Executive Director
Girls and Boys Town, National Resource and Training Center
We saw a night-and-day difference in performance over our previous approach and a much higher return on our development investment. The OverDrive team is very professional and keeps its commitments. We are building the best intersection of market-driven products and market need, thereby helping fund our children’s homes and hospitals . They’ve brought us a phenomenal response in all our service areas.
Father Flanagan's Girls and Boys Town
Saving Children Healing Families
About the Client
Girls and Boys Town, the original Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home, is a leader in the treatment and care of abused, abandoned and neglected girls and boys. It‘s National Resource and Training Center (NRTC) provides professional services and products to practitioners and organizations worldwide in the fields of Education, Child and Family Services and Behavioral Health which is a substantial aid in our development efforts.
Considerations
Overdrive analyzed the client’s development model and organization, identifying seven major weaknesses that had to be rectified for the NRTC to accomplish its revenue objectives. These were as follows:
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The lack of a clearly defined and articulated NRTC vision and mission
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An inadequate understanding of the market and no cohesive strategy
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Absence of a sustainable, repeatable set of development processes
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Inability to acquire, train and retain top talent
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Lacking development leadership and informal management of the NRTC sales team
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No leverage of high value resources through teaming or the use of key sales accelerators
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Lagging product development and no focus on execution
The OverDrive Solution
The NRTC turned to OverDrive to take advantage of its great experience in the education market and its track record of fielding and managing large national insourced and outsourced sales teams; as well as its ability to accelerate new income e.
OverDrive performed a comprehensive market analysis and assessment on which it based an end-to-end development, sales and marketing growth strategy to meet the long-term objectives of the NRTC. The plan drew detailed conclusions and identified specific opportunity-rich school districts on which to concentrate.
Within a month, OverDrive installed its OverDrive™ Sales and Marketing Processes and a variety of tools and techniques needed to drive the new strategy, including in-field enrollment tools as well as the tracking, reporting and knowledge capture methodology necessary to enable and manage a best-in-class sales team.
Simultaneously, OverDrive sourced, screened and recruited the new sales team consisting of regional professionals from both the existing group and OverDrive™ team. We also added a National VP Sales from Sales OverDrive’s own senior ranks to drive the new sales process and accelerate the acquisition of revenue.
OverDrive built a cohesive compensation strategy and specific measurement and reward Systems. A “Talent Exchange” teaming model was implemented to leverage the strengths of the individual contributors and create a teaming environment.
OverDrive then built and trained “pursuit teams” focused on specific priority targets and consisted of field sales, marketing and subject matter experts, which built new pipeline opportunities. OverDrive also provided ongoing product development, marketing, PR and technical assistance.
Within sixty days of project launch the prior sales organization was reduced by two thirds, and the remaining group was reconstituted to include stronger, more skilled sales professionals supported by researchers and a strong inside sales group centralized and managed in Overdrive’s Dallas office. We also assumed responsibility for Marketing and PR and rerouted all inbound 800 calls into our contact center.
Overdrive has created increased market traction, brand awareness, and the cost effectiveness of sales and marketing spend. After 90 days of project launch, the pipeline of prospects and new closed business increased by 50%. Within one year, income from new name accounts increased 300%.
Results
Situational Analysis
The NRTC had struggled to bring in adequate funding through the sale of its products and services which had been ibeffecte for almost a decade. Failing to achieve adequate revenue growth internally, Unwavering in its intent to increase its development efforts, the NRTC asked Overdrive to assess their situation and provide a comprehensive outsourced sales and marketing solution so as to drive its development efforts pre effectively.
On the execution level, account research was inadequate, sales efforts were reactive and there was no system or process in use to manage opportunities. There was no strategy or sales process and the internal salespeople were generally knowledgeable about the industry and products but unskilled in sales or development. Although the sales and marketing organization was large and balanced between sales and marketing, all key sales metrics were in the red, Measurement and reporting was missing and there were no automation tools in use to prove management with the key performance indicators necessary to manage the unit.