Transcend Networks
Problem:
Transcend Networks Provides IT services for mid-sized to large businesses. Started by two Principals with a small existing client base, Transcend was able to break even and grow slowly via an organic approach over the next several years. This process was more than acceptable as the Principals also serviced the clients and didn’t have the time or the ability to actively solicit business and simultaneously service existing clients. At the five year mark, Transcend decided to increase it’s rate of growth by hiring a salesperson. However, the salesperson chose marketing venues other than personal selling as a means to generate top of the sales funnel prospects and consequently didn’t succeed to the Principal’s expectations. After six months of virtually no production, the salesmen requested help and the Principals brought Mesa Consulting to the table.
Solution:
Mesa Consulting started by sharing how the primary driver of business to business sales is personal selling. And, while the other venues of the promotional mix are important, without a majority emphasis on personal selling, the Principal’s desired volume wouldn’t be achieved. So Mesa began a two month training program that started with an overview of interpersonal communication using the “Leadership and Self Deception” model and culminated with the mechanics of fundamental selling. Then, Mesa brought a Sales Rep on the phone and had the rep listen to how the Mesa employee (working on behalf of Transcend) would set appointments for the Principals. Using the concept that people are people with needs, wants, and desires of their own and not objects that are preventing Mesa from finding a decision maker, Mesa was able to demonstrate the high rate of success that comes from utilizing SPIN cycle selling after one takes an “Outside the Box” perspective on the people with whom they’re speaking. Next Mesa began including the Transcend Sales Rep in the conversation and Finally, Mesa acted as a fly on the wall listening to each call and critiquing to help fine tune success in the future. Mesa also helped script the e-mail communication between Transcend Sales Reps and prospective customers. Finally, Mesa helped guide the close after the appointment by helping Transcend Sales Reps how to understand the buying signals and how to ask for the sale.
The results were practically instantaneous. Transcend has a large volume of prospective sales entering the sales funnel, pending appointments in the pipeline, and closes to work on after the appointment.
Testimonials:
John Penrod: George Bass was truly amazing. He delivered above and beyond what we expected and what we expected was a lot. Yes, I was a little concerned when he began discussing the philosophy of communication as it related to inter-personal interaction. I just wanted a bottom line. But he explained that in order to achieve that bottom line there were steps that we had to take on the front end that we hadn’t. He also shared how it wasn’t our fault for not knowing what these steps were as both my partner and I had come up through the tech side of the business and had always left the rain makers alone. It really hit home even before the sales training portion began when I noticed a difference in how our sales staff spoke with us as well as prospective customers. So when Mesa continued with “classroom” work, I was ok because I believed it would have a huge payoff. Boy was I right. We used to see a new client every other month and suddenly we were scheduled for three per week. In no time we had closed a client worth $70,000 per year which statistically will stay with us for ten plus years and had a pipeline of other clients all within that same range. Yes, there was a small learning curve regarding determining which clients were this level of sale but that was just a few product knowledge screening questions that we had to share because of the specifics of what we have to offer. Mesa Consulting and George Bass have made a huge difference in our company. I can’t recommend them enough.
Craig Ibold: While we originally brought George Bass and the Mesa Consulting Group to Transcend so they could help with sales, I quickly realized that having the Principal of the company work with us offered us a lot more than we thought we’d get. Off the clock, we shared our future desires for the company and George explained how the action items he was taking would help us put together a financial pro-forma that would utilize a high multiple and Life Time Value of a client to command a high asking price for our company, debt acquisition, equity sales or a path to future prosperity. He showed us how valuators look for a change in rate of production (volume) which equals quantity which multiplied by price equals revenue. Then, without even having to effect the action item again (increased volume of sales people and sales training) we could demonstrate a future cash flow that would be substantially higher than a plotted straight line graph. He also showed us that the repeat business would allow us to calculate the revenues on an LTV basis which would allow us to ask for a very high price if we wanted to sell this company, the ability to get any kind of financing we want, or have a road-map to build Transcend into the sized corporation it could be. Then, George put his money where his mouth is and turned our sales team into the closers we knew they were capable of becoming. I hadn’t ever thought of starting at something so fundamental as communications and then sales training and then interactive help because I focus on the technical side of this business, but I figured that if I had Mesa Sales pros (and we got George) then we’d definitely start off with sales which would more than off-set the cost of hiring Mesa in the first place. And wow, did it ever work! George Bass is simply the best at what he does.
Clay Wilderman: I knew I was having trouble at Transcend and am so very grateful to my employers for letting me suggest that I get help. I had taken classes with George Bass at Kennesaw State years ago and knew that his approach to marketing and sales would help me be productive so without hesitation, both John and Craig said they would hire him and ask him to work with me. He took me on a tour of “Leadership and Self Deception” where I realized that I was steam rolling over gatekeepers because I saw them as an impediment to my getting an appointment rather than interesting people with stories. Once I started treating people like people, everyone opened up to me. Next he shared SPIN cycle selling which I had seen before in school but never really properly utilized in the real world. He made this whole concept come to life as he used it with prospective clients and turned them into appointments. It took me a while, but with George’s help I started to get it and suddenly I was having the kind of success I always wanted. I went from having virtually nothing in my pipeline to overwhelming my bosses with so much prospective business that they’ve actually started asking me to screen out some of the appointments by size because they just don’t have enough time to visit with everyone. But what really helped is George helping coordinate the closes with me. He acted as an intermediary between the owners, myself and the clients and following his lead we’re having some very profitable months. In short, not only do I feel more secure about my ability to produce, but I know the value I bring to Transcend and can quantify it in terms of pending business and closed sales. If you have any questions at all, please contact me at 
clay@tnius.com Also, you can see our company at www.tnius.com.