learning in a way that we understood.

I am very happy with the value we have received and would highly recommend LSA to others looking to improve their sales negotiations results.

Jeff Bizzack
President

Service Source

The sales strategy and goal setting session was right on target. It was a very valuable process that I highly recommend to any sales team looking to increase performance.

Thank you LSA Global!

Phil Rosenberg
Senior Vice President of Sales

We engaged with LSA Global to help our sales team identify opportunities to accelerate our commitment to sales excellence. The facilitator’s shared passion for our goals created a foundation for sales skill adoption, as did LSA’s keen understanding of our unique business environment.

This insight allowed LSA to deliver customized and impactful business sales training workshops which were adapted to reflect our specific business dynamics and provided our employees with the sales models and tools to leverage on every call with customers.

Grant Clarke
Director Client Delivery

Service Source

We recently hired LSA Global to help take our sales team to the next level. Specifically we focused on targeting the ideal client, differentiating our solutions, getting more qualified leads, and closing a higher percentage of our pipeline through a proven referral selling methodology.

So far, the results from the business sales training have been great. We were pleasantly surprised with the results-oriented approach and thoughtful follow-through plan to ensure that the new sales practices “stick.”

We look forward to a long-term relationship, and I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to increase the effectiveness of their sales force.

Patrick Arnold
President

Filice

LSA’s introduction and continuous reinforcement of the MEDRAD objectives, vision, and mission were very impressive. The majority now understands and is openly able to verbalize these key items.

LSA did a wonderful job introducing the importance of sales coaching and reinforcement and was able to keep everyone focused.

Cindy Steffen
National Manager, Telesales

From beginning to end, LSA was as invested in making sure the program succeeded as we were. They not only met the needs of our sales organization, but they helped us meet our very tight launch deadline.

The consultant operated with the sense of urgency necessary to ensure that we were ready to roll the business sales training program in a way that made sense.

Without their dedication and sales expertise we would not have been able to launch the program with the success that we did. Thank you LSA for being a valued business partner!

Erin Surprise
PHR, Manager - L & D

We wanted our Channel Managers to get sales strategies and tools that would increase partner revenue and strengthen partner relationships. LSA Global’s ability to quickly understand our business and to bring experienced and proven resources to the table created credibility with both the executive and sales team.

We look forward to continuing our sales partnership with them.

Chip Whitman
Channel Excellence Manager

Thermo Fisher

We needed a way to improve customer training. We had to reach a disparate group of people in a very short period time. LSA gave us a new training methodology and a better way to go to market with our customer training that improved their experience and our brand positioning.

LSA delivered exactly what we needed and exceeded our expectations.  Thank you.

Hinda Chalew
Vice President of Marketing

We value the relationship we have with LSA Global. They customize and deliver top quality sales solutions when we needed them. They pay special attention to ensuring the solution fits our unique needs, business, and culture.

I would recommend them to anyone looking to greatly improve the skills of their sales force.

Carol M. Harbin
Manager, Worldwide Sales L&D

AMD

LSA Global rocks! Thank you for helping our executive team get aligned by creating a powerful and clear strategic direction and go to market sales growth plan that we could all fully commit to.

From a sales growth perspective, I am really energized about the outcome and grateful for what I have learned throughout the strategic clarity facilitation process.

Stacey Wong
VP Sales

Servicon-Logo-LSAGlobal

Originally, we launched a RFP to partner with a sales training provider to improve the sales skills of our global distributor network.

LSA Global challenged our thinking by suggesting we focus on the systemic sales strategy, culture, and talent factors that create sales success before we invested in the more symptomatic needs of sales skills and knowledge.

LSA Global identified the critical strategic actions to improve overall sales performance and then designed and delivered world class business sales training across the globe to help increase revenue and margin.

I’m so happy we took a more strategic approach to sales performance with LSA.  Thank you for making this fit our culture.

Kim Benson
Director Human Resources

Trimble

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