How Total Enterprise Solutions (TES) Is Powering Higher Win Rates With SCOTSMAN®

Introduction

Total Enterprise Solutions (TES) is a Staffordshire-based Microsoft Gold partner for Enterprise Resource Planning. As the only Microsoft Dynamics partner solely dedicated to the nonprofit and charity sector, TES works with a host of leading names, including Citizens Advice, the Eden Project and Diabetes UK.

For more than 20 years, TES has supported organisations’ digital transformation, from finance to fundraising, volunteer management to community engagement, including deploying a suite of charity-specific apps for Microsoft Dynamics to unlock grant management, subscriptions, ordering and payment integration functionality.

TES first turned to Advance early in 2023 to solidify how the SCOTSMAN® methodology was embedded in a nine-strong sales and marketing team, including business development, pre-sales and customer success management functions. We sat down with Claire Irving, Sales and Marketing Manager, to pinpoint TES’ Advance journey to date, as well as her advice for similar organisations looking to achieve reliable results and a stronger sales pipeline.

The need for consistency and a common sales language

With a growing, multi-disciplinary sales and marketing team, we quickly identified a need for consistency, including a strong common language and approach to qualification.

CEO Paul Faulkner was already a SCOTSMAN® convert, having driven initial implementation of it as TES’ main qualification methodology. But no official SCOTSMAN® training had taken place, so there was also an opportunity to get correct and consistent use of the methodology amongst the existing team – not just the new starters.

There was also a clear desire to develop a high performing team from the range of experience and skill sets, so all could become ‘order makers’, not just ‘order takers’, building on the right skills, behaviours and confidence to win competitive bids.

Ultimately, the TES team wanted to improve their win rate. At the time, they were winning 30% of new business and 60-70% on existing accounts. We knew that a better understanding of focusing on what’s winnable, and losing the rest quickly, underpinned by SCOTSMAN® and Commitment Selling, would make a real difference to that bottom line.

“We’d been using the SCOTSMAN mnemonic for a while and, at the same time, we were trying to coach and mentor the team on how they managed opportunities, so it made total sense to find the right structure – and to get trained on using SCOTSMAN in its true form. It seemed like a perfect fit for us”, adds Claire.

Proposing a solution that would have instant – and lasting – impact

Over a couple of calls with Paul and Claire, the Advance team was able to gain valuable insight into where the SCOTSMAN® methodology and Commitment Selling might create the biggest impact for TES. As a result, we proposed our SCOTSMAN® Masterclass in Commitment Selling: a two-day classroom programme, enhanced by hands-on time with the SCOTSMAN® Pipeline Simulator and Online SCOTSMAN® Academy.

Claire adds: “We wanted to get the most bang for our buck on training. The way the course was structured, that it was delivered with real care and attention in person, the modular aspect to it, and Mike’s wealth of sales experience meant we certainly got that.”

The programme aimed to equip the team with the right tools to plan and win complex political sales with robust qualification to ensure time is spent on the right opportunities. That included the skills needed to:

• Be able to build a pipeline of opportunities and qualify them effectively using SCOTSMAN® and Commitment Selling
• Handle major sales opportunities and win the politics
• Gain access to key individuals in new and existing accounts
• Build needs for TES’ services
• Understand and plan win strategies
• Understand how to gain commitments at each stage of a sale
• Have and foster a common sales language in the team and in the wider organisation

“We learned how to continuously qualify a sale and know which commitments we needed to get to show a prospect is serious, and therefore progress the deal. We also, crucially, got to grips with when to lose a deal quickly!” Claire says. “Mike and Gary delivered the right mix of training based on the challenges we had at the time, so we left with plans that we could action for ‘live’ opportunities, as well as having a robust process that we’re still using to win sales now.”

Driving ongoing success at TES

Paul, Claire and the sales and marketing team took a huge amount away from the intensive two-day programme, most of which is still being used more than a year on.

“I think one of the biggest learnings for us was Commitment Selling and realising we have earned the right to seek commitment from our prospects and customers. In any sales team, there’s that inevitable desire to chase every opportunity and want it to work out. But actually, now we can see it’s mostly wasted time. If you lose a deal, you’ve wasted all that time. Mike was pivotal in helping us to see that if a prospect isn’t willing to show you commitment, it’s time to walk away”, says Claire.

On cultivating a common language and consistency, Claire says: “A huge takeaway for us was embedding a common language in our team. We had a range of experience and had been trying to distil the skills we’d picked up over 20 years of selling. When we did the training with Advance, it was incredibly reassuring to see the techniques we’d already been using, at least partially, had a name and a defined method.

“Having that common language sounds simple but it puts all of us on the same page. We’re slicker as a team, and that extends to the processes we follow, how we manage the pipeline, how we forecast and resource plan – the domino effect runs far and wide.”

Team members called the training “thought provoking” as well as “fun”, improving sales qualification and pipeline management in a way that’s been easy to adopt and maintain.

More importantly, TES now has a win rate of 50 to 60% on new business – up from 30% before the training. “We’re still losing half of those deals, but we’re now losing them faster because we’re insisting on commitments. If they’re not willing to engage with us, then we’re not spending our time on it”, Claire adds.

A stronger win rate and more predictable results, combined with more time for the sales team to invest in ‘winnable’ deals, means a healthier organisation overall. “Being trained in SCOTSMAN® has also resulted in more accurate qualification, which has fed through to our delivery team for them to better manage capacity. The knock-on effects are huge.”

Since the initial training, TES has implemented the SCOTSMAN® Commitment Manager app in Microsoft Dynamics, actively putting structure around each sale as it moves through the pipeline. “We’ve completely changed the way we use our CRM, capturing additional information and getting much more structured and detailed every step of the way. It also allows us to better predict operational lead times, as well as forecasting and planning better at a strategic level.”

Claire sums it up: “I have no regrets. Advance delivered something very strong, fascinating and engaging. And we really got on well with Mike and Gary. That’s not always the case. We could see their experience shining through and the team really connected with them. I’d recommend Advance to any organisation involved in complex bids or political sales – it’s been invaluable.”

About Advance and SCOTSMAN®