HEADQUARTERS1350 Beverly Road, Suite 115

McLean, Virginia 22101

INFORMATIONwww.blueridgepartners.cominfo@blueridgepartners.com

phone 703-448-1881

Blue Ridge Partners is the

most experienced, impactful

and respected firm exclusively

focused on helping companies

improve the performance of

their “revenue engine”.

BLUE RIDGE PARTNERS

Powering Out of the Curve

Most company leadership teams spent 2008 and the first half of 2009 “braking into the curve” —cutting costs, streamlining operations, conserving cash and managing their credit

facilities. The brake was the proper pedal for this portion of the track.

But how should leadership teams maneuver as they reach the apex of the curve—the critical point at which braking is no longer the right technique and gears need to be shifted to increase speed and power out of the curve? Industries will hit their apex at different times—so timing is essential. If you let up on the brake too soon, you might still hit the wall. If you let up too late, competitors will pass you.

But more troubling than the question of timing is whether your revenue engine will respond when you round the corner and try to accelerate. If your engine sputters, top-line growth will be sluggish, market share will be lost to better prepared competitors and investors will be disappointed.

Companies should begin now to determine how their revenue engine may respond. Improvements and adjustments will require precious time to complete. The next pages provide insights to help you ensure your revenue engine responds when your time comes for powering out of the curve.

Business Services >> Industrial Products >> Healthcare >> Technology >> Financial Services

After two years of cost reduction, management and investor attention is shifting to top-line revenue growth. While companies remain vigilant on the cost side, further cuts are unlikely to yield significant profit improvement or value creation.

Revenue growth has become more challenging for most companies—existing customers are spending less and the primary path for growing revenues now depends on finding new customers. Market share must be taken from competitors.

This means that a considerably higher volume of qualified sales leads must be generated. But few companies have enough experienced “hunters” to make this happen. Most sales representatives are limited in their ability to answer questions such as:

Which companies are most likely to buy? Which buyers are unhappy with their current supplier? What can be done to pull these customers away from competitors?

To help sales forces answer these questions and attract significantly more new customers, Blue Ridge Partners has developed a creative solution—finding new customers through market research interviews.

For years, we have interviewed our client’s prospects—and about 10% of these interviews produce a specific sales lead for our clients. During these interviews, we learn when a prospect is ready to switch suppliers and exactly what they are looking for in a new supplier. When gathered properly, this market intelligence can be powerful in two ways:

The sales force can focus on responding to pre-screened leads in the company’s “sweet spot” rather than spending time trying to generate leads—this let’s them play to their strengths rather than playing to their weaknesses (most sales representatives are much more effective at responding to warm leads than generating new leads)

A sales representative can engage these pre-screened prospects armed with buyer intelligence that is not available to competitors—they will have a competitive advantage that will improve their win rate

Finding New Customers from Market Research InterviewsUnique Approach Based 100% on Success Fees

Some Revenue Engines Were Weak Even Before the “Braking” Began Old weaknesses in your revenue engine didn’t get fixed during the slowdown. These weaknesses are hibernating and waiting to become failure points when your revenue engine starts to rev up again. Here are a few examples we have seen recently:

uSales and marketing believe they know why they win/lose but their beliefs are inconsistent with what new customers and lost prospects tell us

uThe sales force sells features and functions not business solutions and business value (ROI)

uCustomer segmentation is very rudimentary and therefore not helpful in optimizing resource allocation or making the best pricing decisions

uThe sales pipeline is full of old leads and low probability leads—the pipeline is unusable for revenue forecasting or evaluating the true condition of customer demand

uThe bottom 25% of the sales force lacks the skill, the will or both to be successful

uChannel partners are not adequately supported with tools and messaging to optimize their performance

To Make Things Worse, Your Customers Have Likely Changed in the Last 12 Months It seems reasonable to assume that your customers think differently than they did a year ago. Their world has changed dramatically, just like yours. When you try to power out of the curve, you need to understand what’s the same and what’s different in your primary customer markets.

uAre all customers more price sensitive or just certain segments?

uHave buying preferences and decision factors changed? Are customers expecting a different value proposition?

uHave buying decisions for your products/services been elevated to a more senior buyer within your customer’s organization?

uHas the ROI horizon contracted?

uDo customers have a different willingness to spend or different investment agenda?

uHas the perception of your company changed? The perception of competitors?

uHave competitors changed their messages, tactics, products, pricing? Is this resonating with customers?

So, how can a company tell if its revenue engine is ready to go when the time comes to power out of the curve? Based on our work with nearly 200 companies, Blue Ridge Partners has prepared the following checklist for making sure you are ready.

