ServiceMaster by Stratos: Aligning Customers with Culture & Strategy Creates a Faster Pipeline to Success

Here’s what CEO Stacy McCall has to say about working with Sauce:

Transcript:

What made you reach out to Team Sauce and what made Shawn the right choice to help your team #GrowSmarter?

[00:11] So, it was nice to have someone that could listen, that actually valued the intuitive piece of the equation, but then could take it and make it real information so that when my salesperson would say, well, I think we need to do this, it wasn't just been there, done that. It was, here's the data, here's the learnings from someone that has been in the field for years....

Summary

Bold business moves need a bold strategy, and that’s exactly why Stacy McCall of ServiceMaster by Stratos engaged Team Sauce. Beginning with a go-to-market strategy, Sauce built a strong Sales Playbook, creating a foundation for training an Operations member to tackle a new role in Business Development. With the right mix of strategy, talent, skills, and coaching, Sauce is helping the SMBS Team launch their first successful sales program and expand that success to the rest of the organization.

Introduction

The janitorial cleaning industry is very competitive, thus driving low margins. High turnover is common, along with minimal or inadequate training, and generally low morale. Stacy McCall and her team at ServiceMaster by Stratos saw an opportunity to change the status quo, making a real difference in the local community, the MidSouth business community, and most importantly, in the lives of their janitorial staff, whom they refer to as Service Partners.

In 2022, after ending a longstanding client engagement and reflecting on their next steps, Stacy and the SBMS team made the radical decision to double down on their investment in their people. Not only did they commit to paying all Service Partners a living wage, they also provided training, benefits, life coaching services, and a take-what-you-need general store. 

Purposely increasing your labor rates in a highly competitive industry? That’s a bold decision! In order to succeed, the SBMS team knew they would need to put in the work to attract like-minded clients who understood and bought into their mission. The team couldn’t be sure how the marketplace would receive their message, but by keeping their Core Values at the forefront and leading with purpose and conviction, they had confidence they were on the right track. 

Stacy knew she needed a strategic plan and a top-notch Storyteller.

Systems That Scale

Problem: 

Prior to 2022, ServiceMaster by Stratos had grown organically. Like all successful businesses, it was heavily relationship-driven by the founders and owners. Though they had previously hired a dedicated salesperson and attempted to expand new business development, without strategy, direct oversight, and the right team member in place, those prior sales efforts did not result in the new business gains they sought. 

Add a major pivot like purposely increasing the labor rates of your team members, and SMBS had a big challenge on their hands to develop new business and expand into specific vertical markets.

Plan:

ServiceMaster by Stratos engaged with us to help them build a Sales Playbook, focusing on a strategy to pursue and win key vertical markets. Selling into these verticals while competing against other firms with thin margins and lower labor costs wouldn’t be easy, but the new SMBS Sales Playbook provided a solid strategy and proven sales systems to consistently execute, guiding their new business development efforts to success.

Build: 

After assessing the existing client mix, market opportunities, and strategic advantages, Sauce Partner and Chief Revenue Officer, Shawn Karol Sandy, created a go-to-market strategy for the outbound sales team to reach, compel, and convert customers in the key verticals of post-construction work and healthcare. 

With multiple target industries, the go-to-market strategy requires a healthy mix of pipeline lead sources: client and industry referrals, networking, cold calling, industry-specific databases, and a team of Service Partners who are also committed to keeping happy customers and identifying additional growth opportunities with existing customers.

Fortify: 

ServiceMaster by Stratos has become an exception to typical janitorial businesses. By providing a full swathe of resources to team members and increasing their pay to a living wage threshold, ServiceMaster by Stratos is able to retain Service Partners longer, increase their training and skill sets to provide better, more thorough cleaning to clients, and reduce turnover, thus building stronger relationships with clients and decreasing churn.

This differentiator—investing in their people—became a cornerstone for seeking out new clients who would be a good fit with SMBS values and appreciate the improved results the SMBS Service Partners provide. 

