Stellar Consulting Group increase proposal acceptance rate with SalesPlay On-Ramp™

Stellar Consulting Group delivers data analytics and business intelligence services for New Zealand’s leading businesses. Shane Kavanagh, General Manager recently completed the Partner Elevate SalesPlay On-Ramp™ Program, and was badged as Go-to-Market Ready.

Shane sat down with our Content Manager & GTM Lead, Hannah, to talk about his journey to becoming Go-to-Market Ready certified.

Hi, I’m Shane Kavanagh, General Manager of Consulting from Stellar in New Zealand, and I thought it would be helpful if I shared my experience in the 90-day Sales Play On-Ramp™ program. This is a useful program for Microsoft partners that might be trying to scale up their business.

Where we were before

Before embarking on the 90-day Sales Play On-Ramp™ program, Stellar struggled with focusing on how to articulate the business opportunities at our existing Microsoft customers, and turning these into solutions aligned with our core business.

So, when I saw the Partner Elevate Sales Play On-Ramp™ program, I thought about the sales process and how having another process to call upon would be beneficial to me, and my team.

My hesitations

I knew this program was what Stellar and the team needed, but I, like many others was in lockdown, struggling with competing priorities and time poor. I hesitated as I believed it would be too much of a time commitment to take on.

The SalesPlay On-Ramp™ journey

I was surprised to find how simple it was to commit to getting through the work. The first sessions were really beneficial in setting out clearly and exactly what it was that my organisation does. The “Who – Are You?’ through to “Market Lens” really helped focus attention into the areas that best suit my organisation and skills.

Increase in success rate

And now that I've implemented the 90 Day philosophy into my processes, I have achieved a much better success rate in proposal acceptance.

This is because before I’ve even met the customer, I’ve been through “The Value Sell” and aligned the solutions we deliver to the pain points the customer has described and can describe the outcomes they are looking for succinctly in those meetings.

We've also noticed a lift in the sales of our services, in particular around our Microsoft offerings. This is an outcome that we attribute in part to going through the Partner Elevate programme, as it gives us a structured process to understanding how our services align to our customer’s needs.

So, to any Microsoft Partner that is struggling with getting their teams aligned to using a standardised process for sales, I encourage you to get involved in this program today so you can start winning new customers in just 90 days.

“The Proven Pathway” is just that, a proven methodology that can be repeated time and again. Dan Williams at Partner Elevate made it fun and the whole team was super supportive.

I would highly recommend training with Partner Elevate, whether refresher sales courses, or extending the sales process wider than traditional sales team members. There is something in this for all levels of sales experience.