Case Studies - Taylor Publishing Company

INTRODUCTION

When you focus on the customer, the sales cycle shortens too.

CHALLENGE

Taylor Publishing Company, one of the nation's largest yearbook publishers, recognised its sales reps had to sell in a new way. Yearbook publishing had become increasingly competitive.  There used to be 19 companies in the business and it was possible to gain the advantage by highlighting a competitor's weakness.  The field had narrowed down to four, and each of them was strong. Taylor once dealt only with school principals; now the reps were selling to advisors who had much more savvy and were busier than ever before.

Sales reps were stressing features and advantages and too much emphasis was being placed on the products during sales visits and not enough on creating real value for the customer.  It was ‘spray and pray’ selling.  The reps weren't learning what the customers' true needs were.

THE HUTHWAITE SOLUTION

Taylor soon “bit the bullet” and began a search for an effective, formal methodology to overcome these challenges. The behavioural change initiative that Huthwaite provided included thorough pre-training and post-training follow-up. The strategy has an objective framework that we know is attached to sales success. 

Better call planning means they can identify some possible solutions in advance of the meeting and thus have the patience to interact truly with customers, rather than walking them through Taylor’s brochures.  Customers, meanwhile, grasp the value of this guidance because they’re being asked to produce yearbooks with fewer resources. Huthwaite made a significant contribution toward aligning Taylor's executive leadership directly with the sales improvement and organisational change process. When sales managers are taking on a new methodology and responsibilities and we are asking our sales representatives to do things very differently, a single voice of leadership is essential.

THE RESULTS

Taylor compared the performance of new reps who were using Huthwaite’s strategies with that of the reps who were hired the previous year and were using their traditional selling methods.  Comparing both groups during their third year of selling, Taylor found that the Huthwaite “reps” increased their volume over the previous year by 109% while the control group increased its volume by only 18%.Alignment.  Value creation.  Training.  Follow-up.  Reporting.  Measurement.   All these factors came together to bring Taylor superior results.