Recipe for Success

Bighams is a small, rapidly growing company operating in the highly competitive prepared foods market. We had identified that as the team grew there was a need to establish and embed a custom sales process and culture. SBR assisted us greatly. By making themselves available to shadow key members of the sales team, and combine this with meeting individuals from across the business, they swiftly became aware of our strengths and our shortcomings. By combining their generic material with a custom element, SBR was able to create a programme that was engaging and actually addressed real time issues within our business. The shadowing allowed the course to be pitched at the right level and meeting the wider team gave SBR the ability to challenge our assumptions and thoughts.

Fresh for Growth

The first to attend the course were those that had a level of sales training in the past. With backgrounds such as Mars, Unilever, Anderson Consulting and Sainsbury's, there was a risk that if the course did not deliver to levels set by these organisations there would be a degree of disappointment. In fact, the way the course combined a clear sales structure with thought provoking debate, meant that the outputs added value from the first day we re-entered the office. Indeed our Foodservice business has seen a dramatic increase in turnover, combined with a significant improvement in service levels, as a result of the structure that we were able to put in place following the course.

On re-entering the business it quickly became apparent that the wider team, would benefit significantly from an insight into the course. For the non sales members of the team, we commissioned a shorter, two day programme, including representatives from all functions within the business. This allowed them an understanding into the role that everyone in an SME has to play, in terms of gaining and keeping satisfied customers. This has certainly led to a significant increase in the understanding of, and cohesion with, the sales team since the course.

All in all, the course has had tangible benefits and I would recommend it to those who are keen to get all members of a given team united by a common structure and ready to meet a common goal.