CBSG Sales Training Nets New Clients; Amoroso Baking Company Gains $100,000 in New Business.

Business Editors

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 2000

Amoroso Baking Company Fleet Manager Jim Keveny was a little concerned when sales growth was not increasing as fast as predicated at the Philadelphia-based baking company.

Amoroso is a Philadelphia legend and product identification was never an issue. In addition, clients had only good things to say about the company's products. However, Keveny was downright stymied, as both adding new customers and building additional business with current customers were stagnant.

Competitive Business Strategy Group principal Mark Heisler saw the problems at Amoroso almost immediately. "The direct sales people (the drivers) weren't aggressively looking for opportunities to acquire new customers nor were they interacting with existing customers in a meaningful way. They were more focused on delivering bread," recalls Heisler.

"Amoroso's drivers make the deliveries while most of us are still in bed--so it's easy to get caught up with all that it takes to deliver the product. They lose sight of what matters most--the customer." says Suzanne Baldino Jones, a customer service expert and principal of CBSG, a management consulting practice based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. CBSG has built a national clientele, doubling in revenue and size each year the firm has been in business.

"The average business loses 20 percent of its customers each year," adds Jones. "And seven out of 10 of those customers leave because they feel ignored. The approaching holiday season is a particularly dangerous time to do the wrong thing when it comes to taking care of business."

"We designed the training session to remind the drivers that they are the direct link with customers and opportunities for increasing sales are available with every customer on their route," says Jones.

The results?

"We gained 12 new clients and more than $100,000 of new business following CBSG training through their Continuous Customer Contract," says Keveny. Rather than tend to the needs of satisfying the internal bureaucracy of the company, employees now concentrate on the customers."

"What we try to do is maximize the company's resources where they are needed most, and that's maintaining and growing the business, not filling out forms," Heisler elaborated. "Nobody can make sales or keep customers doing things that way."