Combining data analytics with
sales & operations planning expertise
Sample Projects - B2B Sales Growth
Transforming a high value commodity product into a significant customer asset
Year:
Title:
Company:
2022
Freelance Consultant
Hungarian family business / <1m EUR sales
Type:
Duration:
Team:
Go-to-market workshops
2 consulting days / 3 weeks
3 owner
Business Case:
-
Target was to identify a high potential B2B channel for a successful online based goose down bedding business with clear gap selling potential
-
Issues were that the product is a high value commodity and the organisation has limited control over its supply chain
Main Project Steps:
-
Identified individual boutique hotels and small hotel chains without large purchasing organisations as targets
-
Developed Point of Use material to prepare hotel guest for a special sleeping experience, turning commodity product into an asset improving core KPIs for B2B customer
Success:
-
Client reported over 80% engagement on initial message testing
Identifying new target segments and channels for kitchen equipment business
Year:
Title:
Company:
Type:
Duration:
Team:
2022
Freelance consultant
Chinese professional kitchen equipment supplier / 15m USD sales
Go-to-market project
3 months (part-time)
2 founder / sales manager
Business Case:
-
Target was to help a Chinese company with the ability to provide custom made kitchen equipment in small quantities at good prices to enter the European market
Main Project Steps:
-
In addition to the convenience food chains we identified the growing segment of food trucks and other food experience delivery vehicles as a high potential segment due to the demand for unique, space saving solutions
-
Developed messaging for the different target personas and conducted a direct message out-reach campaign through LinkedIn and email / phone
Success:
-
Managed to reach over 100 C-level executives of target customers and generate a 42% response rate
-
Warm contacts handed over to client's sales team
Unique way to market for tailoring startup and highly effective prospecting pipeline
Year:
Title:
Company:
2019
Founder
TheTailorNetwork GmbH / Hungary / Early stage startup
Business Case:
-
Idea was to create a tailor-made clothing provider that can compete with mass produced quality brands on price, while paying fair income to independent tailors
-
Concept was to replace high marketing costs with multipliers who care about the fair production
Main Project Steps:
-
Identified CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) conscious companies with suit-wearing employees as targets
-
Created consistent message around social impact and won President of AmCham as honorary brand ambassador
-
Created effective evangelist acquisition pipeline
-
Defined sets of personas for different decision stakeholder, and created customised materials for each stakeholder
Success:
-
Managed to enter companies which had refused other traveling tailors due to the social impact shown
-
Acquired events at amongst others BlackRock (HU), Morgan Stanley (HU), Falcon Private Bank (CH)
-
Event pipeline included amongst others EY (CH), UBS (CH), KPMG (HU) when COVID-19 ended all in-house events
Change of negotiation power with largest global key account
Year:
Title:
2014
Head of Global Key Accounts and Sales Excellence
Company:
Franke Kitchen Division / Switzerland / Sales 1bn EUR
Business Case:
-
Large, international key account with 38bn EUR sales globally, responsible for 4% of global Franke sales and
-
Central purchasing discount significantly impacting margin without any perceived benefit
-
Unfavourable negotiation power being only a 'small' supplier for this large international group
Main Project Steps:
-
Turned focus on local entity level to identify customer entities with high dependence on Franke portfolio
-
Conducted inside market share and portfolio positioning analysis across all customer entities
-
Conducted customer stakeholder analysis (importance of local entities in decision making process)
-
Ensured good relationships with specific local customer MDs
-
Canceled central purchasing contract and put pressure on local customer entities with high importance of Franke portfolio
Success:
-
Was able to successfully counter the 'take it or leave it' negotiation strategy with a walk-out, due to deep customer understanding
-
Established new central purchasing contract with lower central discount and improved PoS support
Closure of failing negotiations due to better customer insights
Year:
Title:
2014
Head of Global Key Accounts and Sales Excellence
Company:
Franke Kitchen Division / Switzerland / Sales 1bn EUR
Business Case:
-
Large international furniture chain known for high price sensitivity and frugal management practices
-
Stalled negotiations despite competitive offer and constant demand for calculation details
Main Project Steps:
-
Changed setting from luxury treatment and large group negotiations to small work group meetings and canteen visits
-
Identified hidden decision maker (negotiation strategy), and established direct negotiations
-
Identified core purchase decision points (besides price), and focused on addressing those
Success:
-
Closed deal within short time, and without further pressure on margin
-
Protected higher margin kitchen studio portfolio from cannibalisation through large key account
Definition and implementation of a professional central KAM
Year:
Title:
2014
Head of Global Key Accounts and Sales Excellence
Company:
Franke Kitchen Division / Switzerland / Sales 1bn EUR
Business Case:
-
Number of large, global key accounts managed mainly on local entity level with randomly assigned key account manager
Main Project Steps:
-
Established clear field of play rules
-
Introduced central information gathering (CRM) and stakeholder analysis
-
Introduced comparative portfolio analysis to identify local and global under-performer
-
Established regular contact with central key account partner
Success:
-
Used central key account partner to drive localised initiatives for local under-performer
-
