Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge & Selection

I was working in my company's corporate sales department before. We had problems with both  internal and external customers in device offer, sales and delivery processes due to long and  cumbersome process steps.

At the beginning of the process, customers asked for device offers, but since the offer process  between us and the suppliers was too long, our return to customers was delayed. At this stage,  customers either gave up or made purchases through another channel. When the customer decided  to buy a device from us, we could have a delay in the stock and supply process due to the fact that  we do not have our own stock and we sell through our suppliers.

The dysfunction of the processes also caused loss of customers and income. We had to stop this loss  as quickly as possible and meet our revenue targets before the end of the year.

Our challenge was to develop these processes in a way that would make all related channels  concerned happy.

We built a small project group. We decided to use the learning launch technique to achieve the result  quickly. Learning launch is a a small experiment that tests your new idea in the real marketplace.

Application

We met with salespeople in small groups and various mixed customer group. As a result of these  meetings, we realized that the offer volume is too high; but the rate of return to sale is very low. To  test this assumption, we focused on the prioritization of the offers. We decided to establish a pilot  group and evaluate and prioritize the sales opportunities in daily meetings.

We accelerated the offer process of priority opportunities from daily meetings, but there were still  delays due to stock and suppliers at the point of sale.

We met again our project group and evaluate the situation. We concluded that at least in the first  stage buy-sell process of best-selling products should be shortened. For our second learning launch,  we estimated monthly sales of best-selling products and we have taken the necessary actions to  make the purchases in advance and bring the products to the warehouse.

In this way, we have eliminated our supplier and stock waiting times when sales are realized. We  have been able to deliver devices to our customers on the same day from our own stock.

Insight & Approach

By applying this tool, we got very quick results. We had the chance to look through the eyes of  different parties in the first meetings and built the new process with this perspective.

When we look at the results, there was a serious simplification and acceleration in the process, while  an increase in our warehouse-related costs occurred. We will review and try to optimize these costs.

It is very valuable to recognize such problems before moving all projects to the new process. Learning  launch technique gives us this opportunity.

