How the DMAIC Lean Method Can Be Applied to the Sales Process

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Issue #10225 - April 2018 | Page #66
# 7 in our "Ready for Change?" article series By Keith Parker

Last month’s article, Using the DMAIC Lean Method to Accomplish Improvement and Take the First Steps to New Goals, used a case study to explore the DMAIC Lean method. This month another case study will be used to  demonstrate how this process can be implemented in your business.

Case Study:

The market has increased by 20% and your company has the capacity to take on additional work. The demand is there—but are you getting the opportunities and closing your share of the business? At the close of last year, the company sold ten million dollar’s worth of product at a gross profit of 32%. Your current sales are on pace with last year’s results. To sell additional work at a lower margin might not yield greater profits. Let’s tackle this together. What is your sales process? How will your company and sales team obtain the additional work? The work will not walk in—you have to go out and earn it!

The DMAIC method starts with …

  • Defineidentify the scope of the problem and new goals.

To increase sales by two million dollars to maintain the same percentage of market share yet achieve the additional work at the same or greater gross profits without hiring additional sales staff.

  • Measurecalculate current data and time to establish a baseline for each defined problem.

Baseline measurement: $10,000,000 of sales and obtain $2,000,000 of additional sales at a 32% gross margin in 9 months. To increase sales, how many additional dollars will you have to bid? What is your closing ratio? How many additional contacts per week or month will you have to yield?

  • Analyzedetermine a critical path that will lead to new sales objectives.

What is your sales process? Are there ways to accelerate and streamline? For this case study, the sales team closes 3 out of 10 proposals, currently you prospect 2 new customers per week and can expect the current customer base to add 5% of additional sales to your tally.

  • Improvedevelop a strategic plan to increase efficiency.

Where is the waste in your process??? Lean is all about identifying and reducing waste.

How do you find new customers? Is there a market niche you can explore and gain a foot hold? Are you primarily involved in single family residential work and are there other opportunities, maybe in the commercial market? Do you take on and bid every new job you can find? Or will the sales team take a different approach, make more and different contacts, research and discover the needs and develop a comprehensive solution to address the pain points of these new customers?   

  • Controlimplement a detailed plan to maintain improvements.

Once you have obtained improvement, you need to sustain it. How do you do that? A control plan that holds everyone accountable and keeps improvements thriving is the key.

Sales work is hard, and without a process you can waste time and motion. Bidding too many projects will stress your estimating staff, lower your margins, and stress the bottom line. Without a critical and efficient path, you can gain the additional work but miss your goals.

Next Month:

Developing a control plan and creating a culture of continuous improvement

Keith Parker

Author: Keith Parker

Structural Building Components Industry Professional Certified Lean Practitioner

You're reading an article from the April 2018 issue.

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