With a documented strategy and execution plan creating consistent outbound sales efforts, the SMBS sales team member was able to break through competitive noise to get to the table with highly qualified prospects and have a conversation about their key differentiator.

The final piece was leveraging a CRM to understand the results of the sales efforts, use the data to refine the sales process, and be able to have a view into the sales program. This insight allows for forecasting and reporting to the entire organization, helping everyone understand and visualize their roles in revenue growth.

Training That Transforms

Problem: 

Previous sales hires had a steep learning curve to break into the world of janitorial cleaning services. From scoping and pricing the work to building a network of ideal prospect connections, the ramp time proved insurmountable for previous sales hires to be able to learn and absorb decades of industry knowledge to grow sales. 

With their pivot, the SMBS leaders also looked at a new angle to solving their business development challenges, turning to a seasoned healthcare operations professional with excellent organization and communication skills and tapped him for the business development role. 

Having never held a sales role, the team member was up for the challenge and Stacy knew just how to prepare him for that challenge.

Plan: 

Engaging with Shawn Karol Sandy of Team Sauce to onboard their new—and only—sales team member was a natural step after building the Sales Playbook. 

Once moved into the sales role, Shawn began immersing the new salesperson in selling skills that complemented his natural communication and organizational skills. Each week they work on building foundational sales disciplines backed by science and data. These proven business development methods include real-world prospecting cadences, pushback, and challenge training, and leveraging LinkedIn and video for prospecting and sales meetings.

Build: 

After a brief initial ramp-up with Skills Builder sessions, Shawn worked with Superstar Seller-in-training Chris to build prospect lists, messaging cadences and micro-campaigns to maximize his outbound sales efforts while expanding his personal network of prospects. 

Weekly sales coaching meetings provide incremental training opportunities and oversight to help this new seller progress and advance opportunities. 

Feedback and experience are integral to coaching, and having a sounding board that’s solely dedicated to sales efforts and results is critical to any salesperson’s success. 

A great student is also key, and Chris dove right in—taking each challenge and weekly request in stride to grow beyond his comfort zone. 

When we pitched the idea that the goal for new business should be at least $1M for the next year, all eyeballs got very big in surprise.

A growth-minded team member + strong strategy + skills + consistent execution = setting a lofty goal for Stratos’ new business development results. 

Confident in the proven strategies and seeing exceptional promise in their new seller, everyone agreed that the $1M quota was going to be the goal for the next year in new business revenue.

Fortify: 

In nine months, Chris has built his pipeline up to over $1.6M, achieved $240K in new business for Q1 of 2023 (with a 54% close rate), and is well on his way to reaching the $1M quota that seemed like a tall mountain to climb when first presented to him. In addition, growth from first engagement in new business is averaging over 23% in 2024 and referrals for new business are steady at 25%.

At Sauce, we’re firm believers that every member of your organization should be on the lookout for business development opportunities. To support this mentality and increase revenue, margin, and customer retention along the way, we suggested expanding our Skills Builder sessions to the entire ServiceMaster by Stratos management team. 

Dubbed “Snack-Sized Skills Training” by creator Shawn Karol Sandy, this training brings science-backed learning to the monthly SMBS leadership and supervisor meeting, where we discuss and practice how team members can improve communication, recognize, and advance opportunities with customers and Service Partners alike.

Keeping the sessions short and highly focused each month creates bite-sized lessons to apply and practice. Some team members were naturally reluctant to participate and share at first, but as the months have passed and they are seeing positive results with conversations, new Service Partner onboarding/training, and customer satisfaction, the Supervisors are participating and offering insights with more confidence in each session. Proof that services and delivery team are powerful members of your business development team - with a concentrated campaign, the ServiceMaster by Stratos reviews campaign tripled their Google reviews within just 3 weeks.

This sales skills jumpstart has their flywheel spinning, resulting in increased sales, improved team member retention, and more loyal customers who are delighted to support ServiceMaster by Stratos’ ambitious mission.