Increased Pipeline and Improved Alignment

Plex Case Study

Building Sales Resilience By Implementing a Focus on the Buyer

Plex Systems creates smart manufacturing platforms that are purpose-built for each of their customers’ specific industry, needs and requirements. Their solutions traditionally operate in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution systems (MES) space. Plex gives process and discrete manufacturers the ability to connect, automate, track and analyze every aspect of their business—from the shop floor to the top floor—to drive business transformation. Plex launched Command of the Message® and Command of the Sale® to align the company on value, differentiation and how they were engaging their customers. The company used that alignment to enable sales teams to get higher in prospect organizations, creating and capturing value throughout the sales process.

Fred Plex Graphic

 

The Force Management team spent time talking with Fred Hehl about his experience on the program, methodology and the results he’s seen within his sales organization.

The Power of Alignment

Cross-Functional Consistency

The most successful sales initiatives start with cross-functional alignment. Plex aligned its teams around a framework of buyer value and solution differentiation.

The consistency in messaging and in how their entire company approaches the customer ensures that everyone along the customer engagement process knows who does what when. The clarity has yielded results, including shorter sales cycles and improved win rates,  that will benefit the company for the long-term. 

 

 

 

Sales Team Impact

 

Immediacy and Practicality

Implementing a buyer-focused sales approach has significantly improved the sales team's ability to navigate successful campaigns and work with managers and leadership to accurately predict their number. The process is even helping veteran sellers refocus and better align with the buyer, particularly in a challenging sales environment. 

As a result, Plex's sales teams are differentiating themselves not only by what they sell, but how they sell. Both sales leaders and managers see a clear increase in seller confidence across the entire organization. 

Selling on Value

Becoming Trusted Advisors

Even with successful sales teams in place, it can be difficult to refocus an entire team on buyer value and solution differentiation without taking on an initiative. Plex System’s alignment on their new value-based sales approach is making a difference with their prospects and customers.

This approach enables their salespeople to move away from technical sales conversations and focus on the business value their solution provides and how its differentiation creates meaningful results for their customers. Account teams now focus on aligning their sales process to the way their buyers want to buy, creating a mechanism for creating and capturing value throughout the customer lifecycle.

 

 

Shorter Sales Cycles and Larger Deal Size

 

A Consistent Value Message

You can’t underestimate the power of consistency within your customer-facing teams. The focus on customer value and Plex’s differentiation has shortened sales cycles and in some cases, increased deal sizes even in the middle of the Pandemic.

Sales teams are doing a better job capturing the business value in the final deal, which means Plex isn’t making unnecessary concessions that impact their overall deal health.