Marketing/Sales

Recent Development

Adjusting sales organizations to changing circumstances is one of the prime challenges for almost any area of business. Whereas the past decades have seen almost no change in their choice of channels for distributing products and services, the increasing use of electronic media over the past 15 years has condemned some of these established channels to obscurity. As strategy consultants, we see it as our duty to prepare our clients for changes in their sales environment, to redefine their sales processes and organization and to assist them through the transformation process.

The main topics that affect the sales environment today include

  • Increasingly professional, knowledgeable, and demanding customers.
  • Changing preferences among the sales channels used by clients.
  • The implementation of new regulatory constraints.
  • Industrialization and automation of processes (outsourcing, off-shoring).
  • The erosion of profit margins.

Individual business are also affected by further, specific sales developments that need to be considered, such as:

  • What future can a formerly successful sales channel have in view of a dwindling share of the market?
  • Which role will the internet play in future sales work?
  • How can the strongest growing sales channels be managed efficiently?

All of these factors create new challenges for consultants working in the area of sales. Increasingly, in-depth professional know-how, a profound knowledge of the structures and particularities of individual industries and sales channels or business models and a sense for the sources of operational success need to be available before taking on a project.


Our Consultancy Interests

With our Competence Centre Sales, Kienbaum Management Consultants covers a majority of the issues affecting sales today. The focus of our work lies on the following aspects:

Strategic-conceptual issues with special attention on understanding the factors for operational success (in particular IT and HR issues), such as

  • The design of sales channel strategies, in particular multi-channel models.
  • The design of compensation systems for field sales.
  • The development of mobile sales units.
  • The definition of sales processes.
  • The shape of sales leadership processes.

Considerable structural changes with substantial consequences for employees and the procedural organization, such as the

  • Introduction of comprehensive procedural changes, e.g. the introduction of sales process software.
  • A realignment of the sales organization.

Topics that require in-depth expertise concerning the business of our clients

  • For strategic and conceptual questions relating to online distribution channels, e.g. for direct insurers or service call centres.
  • For strategic and conceptual questions concerning the changing circumstances produced by shifting regulatory requirements (e.g. for insurers or electricity suppliers).


Client Portfolio

We can cover sales-strategy questions in almost all areas of industry:

  • Financial service providers.
  • Telecommunications companies.
  • Retail.
  • Manufacturing.
  • Energy companies.
  • Pharmaceuticals.


Sample Project 1: Sales Realignment at a Service Call Centre

Background Situation:
A formerly almost exclusively service-oriented call centre of an insurance company was to be realigned in a more sales-centric direction in accordance with its new sales function. The aim was to ensure a marked increase in reactive and proactive client acquisitions.

Our Consultancy Approach: After the definition of the strategic parameters, we designed an acquisitions and a qualification concept for the call agents. At the same time, we conducted a sales competence survey for the project participants in live calls, as a preparation for the subsequent sales training efforts in group training or individual coaching units.

Project Results:
Almost all participants showed a noticeable increase in sales activities in the sense of higher contacting and acquisition quotas.

Sample Project 2: Reorganization of an Exclusivity Concept

Background Situation: A strongly composite-product-driven insurer aimed for a stronger diversification of its sales concept and turned to us for the design of a blueprint for an improved and future-proof product sales balance.

Our Consultancy Approach: After a thorough analysis of the markets, we identified the core drivers for a successful diversification of sales performance. Taking the corporate culture and the exclusivity-centric business processes of the client into consideration, we prepared and evaluated various scenarios for a repositioning of the exclusivity distribution model in collaboration with our client. Various distribution, management and leadership processes were designed and introduced to pave the way for the future sales organization.

Project Results: Both the new sales organization and the sales processes were introduced successfully. The performance of the newly established sales function “Agency Pension Provision Specialist” exceeded the previous levels by a wide margin – while the market share for composite products was maintained at the same time.

Contact

Kienbaum Management Consultants GmbH 

Kai Rotermund

Senior Project Manager

KMC Financial Services

Arnulfstraße 58

D- 80335  Munich
Fon +49 (89) 45 87 78-51

Fax +49 (89) 45 87 78-10

kai.rotermund@kienbaum.de