Case Studies/Client Results for Website-Selling General

CASE STUDY #1

CREATED NEW SALES TRAINING PROGRAM FOR HOME IMPROVEMENT COMPANY

Situation:
A home improvement company was forced to adapt to changes in their industry and market resulting in a need to shift their customer base.  Because of these changes, the president realized an entirely new and comprehensive sales training program would be required.

Actions:
Incedo Group createed a comprehensive sales training program and worked closely with the VP of sales to identify the characteristics of a great sales person in their business and create additional training to help them hire the right people.

I created an outline for a sales training program for the retail side of the business.  The program included everything from greeting customers to dress and demeanor, from managing the sales process to dealing with objections, and more.  The training took place over a one-year period and consisted of ½- day training sessions, each building on the previous.

The VP of sales and I also created a set of metrics for both the retail and wholesale sides of the business. These were designed to help the company identify, hire, and manage more effective sales people.

Results:
Within six months the company was able to cut two retail and two wholesale sales people who were consistently underperforming and replace them with four new people who closed more business in the first six months than the previous four had in over a year. The training program also helped the company identify unfocused sales associates and turn them around. Overall, sales increased by more than 10% in just over a year.

CASE STUDY #2

IMPROVED THE SALES PROCESS FOR AN ASSET LIQUIDATION FIRM

Situation:
An asset liquidation firm that sold retail, wholesale, and through auctions was frustrated by a lack of consistency in their sales.  They wanted to be consistent in all divisions and also know if their sales process could be improved, and if training was required.

None of the sales staff, nor the owner, had any previous sales training.

Action:
I worked 1-on-1 with the owner to analyze how each division sold and identify patterns we could use to help them improve their performance and consistency.  We hosted six mini sales training sessions and implemented a coach-on-call program allowing anyone in sales to call me and get their questions answered in real time.  We also instituted a timeframe where they knew I’d be available and we completed one-on-one or group calls.

Results:
There was an amazing improvement in customer relations.  Sales people began to close more deals faster and recognize ‘duds’ and move on to more productive customers.  They learned to ask the uncomfortable questions – the ones that move the sales process along toward the close.

The company also discovered they no longer wanted to focus on retail sales, and moved those people into the other two divisions.  This improved consistency in both auctions and wholesale sales. With more confidence in the sales process, big sales cycle swings decreased and overall sales went up by nearly 20%.

CASE STUDY #3

IMPROVED SALES TEAM PERFORMANCE FOR FORTUNE 500 FIRM

Situation:
A Fortune 500 insurance firm wanted to improve the performance of their wholesale sales team.  The company had been a leader in innovative and top-line products for many years; however over the recent five-year period they witnessed a steady decline and were no longer the market leader with their products. The president wanted to have the sales team learn to sell from a consultative approach rather than a product approach.

Actions:
I interviewed all 30 sales individuals to learn how they define sales, how they determine what actions taken in the sales process will produce results, what they believe is the single most important sales skill etc.  I looked for patterns in their responses and areas to focus on during our training. Each person also took an assessment to show more about who they are and their natural gifts and talents. I then led a 2-day workshop focusing on sales skills development…primarily on communication skills. Each attendee provided two skills they wanted to focus on and each week and sent me a progress report with examples. Over the year that followed we worked closely together in four additional ½-day training sessions to infuse the skills and provide practice with role playing.

Results:
The sales team’s previous complaints about the products they were selling and problems with underwriting shifted dramatically.  They shifted from a product-focused process to a relationship sale and how they could help their clients become more successful, immensely improving their overall attitude.

Because of this dramatic change in the sales team’s attitude, clients agreed to meet with them once a quarter (instead of previously pushing off those visits) and overall sales improved by 13% over the next year.

CASE STUDY #1

SHARPENING SALES SKILLS AND RESULTS FOR A REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONAL

Situation:
A real estate agent was struggling on many levels.  His challenges ranged from difficulties getting clients to list with him, to not collecting his full commission, to buyers not bringing all the money they needed to the closing.  He was even having trouble getting his clients to make decisions about putting in offers and was spending huge amounts of time showing 15 to 20 houses with no sale.

