Core issue
Can the company create new sales organization (sales process) to avoid such big losses in the future?
Was there any chance not to loose the order?
Sub-issues
- Lost revenue (Rob Allison did not win opportunity to create wood chip handling system for the paper mill which was worth $1.2 million revenue)
- Utilization drop in engineer department
- Rob Allison did not reach his annual target and will not get the bonus this year
Background
- Boise Automation Canada Ltd is the Canadian arm of Boise Corporation Inc., multinational manufacturer of electrical and electronic equipment
- Boise Automation Canada specialized in turnkey automation solutions
- Works in wide variety of industries, but focus on several …show more content…
The customer liked their proposal and had no concerns about it, but there was another reason of lost opportunity. Boise team that worked on the project did not understand customer needs correctly. The main point for them was lowest price and compliance with specification. Boise added some features that other competitors did not have and used new technology in their proposal. It made them unique and they were convinced that they have superior products and competitive price. But the other bidders also satisfied the customer and had over 30% less …show more content…
- Should understand customer requirements and design
- Present the company’s proposal and answer customers question
Major Takeaways
Possible causes on different stages of the sales process:
- Did not understand customer needs correctly
- Competitors are in better relationships with customers
- Did not provide right solution to the customer
- Competitors provided much better solution
- Did not provide customer with a clear project management plan
- Did not contact with every influencer and decision maker
- Did not do any actions to be chosen as the best solution provider
- Did not organize review meetings to identify problems and redefine action plan
Actual situation-
- Identified needs, visited the mill, asked all necessary questions there
- Are in good relationships with the client compared to others on the market
- The price was highly important for the customer and how they met the specification( as previous system was expensive to maintain)
- Expected to be higher in price in 25-50% compared to competitor Honeywell
- Had no concerns from the customer and the liked a lot the proposal(called it the strongest technical solution)
-Other bidders also satisfied them
-Had not the lowest price (over 30% high) so had to rethink the price in order to