Hanzo
Hanzo was founded in 2009 as a project of the British Library to record the web forever — a daunting task. At the time, the only options were screen captures, PDFs or text pulls. Hanzo developed sophisticated, enterprise-class technology to natively capture and instantly replay complex websites and dynamic social media posts. The Hanzo solution empowers law firms and corporations with legally defensible collections of dynamic data for eDiscovery purposes and enables global enterprises to meet requirements from regulatory agencies — including the SEC and FINRA — in the US and abroad.
Results at a glance
- Qualification became 2x faster
- Time to close decreased by 50%
- Tenured reps exceeding previous year by as much as 350%
The Challenge
The company has enjoyed a near 100% retention rate with its Fortune 100 customers, which is a testament to the product, team and customer feedback. But loose qualification and long sales cycles created an inconsistent revenue engine. To meet aggressive growth goals, the Board tapped one of its own, Keith Laska, to set Hanzo up with a platform for long-term commercial success.
Keith saw an inherent lack of process and sales methodology, which led to the pursuit of opportunities that fizzled out at the 11th hour or became stuck in the “no decision” quagmire.
Keith knew adopting one process would make the team more productive. He narrowed his criteria: heavy on upfront qualification, solving a customer’s real problems, and focus on customer ROI. The answer: ValueSelling.
Business issues
- Build a consistent revenue engine to meet aggressive growth goals
- Shorten long sales cycles and reduce “no decision” outcomes
- Improve forecast accuracy through tighter upfront qualification
You can wait 20 years for a salesperson to gain the experience or you can accelerate the knowledge and sales skills of your team by implementing a methodology like ValueSelling.
The Solution
An Intelligent Approach
For close alignment, Keith invited the sales and marketing teams to participate in customized ValueSelling Framework® training. Together, they learned a common language focused on customer value. The framework provided a way for the blend of experienced and new team members to deliver a seamless customer experience, from marketing materials and sales conversations to account management and customer support.
Immediately, Keith witnessed better qualification of opportunities, stronger product differentiation, and more creativity in solving real customer problems. To ensure adoption, Hanzo provides continual ValueSelling reinforcement.
In Line with the Culture
According to Keith, “We have a fantastic and unique corporate culture that mixes the best of American and British values: creative, collegial and trusting of one another. One of our core tenets is to measure twice before cutting. Our approach is to be strategic and create replicable processes to deliver real value for our loyal and growing customer base. ValueSelling fits in with our ethos.”
“Enterprise conversations are fluid. That high-level dialogue comes naturally for someone who has been involved in enterprise sales for 25 years. ValueSelling turns two years of learning into six months.”
The Results
As part of an internal initiative to streamline processes in CRM, SFA, pricing and packaging, Hanzo implemented the ValueSelling Framework methodology in early 2018, with refresher workshops throughout the year. The results are exciting:
- Qualification became 2x faster
- Time to close decreased by 50%
- Newest team members (onboarded in 2018) are on track to hit full quotas
- Tenured reps exceeded 2017 production by as much as 350%
“After completing ValueSelling training, our customers have told us that we are ‘the most professional company, with the highest quality product they’ve worked with in years.’ I agree. Our customer feedback just confirms that we’re on the right path in choosing ValueSelling,” added Keith.
Hanzo’s workforce continues to expand. With more employees on both sides of the Atlantic, Hanzo stays committed to processes that ensure faster sales productivity. As Keith puts it, “Programs that ultimately make our customers, employees and company happier are ones that we want to continue using.”
