Smart Partners - Business Consulting for small to mid-size companies in Japan

• Sales Training
• Business Consulting

Case Studies - Business Consulting

Local Japanese Telecom & Cabling Firm

The Challenge:

The client a 25 year veteran operation of 35 people, needed organization and insights into professional selling methodologies. Their client based was predominately sub-contracting and they sought to go direct to buyers.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

Worked with client to generate roadmap opportunities, landscape market place and create core-target profiles, establish a pipeline/funnel concept and focus on new direct sales.

With that, we created a fulltime time sales desk with KPIs, targets, templates and a practical easy to execute market strategy and value message for prospects.

This resulted in a swift increase to proposal requests, increase of revenue quality and volume, increase in positive outlook of team with roadmapping frameworks and sales planning.

Local Japanese Branch of Multi-billion Dollar Publicly Traded IT services firm

The Challenge:

Overseas management required re-organization of a 30 million dollar a year business unit from the front office to the back.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

Process mapping and standardization, blending overseas/domestic methodology and tactics, benchmarking against industry norms, dashboarding, desk-side mentoring and coaching, job function clarification and re-alignment, classroom style training on key industry trends & regulation changes.

Result was increase in operating profit, revenue stabilization and increase, improved new hire ramp up, reduced overseas visit requirement (no more jetlag!), clear reporting structure in language all sides are happy with and career advances for all team members.

Local Advertising Agency

The Challenge:

Veteran Japanese agency, with a “been there done that” attitude towards selling needed a shake up on their entire sales and client engagement structure from the ground up.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

After understanding the client’s environment with onsite listening tours and shadowing visits with sales people on calls, we set out to bring order and documentation and organization of the firm’s “secret sauce” that has made them successful.

We did this through process mapping, policy creation, templates, tactical desk-side training, workshop style training, role playing exercises, projects by job function. KPI dashboarding alone resulted in 47% increase in positive activity, reduced staff overtime, revenue increase of 38% from previous year (with smaller team), happier clients and a management team that was able to focus on next year’s growth rather than this month’s revenue.

Domestic Market Leader in Online Service

The Challenge:

Local language sales framework, that blended western methodology and local Japanese tactics, cultural norms and strong points.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

After breaking down HQ’s sales framework into value stream we organized a model based, bilingual framework that put local Japanese sales processes and tactics side by side to their western “standard” guide. The manual, spanning several chapters allowed new hires, from senior sales to first time in sales to have a clear, step by step understanding of client’s unique sales process, product knowledge and various “closing” models.

Through our standardizing of processes and BOK connecting, sales team members were ramped up 80% faster than before, new staff were selling faster, with a more confident, clear value proposition to clients. Sales increased 18% in the first 2 months of roll out, as senior team members spent less time “re-inventing the wheel” and more time expanding client engagement and new sales people knew what to do and more importantly, why.

Global Leader in Financial Solutions Firm

The Challenge:

Client required an outside look into their sales process, use of CRM tools and client engagement framework on a hands-on tactical level.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

We created a training program that addressed the unique sales cycle and domestic target clients. After interviews with C-level management we created a sales training framework and benchmark structure to allow management and team leaders to identify their own problems and solve them by themselves.

This was followed by interactive workshop style training, role playing exercises, projects, presentations and periodic testing to assure lessons were making an impact. The immediate result was an increase in client satisfaction (as learned by questionaires) reduced frustration, 22% increase to proposals sent, and an overall increase in positive activity.

Global Services Firm (Legal & Admin Department)

The Challenge:

During a large scale corporate integration, the client required a redesign of the workflow and output targets for their Legal and Admin team to better support a sales division working hard to get through the financial crisis.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

Job description re-design, workflow re-mapping, target setting, career coaching, projects, team building exercises with various departments and the creation of a unique role within the team to address a knowledge and risk gap.

Compliance risks dramatically reduced, speed of various contract approvals cut in half, amount of redundant paperwork decreased, overtime was nearly abolished, skill diffusion to junior members helped senior team members to take real vacations (and not check email), less stress from a more clearly governed series of approvals and balances.

Sales team enjoyed a more target focused, urgent, support team to work closer with them to achieve company profit targets.

Local IT Start-Up

The Challenge:
Getting started in Japan, during a tough economic period, with a proper established
company, accounting infrastructure, sales strategy and tactics for a group unable to speak
Japanese.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

We established the company, helped with setting up various social benefit accounts, created a practical accounting infrastructure that could carry them through their first 18 months, advised on cost maximization measures, partnerships and paperwork templates required to get selling.

Then we created a simple selling strategy for this market with practical sales tactics to get the in front of decision makers quickly and closing deals now.

This resulted in a greatly reduced ramp up time, helped them to close 3 projects in the first 2 months bringing them into the black much earlier than expected.

Japanese Telecom Company

The Challenge:

A 23 year old local Japanese company, 65 employees, needed help in generating business from a previous untapped market, international firms, working in Japan.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

We created a practical sales strategy that did not require too much time investment of current staff in the office. Rather than add to current sales team’s workload, we analyzed and reduced wasted activity investing that time in entering this new market.

In addition to seminars on working with international firms, we created various templates in English for them to use when interacting with new clients. We created a marketing strategy that fit their budget, practical activity targets to achieve goals and a hotline for support.

Software Development Company

The Challenge:

A very experienced, but small consultancy required an entire sales/marketing infrastructure as everyone in this boutique firm were developers and had no sales/front office experience.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

Starting from classroom style training, we implanted the concept of “Pipeline Feeding” and “3 SAP” to fight off the feast or famine type of project flow they were experiencing. From there we implemented client “hit lists”, company SWOTS, new client contract templates, work flows for new business development, incentives for introductions and tie-ups, potential client due diligence check lists etc. The result was a massive influx of new business revenue, faster time to market for proposals and deals that normally took months to close were brought in a few weeks.