Action:
I worked with him 1-on-1 to help him sharpen his sales skills.  We worked on setting clear expectations, as well as developing better relationships with both buyers and sellers.  We created additional marketing materials and completed a solid plan for client development.

Results:
Within one year he no longer had to discount his fees to close a deal.  His average showing rate went from 15 to eight homes before the closing. He also completely eliminated the issue of clients bringing insufficient funds to the closing table.

Within 24 months, his average sale went from $300,000 to over $900,000.  Additionally, his closing rate improved by 150% from 2 per month to 3.5… more than quadrupling his income!

CASE STUDY #2

BRINGING A RECRUITING PROFESSIONAL OUT OF A DEEP SLUMP

Situation:
A 13-year veteran at a recruiting firm found himself in a deep slump.  His production dropped by 25% and he was struggling to close deals; these problems had been going on for several years.  Additionally, the firm had a new recruit who they felt was talented and yet had not closed a single deal in six months.

Actions:
I worked 1-on-1 with each of these guys over a period of nine months.  Together, we discovered what the blocks were, how to overcome them, and worked hard on improving their business development skills.

Results:
The senior recruiter, who hadn’t closed a deal in five months, closed two within the first month of working with me.  Additionally, over the course of our nine-month training, he generated over $500,000 in revenue. The new recruiter began closing two deals each month within the first 90 days and maintained this level thereafter.

CASE STUDY #3

IMPROVING PRODUCTION OF A FINANCIAL ADVISIOR BY 56%

Situation:
A financial advisor who had been in the business for 25 years was flat in terms of her production and new clients.  She wanted to add two new clients per month and increase her over production.

Actions:
We worked together to improve her sales skills, keep her accountable on her activity and to explore new avenues for client development.

Results:
Within the next year, she increased her production 56% over the previous year, adding 15 new clients, with over half coming from referrals.

CASE STUDY #4

Situation:
An international consulting firm had no formal sales/business development training program.  For over 20 years they had attracted clients mainly through referral. Then they opened offices in several other locations and were having difficulty driving revenue in those offices.

Actions:
The company wanted a new sales training program and coaching for people in these new offices to help them boost business.  I began by developing an eight-session webinar sales training program. The webinars contained both sales skills development content as well as extensive Q&A.  I had all attendees identify at least two areas in which they felt they needed work and to send me weekly progress reports. I also worked 1-on-1 coaching six of their key sales people.

Results:
Within a few short months, two of the three offices had begun closing new business and are continuing to do so.  Although the third office took a little longer due to some internal changes, they’re now catching up and the first deal they closed was for over $150,000.

The individuals I worked with learned to shorten their sales cycle, improve appointment setting ratios and callbacks.  They’re now regularly closing several new deals each month.

CASE STUDY #1

Situation:  
A manufacturing firm set up appointments for in-home demonstrations using a call center.  In the past, their sales had increased anywhere from 10 to 15% except for the last four years.  Sales were flat and in one year, had actually declined and they felt it was time for a positive change.

Their script was too company focused instead of focusing on the customer.  The company knew this, so they asked for our help to revamp the script, train the managers and agents on the script as well as produce new training manuals and videos.  After an initial review it became clear that more than just a new script was needed – the entire call center needed to be trained on proper and effective communication — listening, questioning and managing difficult situations.

Actions:  
Linda reviewed calls even before starting and then listened to over 40 recordings per week.  She was able to make suggestions immediately and to build a profile of what was going wrong and how to make permanent changes.  Linda conducted training seminars where reps and managers would listen to calls and then evaluate what was good and what was causing issues.  A new script and training system was created that focused on true customer service, even in cases where the company itself couldn’t help the customer.

Essentially, we had to change the entire company culture from a “me” focus to a “you” focus.

Result:  
Several groups of reps improved their confirmed appointment rate by 18% and decreased their cancellation rate by 10%.  Because of the strength of the reps approaches, the actual sales people on-site increased their closing rate from between 50 and 70% – more than double the previous rates! Negative reviews on social media decreased by 35%.

