Sales process improvement study for managed IT services
Nouveau Solutions provides a range of managed IT support services, including infrastructure, networks, cloud services, software development and IT security.
Having successfully delivered a bespoke information security management system, we were asked to pivot into a study of the company’s sales systems and processes, seeking opportunities to free up real selling time by streamlining processes and reducing the administrative burden, thereby improving the efficiency and results of the sales team.
8
themes.
40
recommendations.
QFactorial Service offering
Implementation
We have carried out several improvement studies over the years, honing our approach down to six basic steps:
- Understanding the client’s objective and expectations for the study
- Structured conversations with stakeholders
- Real-time observation of processes as they happen
- Review of process documentation
- Collection of process data
- Analysis and recommendations
Rather than pre-judging the outcomes, we prefer to let the key themes emerge as we work through the 6 steps. In this case, the following four themes emerged and became focus areas for the analysis: Time Allocation, Support Framework, Core Processes and Opportunities. This led us to 40 to recommendations grouped into eight groups: organization, process optimisation, integrated systems, repetitive tasks, duplicated work, unnecessary work, non-selling activity and management of change.
If you want to understand a complex process or system and tease out the opportunities for improvement, you need to look at it from every angle, consider every perspective, put aside bias and preconceptions, and ask a lot of dumb questions. To do this with impartiality and objectivity means you must be an outsider, and to do this safely you must have the skills get invited in, to very quickly get informed, and then to get out alive!
Our report took the form of a 50-page slide-deck presented to senior management and supported by a comprehensive set of spreadsheets containing the data we gathered and the analysis from which we drew our conclusions.
The level of detail in the report and the different perspectives on what’s truly happening at the process level, is quite amazing. It’s going to quite take some time to work through this very comprehensive report and prioritise the recommendations for action. But already we can see huge opportunities for improvement.