Improved margins for one local account by 3% due to data analysis and intervention from global key account partner
-
Successfully closed long ongoing negotiations with single largest customer due to better understanding of customer culture and purchasing process
Definition and implementation of modern, standardised sales processes
Year:
Title:
Company:
2013 - 2014
Head of Global Sales Excellence
Franke Kitchen Division / Switzerland / Sales 1bn EUR
Business Case:
-
Division was confronted by continuously decreasing margins despite upgraded product portfolio, due to high discounts given in sales negotiations
-
Sales force was "skill" driven, no standardised process in place
Main Project Steps:
-
Standardised customer information gathering
-
Rolled out CRM
-
Introduced multi-dimensional, comparative customer data analysis
-
Developed special training together with global purchasing team to prepare sales teams for increased professionalism on buyer side
Success:
-
Better customer information led to increased negotiation power
-
1.5% increase in sales margin attributed to condition improvement
Definition and roll-out of a global CRM solution
Year:
Title:
2014
Head of Global Sales Excellence
Company:
Role:
Duration:
Team:
Franke Kitchen Division / Switzerland / Sales 1bn EUR
Project Lead
1 year (part-time)
5 internal / 3 CRM provider / 4 for each of the 25 regional entities on 5 continents
Business Case:
-
Support new standard customer information gathering
-
Replace 20 local solutions with standardised system
Main Project Steps:
-
Lead local spec requirement and process mapping
-
Defined global specs and customisation requirements with selected market experts
-
Managed global and local stakeholders
-
Determined process changes per entity, developed training program and rollout
Success:
-
Achieved full support of all local entities
-
Handed project over to successor when leaving the company
Implementation of multi-dimensional portfolio and channel analysis
Year:
Title:
Company:
2010 - 2014
Head of Internal Audit / Senior Auditor
Franke Kitchen Division / Switzerland / Sales 1bn EUR
Business Case:
-
Developed as part of the Internal Audit
-
Division was lacking consistent, multi-dimensional review
Main Project Steps:
-
Developed and automated routine analysis of 3 years of sales data in a customer / product matrix across channels and product groups
-
Identified underperforming products and customers with low margin portfolios
-
Made customer-product conditions comparable inside and across entities
Success:
-
4.6m EUR in margin improvement reported by local entities in 3 years
-
Was promoted to Head of Global Sales Excellence and member of the division management team for Kitchen Systems
.jpeg)
Capture of market share through service innovation
Year:
Title:
Company:
2011
Senior Internal Auditor
Franke Foodservice Espana / Spain / Sales 30m EUR
Role:
Duration:
Team:
Project Lead
4 weeks (full-time)
2 internal / 2 company
Business Case:
-
Gastro equipment market had shrunk by 40%
-
Customers no longer conducted preventive maintenance or replacement of ageing equipment unless broken, requiring immediate replacement to keep operating
-
Financial pressure did not allow suppliers to store sufficient hardware to offer immediate replacement on all equipment
-
Supplier loyalty was lost as customer shopped around for immediate replacement
Main Project Steps:
-
Discovered through interviews the facts that a.) broken equipment became property of entity, b.) could often be repaired to work as temporary replacement and, c.) entity possessed in-house skills and capacity to repair
-
Analysed margin impact of additional repair and service costs to offer 24h replacement with used equipment until new equipment could be delivered
-
Build customer outreach and marketing plan for new product
Success:
-
Requested as CRO by entity, but denied as promotion to Head of IA was considered more beneficial to the group
-
Implementation of 24h replacement by company lead to capture of additional 10% market share
Streamlining portfolio and PoS structure for a retail chain
Year:
Title:
Company:
2008
Senior Consultant
Medium sized, family owned enterprise / Germany / Retail chain / Sales 130m EUR
Role:
Duration:
Team:
Lead Subproject Sales Optimisation
3 months (Full-time)
internal 4 / company 7
Business Case:
-
Company faced insolvency due to low location sales, high cost structure and high NWC
Main Project Steps:
-
Conducted portfolio review and streamlining
-
Conceptualised and managed PoS review / mystery shopping
-
Conducted personnel review and developed training recommendations
Success:
-
Portfolio reduction by 30% with positive sales impact
-
Reduction of handling costs by 40%
-
Implementation of personnel development program
Introduction of gift item startup to the promotional gift market
Year:
Title:
Company:
2007
Business Development Manager
HeadsUp Design Inc / Hungary / Sales 20m EUR
Business Case:
-
Searching for new volume order sales channels
Main Project Steps:
-
Developed new product models together with designer
-
Managed new tooling development with COO to improve flexibility
-
Negotiated conditions for volume order with supplier
-
Introduced product to major brands in the US and UK
Success:
-
Generation of additional 1m EUR in sales from one order
-
Received offer to become equal partner with company owner but decided to pursue career in consulting
Re-design of key account pricing to generate higher ROI at lower margin
Year:
Title:
2006
Business Development Manager
Company:
HeadsUp Design Inc / Hungary / Sales 20m EUR
Business Case:
-
Extensive payment terms caused cash strapped startup to forgo orders since we could not pre-finance orders
Main Project Steps:
-
Extended parameter for sales negotiations away from pure margin focus to better reflect actual business targets
-
Negotiated reduced production times based on forecast with supplier
-
Introduced significant discounts for prepaid drop-ship orders and quarterly forecasts
Success:
-
Reduction of order margin by 15% offset by 200% increase in sales
-
80% profitability (ROI) increase