Case Studies: Our Success Stories
Case Study – Grant
Grant found what seemed like the perfect job for him,
relationship sales with lots of room to grow. He made
the commitment to move his wife and school-age children
to a new area. Six months into his new position, Greg
had his mid-year review, standard policy in the new company.
He was looking forward to solid feedback and praise for
what he’d accomplished in the territory. Instead he heard
quite a different story from his VP of Sales.
What Grant heard was closer to:
- Insufficient core sales activities
- Inadequate movement forward in major accounts
- Failure to hold the line in negotiations resulting
in erosion of margin
- Unsatisfactory communications of both account detail
and strategy to the VP of Sales
- Reports after client visits needed more than “Great
lunch.! Client really likes us.”
The clear message from Grant’s VP of Sales was – 90 days
to turn the show around or Grant would be facing the nightmare
of starting all over again, and potentially moving his
family to a brand new area after less than a year. Shock,
overwhelm and anxiety rocked Grant and made him wonder
how he could have been so far off base.
Grant contacted Gemini Pro and asked if we thought there
was any hope for him. Our initial consultation showed
that Grant was a ten-year veteran in relationship sales.
His new company was well beyond the “take a different
client to lunch each day” model that had worked for him
in his previous position. We saw that Grant had solid
basic skills to build on and a fierce desire to do whatever
was necessary to make the turnaround his management needed
to see.
With Grant’s permission, we interviewed his VP of Sales
to get his view on what was missing, and to determine
if Grant was already gone and just didn’t know it yet.
Trevor, the VP of Sales was clear that:
- It had taken him 6 grueling months to find Grant
- He really didn’t want to cover that territory himself
for the 6-12 months it would take to find another suitable
candidate and bring him up to speed in the territory
- Grant might not be his ideal, but he really wanted
to salvage him
- If Grant wanted to invest in the Gemini Pro turnaround
program, Trevor would agree to monthly meetings with us
to give us feedback on Grant’s progress
Within three weeks, Grant received his first email from
the VP of Sales with a “Well done!” on it. In the weeks
that followed, Grant began receiving dramatically more
consistent positive feedback. Grant learned to submit
reports and emails in the language that conveyed his accomplishment
to the VP. He developed strong strategies that moved his
key accounts forward with each visit. He also learned
how to hold the line in negotiations and still retain
the respect of his client.
Grant finished the year as one of the top reps. He received
the Rookie of the Year Award, as well as the award for
Most Improved Sales Rep of the year. Oh, and by the way,
the VP asked us to work with the rest of the team.
Note: Because of the sensitive nature
of our case studies, some names and company identifying
information have been changed at client request. Originals
are on file for all client success stories, or that client
is available for reference.
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Is the rep salvageable?