CASE STUDY #2

Situation:
A city wanted to improve their overall customer service throughout their entire 800-person staff, city wide.  Other than job-specific training, nobody had ever received any customer service training and our job was to make that happen.

Actions:
There was no previous focus on customer service, so we needed to know what the employees knew.  Each employee was asked to complete a self-evaluation survey and we used the data collected to create a comprehensive training system.  The program included defining customer service, phone skills, communication skills, and handling conflict with customers. All training included a workbook that incorporated topics covered in training and supplementary materials.

Results:  
Huge improvement in customer relations.  Employees demonstrated their new-found skills by communicating effectively and easily handling and diffusing volatile situations, both in person and over the phone.  The city had less complaints from individuals who interfaced with them and staff indicated they felt more in control of situations they previously did not know how to handle.

CASE STUDY #3

Situation:
An insurance company was experiencing major issues with customer service and operations leading to policies being issued incorrectly and even being sent out to the wrong addresses.

The frequency and nastiness of phone and email complaints were increasing, customer service agents were not being paid commissions earned, and the agents were also complaining that they were getting miss-information.  In short, things were getting bad and something needed to be done fast.

Actions:  
Linda first met with the managers, and then all 25 customer service agents to get a one-on-one feel for what they believed was wrong and what could be done to solve the problems.  It immediately became clear that everyone felt the issue was a technical one. There were errors in the database leading to the collection of inaccurate information – it was all the fault of the IT department and not theirs, in other words.

Over the next 6 months Linda met with everyone twice a month for a 2 ½ hour session.  Initially we discussed the problems as seen through the eyes of the agents and the impact on these agents as well as what they had done thus far to solve the problems.  We covered topics such as shared accountability and responsibility, handling difficult conversations, taking ownership, problem solving even if you think you don’t have the authority or it’s not your problem, and more.  The next 6 months our focus was on determining the root cause of problems (versus the symptom), working with other parts of the organization to affect change, managing relationships in and outside the company and deeper conversations/coaching on taking ownership.

Results:  
In the first six months, the agents learned to stop finger pointing and do what they could to ensure quality.  As a result, complaints dropped by 32%. By learning to work together, staff and departments were able to solve and avoid problems far more effectively and complaint rates continued to decline over the next 6 months and eventually leveled out to less than 10%.  In addition complaints by agents to management due to problems with operations/customer service dropped considerably. At one time managers spent as much as half their day dealing with unhappy agents and trying to work out solutions to the problems. That dropped to in many cases less than 2 hours a day.

Agent complaints and the vitriolic nature of their complaints continued to decrease such that one agent said “I used to know you guys would screw it up and then tell me why it wasn’t your fault.  I would steel myself for having to follow up with you all the time and still know things would go wrong. Closing deals was the easier part of my job. Now I have more confidence that things will be handled well and should there be a problem you will notify me instead of me always finding the mistakes.”

CASE STUDY #1

SUCCESSFULLY NEGOTIATED BETTER PARTNERSHPE SPLIT

Situation:
Two partners owned equal shares of a therapeutic massage, acupuncture and nutrition business.  Each partner shared the management of practitioners as well as generating revenue in their own particular area of expertise.  It turned out that one partner was generating 75% of the revenue and felt that the 50 / 50 split was no longer equitable.

Actions:
I came in to help them negotiate a better split.  However, it became clear this wasn’t possible. So instead we worked together to allow one partner to buy out the other.  Worked with both partners together and individually to come to terms with the decision; the specifics of the buy-out; the messaging to staff, clients and colleagues and finding a role for the partner who no longer owned 50%.

Results:
Within 18 months we’d reached an agreement and had it ratified by an attorney.  Not only did the bought out partner still have a role, they both are still flourishing and are happier than ever.

CASE STUDY #2

FACILITATED BETTER FUTURE FOR FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS

Situation:  
Two brothers owned a business for over 15 years.  The older brother held 70% of the ownership and they often butted heads on what direction the business should go.  As a result, cash flow was frequently inconsistent and they wanted to smooth out their processes and communication. The additional challenge in this case was the dynamics of them being brothers and the challenges it caused between them and also with their families involved.