Large Employment Agency

The Challenge:

A revenue challenged business unit, full of great staff, needed help in the rough and heavily competitive landscape of temporary staffing.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

Starting from onsite “listening, questioning and more listening” tours, we then set forth to re-structure all processes, workflows, client hit lists and rally the group around a theme of customer service for candidates, clients and internal team members cross-divisionally. This improved lead sourcing & sharing, candidate visibility and deal closing. The result, overall revenue increase, higher average charge per engagement in targeted industries and position types (revenue quality and quantity), client services improved, less overtime for internal working staff and improved customer care for onsite dispatched-staff working onsite, through benefits programs and services (less dispatched-staff drop off). From a bigger picture, senior management was able to better understand market trends, issues and areas of risks, forecasting and budgeting.

Import/Export firm

The Challenge:

A small Japanese Import/Export company, focusing on fashion goods decided to create a subsidiary for the full time recruitment business and utilize their contacts, clients and internal staff to enter this lucrative industry.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

Advice and support on the application of the recruitment license, entire recruitment process-fulfillment education, training guide and internal “power-user” creation, HR infrastructure for new business unit, which included documentation, templates and commission plan for sales team.

Online Services Company

The Challenge:

Bilingual Japanese internet services company, needed to expand their sales team, but required a hands-on sales professional to lead this difficult search.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

In addition to sourcing candidates with a variety of methods, we created unique hiring process that included assignments, essays, interactive interviews, company presentations and research in addition to regular interviewing process. We understand that some candidates are good at interviewing and others are good at working, we gave everyone a chance to do both. The work was successful and we were able to hire 5 sales people to add to the group.

Multinational Financial Service Firm

The Challenge:

Client needed a resource to come in to work on a Global financial application rollout project. To be successful, the project needed to be lead cross-departmental as well as bilingually between local and overseas staff. In particular, solid finance and accounting knowledge was crucial to identify opportunities for more effective/efficient financial discipline to support and champion organizational processes and to ensure local compliance to corporate policies.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

We applied our strong finance experience balanced with business, behavioral and technical leadership to exceed expectations of the project leadership and rollout.

Our bilingual and bicultural expertise allowed us to work with their U.S. HQ and the local team which required different approaches, management style and flexibility. SmartPartners’ strong focus on: proper processes, building relationships and alliances with senior management and outside vendors allowed us to bring value to the client and deliver the project on time and on budget.

Established Headhunting Firm

The Challenge:

Clear experience gap between veteran headhunters and the next generation of new team members. Processes for training were at early stages and often implemented by managers/partners who were also closing new business and generating most of the company’s revenue monthly.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

First we interviewed all of the new team members and implemented a basic sales training course that could be implemented by an onsite “power user”.

Then we identified a previously unrecognized internal resource and converted this person into an Operations and HR “agent of change” in the organization. From there cooperated with this new role for practical new ideas, improvements and other internal HR issues.

The result:
a basic training platform for new recruits, increased visibility of weak areas, clearer lines of communications and a “help line” for those team members seeking to have 3rd party assistance internally. We proposed several practical new projects that the client started working on by themselves, thus becoming more self-sufficient.

European Insurance Firm

The Challenge:

Meeting Market and Regulatory Requirements. The Front Office and the Business are often faced with the challenge of keeping its IT Systems up-to-date with changes for products and regulatory demands. IT finds itself with a constant stream of change requests in the form of new systems or changes to existing ones. A change control process was in place and used only for major changes to the original approved requirements that could be slipped in. Both the leadership and staff were actively bypassing the process and a culture “of do what ever it takes” was entrenched while ignoring the consequences after the project was declared complete. The results of this caused project schedule/cost over runs, poor quality of data/customer experience, ever increasing maintenance costs, friction between departments and business performance to suffer badly. In other words the company found itself with projects failing to meet market/regulatory requirements and a culture of blame and finger pointing.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

A series of specific initiatives that encompassed the five best practices of project strategic alignment were implemented that included:

Then we identified a previously unrecognized internal resource and converted this person into an Operations and HR “agent of change” in the organization. From there cooperated with this new role for practical new ideas, improvements and other internal HR issues.

• Define strategy, create political will and align initiatives, metrics, people, and tasks with project requirement goals
• Clearly communicate project strategies and plans
• Used incentives and enforced accountability to drive behaviors needed to meet objectives
• Collaborated and monitored progress regularly to identify problems
• Measured performance using key performance indicators (KPIs) so that issues were resolved early and held people accountable

These best practices are interdependent and, when implemented together, enable companies to successfully bridge the gap between strategy and project execution.

Boutique Headhunting Firm

The Challenge:

A bilingual, specialized human resources consultancy needed a revised model for consultant compensation, particularly their “Team Bonus” component, to ensure total compensation was equitable and contributed to the future growth of the firm.

Smart Partners™ Solution:

After extensive interviews with the Managing Director and review of the available literature, we created and tested a revised compensation model. This addressed the proposed compensation not only of the current cadre of consultants but also that of the firm as it expanded consultant headcount. Importantly, our report addressed the issue of proposed compensation under the new model as a percent of total sales to the firm’s current level, as well as to general compensation levels in the industry.

The result:
The revised model would generate a lower total compensation as a percent of sales, while increasing consultant and staff incentives to grow the business.

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