Success stories
Behaviours changed. Results followed.
Leading sales
The sales turnaround
Real estate, Kuala Lumpur. About two hundred people.
Mark was brought in to lead a sales organisation of about two hundred people that was collectively underperforming.
It was his first leadership role of that size. The only guidance from above was to follow the process. Nobody in the sales team saw value in the process, so nobody followed it.
He implemented it anyway. Fundamentals were incentivised, starting with demand generation. Every salesperson had protected time for outreach, no exceptions and no deferrals. At first it felt like extra work on top of an already pressured schedule.
Then something changed. The more people prospected, the better they got at it. Appointments increased. The funnel grew. Win rates improved.
Some people objected. A few left, because it was too much like hard work. As new people joined they adopted the behaviours without question, because they knew nothing different.
Turnover grew 171 per cent in two years. People earned more money. Cars were bought, watches acquired, marriages financed, homes purchased.
He left about a year later. Six months after that the group president called to say the business was still going from strength to strength. The behaviour had continued. It had stopped being a process and had simply become the way the team worked.
It was the first time he saw it plainly. Change the behaviours and the results follow. Embed them and they hold, with or without you.
Working alongside
A “Material” Success at a Semiconductor Business
European semiconductor manufacturer, China. Four accounts.
A European semiconductor business operating in China had built its reputation on technical excellence and product innovation. Despite superior products, it was losing its strategic position inside its most critical relationships.
Four major Chinese clients represented 95 per cent of revenue, and competitors were eroding the position across all four.
The Managing Director recognised that the problem was not technical. It was relational. We worked with him and his team over eighteen months, training them, implementing the relationship management framework across all four accounts, and running quarterly coaching sessions on their account plans.
The analysis showed a consistent pattern. Strong product knowledge, weak relationship intelligence. The team had no structured visibility of who held influence, how they were perceived, or where the gaps were. They were maintaining technological leadership and losing strategic ground.
Four things changed
Strategic relationship planning. Stakeholders were mapped systematically, and significant coverage gaps came to light, particularly with decision makers the team had overlooked.
Perception advancement. Deliberate work to shift how stakeholders saw them, from vendor to trusted partner.
Client issues intelligence. A comprehensive understanding of each client’s prioritised issues, challenges and needs, beyond product specifications.
Enhanced delivery. A new client fulfilment role, built to strengthen relationship coverage and lift the service experience.
Eighteen months later, revenue had tripled across all four relationships. Positive feedback from stakeholders became commonplace as clients noticed the changed approach.
“We had always prided ourselves on our technical superiority, but we discovered that wasn’t enough in the current environment. Our engineers understood the technology perfectly but lacked insight into our clients’ strategic challenges. When we implemented Relationship Management, we gained better visibility, deeper understanding, and more data to work with. Most importantly, we shifted from reactive product discussions to proactive strategic conversations. Our clients began seeing us differently, and our revenue reflected that perception change.”
Managing Director
Working alongside
Six countries, 130 sellers, one year
Global facilities management business, Asia-Pacific.
A new sales leader came in to restructure the Asia-Pacific sales organisation.
We helped them strengthen capabilities across opportunity management, client engagement and relationship management, training and coaching leaders in all six countries.
The results speak for themselves.
Two opportunities
Hospital, Australia. USD 4.5 million over five years. Mapping the decision showed who the real influencing forces were, and found a coach inside the account willing to act for the team. He was carrying two jobs, because the stakeholder relationships that should have existed had never been built. Knowing what motivated him told the team who to reach. They built those relationships and won the contract.
Manufacturer, Indonesia. USD 10.5 million over three years. Procurement pushed for a price cut and the team feared losing the contract. Understanding the decision makers showed how dependent the business was on them, and that nobody intended to change provider. The team held its price. Margin went from 5 to 8 per cent.
Figures calculated and provided by the client’s Commercial Excellence function.