Actions:
I had to begin by carefully addressing the dynamic between the two brothers as well as their families. After spending 18 months working several times a month with them, it became clear that their differences were very wide apart.  Rather than trying to get them on the exact same page, it appeared that a buyout was the best option.

Results:
It took time for the older brother to let go, but we eventually worked out a fair buy out for him.  He’s now able to move on doing what he really wants and his younger brother called and said “you Linda have forever changed the life of everyone who works for the company and for my family personally”.

CASE STUDY #3

SETTLED DISSENTION AND ELIMINATED FIGHTING BETWEEN PARTNERS

Situation:
Two partners started a business.  One put in all of the seed money while the other put in the vast majority of the sweat equity.  After a few years, they took on a junior partner and gave him a limited ownership. Although the business was doing well, there was some dissention among the two primary partners.

The seed money partner owned 65% of the company and felt that because of this and because he’d put up the money, he should be the big boss – making all decisions.  The other primary partner felt that he should have more say and that his skillset gave him more authority. The third partner seemed to add nothing to the mix. The constant arguing and finger pointing was beginning to take its toll on the staff and the company.

Actions:
I would visit the company for a day once a month and meet with all partners.  We focused on communication, and how decisions would be made, and how tasks would be divided.  I also provided 1-on-1 phone consultations with each partner twice a month on the phone to help them learn how to communicate more effectively and work through their individual beliefs, judgements and assumptions that were interfering with them moving forward.  The 3rd partner I worked with during strategic planning meetings only.

Results: 
Within two years, the partners had worked through the issues on decision making, roles/responsibilities, traveling together, and a variety of others that had been a constant cause of fighting.  The partner who owned less became more comfortable with their role and accepted they were not going to take over the marketing function. The partners learned to speak to each other in a more professional way, to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and concerns in a constructive way.  The third partner assumed a larger role and ownership stake.

CASE STUDY #4

IMPROVING PRODUCTION OF A FINANCIAL ADVISIOR BY 56%

CASE STUDY #5

HELPED PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM CREATE SYSTEM TO BRING IN PARTNERS

Situation:

Five partners who owned a professional services firm were considering bringing in more partners.  Each had started the company and owned an equal share. The partners struggled to decide how to bring in new partners and were challenged with such issues as ownership amounts, workloads and if the new partner would ever be considered at the same level as the original five.

Actions:
I spent six months working with all five partners.  From 1-on-1 sessions to ½-day meetings twice per month where we worked through the questions, fears, challenges and made decisions on what issued should be addressed and how.

Results:
The partners learned to communicate more effectively with each other.  They could now decide on how to bring in other partners and how to smoothly handle other critical issues in the business.  They eventually brought in two new partners.

CASE STUDY #1

REALIZE VP’S FULL POTENTIAL AND IMPROVE HIS RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK

Situation:
An influential VP of human resources was having trouble in his relationships with colleagues.  He often said that he felt victimized because of his skin color, and the director of the company hired me to help him through these issues to realize the VP’s full potential and improve those relationships.

Actions:
I worked 1-on-1 coaching the VP for six months and the engagement was extended twice, for a year each time.  Like many frustrated people, the VP tried hard to focus on changing others rather than himself. As I worked with him, I showed him how changing himself from the inside out had far longer reaching and more dramatic impacts on others than a more traditional confrontational approach.

Results:
Over the course of the 2 ½ years, this VP was able to find that taking responsibility for his part in issues and working on what he could change rather than what he could not had a noticeable impact on his work and his effectiveness in the organization.  The director confided in me that this man’s body language and attitude was completely different in meetings and dealing with other people and as a result, he was succeeding far beyond anyone’s expectations.

CASE STUDY #2

HELPING COMPANY PRESIDENT IMPROVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS

CASE STUDY #4

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION SKILLS OF A SUCCESSFUL LITIGATOR

Situation:
An international law firm was considering taking a new partner and giving him managing control over one of their branches.  The problem, however, was that while an effective litigator, his communication with colleagues was grating, terse, and condescending.  He found himself frustrated when others didn’t always understand his expectations and meet them.