Who Would Benefit From This Service?Our service offering is most relevant for companies with the

following characteristics:

Selling to other businesses, not consumers

Life-time value of a single customer is high

Many potential customers in the market

The attributes that make prospective customers attractive

are not readily apparent without spending time getting

to know the company

Sales representatives in companies with these characteristics

are typically inefficient in hunting for new customers. They

tend to chase low probability leads and fail to customize their

selling messages to the unique values of each prospect. The

result?—typically an inadequate number of new customers.

What Information Regarding Prospects Does the Sales Force Need? Is the prospect unhappy with the products/services of

current suppliers? Who is the current supplier and what

does the prospect see as their strengths and weaknesses?

Do they plan to consider switching in the near term?

If there isn’t a current external supplier (e.g., services

that could be outsourced) how open is the prospect to

considering another solution?

What are the key buyer values to which a sales

representative should appeal? What key selling points will

resonate with the buyer?

What is the potential size of the opportunity? Is the

opportunity likely to be profitable given our client’s

understanding of profitability drivers?

Who are the decision makers/influencers?

What procurement process (RFP, sole source, etc.) is likely

to be used?

Why Can’t the Sales Force Learn This Information Themselves? Sales representatives hit a brick wall when searching for this

information about prospective customers for many reasons:

The necessary information is rarely available in the public

domain

Market surveys are too shallow to provide useful

information and typically are not completed by prospects

Direct calls to prospects meet with haphazard success

• blocked by gatekeepers (e.g., executive assistants)

• caller is guided to lower level, non-decision makers

• conversations tend to be guarded and superficial

A traditional sales force can rarely fully penetrate these

barriers.

So, How Can We Help? We use a novel, proprietary approach that is based on many

years of successful telephone interviews with prospective

customers. We call our proprietary approach New Customer

Generator™. We open doors that a sales force cannot.

Prospects are more willing to speak with us because we

are gathering market research rather than directly selling

anything. There are several critical elements of our approach

that make it so successful:

We always indicate that we are doing research on behalf

of a client

We always promise to send the interviewee a summary of

our aggregated findings—most interviewees find value

in this summary and believe it represents a fair trade for

their time

We always ask interviewees that fit in our client’s “sweet

spot” if they would welcome a call from our client—

without their permission, we will not provide their

information

All of our interviewers are college educated and highly

skilled. They focus totally on market research questions,

except for the question about whether they would

value a call from our client. The secret to our success is

knowing how and when to ask this question.

Our Proprietary Approach Provides More Than a Lead —We Provide Exclusive Buyer Intelligence

Not only does our process produce highly screened and qualified prospects, but it also produces rich and exclusive intelligence about prospects—their buyer values, how they rate competitors, the potential

timing of their buying interest and other information that leads to higher win rates

Companies tend to be more open and candid with a third-party—this is just human nature. Our firm has performed thousands of interviews around the world, in many different languages to provide our clients with exclusive buyer intelligence. We understand how to find the right person within a targeted company and how to ask the precise questions that will yield the desired information and insights.

Qualified Prospect Information SheetTarget Company:Opportunity Size/Scope:Opportunity Timing:Key Decision Maker &

Contact Information:Other Decision Makers/

Influencers:Current Contract Status:

Likelihood of an RFP:Likelihood of Switching

Vendor:Current Vendor and

Satisfaction Level:Dissatisfaction Points with

Current Vendor:

Key Selling Points that Will Resonate with the Buyer:

Integration Requirements:

Potential Competitors:Contact Receptivity:

Other:

Wrickland Company, Inc. (www.wrickland.com)$2.5 million in U.S. spend for annual service contract covering all U.S. locationsNear term Jane Franklin, SVP, Regional Operations; 4573 First St., Anywhere, ST USATelephone: 961-555-5555; email: jfranklin@wrickland.comJohn Beale, CFO, and Bob Kimball, COO; committee members with Franklin who will select a

new services contractorOne year contract expires at the end of 2009; company formerly had agreement with a systems

implementer prohibiting going out to bid; that prohibition has now endedCompany plans to take this business out to competitive bid in late June or early July. There is a “very good chance” that the company will switch vendors

Able Johnson Company – the company is “very disappointed” (see next section for issues). Able Johnson’s Satisfaction Rating (Net Promoter Score) is 5 out of 10• Rebates are not competitive; qualifying for them is extremely difficult – “We only get the

cash rebates if we get to 25 days to pay ABC, but we’re stuck at 32!”• Coverage is deficient in Europe and India – “Our employees have no confidence in the program “.

