Driving business in challenging times, a case study of the impact of our course with Scottish businesses

At the heart of any successful sales process are the metrics. If you don’t know your numbers you will find it tough to measure what is working, what’s not, and to make correctly informed decisions.

We were lucky enough to be asked by Russel Dalgleish, an influencer and business guru in Edinburgh, Scotland, to do a series of training courses for 184 Scottish companies over the last 8 weeks. The goal was to help them scale their businesses during this tough period of lockdown. We felt the best way to do this was to break the event into three parts. What follows after this breakdown is a solid set of metrics that allow you to see how the attendees got on.

 Part One – Intensive Training

The training began by holding three, 2-hour long sessions, each one with a specific focus:

A. How to build an outbound lead generation model around LinkedIn and referrals

B. How to conduct a first meeting with someone you have not met before, during a period where no one wants to meet and doesn’t want to be sold

C. How to book meetings using various methods such as WhatsApp, E-mails, LinkedIn etc. without needing to cold call

Part Two – Implementing the Training

During this second phase, attendees put the learning into action and we conducted a weekly workshop where we met with them for one hour to review their progress and answer questions.

Specifically:

1. The group could ask questions and talk about what worked for them, learn from each other and we could help solve any issues they had.
2. We tracked their metrics, using a simple survey completed weekly each Friday. We compiled those results and caught anyone up who did not complete it.
3. We did a self-assessment survey after each first meeting with a new contact, looking at how well it went, what worked, what did not, and shared their challenges with first meetings.

Part Three – On their Own

For a second, four-week period the attendees were on their own with only one meeting at the end for an hour to review metrics and answer any final questions. The group still filled out all their metrics and shared the numbers in a group chat so all could see who was doing what and how it was going. The idea is they slowly ease into being responsible for forming their strong habits so they no longer require a check-in with us

The Results

The metrics that these training sessions yielded was incredible and showed a positive impact on the attendees. There were as you can see above three core parts to the course, these each has a set of metrics that sit around them and these are laid out here.

Linkedin

Specifically, in this section, we will look at the LinkedIn stats on how many connection requests actually converted into meetings.

49.6% Connection requests accepted in the first week

71.4% Connections accepted after 4 weeks

55.3% Connections had a conversation initiated at the start

71.4% Connections had a conversation initiated at the end

23.9% Conversations converted into a request for a meeting at the beginning

14.7% Conversations converted into a request for a meeting in the last week

 48.6% Requests for meetings converted into a first meeting booked in week 1

57.2% Requests for meetings converted into a first meeting by week 4

I believe there are a series of points from this:

1. The quality of your profile affects your volume of new connections.
2. There was a bit of work to find the true target market and its relevance that I believe improved the acceptances.
3. Confidence came over time with the peer-to-peer learning and the group started to see that they could start a conversation with anyone.
4. I was surprised when the number of conversations that converted into a request for meeting dropped. I suspect the trainees began to learn that you could look at a profile or the type of people in a group and begin to recognize the more relevant people. Sort the quality. This also led to improved conversations since they had more time to focus on the fewer number of people more likely to accept.
5. The ratio of meetings booked is critical. Although the numbers booked dropped in week four, the number of meetings overall went up, as did the quality. I think that the team started to get better at the selection and personalisation of their messages. This was a topic of conversation in the follow-up meetings and the team started to realise that they could do it better.

 Referrals and Partnerships

Here we will look deeper at the referrals themselves, including how often they made the ask, referrals obtained, and those that converted to meetings.

Some insights from the data:

1. The number of attempts to get referrals dropped to a more consistent number: 2.38 to 1.63 over the four weeks.
2. By the end of four weeks, 1.25 people per week, per person were saying yes to giving referrals.
3. The data shows an average of 5.03 referrals per person over 4 weeks, which converted to 5.82 meetings booked per person. The assumption is that there are meetings booked straight in that are not recorded as new referrals and also that there were postponements or re-bookings.

My takeaway is that consistency is key. You must be setting up referrals and asking regularly. These ratios vary but the spread in the group was even. Asking the right way, with a model is at the heart of getting referrals as well as knowing whom to ask and when to ask them.

First meetings

Now, we’ll look at the final piece of the course: The booking of meetings and conversion of meetings into follow up meetings.

The insights from this data:

1. Number of first meetings booked grew from 2.69 per week to 4.06 per week over four weeks
2. The ratio of completed meetings grew from 69.9% to 92.7%
3. The ratio of completed first meetings going to second meetings dropped from 77.7% to 64.1%
4. BUT the volume of firsts going to seconds increased by 65% over 4 weeks

The volume of first meetings grew over the four weeks to a healthy 4 first meetings a week, converting at a rate of approximately 64.1%. The feedback from the group was that by the end, the quality of the contacts was increasing and some of their contacts were going to lead to proposals in the coming weeks and months. If they keep pushing with 4 firsts per week consistently, with the meetings carrying on converting for 12 months at a rate of 61.4%, this will certainly be a healthy pipeline over time.

This assumes the attendees continue to:

1. Talk to the right people
2. Talk to the right industry
3. Talk to the right size of the company
4. Continue following up the right way and consistently

Our professional experience has found:

1.    Most companies do not have a solid sales model

2.    Most companies do not understand the need for a model

3.    Sales do not have to be transactional, there is a pace and we need to work with and understand our client's journey

4.    Following the process works, as we can see with the numbers here

5.    A step-by-step training of the processes and model is required, that takes people through to practical application

6.    Having a learning process is at the heart of this and it has to work: Learn/apply/personalise, Blooms taxonomy

7.    The numbers don’t lie

8.    You need discipline

9.    Teams work better together

10. People are sceptical about sales when people don’t need to be, sales is not a dirty word. Our businesses need sales, the same as they need operations and product.

11. Ratios and understanding them are at the heart of success

12. Building trust is key

What the attendees need to focus on going forward 

1.    There is an answer and they can scale if they want, but it requires discipline and focus.

2.    They understand the impact of metrics and CRM and must keep on the numbers

3.    They can tap into any market they want easily if they focus

4.    Their image and brand have improved greatly, keep the momentum.

5.    They are on the journey now of scaling up.

6.    The importance of some sort of discipline is critical

7.    Selling takes time to master, they will get a lot better. Its a journey.

8.    There is an ethical, passive, and non-transactional way to sell. Meaning that building relationships, being relevant, understanding your clients, nurturing and not being pushy can and does work.

It is clear that anyone can start to build a pipeline and with the right systems it is relatively easy. We can see in four weeks the change. Also, although the goal was to do meetings without selling, most had some meetings that were likely to go to sales. This was a real bonus.

During the lockdown, it was psychologically one of the most difficult periods that many would face. We have proved there is no issue about getting out there, finding and speaking to the right people in order to continue building relationships for the future. 

I would like to thank all the attendees for coming on the course. The group was amazing, they engaged at an honest and deeply interactive level. We had loads of fun and the learning was both ways. Good luck in the future and feel free too reach out to us with any issues or help that you need.