Actions:  
Worked 1-1 coaching this partner for 18 months, meeting with him twice monthly.

Results:
He came to understand that his litigating style wasn’t necessarily right for dealing with his peers or staff.  His superiority complex was causing issues with his assistant. He came to realize that rather than taking an, “it’s none of her business” attitude, he worked with her and she became a valuable resource to him.

Ultimately he was not given the role as managing partner of the branch because the other partners did not feel comfortable with him as a leader.  However they acknowledged that his communication style had changed and improved and complaints about him from others and amongst themselves had dropped.

Case Study #1:

SITUATION
For ten years a financial service firm had been growing yet had continually struggled with hiring people that performed well.  While the firm had less than thirty employees only five of those employees had been with the firm more than three years and ten had been with them less than a year.  They couldn’t figure out what wasn’t working and had heard about the ProScan assessment and wanted to determine if it could be an effective hiring tool for them.

I had everyone from the CEO down take the assessment.  The HR manager provided me a list of names by department and the manager of each department.  After I had all the reports I segmented the results by department, by senior leadership and by tenure.  We were expecting to find common denominators among the team of characteristics of those employees who were tenured and those functioning at a very high level.  The results were unexpected.

What showed up was that over 80% of the company’s staff had huge energy drains, most of them having so little available energy they were almost at zero.  The energy drains are physical, emotional, psychic, spiritual, creative and all the other energy fields that impact us. Of the 30 people in the company only 3 had high satisfaction, 10 had average and everyone else showed low satisfaction.  Additionally two teams showed the most energy drains and low satisfaction.

I spoke to the CEO and HR manager and suggested that these results were not a coincidence and there was something with the organization causing these results.  I also suggested we conduct a full day where we discussed the results with the teams, what the results suggested and facilitate discussions (without the mangers present) on their needs, views and problems.  The learning that came from these meetings was tremendous. Employees shared their concerns about the lack of communication and feeling under valued and appreciated.

Result:
There was one senior leader that was not only negatively impacted their own team, but another team who interfaced with them.  The decision was made to terminate this manager after six months of coaching with no improvement in results. A new manager was hired.  

The HR manager undertook a project to improve communication across the organization and have regular meeting with the staff to discuss their performance and long-term career goals.

A year later we had everyone retake the ProScan assessment.  Satisfaction levels improved across the board with everyone but three people now showing average or high satisfaction.  Energy drains were reduced and employees were now showing managing energy drains that would be typical.

Case Study #2:

SITUATION
Six partners were constantly battling about direction of the company, decision making, leadership and just about everything else.  Meetings turned into screaming matches, name calling and door slamming. They wanted to hire someone to facilitate their meetings to reduce the tension, improve communication and be able to make decisions.

I met with each partner individually to determine what they saw as the challenges and issues.  At the end of those individual meetings I suggested all partners take the ProScan assessment. I wanted to determine how they were different, where they were alike and what assumptions they were making about each other that interfered with their communication.

The results were shared at a meeting with all partners.  We discussed each partner’s profile, what it meant, how to best use the information about each other to communicate more effectively and make decisions.  The data also showed that two of the partners were not being well utilized by the company and had slid into roles that the organization needed but weren’t the best use of their skills and talents.  

Result:
The two partners were given new roles that aligned with their natural gifts and abilities and their functions were reassigned to others.  The partners learned that they often made assumptions about each other that interfered with effective communication, and they began to understand what each partner needed in terms of how they made decisions, dealt with conflict and handled challenged.  Within two years one of the partners decided to leave and another was considering early retirement. While disagreements still arose they became more effective at resolving conflict and coming to decisions without door slamming, screaming or avoidance of each other.

Case Study #3:

SITUATION
Team dynamics was a constant frustration for this leader.  He told me he averaged ten hours a week either handling conflict or dealing with team members missing deadlines.  Several of the team members had been replaced, he had taken leadership training on developing teams and sent his key supervisors to training on communication but nothing seemed to improve the situation.

When I met with him he was at his wits end, even considering moving out of a leadership role as he felt he wasn’t effective.  I suggested everyone take the ProScan assessment so we could determine what might be causing the challenges he was facing.

