Exploiting Data to Drive Greater Revenue and Profit
Client Situation
Findings
As work begun, KGK quickly discovered some unexpected findings and brought them to the owner’s attention:
- The company’s KPIs focused on measuring new leads and revenue, leaving performance at each stage of the business funnel largely unattended to. Management could not pinpoint and address each area of the business cycle where revenue was flying out the door.
- The company generated a tremendous number of leads, yet it lacked the mechanisms which would convert them to revenue. The company was investing an aggressive and reckless 40% of its revenue to attract fresh prospects. However, many of these prospects did not immediately seek a consultation, and the company had not built the capability to continuously engage and nurture these prospects. Further, we found only 30% of those requesting appointments secured an appointment time in their unwieldy process, leaving a substantial revenue opportunity on the table. It also became apparent that the company’s sales personnel lacked the know-how, training, and the incentive to manage prospects who didn’t immediately proceed with treatment.
- The company’s systems were grossly misaligned to business needs, arising from haphazard policies and procedures and ambiguity regarding how each system should be used. Without clear definition of what business lifecycle information should be tracked and how each business system would be used, staff tracked information in different ways and in different systems, causing follow-ups to fall through with hundreds of prospects falling through the cracks.
A candid conversation with the owner revealed that the business had grown in slapdash fashion. He acknowledged that these were entirely appropriate insights, and was open minded to the “fixes” which would put his company “back on a growth track”.
Recommendations
While there were numerous IT pain points to address, KGK recommended a few actions that would deliver short and mid-term value:
- Analysis of all available data to identify soft spots in the business cycle and to systematically address each confirmed opportunity to increase revenue or profit.
- Aligning their use of systems to the apparent processes to allow for KPI measurement and collection of usable business insights.
- Re-organize and retrain all customer facing employees with a meaningful incentive plan to emphasize revenue and profit.
- Re-map and streamline the prospect’s journey through the buying process, while building in a solid ongoing nurture system to avoid anyone falling through the cracks.
Results
Although the company’s data was scattered across various systems and formats, KGK was able to unearth significant solutions which, within 6 short months raised revenue by 37% and earnings from 8% the prior year to over 13%. Simply put, we exceeded all expectations. Additionally, KGK addressed and solidified the following:
- Reset scheduling policies and built a capacity planning system, which also enabled self-scheduling of consultations online, resulted in a 27% increase in consultations.
- Consultative sales training and 1-on-1 coaching resulted in a 15% jump in close rate.
- Changed incentive plans that motivated follow-up with prospects who were not immediately ready to buy and patients who had not completed treatment resulted in a 20% increase in close rate, 12% increase in realization of sold revenue, and a 65% increase in positive online reviews.
- Implementation of training, job descriptions, and an organization chart which clarified job accountabilities and increased job satisfaction. The gaps and errors were too numerous to articulate here.
Energized by this success, and a more certain future, the owner requested KGK’s end-to-end assessment of his business, including, but not limited to;
- Other known operational problems.
- How the business strategy needed to shift, to include regional, and even national expansion.