Unrealistic Goal: To supply local governments in the Zealand region
Outcome: Sales to all “White Spots”
Solution: Sales Breakthrough
Challenge
The local government sector is an attractive and highly competitive market. Despite targeted efforts, Rambøll had not had much success landing jobs for local governments in the Zealand region, where the Danish capital, Copenhagen, is also located.
The Process
Qeep and Rambøll worked together for nine months to set and achieve a series of goals, which would ultimately lead to increased sales to the local governments in the Zealand region.
The first step was to define the goal. For the sake of visualisation, the attractive local governments were marked in white on a map of Zealand – giving rise to the name of the project “White Spot Warriors”. The team of warriors initially comprised Rambøll’s Director of Marketing, Michael Schad, and seven area managers. They worked to identify a number of critical factors, drew up personal results plans and met once a week at results meetings, where they shared their successes, followed up on execution and evaluated what worked and what didn’t.
Throughout the process, Qeep’s consultants coached the warriors and ensured the project was firmly rooted in the organisation. They also provided training for area managers in areas where their competencies could be given a boost. This process ensured that the area managers worked in a serious and targeted manner to achieve their goals – without losing touch with Ramboll’s original values and corporate culture.
Old Habits
Ramboll had attempted to increase sales to local governments in the Zealand region without much success.
Area managers were highly focused on sales of their own particular product. When in contact with potential customers, they failed to consider the need for Ramboll’s many other services.
New Behaviour
As a result of the process:
The area managers began to understand that they could involve other departments in their sales efforts – and benefit from this. They started out by selling each other – not just themselves. Then, they stepped out of their comfort zones and began to visit the local authorities more often, discovering a definite interest – not only in their own services, but in many of Ramboll’s other services as well. The success snowballed. One successful call leading to a positive and fruitful conversation made the next call that much easier. And so on.
The Results
The outreach activities and cross-organizational collaboration resulted in a successful breakthrough:
- Ramboll now conducts business with 12 out of 15 local authorities – all new customers
- More than 10% of company revenue stems from these new customers
- Most of the area managers increased sales by 40%
- Three out of seven area managers doubled their revenue
The organisational outcome: Ramboll’s employees are now better at execution and achieving their goals – even after completion of the process with Qeep.
The Hero
Area Manager Michael Vedel experienced fantastic growth during the process!
Prior to the process, he had neither the time nor the resources to approach new customers in the local government sector.
The role of area manager with greater cross-organisational responsibility for accounts and sales was new at Ramboll. Michael took on the task – in addition to his usual operational duties – and performed with flying colours. He generated new business and landed three new local governments in his own area (100% success) via renewed focus, the use of targeted sales activities, increased meeting activity, and interdisciplinary involvement of competencies across the Ramboll organisation.
Michael is an excellent example of the benefits of questioning paradigms and of dropping an “it can’t be done” attitude in favour of an “it works if you focus your efforts” attitude.
The Unrealistic Goal
Qeep challenged the seven area managers to set unrealistic goals. They set the goals of landing new customers in selected local governments and boosting sales across the region by 40%.
The Organisation
Ramboll Denmark is a leading engineer, design and consulting firm, supplying knowledge-based turnkey solutions in construction and design, traffic and infrastructure, environment and water, energy and climate, and industry. The Ramboll Group employs around 10,000 people and operates globally, with 200 offices in 23 countries.