Everyone took the assessment and then we had a full day of on-site training and discussion.  We discussed the results of the assessments and how to use the information to work more effectively together.  It became clear to the team members that they judged each other harshly, made assumptions about each other and had long ago given up believing they could communicate effectively with each other. Another discovery was three key team members, who were actually functioning well in their roles were not happy and well suited to the role they held.  

Result:
Two team members switched roles and the other moved off this team to another within the company.  Each person learned about themselves, and their team mates and were for the most part able to suspend judgement which greatly improved the communication.  The supervisors learned that the leader who they were constantly frustrated with for his seemingly lack of decision making was someone who needed time to digest information before making a decision and instead of asking for an instant decision learned to give him time, and lots of information.  Frustration was decreased across the team and the leader shared with me that not only had conflict been virtually eliminated, team members were engage and even laughing during meeting.

Case Study #4:

Using ProScan to identify if in wrong career or organization

Debbie, a woman in her late thirties, had been working for the CIA  for eight years and was working with me because she was feeling like she was in an emotional dead end with her job.  

During the eight years with her company,  she had been promoted three times.  Each time she was promoted she was excited, but each time within a few months she lost her excitement and found herself feeling deflated and disengaged at work.  

After several conversations I recommended Debbie take the ProScan assessment.  

I felt that it was important for both Debbie and I  to determine if she was in the wrong organization, if the type of work she was doing didn’t suit her or if something else was causing her dissatisfaction.

 Debbie and I went over the results of her ProScan and I was able to help her discover what she was struggling with professionally.   

We discovered that the government environment was completely the wrong culture for Debbie.  She needed a more entrepreneurial spirited organization that allowed her to truly express herself and her creativity.  

Additionally, Debbie was able to see how the environment was causing her to make shifts in her style, which meant she wasn’t using her natural gifts and talents.  That alone would cause her stress and increase her energy drains..

As a result of our discussion, Debbie immediately pulled together her resume and began to look for a position in the private sector.  Within three months she had found a position with a financial service firm and decided to go to law school as well.  

Three years later Debbie finished law school and took a position with an investment firm running their compliance department and has been promoted twice during her first three years with the firm.  

Debbie is happy, thriving and enjoying an environment that offers her enough structure to satisfy that need yet is entrepreneurial enough to keep her interested and allow her to be creative.  

The stress and energy drains that Debbie was experiencing in her previous position have been reduced and she has found the right work environment for her based on her ProScan Results.

Case Study #5:

Using ProScan as Hiring Tool

A large muti-practice Washington DC based law firm with offices in six other cities hired me because they were struggling to hire young attorneys that were high performers, fit their culture and they could retain.  

They were consistently losing their best and brightest to other law firms and/ or were hiring associates that weren’t the right cultural fit that resulted in productivity issues, team dynamic problems and morale issues.  

The cost of replacing these wrong-fit associates was roughly $200,000 per associate.  This hefty sum didn’t even account for other issues that were the ripple effects of losing these associates such as poor morale, lost productivity and more. 

They wanted my help so that they could find a way to make better hiring decisions to reduce turnover, reduce hiring costs and improve productivity.

The first step I took to help solve this situation was to have all the associates with one to five years’ experience take the ProScan assessment. 

The next step was for the firm to provide me with a list of associates in each of their practice areas, and within those practice areas who they considered their most productive and their high potentials.  The ProScan allows us to create an aggregate of all the results into one model or profile.

Two models were created.  One was of the associates they considered their best and brightest across the entire firm.  The other was the most successful by each practice area.  The models provided a picture of what profile was needed in their firm for success.

Then the firm provided a breakdown of these associated by practice areas and those they considered their most productive and their high potentials. From this information several models were created. One model created was a profile of their best and brightest across the firm. Another model was a profile of their most successful associates by practice area.  It became clear what the profile was of the associates that were most successful in their firm and what was needed in each practice area.

The next step I took was to work with the associates on their needs and motivators, which was included in their individual reports.  

