Sales Negotiations ROI of 500%+ in the Financial Services Industry

500%+ Return on Sales Negotiations Investment in the Financial Services Industry

Client Case Study

Situation

As the leading provider of business information for credit, marketing and purchasing decisions worldwide, D&B helps customers gain access to the world’s largest and highest quality global commercial business information. D&B Denmark, a strategic partner of D&B, is responsible for approx $6.3 Million in annual revenues.

D&B Denmark helps their customers perform a range of business analyses primarily through three products & services: Risk Management Solutions to mitigate credit risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability; Sales & Marketing Solutions to increase revenue from new and existing customers; and Supply Management Solutions to generate ongoing savings through supplier consolidation, and to protect their businesses from supply chain disruption and serious financial, operational and regulatory risk. Our engagement with D&B Denmark centered on their sales organization to include account managers and account specialists.

Complications

We conducted a negotiation needs analysis designed to map the internal negotiation structure within D&B Denmark and to capture both internal and external issues surrounding negotiation. It included D&B sales personnel, sales management, and sales account managers.

Because the goal of the analysis was to determine if—and, if so, why—a Sales Negotiation Initiative was needed, the line of questioning included market conditions, sales process implementation, value proposition effectiveness, competition, consequences of no agreement, trades, the company’s internal conditions, training implementation, and coaching precedents.

When the needs analysis was complete, the following key sales negotiation issues were identified:

  • Negotiation skill sets varied greatly among team members
  • Irrational behavior by the company’s competitors
  • More sophisticated buyers
  • Insufficient analysis or preparation for deals
  • A history of giving away value
  • Lack of confidence in negotiations
  • Various negotiation approaches used in each country
  • No integrated and standardized negotiation process

Approach

In order to address these issues, we recommended a comprehensive Negotiation Solution rather than a series of isolated training events with four key steps:

  1. Defining a common organizational negotiation strategy linked to the company’s sales strategy
  2. Agreeing on a common negotiation process integrated with the sales process including:
  3. Coaching and measuring both strategy use and process implementation including:
    • Delivery of our Strategic Negotiation Solution to D&B Denmark with a highly customized 2-day negotiations workshop. The participants in the workshop included sales management, relationship managers, and specialists. Each brought a live deal into the workshop to practice the process and advance their deal.
    • Since many deals were set to resign, or close for the first time by year-end, we agreed each participant would further their specific deal, including follow up coaching calls, using the process to gain a more successful contractual end result.
  4. Measuring leading and lagging indicators including incremental revenue, retention, time to close, new skill and process adoption, trades vs. concessions, and incorporation of  multiple equal offers in proposals.

Results
In four months:

  • $349,000 increase in incremental revenue
  • 581% return on investment

Related Information

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

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

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

What a refreshing change from the half-baked psycho-babble you normally get from training and consulting organizations. LSA gives you the practical and results-oriented assistance you need to define and reach your goals.

Their leadership, management, and sales expertise has been invaluable.  They think strategically and provide a results driven plan – not just a temporary fix.

They are great to work with, and even more importantly, they “get it!”

David Fiano
Director of Merchandising

We selected LSA Global over several other sales experts based upon their ability to clarify and align our sales strategy, their expertise in identifying the critical sales scenarios necessary to meet our growth targets, and their willingness to stand behind the results with targeted sales management training and coaching and a pay-for-performance guarantee.

They have become an integral part of my sales team as we rapidly scale. I would recommend them to any sales  leader looking for a true partner.

Anthony Lanham
SVP, Sales North America

jumio-client-logo-technology-cyber-security-LSA-Global

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

LSA was instrumental in making our worldwide sales meeting a success. They saved me a ton of time with ‘best in class’ solutions to meet our business objectives. Whenever I’m in a pinch, I can count on LSA’s dynamic team of sales trainers and consultants to really go the extra mile.

They truly understand the meaning of customer delight.  Thank you!

Amy Walker
Manager

Seagate

ServiceSource has relied on LSA Global’s expertise for a variety of core initiatives, from strategy design and implementation, to business sales skills, to sales coaching. We recently engaged LSA Global to create a competency matrix for our inside sales team that will serve as our roadmap for employee on-boarding, development, succession planning, and retention.

This critical project had a tight timeline with high visibility. LSA Global completed the deliverable ahead of schedule and surpassed our expectations.

PMO and Outside Sales Operations
Senior Vice President

Service Source

LSA has consistently delivered top notch value to Seagate’s Corporate University Program. The level of facilitator involvement and continuous program evolution has kept the sales negotiation training engaging, relevant, and impactful.

We look forward to working with LSA in the future.

Geoff Purnell
Sales Executive, Seagate Data Recovery Services

Seagate

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 to help us take our client delivery methodology to the next level as we continue to grow and help our clients succeed.

The custom strategy and design session exceeded our expectations. They really understood our business and delivered within tight time frames. They were the best I have seen for this type of complex, visible, and strategic work.

LSA’s ability to get a group of 20+ executives from around the globe on the same page, push their thinking to new heights, and ensure an executable plan was excellent.

I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to take their strategy and strategic execution to the next level.

Rob Sturgeon
EVP Client Delivery

Service Source

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

We engaged with LSA Global to deliver a custom sales territory planning and management workshop. They have a unique ability to quickly understand our business and needs. This keen understanding allowed for a solution that was specific and impactful.

Their facilitators were well prepared and ingrained themselves to become one of us. We’ve come to see LSA Global as a true sales partner.

Pratiksha Patel
Assistant Vice President Talent

L'Oreal

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

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