October 22, 2009 – Ken Revenaugh explained how Oakwood Temporary Housing changed its organization to dramatically increase win revenue in an interview with Miller Heman, available for download with a sign in.
Miller Heiman noted that Ken described how “Prior to the 1990s, effective relationships existed with customers at the branch level. However, the marketplace began to evolve with more decisions taking place at a corporate level. Oakwood’s tenured sales team was not ready to change with the marketplace and ultimately began losing important client relationships. In this case study, learn how sales leaders at Oakwood transformed their organization, changed its culture from a focus on accounts to a focus on opportunities and significantly improved win revenue.”
Revenaugh explained Oakwood’s challenges, including:
- A tenured sales force who felt entitled.
- A lack of understanding of how top performers closed business.
- Significant performance gaps between top performers and everyone else.
- Account management mentality instead of a focus on individual opportunities.
- Sales training implemented over the years, but never engrained or reinforced.
Solutions discussed
Oakwood identified strategic selling and strategic coaching as key solutions. Revenaugh described how Oakwood’s leadership focused on moving the masses, which resulted in significant bottom-line improvements. Reaching out to Alvin LeBrougeois, a Miller Heiman sales consultant, and using his expertise to create a sales methodology (or Play Book) that would specifically address Oakwood’s needs were key factors driving success.
Training on the new “Single Sales Objective” management mindset proved that the methodology shed new light on how Oakwood looked at sales. Within months, win revenue more than doubled. Today, the Sales Playbook is part of Oakwood’s culture. Leadership and salespeople have embraced the transformation and continue to succeed using the new methodology.
Read more about this interview.