Our client is a leading brewing company based in Chiswick, London and its flagship brand is London Pride. The company also has significant capabilities in Pubs and Hotels across the South East, both managed and leased.

In 2012 following the appointment of a new MD, a review of the capabilities of the sales teams was undertaken to underpin the 5-year plan.

The Customer Capability Assessment was undertaken with specific recommendations regarding the following; Consistency of Approach; Planning Tools; Capability Development; Leadership Coaching Capability; Category Leadership

The metrics for success would be;

1. All sales channels in growth (min 5%)
2. Capability building blocks in place

Our client operated a traditional route to market for alcoholic beverages; On – Trade; Off – Trade; Export. A channel head led each sales channel, reporting into the MD.

Very little investment into people capabilities had been undertaken over a considerable time-period, with a lack of consistency of approach (sales cycle) across all sales channels.

This created several challenges relating to people, processes, and tools.

• The first challenge was to break-down the barriers to change from delegates using practices no longer suitable to the market conditions.
• The second challenge was to introduce and embed a change in the sales process (sales cycle) that would change significantly the way in which people had worked for a long time.
• The third challenge was to introduce, embed and make effective best in class business tools to activate the sales cycle more effectively.
• And finally, ensure that the leadership team were fully engaged and capable of coaching the sales division through a significant change programme.

Our approach of Assess, Recommend, and Implement provided the Leadership Team with the necessary confidence to activate the transformation programme.

Our experience of managing sales teams across multiple channels, including export, allowed us to gain the necessary insights into the barriers of performance and combining this with our recent consulting experience of developing sales academies provided the foundations for the development of commercial capabilities. Finally, our line management experience, both leadership and operational, provided the necessary gravitas and credibility to the sales teams to fully engage in the sales academy.

What did we deliver?

• The first significant change was the cultural shift from a sales team that had been doing the same thing, time after time, to something new and impactful.
• New business through the Free Trade was identified, engaged, and secured.
• Category – led presentations to the national pub chains were well received and impactful for both core brands and NPD.
• Distributors for Export markets were prioritised for growth opportunities.
• The sales leaders were more confident and qualified to assist the development of their team’s commercial capabilities.

The foundations for transformation of the sales division were now in place. And in year two of the programme, all channels were hitting targets.