Company: Sales Partnerships, Inc., Broomfield, CO
Company Description: Sales Partnerships, Inc. is the premier direct sales outsourcing company in the world, offering branded representation that delivers rapid revenue lift for the most influential B2B firms in the world. Whether it's brand activation, customer acquisition, or retention, SPI is the leader in providing scalable and proven solutions to the Fortune 500.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for Innovation in Sales - Business Services Industries
 Nomination Title: Innovation expanding what can be done in field sales
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the nominated achievement since July 1, 2021, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
Our nomination focuses on application of our proprietary GIS-territory management suite to solve a near impossible $3B logistical challenge then applying it to every SPI field program.
Most of the nomination discusses SPI’s work with one of the three largest credit card companies in the world. This is due to the incredible complexity of the sales solution needed to achieve their objectives. Without our technology, the $3B sales opportunity couldn’t be successfully worked.
This client had historically done merchant acquisition themselves but struggled to reach parity with the two largest credit card companies. Their strategy changed in 2016 to allow other processors to sell their card processing services. It worked to help achieve parity. By allowing third parties to handle most new acquisitions while also interacting with existing accounts, acceptance rate rose from the 70% range to being accepted in more than 90% of US businesses.
This dramatic increase in customers came at a price. Rather than one on one engagement with merchants where our clients’ value story could be made clear, their service was sold in bundles and often never mentioned. The result was merchants that, in theory, could accept the card but weren’t actively doing it. After marketing and telesales failed to change the lack of accepting their cards, SPI was tasked with a field sales mission to work all those accounts and convert them to active processing merchants. This meant working 4 million unique merchant locations spread over the entirety of the United States and doing the work 100% face to face.
This became the second largest SMB field sales program in US history (second only to AT&T’s SMB sales work during telecom deregulation.) More than 4 million face to face engagements needed to be done by well over a thousand sales representatives. Because Wall Street was promised a date for parity, that gave us no room to miss that deadline.
Late 2023 marked the successful completion of that program. Our work created $3B in gross profit for our client and fundamentally changed the playing field for merchant processing nationwide.
The territory management suite we created became the cornerstone of all our field sales programs in all industries. Because it was designed to handle extreme situations, all the other applications were straightforward. By the end of 2023, the suite handled all territory analysis and reassignment, determination of opportunity rest schedules, comparative analytics showing rep production adjusted for territory factors increasing or decreasing production and identifying exact zones for recruiting to target new hires for specific programs. Overall, it has improved productivity by more than 20% while allowing us to retain personnel productively in territories near exhaustion where they would normally have been released. It is now adopted for use for sales in healthcare, technology, finance, business services, and residential door to door sales. Additionally, we created a variant version of the tool and provided it at no cost to Health Departments for tracking Covid transmission after the pandemic as part of our social responsibility initiatives.
With this preface, we appreciate being considered for this award and appreciate your time in judging us. Thank you.
- Briefly describe the nominated organization or individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 164 words used.
Sales Partnerships is a prior multiple Gold Stevie winner for field sales, sales outsourcing, and technical achievements. We become the direct field forces for and represent the brands of some of the largest and most respected companies in the world ranging from Google to Dow Chemical. Our work ranges from sales in technology to finance to heavy industry for both B2B and B2C.
Our hallmark is using and inventing systems and processes that optimize all the important areas impacting sales: recruiting, diversity, technology, training, management, analytics, and strategy. These drive the dedicated teams we build and manage for each client.
Our work has been recognized in national media (Selling Power, Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, Inc. Magazine, CNNMoney, etc.), and helped establish the standard for providing field-based sales outsourcing services. Since 1997, we have generated more than $10B in gross profits for our clients. SPI historically has operated in every significant MSA in the United States as well as in select non-US global markets.
- Outline the nominated achievement since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 238 words used.
SPI's Territory Suite enabled the following:
Merchant Processing: The tool enabled us to field the second largest SMB field sales program in US history working 4 million constantly changing accounts nationwide. This high-profile campaign helped our client move into parity for acceptance with the two largest credit card companies in the world. Without this suite, achieving the goals promised by this Fortune 500 company and their CEO to Wall Street, would have been impossible. Overall, it helped generate $3B in gross profits for this client and cemented them as one of the three defacto credit cards accepted nearly everywhere.
Healthcare: The suite allowed us to reweight territories based on opportunity value for prioritization. This, alone, resulted in a 17% increase in prescriptions. It also changed our stack ranking for top reps by adjusting for territory strengths and weaknesses. This helped us better evaluate performance after accurately factoring in territory impacting performance. We reallocated resources to correct previously missed struggling performers and saw production increase by another 10% over the next 6 months.
Telecommunications: The suite allowed us to change rest time for residential door to door activity, increasing overall sales results without changing the amount of sales work being performed.
A modified version of this tool was created to help health departments track Covid and infectious disease transmission over time in ways not previously available. This was provided at no charge as part of SPI’s social responsibility initiatives.
- Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 239 words used.
Previously, the best commercial solutions for territory management were limited to sorting lists by zip codes then assigning them into the CRM. Separately, route planning software would be used for reps to manage their days out of what they had assigned. Typically, these changes could be done monthly or quarterly with small lists (no more than a few thousand opportunities at a time.) This is done without regard to scheduled opportunities currently active. The assignments also wouldn’t weigh or prioritize opportunities by value.
SPI’s solution uniquely creates territories of almost any size as frequently as needed with advanced GIS analytics built into the suite.
- Using GIS data for real drive time calculations to create territory rather than zip codes reduces drive time by an average of 20%
- Opportunity prioritization in territory design allows for the most valuable opportunities to be worked without losing work against other opportunities
- Improvement in recruiting by identifying where candidates should come from – reducing turnover due to commute times and increasing field time
- Adjusting performance measurements based on relative territory strength fundamentally changes personnel evaluation to allow better personnel development
- Analysis of activity within a territory to measure and compensate for revisit fatigue
Lastly, CRM integrations allows for changes to be made while considering future scheduled opportunities to avoid losing production.
Overall, it has improved results by more than 20% while also increasing the effectiveness of personnel development and making previously unworkable markets viable.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 68 words used.
The following attachments and links are included to support our nomination:
● Case study detailing the field work performed for the nomination for financial services sales
● Documentation on SPI’s Territory Management Suite referenced in the nomination
● Documentation on the variant version of the Territory Management Suite we created for public health departments to use at no charge - Covid Quickview
● Link to SPI's web site
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