CASE STUDY: ARIZONA COLOR

  • The Whale Hunters Services: Fundamentals Workshop, Chapter Membership
  • Industry:  Vehicle Wraps and Graphics
  • Employees:  Eight
  • Goal: To land their first national account

 

McClure vehicleTHE CHALLENGE:

As local competition heated up, the CEO of Arizona Color, Jim McClure, found his company with a long list of small customers that it was fighting to keep. He knew they were capable of handling more business, larger accounts and large sales, but had no idea how to go about finding the right customers, how to approach the sales process differently, or how to transform the company into a “think big, act different” kind of culture.

THE OPPORTUNITY:

After attending The Whale Hunters Executive Chapter program, Jim began to define more clearly the ideal customer target that could put them on an entirely new growth track. Through a Whale Hunters chapter connection, Jim was introduced to executives from Baskin Robbins® corporate offices…an ideal target for his company. With some preparation, Jim successfully secured a coveted 5-minute vendor presentation at the upcoming Baskin Robbins Annual Franchisee gathering. But that turned out to be the easy part. His next big challenge: how to sell Arizona Color in only five minutes.

THE SOLUTION:

The time and day was set for his big pitch. The preparation work began. Historically, Jim would deliver a brief set of slides on the benefits of working with Arizona Color. But given everything he learned through The Whale Hunters program, Jim realized this was a crucial opportunity, so without hesitation he turned to his chapter for coaching. The group immediately conducted a powerful brainstorming session that completely transformed his approach, pitch, and mindset. Armed with an entirely new strategy for large sales, Jim was confident he would be able to win the Baskin Robbins business.

THE RESULTS:

By employing the strategic advice from his chapter peers, Jim’s five-minute slot turned into 25 minutes. Question after question came in from the audience, and attendees were excited about the possibilities of promoting their locations using Arizona Color’s services. Not long after the gathering, Jim successfully closed a test market project to handle Baskin Robbins vehicle wraps and graphics for the State of Arizona. Better yet, he was perfectly positioned to win the national business after positive results were in from the Arizona program. Beyond winning their first whale, Arizona Color learned some invaluable lessons through the Fundamentals program and their peer coaching experience with the chapter. Not only has the teamwork improved and the entire company is now closely involved in the sales process, they also learned how to deliberately find more whales, specifically what the whales look for when hiring a smaller company, and how to look large and professional enough to land large sales and win the deal.