Tessa took me through her sales process for a complex service with new eyes, and I found that the historical way of sales thinking is very much outdated. Tessa has a great talent for reading people & creating desired outcomes for any business situation. Her multifaceted background adds rich insights to all layers of a business. I can highly recommend Tessa – an asset to any business.
I was looking for a way to accelerate large scale sales. I had been finding often sales lead times into large corporates were extremely long, and complicated processes and lack of early clarity could slow down potential for gaining new clients.
I worked with Tessa one on one over 3 months learning her comprehensive and highly structured solution selling approach (including developing our value proposition and actual scripts from cold call to first meeting) for complex services sales. She also coached me in how best to structure persuasive credentials presentations from a customer needs based perspective vs. a supplier product based perspective.
I recently landed a large FMCG client that we had been struggling to close using the Getting to Yes Please! Techniques. This is directly due to the fact that I can now better articulate the unique value we add to our clients, using powerful reference stories, so I feel more confident to have the C-Suite level business discussions.
The work we did together was practical, thorough and specifically for Rocketfuel. I also left with a greater understanding of important aspects of client relationships and engaging with clients, not only in terms of the correct format structure to use for first time client meetings, but also from a psychological point of view. I am now able to navigate my way quicker through an organisation, and have the confidence to have the high level conversations with corporate decision makers because I am now speaking their language and able to consult to them about their pain and provide real customer driven solutions, rather than in the past, simply trying to sell them on our fantastic innovation product and design capabilities. I am already seeing a huge difference in the quality of conversations and sales I am getting which are prioritised based on ROI.
A financial services company was closing only 10% of sales leads. Within a month of using Total Potential sales methodology, 75% of leads were being closed and business quadrupled.
“We engaged Total Potential because we were having difficulty closing on our opportunities. Tess did a wonderful job simplifying our service and in particular focusing on the real expertise our customers wanted. Tess was easy to work with but at same time directed us to be able to communicate clearly our value. Result was we successfully closed 75% of all opportunities instead of 10% prior to working with Total Potential. I would recommend Tess to any organisation who needs to simplify their message and be able to clearly articulate the must have benefits of engaging with you.” September 7, 2011.
As a result, our clients’ success rate was low and slow. Valuable hours were wasted- 90% of the time, they were unsuccessful. They were not going to reach their goals and were considering throwing in the towel altogether
We provided a sound technique for them to weed out time wasters, uncover real needs that buyers acknowledge, create a joint vision for the future, and selling benefits/ solutions to their problems
We provided them with that ability and clear way to articulate offers persuasively
The result was their business went from closing only 10% of the sales leads they followed- to our sales methodology they are now closing 75% and quadrupled their business within a month (testimonial from linked in)
“We’ve been working with Tessa for 12 months now. Tessa brings a deep understanding of marketing strategy and implementation to every project. Her ability to see things through a different lens provides an excellent counterpoint to existing management thinking and creates new growth options for the business.”
Adam RamshawCEO GENROE Customer Experience and Research Consultancy - Sydney, Australia
“Out of all the capability coaches at the Successness Fest in Cape Town that were there that day Tessa went the extra mile. Her workshops were practical, interactive, and down to earth. Tessa created a space of trust, which enabled everyone in the group to feel comfortable sharing our "stuckness". I walked away feeling heartened that we are not alone in feeling stuck at times.”
Kim FisherMD of CT Recruitment & IT Consultancy
“I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of how grateful I am for all the wonderful and insightful business teachings I have learned from Tessa Plen through the Seed Academy thus far. It has been extremely valuable for me to learn about running a private practice as a business. In the healthcare industry, we are not taught the basics of managing finances, how to do sales and marketing and reach the greater community with our services. This program has taught me how to change my mindset and literally grow the sales of my practice as business and not to prioritize my assumptions about patient’s finances over the their healthcare needs.”
Varsha SewpersadAudiologist. South Africa 2017
“We used Tessa’s services for innovation capability projects, marketing coaching and training extensively over a 3 year period. She enabled our team (30 people) to really leapfrog our learning and capabilities in the areas of Marketing and Innovation. She has a global know-how that would have taken us many years to establish on our own. Tess is direct, structured and brings clarity to an otherwise complex and difficult area. In short, she makes strategy easy to implement and as a result we were able to think out the box, launching a veggie burger with McDonalds and numerous successful extensions which revitalised our Weetbix and So Good Health Food brands.”
Rex SheehyMarketing Director Sanitarium Health Foods (sister co. to Pioneer Foods Australia)
“Tessa gets to the nub of complex problems incredibly fast. She did an excellent job of detailed, clearly laid out action step by action step-marketing planning with a templated system that we have used for planning each year since. The Results speak for themselves: by following the plan, our sales grew 48% over 2 years.”
Mike FisherCEO Brita Water Filters, Sydney Australia
