IT Reseller Business Strategy | Jo Geraghty


Situation

 Jo’s client was the CEO of a £300m UK IT reseller. The company had grown from employing 300 to 1000 people in the last three years by aggressive acquisition and growth. The CEO client felt that their were opportunities to increase revenue and profitability though:
  • Increasing their market share with top customers
  • Increase the sales of added value services
  • Cutting out duplication

Objective


To develop a programme that would identify the opportunities and achieve hard benefits within  six months.
Actions
  • Nominate 6 account managers who were responsible for managing the top six accounts
  • Each of the account managers was given a short face to face sales training programming specifically designed for the clients, the programme was highly interactive as the managers needed to pool their knowledge of how to use the resources available within the company.
  • All their sales staff were given a briefing on the added value services they could sell and given some simple actions that would identify added vale opportunities
  • Each of the account managers had the opportunity to use the resources of a senior sales coach
  • A short market research exercise was commissioned to investigate the opportunities and needs of these nominated accounts, with an emphasis on which additional services would genuinely add value.
  • A short market segmentation study was carried out to identify the most effective and efficient way of handling their different size and type of account  

Results

Within six months sales to the top six accounts had increased by 10%, and added value services sales increased from 1% to 6% of sales. It was estimated that both actions increased profitability by £1m within the six moths period.

Firm plans had been to drawn up to further quantify and action the opportunities identified by the CEO. These would require a reorganisation and system changes, and the CEO wanted to ensure he had the right people in place before going ahead.


So What

The changes already implemented convinced the CEO that their were further benefits to be achieved and he decided to instigate an urgent review of the businesses strategy and tactics to develop the next three years.