15% more recurring revenue and 2 x less customer churn

Challenge

Despite having a young and enthusiastic team, the company faced challenges typical of many organizations in the marketing industry, including:

• A high client churn rate,
• There is a lack of specific, effective sales and service delivery procedures.

However, the primary goal of starting the collaboration was different—Tom, the agency owner, wanted to free up his calendar and stop being responsible for sales. This was a significant relief for Tom, allowing him to focus on other crucial aspects of the business.

Main Project Goals and Changes:

We had two main goals:

1. Build a sales department from scratch to relieve the business owner’s sales responsibilities. This is a common issue in agencies—an owner with a personal reputation and extensive marketing knowledge naturally advises potential clients, which translates into sales. Hiring a salesperson to replace an owner with expertise in marketing and sales comes with high expectations.
2. Improve customer service quality to reduce churn and increase overall client satisfaction with KAMAN’s services.

Action Plan and Preparing the Foundation for the Sales Department

To free the owner from sales duties, we needed to work through all the elements, from Tom’s general expectation of “I don’t want to sell” to setting a specific business goal:

• Assess the available resources and execution capabilities,
• Map out potential additional revenue sources,
• Define the skills the new salesperson should have, how to onboard them to quickly become support for Tom, and how to measure their performance.

We began the sales department setup by thoroughly examining the existing procedures, identifying weaknesses, and improving them before recruiting a salesperson. We then consolidated everything into expectations for the new team member, ensuring the right fit.

Recruiting and Onboarding the First Salesperson at KAMAN

We then moved on to recruiting a salesperson. A two-person consultant team led the recruitment process, ensuring it was efficient and effective.

We mapped the necessary competencies for the new salesperson,

• Wrote the recruitment ad,
• They interviewed 40 candidates during the second recruitment stage, verifying their skills and providing recommendations for hiring.

Ultimately, within a few weeks, we hired Karol, who stood out with his experience in agencies and knowledge of sales and marketing. The personalized onboarding process, divided into an education phase and hands-on client work, was a success, setting a positive tone for the rest of the project.

The first challenge we faced while creating the sales department was the need for conversion from the newly hired salesperson after the trial period. Although he followed our guidelines and was ambitious, he struggled with closing sales. We decided to invest in his development through individual sales methodology consultations and introduced specific targets. Additionally, Tom listened to and provided feedback on the salesperson’s sales calls, significantly improving his sales skills. After several months, the salesperson started achieving excellent results—his sales conversion rate doubled from 10% to 20%, and he began generating more new subscription-based business. At this point, we decided to hire another salesperson.

Organizing Sales in the Company

We introduced the Pipedrive CRM system to monitor work progress and organize the sales funnel. Implementing the CRM system significantly impacted sales efficiency, enabling better management of the entire sales process and tracking progress. This technological advancement marked a significant step forward in our sales operations.

We also prepared sales materials and established performance indicators for the newly created sales department, which included:

• Conversion rates from leads to sales,
• Response time to inquiries,
• Number of phone calls made,
• Conversion rates from MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads) to SQL (Sales Qualified Leads).

Further Development of the Sales Department

In the next phase, we introduced a second salesperson to increase our sales capacity. We also implemented dedicated individual consultations and regular training for the salespeople to improve sales efficiency.

Through individual work with Tom, we established procedures for the sales department, how to measure performance, and which results were acceptable and which exceeded expectations.

The final stage of our collaboration on this project was hiring another senior salesperson to increase the organization’s revenue generation quickly.

Support in Customer Success Management

Subsequent steps involved ongoing work with the sales team and later development of the Customer Success Management team (the service delivery department).

With Casbeg’s extensive experience in service companies, we identified issues related to insufficient procedures in the service delivery department. We decided to appoint a team leader who would:

• Monitor team progress,
• Verify project goals,
• Conduct quality and satisfaction assessments,
• Oversee team development paths,
• Support the team in resolving client issues.

The new leader was responsible for building the organization’s image and maintaining positive relationships with key clients. They were also tasked with overseeing the team’s progress, verifying project goals, conducting quality and satisfaction assessments, and supporting the team in resolving client issues.

Initially, the team found the leader’s responsibilities surprising, as this was the first time they had dealt with such processes. However, the team eventually came onboard with the changes.

To improve procedures within the service delivery department and the quality of specialists’ work:

• We introduced changes in client communication, such as workshops on how to communicate goals to clients,
• Improved reporting processes,
• Implemented weekly summary meetings,
• Enhanced the process of setting business goals in subscription-based projects,
• Defined a new scope for team competence development.

We used Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) surveys to monitor client satisfaction.

Tom and the team responded positively to the changes. The KAMAN team was open to learning and developing their skills, and we faced little resistance from the team.

Results

Thanks to the implemented changes:

• Churn dropped by 50% (!)
• Overall, client satisfaction with the agency’s services improved, resulting in a 15% increase in recurring revenue. Satisfied clients were more willing to expand the scope of their cooperation.

From a numerical perspective, this had a tangible impact on the profitability of the entire organization, as the sales department could focus on developing new areas rather than filling gaps in ongoing projects.

At Casbeg, we regularly conduct NPS surveys, health checks (which involve assessing the overall health and performance of a project), and client interviews to ensure that consultants appropriately handle projects. In all conversations, Tom expressed his satisfaction with the service and provided feedback that improved overall relations. We aim to apply the same model of surveys to internal procedures.