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Adroit Consulting Launches Sales Performance Council

Adroit Consulting, Inc., an operational consulting firm headquartered in Northbrook, launched the Sales Performance Council last week with its first meeting of 10 sales and marketing executives from non-competitive middle-market industrial manufacturing firms. The peer executives gathered at Yaskawa Electric facilities in Waukegan, Il.

Adroit created the Council in response to requests from client companies and industry contacts for new ways to meet other industrial executives and share best practices and solutions to common challenges in an open and candid environment not found at traditional trade shows or conferences. The intent of the Council is to create a "Community of Practice" for sales and marketing executives from non-competitive companies.

"The Council offers peer sales executives a chance to meet in the Midwest, establish a professional relationship and share insight into operational challenges and practices in a non-threatening, non-solicitous environment," said Adroit Consulting CEO Stan Martin. "And importantly, members can meet without the financial burden of travelling to far off destinations during difficult economic times."

Ongoing council meetings will be hosted by member companies on a quarterly basis and content will be presented by Council members. Non-members may be invited by a Council member for a specific agenda item.

"At Yaskawa, we traditionally share best practices within our global sales and marketing channels and augment them with information from trade magazines and websites," said Dennis Fitzgerald, Yaskawa Electric VP Customer Satisfaction. "I believe the Sales Performance Council gives us an opportunity to understand in a first-hand way more paths, including the successes, failures and experiences from other perspectives before we embark on a project."

First Council Meeting
The first meeting hosted by Yaskawa Electric on Jan 22, featured a summary of a recently completed multi-company survey to spur discussions of Go-To-Market strategies, practices, tactics and excellence.

Ten sales and marketing executives from regional industrial manufacturers discussed their similar challenges, in particular how to lower the cost of sales while maintaining broad coverage of their customer base. Specifically, executives shared solutions including:

• How to leverage the internet to provide training to customers at lower costs while maintaining the feel of live training through multimedia technology such as video;
• Ideas for effective use of web conferencing (including when to use, when not);
• How to engage directly with end users of industrial products while continuing to source products through distribution;
• Best communication practices to distributors when a manufacturer begins to target end users, and
• The value of direct sales calls, education/training, customer service, rebating programs, and other means of engagement with customers.

The executives are planning to continue discussions and practice sharing with each other in between quarterly Council meetings through a private online community that will be hosted by Adroit Consulting.

If you would like additional information on the Sales Performance Council or to be considered for membership, please contact Kevin Josephson at Adroit Consulting (847.504.0990).