A National Landscaping Company Creates New Revenue Outcomes: Case Study
Meet Our Client: SiteOne Landscape Supply
SiteOne Landscape Supply serves landscape and maintenance contractors, golf courses, and municipalities around the United States and Canada. As the nation’s largest and only national wholesale distributor of landscape and irrigation supplies, it offers more than 90,000 products.
Its network of nearly 600 branches stretches across 45 states and five provinces and is powered by a team of approximately 8,000 industry experts.
Handling sales in the Colorado region is a team of 13 employees, led by an area sales manager.
Challenge: Transforming a Transactional Sales Approach
Taylor Linville, a SiteOne Landscape Supply area sales manager, has been with the company for 13 years. He transitioned into this role after working in sales and also serving as a branch manager, business development manager, and area business manager.
As he became acquainted with his new position and team, he recognized the need to level up SiteOne’s sales approach and process.
“That’s one of the reasons the company created the area sales manager position,” he explains. “Previously, not all our geographies had sales managers. Instead, we had operations managers and some salespeople, but no one was managing sales directly.”
Linville’s goal was to move away from transactional sales that generate quick, one-time deals requiring very little personalization or relationship building. He wanted to help his employees better connect with their customers and establish lasting relationships.
“We were missing lots of opportunities because we tend to jump right to quoting and bidding and talking about the products we sell,” he says. Sometimes, his salespeople felt less like advisors and more like simple order takers: When the phone rings, they answer it and fulfill the customer request on the other end of the line.
Although it’s an easy habit that many salespeople fall into, Linville knew this approach wouldn’t cultivate growth for SiteOne. And what happens if the phone stops ringing one day?
Discovery: Finding the Right Training Partner
During SiteOne’s annual Leadership Academy, area-level leaders participate in DiSC 360 Assessments to understand their own blind spots, identify how others see and recognize their behavioral and leadership styles, and learn to adapt to nurture clearer conversations.
Based on the results of the assessment, they’re paired with a leadership coach. For Linville, this coach was Revenueify’s Bob Lobascio, who provided guidance, support, and feedback.
When Linville moved into a sales-driven role, however, Lobascio mentioned that he could help Linville create the revenue outcomes he was looking for.
“I have a lot of respect for Bob and Revenueify,” says Linville. “They have lots of experience in sales and sales management. As soon as Bob mentioned DiSC to me as part of the company’s sales training, I wanted to hear more.”
Solution: Tailored Customer-Focused Selling Training
To help rev up SiteOne’s sales, Revenueify crafted a customized training program for the distributor. It targets customer-focused selling to increase revenue, closing ratio, and time efficiency by:
Establishing credibility and trust
Using active listening and creating interest
Overcoming objectives
Positioning offerings in the right way and at the right time to boost win rates
Leading discussions focused on outcomes and ROI
Closing deals quickly and efficiently
Linville started small, putting his commissioned salespeople through the program first. But, as the sales team grows and changes, he decided to put all his direct reports through Revenueify’s training, including inside sales and sales support.
“I wanted all my team members to have a DiSC Sales Profile and at least get through the basics of customer-focused selling so they can be more effective at their jobs,” he explains. “It helps them better understand themselves and our customers.”
As SiteOne continues to expand and acquire companies, adding new responsibilities and new accounts to salespeople’s plates, Linville hopes to see the training permeate throughout the entire company.
For his sales team, the biggest takeaway from the training is the ability to recognize and adapt to different behavioral and personality styles. Whether they’re calling on a new customer or someone they’ve known for years, they now have the ability to recognize communication and performance preferences and alter their approach to better match those preferences.
“It’s been a gamechanger in terms of their presentation styles, how they approach customers, and their selling efforts,” says Linville. “They’ve learned actionable strategies they can put into use right away.” The time-check question is one example; he sees his employees asking this question during internal conversations as well (“Did I catch you at a good time?”).
Linville says his team notices the training’s impact as well. For example, one of his salespeople shared recently that he was in the midst of a conversation with a customer who was more of an S (steadiness) or C (conscientiousness) style, so he slowed the conversation down, discussed details, and landed some business as a result of the ability to adapt.
Results: Training with Noticeable ROI
“From a financial perspective, I know this training is a good investment—hands down,” says Linville. “I can see the results in what our team has pursued. We’ve been able to close business that’s attributable to the investment we’ve made.”
He says Revenueify has gone out of its way to continue to learn about and understand SiteOne, understanding the company’s goals and where they are on their sales journey. This allows training to be customized to fit the business.
“This isn’t a textbook-based sales training class,” explains Linville. “It’s sales for SiteOne. I appreciate that, and my people really appreciate it, too. We have a trainer that understands SiteOne, not someone who would give the same advice to whoever they were talking to.”