When Mark Fuller, Chief Executive of Alliance Fund Managers, the organisation set up to manage the new £80m Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF), met with Quantum's Graeme Hall, it was clear from the start that Mark was keen to make an early impact.

Graeme takes up the story, "Mark wanted to ensure that the businesses in which MSIF invested had the most effective framework in place to capitalise on their individual propositions and to add value beyond the finance and advice MSIF had already delivered. After a number of exploratory discussions I suggested two half day workshops as a starting point, aimed at challenging some of the common pre-conceptions in B2B selling and designed to provide some effective real world sales management tools which the participating businesses could use immediately. Working with members of Mark's team, in particular Simon Thelwall-Jones, we agreed the agenda in detail and invited the businesses which MSIF thought would benefit the most."

The workshops were held on May 22nd and attended by senior members of the management team from 21 companies in the Merseyside area. The format was participative where possible, with the attendees in two groups, on a morning and an afternoon over a single day.
  Typical comments from the day included:

"Now I can give my Sales Manager an informed view on what he should really be doing!"

and

The results from formalised feedback suggested that Mark had more than achieved his objectives. 61% of the attendees thought the event "very valuable", whilst the rest thought it "valuable to their business going forward". 94% found the information "appropriate and relevant to their needs". 100% of the participants expressed an interest in attending future, similar MSIF events.

During telephone follow up carried out 3 months later, 92% of the attendees had successfully implemented the tools introduced on the day and felt that the event had made a positive impact on their business. The longer-term benefit in bottom line terms will be revealed in due course but it is already clear that 'best practice' in sales and sales management is becoming a reality for those organisations who attended, which bodes well for all of those who participate in future events.

Since the event, the relationship between MSIF and Quantum has expanded to include further company-specific sales input to improve return on investment for both MSIF and the business owners.

Mark concludes: "Quantum's rare mix of science and real world experience helps to bring a welcome degree of common sense to the sales process and has helped the business owners to focus on the required activities to ensure the best chance of success. We look forward to working with Quantum on an ongoing basis to benefit our investee organisations." 

©Quantum Sales & Marketing Services Limited 2003