What, How and Why

As a third-party competitive intelligence provider, Primary Intelligence receives numerous project specs and requests for bids, advice or consulting. By the time we hear about the project, our clients already know WHAT needs to be discovered and they want us to tell them HOW we will collect their data.

Logical. They want our expertise (or that of any third-party vendor) to make their efforts more effective. And Primary Intelligence exists to show companies how to grow market share, increase revenues and keep clients in the fold.

But, too often, nobody has considered WHY the information should be gathered.

For instance, one of our clients approached us with a formal RFP. From the content, it was obvious that there were concerns about sales effectiveness against a specific competitor. At the risk of:

*How is LaborFree’s sales organization structured (numbers; roles; management structure; span of control; by product)? Is there a sales organization chart that presents this structure? In a more general sense, is there a detailed, company wide org. chart? If so, please provide.
*To whom does sales report, both regionally, and at the corporate level?
*How are the sales offices geographically dispersed?
*What is the role, and extent of, inside sales?
*What is the typical, daily experience of a LaborFree sales associate (number of prospect/client contacts; “roll-calling” requirements; prospecting vs. account maintenance/growth; interaction with accountants and existing clients to acquire referrals; support from other LaborFree’s organizations and management, etc.)?
*How extensively do LaborFree sales associate make use of product demos in the sales process? Describe the typical sales call.
*Describe LaborFree’s discounting practices, at the time of initial sale.
*Does LaborFree raise its price over time to these customers who received initial discounts? Do these customers experience greater price increases than those who did not receive initial discounts?
*Are these price increases a major cause of customer losses?
*How does LaborFree calculate its customer retention rate (by client, or by revenues)? What has that rate been over the last five years?
*Does LaborFree use its LaborFree Agency commission revenue to support discounting to customers who use the pay-as-you-go insurance products? If so, to what extent?
*Number of orders submitted / % errors
*Number of payrolls setup / % perfect
*Number of first payrolls processed /% perfect
*Number of hot-start orders submitted / % actual starts
*Average cycle times
*How does LaborFree categorize its expenses? Provide specifics.
*As compared to SOFTTIME-ES, are similarly-labeled expenses actually alike, or are there definition differences? What are these differences?
*As compared to SOFTTIME-ES, does LaborFree match us expense-for-expense, or are there whole categories of expense not present in the LaborFree business model?
*Where LaborFree and SOFTTIME-ES expenses are similarly defined, where are their expenses materially less or more (proportionately) than SOFTTIME’s expenses?
*Per the above question, why are their expenses proportionately less or more than ours, for similar activities?

After five pages of this information, it was apparent that the CI group of this company looked like a Saturday evening DJ; taking requests and serving up the tunes. But the group wasn't doing their job of pushing back on the stakeholders and asking WHY.

Tomorrow, I'll examine a different course of action that eventually made a big difference in SOFTIME'S financial performance.

And, if you want to talk in the meantime, give me (Chris) a call at 801.838.9600 x5050.