Case Studies
Below are just some examples of the types of services we have provided over the years for companies across a number of industries, including clean tech, IT, financial services, retail, non-profit, and government. If you are facing any of these challenges (or similar symptoms), contact us today.
Sales & Marketing Process Improvement (BPM) Training Programs
Growth Plan and Process
The owner of a small marketing firm enjoyed moderate success from the first day he opened shop. He was a natural salesman and enjoyed talking to prospective clients. He also had developed a top-notch virtual team to deliver client projects consistently on time and within budget. Things were going well…on paper. But, he knew the company was missing out on many opportunities. It could be bigger. Much bigger. He could be making more money. A lot more money. What was holding it back? We discussed the processes from lead generation through sale through final delivery of marketing services and identified one major roadblock and another opportunity to significant increase profitability. We also quantified his goals and the market opportunity, resulting in very specific metrics and a very “doable” growth plan. Almost immediately, he was able to land a high-margin client and start that client down the profit maximizing path we created.
Work Flow
A small business owner was getting fed up. Everything she did took too long and the mundane tasks detracted from doing the work she was passionate about. At the same time, she wasted hours every day doing things that did not bring in money, thus reducing her effective hourly income to unacceptable levels. She had tried to document her processes in an attempt to optimize them herself. But, she just ended up with a bunch of separate checklists that she didn’t use. I met with her to outline a clear, concise work flow and developed a dynamic document she actually uses. As a result, she was able to better understand and control her costs, increasing her profitability immediately. With less waste, she was happier and had more time to provide even better customer service. Thus, she was able to raise her prices and expand her business through more targeted marketing efforts.
Room for Growth
A real estate investor and rental property owner knew there was a problem, but couldn’t pinpoint it. He knew profits from one of his properties - a popular B&B - weren’t what he expected. We looked at two key areas of the business - the marketing (which determined how much money was coming in) and the process for turning the rooms over (which was the highest weekly expense). After some analysis, we reengineered his marketing program to attract more long-term guests and optimized the processes for turning rooms over. He was, in essence, able to choose his guests to better suit his needs, and thus provided them better service tailored to them, increasing guest satisfaction as well as profits.
Crossing the Chasm
The management team of a boutique service firm with about $3M in revenue had much higher aspirations. For many years, the company had relied on word-of-mouth referrals to gain new business. However, this limited growth. I worked with the team - from CEO down to lowest level on the org chart - to develop a new process to identify and secure new clients. This included determining the company’s strengths, areas of expertise, and unique sales proposition. It also involved systematizing the process they followed responding to RFPs. Revenues increased by $2M the first year and the company continued to grow for years to come, even opening up multiple offices around the country within five years.
Shipping and Receiving
The shipping and receiving department for a medium-sized warehouse was facing impending budget cuts. It needed to do more with less. I worked with the staff at the loading docks to improve the process for receiving, cataloging, storing and fulfilling orders. We decreased the time to “receive” each shipment by 33% and nearly eliminated a related problem - lost shipments and orders. The actual dollar savings from reducing this expense resulted in zero layoffs. (A year later, the department manager was featured in an article in a trade journal because of the success of the turnaround.)
Fulfilling Opportunity
A fulfillment department was constantly falling behind. The backlog continued to grow every day. Within a few days, I was able to determine the root cause. The “shut down” procedure at the end of each shift was taking way too long. We implemented a much more efficient process, reducing the time spent by 66%, freeing up more time to process orders at the end of every shift and beginning of the next shift. Backlogs decreased. Employee morale and profitability increased.
Inventory Control
A large multinational company offered samples of an expensive product on loan to key influencers worldwide. Unfortunately, they had poor inventory controls. I created systems for tracking requests, shipments and receipts, thus reducing loss by almost 100%, and increasing the return on investment from the program. The speed and level of service with which the company was able to respond and interact with the influencers added credibility and enhanced its image, which helped the company continue to expand its market share.
In each of these cases, we started off identifying the problem and goal, then I was given full access to all of the employees involved in the relevant departments or functions.