Lost Sales Analysis A Boston-based high technology company was troubled about sales lost after initially promising and very cordial interaction between the sales force and prospective clients. Using City Square's structured process for dealing with "lost accounts", a picture emerged of a market segment in transition, requiring both a new sales approach and new offering options. What distinguished this project from previous market research was the actionable nature of the findings...a feature deliberately built into City Square engagements at the outset.
Competitor Analysis An internet-based recruiting firm was trying to gain a foothold in a complex and changing market. Despite the best efforts of a well-trained salesforce, this firm finished "second place" in far too many competitive sales situations. A research project was initiated to learn the features, functionality, pricing and performance promises of external and "internal" competitors. In addition, the research included follow-up interviews with lost clients and third party consultants within those clients to discover "what went wrong", leading to a lost sales opportunity. The resulting information provided a picture of the marketplace that was vastly different than originally thought. This information was brought to the sales force in an interactive workshop, during which the "pitch" messages were refined to deal with the new reality.
