Challenge

I work for an organisation engaged in Distribution of major IT products through a set of channel networks. My role involves increasing the sales for the organisation with equal focus on profitability. And to accomplish the task, I was given a team of field sales managers and inside tele callers.

As the industrial growth slowed down, business opportunities available in the market also reduced drastically, and it became more and more difficult to achieve the profits, Company was expecting of the team.

Every opportunity available in the market was known to our competitors and somehow they were always able to give better offers than us resulting in the company losing some major deals. Some of the opportunities available had huge financial risks which again limited our participation.

With each passing quarter I realised not only our performance, but also the confidence and motivation levels of the complete team was going down, which was equally , if not more, dangerous than the plunging sales of the unit.

Selection

The need of the hour was to take some quick corrective steps through some design thinking processes/tools, to quickly test an idea and prototype.

Application

As a first step we all sat together, and went about discusing the individual challenges faced in the market and all the information each one had about our competitors and the partners, with whom the company was doing business with.

This gave each team member a holistic view of the situation and each member came up with ideas and suggestions to overcome the same.

We decided to divide the team into different groups with specific duties such as

1. Hunting new partners.(involving tele caller) 2. Understanding the pain points of our long standing key

partners, their challenges in winning a deal/managing clients etc.

3. Trying to break into a few key competitive accounts by

regularly engaging with them, building customer relation.

Insight

Our interactions with our key partners and those of the competitors, made us realise that one of their main challenge was getting and retaining technically qualified resources, and arranging finances for execution of large projects.

Approach

This insight on the pain points of our channel partners, their needs, understanding of market dynamics, helped us to come up the idea of setting up, our own technical support team.

Our technical team helped channel partners, with information on new innovations and cost saving technologies and assisted them in designing their client projects.

Also to support their financial needs, we convinced our management to give short term project based loans against personal guarantee.

These initiatives got us complete details of all the large projects our partners were working on, thus gaining an upper hand over our competitors. Our relationship with the channel partners strengthened as they started seeing value in our services which helped us win deals with better margins.

Also with our focus on adding new channel partners, we widened our reach to areas where our presence was not there thus incrementing revenue for the company.

Not until I went through this course did I realise this initiative as Learning Launch, which every company, given today’s competitiveness, will require implementing, to stay viable in the market.


Challenge I work for an organisation engaged in Distribution of major IT products through a set of channel networks . My role involves increasing the sales for the organisation with equal focus on profitability . And to accomplish the task , I was given a team of field sales managers and inside tele callers . As the industrial growth slowed down , business opportunities available in the market also reduced drastically , and it became more and more difficult to achieve the profits , Company was expecting of the team . Every opportunity available in the market was known to our competitors and somehow they were always able to give better offers than us resulting in the company losing some major deals . Some of the opportunities available had huge financial risks which again limited our participation . With each passing quarter I realised not only our performance , but also the confidence and motivation levels of the complete team was going down , which was equally , if not more , dangerous than the plunging sales of the unit . Selection The need of the hour was to take some quick corrective steps through some design thinking processes / tools , to quickly test an idea and prototype . Application As a first step we all sat together , and went about discusing the individual challenges faced in the market and all the information each one had about our competitors and the partners , with whom the company was doing business with . This gave each team member a holistic view of the situation and each member came up with ideas and suggestions to overcome the same . We decided to divide the team into different groups with specific duties such as 1 . Hunting new partners.(involving tele caller ) 2 . Understanding the pain points of our long standing key partners , their challenges in winning a deal / managing clients etc . 3 . Trying to break into a few key competitive accounts by regularly engaging with them , building customer relation . Insight Our interactions with our key partners and those of the competitors , made us realise that one of their main challenge was getting and retaining technically qualified resources , and arranging finances for execution of large projects . Approach This insight on the pain points of our channel partners , their needs , understanding of market dynamics , helped us to come up the idea of setting up , our own technical support team . Our technical team helped channel partners , with information on new innovations and cost saving technologies and assisted them in designing their client projects . Also to support their financial needs , we convinced our management to give short term project based loans against personal guarantee . These initiatives got us complete details of all the large projects our partners were working on , thus gaining an upper hand over our competitors . Our relationship with the channel partners strengthened as they started seeing value in our services which helped us win deals with better margins . Also with our focus on adding new channel partners , we widened our reach to areas where our presence was not there thus incrementing revenue for the company . Not until I went through this course did I realise this initiative as Learning Launch , which every company , given today ’s competitiveness , will require implementing , to stay viable in the market .