Yell is a global directories business with over £2Bn revenue. They rely on skilled field and telesales teams to hit challenging targets in all their product areas. Yell were experiencing big problems with wildly differing performance levels across their field sales teams.
The Problem
Only 34% were outperforming on their targets in the first year. This was directly effecting business revenue and sales were missing their targets. It was also resulting in churn of staff, uncertainty over every hire and a lack of trust in the recruitment team.
How We Helped
Our role was to understand why some consultants were doing so well compared to others. We investigated a number of issues including training, management and spent time with the sales teams. We found that at the heart of the issue were the skills and drive of the sales individuals. We studied and measured the attributes of the top and below target performers, isolating the key features that predicted success over failure. We then implemented a process that could measure these attributes and recruit against them.
The Result
The result has been a dramatic improvement in sales revenue from these teams. An ever increasing percentage of consultants are exceeding targets in their first year - currently over 50%. That’s more revenue for the Business and success for the recruitment team.
“Introducing the Chemistry process is the most important thing I’ve done in my 2 years at Yell”
Phil Barr, HR Director and executive team member
