Customer Audit and Sales Position Validation
35% increase in service and parts sales.
The client
General Motors Service and Parts Organization (GMSPO) has always had a big job to do. Over 300 GM reps provide parts, service, and strategic programs to over 7,300 GM dealers. It is a big business, generating over $1 billion in annual sales.
Consistently growing top line sales performance in the face of relentless competition, changing customer needs, and sales staff attrition is a daunting challenge. GMSPO wanted to meet these challenges while continuing to grow market share.
Chally was far more cost-effective than others we evaluated and the Chally procedures fit well into our organization.
Gar Smith –
General Manager, GM
By working with Chally, GMSPO was able to define the skills required to select and then train highly effective sales representatives. Chally did it by helping GMSPO better qualify candidates with the qualities and skills needed to exceed value expectations. Most importantly, (Chally methods and procedures are empirically based, so they predict the success of sales candidates with a high degree of reliability.
The average new sales representative hired through the Chally process delivered 35% more sales results. That equates to nearly $1.8 million annually in additional revenue per representative with minimal incremental cost.
“We looked at many other selection criteria methods,” says Gar Smith, General Manager, GMSPO. “(Chally) was the most effective. Our previous method was more like the good old boy criteria. Chally moved us from guesswork to being able to predict the success of a sales representative. Our results speak for themselves. These are profitable reps, $1.8 million plus in annual revenue.”
“Plus, Chally was far more cost effective than others we evaluated and the Chally procedures fit well into our organization — easy to implement the process, we spend one day every 2-3 months testing and interviewing candidates and we are done.”
The situation
A Customer Audit and Sales Position Validation
Clearly GMSPO was successful. But management was acutely aware of the need to resolve several important business challenges. Customer service ratings needed to be improved. The GMSPO sales force was mature and in many ways challenged to adapt to changing customer expectations. Further, GMSPO sought to substantially increase both market share and profitability.
It was evident that quantifying reasons for dealer satisfaction would create an ideal foundation for improving GMSPO’s sales performance. Through dealer interviews, Chally identified customer needs, competitive positioning, and the current rating of GMSPO sales force effectiveness.
Customer impact
The average new sales representative hired through the Chally process delivered 35% more sales results. That equates to nearly $1.8 million annually in additional revenue per representative with minimal incremental cost.
The results
Developing Those With “The Right Stuff”
GMSPO has effectively moved from a “good old boy” system of selling to one that is based on a solid foundation of customer-derived intelligence and proven methods. The company knows that its salespeople will succeed. That’s because Chally’s predictively accurate methods tell them so, well in advance.
Continuing to Build Better Top-Line Performance GMSPO uses the results of its work with Chally to select salespeople with stronger overall potential for success. By working with Chally, GMSPO has a sales selection process that is faster, easier, and more cost effective. Because GMSPO can identify and select more qualified candidates, they are also able to reduce training time and associated expense.