Quickly uniting a business behind a central strategy following an acquisition is vital, and a materials handling equipment supplier brought in Vertical Sales to help formulate a strong customer value proposition to drive the newly formed business forward.
Having acquired a forklift truck business, the sales team of a UK materials handling equipment supplier felt that they were giving mixed messages to their customers and wanted to be able to confidently articulate what the business stood for. The company felt that achieving this would be critical to hitting its ambitious sales growth targets.
Working together
Senior management recognised the importance of uniting the business around a single customer value proposition, and asked Vertical Sales’ Cathy Bennett to help the team understand better how its customers saw the new business.
“Converting centrally agreed marketing strategies into action out in the field following a major company event like an acquisition can often be a stumbling block to their implementation unless everybody is encouraged to work collaboratively,” she says.
Cathy worked to bring together the contracts, marketing and sales departments using a series of Think Tanks to define and agree the business’s customer value proposition and unique selling points.
“We drew up a brand pyramid incorporating themes that sales could really understand and buy into,” she explains. “This process was crucial to its adoption in the field, because it involved sales directly inputting their ideas and thereby sharing ownership of the outcome. This was essential to build their confidence and motivation and also produced some great new ideas.”
First choice
The business now has a customer value proposition in place that its sales team feels they can clearly and consistently articulate to present it as a first choice service provider committed to adding value to the customer.
This has enabled the newly formed business’ sales team to hit the ground running following the acquisition and has ensured that all parts of the company are galvanised around a single vision and strategy.