As a result of this, I was able to help the law firm’s leadership learn what mattered most to their associates.  They used this information to improve the management and mentoring of their associates.   

Because the law firm found that the information from the ProScan was so useful, they began using it immediately as part of their hiring process.  

They had each potential new hire take the ProScan assessment and compared the results to the models.  Did they fit the culture overall?  Did they fit what the specific practice area needed?  What was the likelihood of success based on the results of the assessment?  

Using the ProScan tool, they hired ten new associates over the next six months.  

And, as a result of using the ProScan during their hiring process, those new hires stayed with the firm a minimum of  five years and several years later many of them are still with the firm and have been promoted.  

Using what they learned from the needs/motivators discussions the law firm was able to  identify several areas of training, leadership, career and culture that impacted retention.   

This helped their turnover drop from 20% to less than 5% within two years and their average billable hours went up by an average of 75 hours per attorney per year, resulting in an increase to the bottom line of roughly $30,000 per attorney. 

Case Study #6:

ProScan Used for Hiring and Identified Cultural Challenges

A financial service firm I worked with had been growing yet had continually struggled with hiring and retention for 10 years.

 Of their thirty employees, only five of them had tenure greater than three years and ten had less than one-year tenure.  In their work with me, we wanted to find out  if the ProScan could be an effective hiring tool for them.

Everyone from the CEO down took the Proscan assessment.  The goal was to find common characteristics  among the tenured and newer hires that functioned at a high level. The results were unexpected.

• Over 80% of the company’s staff had huge energy drains, most with little  or no available energy 
• Only 3 of the 30 employees showed high satisfaction
• 10 employees had average satisfaction
• 18 employees showed low satisfaction
• 3 leaders showed huge energy drains and low satisfaction

These results are not a coincidence and a day was devoted to working with each team and the executives to identify what was contributing to the results. 

After six months of coaching one of their senior leaders, they made a  decision to terminate him and hire a manager who was able to effectively focus on building relationships and teams. 

The HR manager also undertook a project to improve communication across the organization and started having regular meetings with the staff to discuss their performance and long-term career goals.

A year later we had everyone retake the ProScan assessment to check their progress. 

 Satisfaction levels improved across the board energy drains were reduced to within normal range. During this time no employee left the company.

Case Study #7:

ProScan Used to Identify Differences in Abilities and Adjust Roles of Key People

A medium-sized publishing company in the midwest had six equity partners, each with different roles and responsibilities. They were constantly battling about direction of the company, decision making, leadership and just about everything else. 

More than anything, including growing the company, they wanted to find a way to reduce the tension, improve communication and be able to come to agreements and decisions.  

Each partner took the ProScan. They were interviewed as to their roles and responsibilities within the company.  

The results of the ProScans showed two partners in roles not well suited to their skills and talents. Subsequently the partners met to discuss the results of the interviews and the assessment.  As a result roles were shifted around amongst them to better align with their natural gifts and talent.

Additional conversations took place around how they could use the results of the assessment to communicate more effectively and make decisions.

Within two years one of the partners decided to leave and another was considering early retirement.  While disagreements still arose they became more effective at resolving conflict and coming to decisions without door slamming, screaming or avoidance of each other.

Case Study #8:

Using the ProScan to Improve Team Dynamics

A multi-state fleet management services company had three executives battling team dynamics and accountability challenges.  Nothing seemed to change no matter what actions they took.

Team dynamics was a constant frustration for each of these leaders.  On average each of them estimated they spent ten hours a week handling team conflict or the implications of missed deadlines.  Putting out fires seemed to be where they spent huge chunks of their day, and night.

Each of the executives and their respective team took the ProScan.  While each team was unique in their roles within the company and their ProScan results, what did show up in all three groups was a communication gap.  

Their challenges could all be improved through better communication. 

An on-site meeting was held with each team and their leader.  They learned how to communicate for results, navigate through disagreements and conflict.  The result was decreased tension, happier people and fewer missed deadlines,

Within a year, employees on each team switched roles or moved to another team within the company.  Each of the leaders cut the time in half they were spending firefighting.  They worked fewer overtime hours and spent their time focusing on strategy and driving performance.