• Poor customer service – “I think we get treated like second class citizens because we’re not as large as some of their ‘golden accounts.’ How hard is it to give us a live account manager, or at least someone’s direct line?” • 35 day payment terms – Able Johnson requires 25 days for payment or it eliminates the

rebate that it offers• A rebate of at least 5% – Able Johnson is only offering 2%• Evidence of substantially greater coverage in France, Germany, and India

• A live, knowledgeable account representative committed to Wrickland Company and who can always be reached during normal business hours (no generic help lines!)

• A consultative partnership – “We don’t want them to just set it up and walk away. We need a partner that can help advise us on how to best manage and grow the program”

Cobalt Company – Able Johnson’s integration with this system will not prohibit a switch, but any new vendor should demonstrate compatibility with this systemAlpha, Inc., Bettis & Locke and Rollins Services were specifically mentioned by contact

• Jane Franklin is “very open” to being contacted• We specifically asked if we could passing this information along so she could be contacted/receive information, and she was strongly in favor • Ms. Franklin said that Wrickland had never formally evaluated client’s services, but she

heard good things about themNone

#50 Increasing Revenue Performance at Over 150 Hotels (cont.)

1350 Beverly Road, Suite 115 • McLean, Virginia 22101 • www.blueridgepartners.com • info@blueridgepartners.com • phone 703-448-1881

v50.2

If you aren’t seeing superior growth in profitable revenue, contact us for an actionableevaluation of your company’s revenue engine.

Tools we used to improve their revenue growth

u100 Behaviors of High Performing Revenue En-gines™ as the basis for measuring sales perfor-mance and identifying gaps between current and desired performance (see below)

u Performance standards and benchmarks to evalu-ate absolute and relative performance within and across properties and brands

u Nine Voices of the Market™ to gather data on actual sales personnel performance

u Comparative performance charts to motivate improved performance (see below)

u Periodic reports to track performance trends over time

Brand operator performance report

uOnly 28% of properties were Model Performers and 32% were very far below expectations

uAt 25% of properties, it was difficult to even make contact with a Group Sales representative

u50% of properties did not adequately handle pric-ing objections

uOnly 50% of the properties developed acceptable proposals

u 50% of the properties failed to satisfactorily follow-up on outstanding proposals - i.e., failed to make a follow up phone call to the prospective customer

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Brand 2Brand 3Brand 4Brand 5

How it Works

Our client provides a list of companies in their targeted

segments and they define the specifications for a “highly

qualified prospect”

We develop the interview questions for the telephone

interviews and get approval from our client

We identify the correct person at each company on

the list and call them requesting 10 to 15 minutes for a

market research effort being performed on behalf of an

unnamed client—we promise them a summary of our

findings in exchange for their time

We conduct the interviews and listen for dissatisfaction

with their current vendor (or willingness to consider a

new solution), their business requirements, their future

spending intentions, their perspective on different

product/service providers and other factors.

If the interviewee provides information suggesting they

might find the products/services of our client valuable,

we identify our client to the interviewee, describe

that our client might be interested in speaking with

them and ask if they would accept a call from a client

representative. If this question is asked at the right time

during the interview and in the right manner, 90% of the

time the interviewee is willing to receive such a call from

a sales representative.

If we believe the interviewee will not find the products/

services of our client valuable or if the company is not an

attractive prospect for our client, we gather our market

research data, thank them for their time and move to the

next call.

The names of prospects willing to receive a call are

provided to our client and a sales representative follows

up. The results of these follow-up activities are recorded

in the client’s lead tracking system so the impact of our

work can be quantified.

Our Fees Are Totally Success Based—Pay Only for Performance

We are so confident in our ability to generate interested and

qualified prospects that we only get compensated for our

efforts when we are successful. In this way, our compensation

is directly connected with our clients’ benefits. Our

agreements can be structured in one of three ways:

We are paid a percentage of the revenue generated

by the prospects we deliver—think of this as a sales

commission payment

Some clients prefer to pay us a predetermined amount

for each prospect that meets a set of criteria predefined

by our client

A combination of the two—small payment for each lead

produced and a percentage of the revenue generated by

our prospects

There is no risk and no set up costs. Clients pay us nothing

unless we deliver results.

Contact us if you would like to pilot

test our proprietary

New Customer Generator™

List of Potential Prospects

New Customer

Generator™

Qualified Leads Along with Buyer

Intelligence

Follow Up by Client’s

Sales Force

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