CR360
Size: £12m
credit360 distinguished itself as a sustainability software specialist, a leader in its’ field and selected by a strong set of global companies to manage carbon accounting and sustainability performance across their operations.
The project
Founded in 2002, CR360 was a £12m global integrated sustainability software business with a customer portfolio of almost 300 of the world’s largest corporations.
The CR360 system has more than one million users across more than 200 companies worldwide. It has proven to be a true global system that meets the environmental health & safety (EHS) and sustainability management needs of corporations. It helps major companies from multiple sectors deliver on their sustainability goals.
It was acquired by global safety science leader Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in 2016. UL provides inspection, certification, advisory and risk management services, decision-making tools, training and business intelligence to help clients solve their critical business challenges and prepare for future opportunities.
The challenge
CR360 had successfully built an enviable customer portfolio. However, there had been little focus on upselling or cross-selling deeper into the client base with other product offerings. The company was considering raising investment to finance growth, and its focus was to grow sales to existing customers. Its pricing model included license and day-rate sales, with the intent to increase recurring license income and consequent business value. However, at that time, license sales accounted for less than 30% of annual revenue.
A new business team focused on acquiring new customers, but no one was responsible for managing or growing the existing accounts other than a small customer service team. The challenge was to build and train new teams of people in Chicago, the UK and Hong Kong, capable of understanding how to engage and grow business within major global accounts.
David joined the senior management team at CR360 as the interim Client Services Director. His drive and determination to succeed were self-evident and showed in the sales results he posted. He gained the respect of those around him whilst making significant changes to the international team. David works at all levels, strategic, operational and tactical, willing to listen but also crucially willing to act to achieve results. David was a pleasure to work with every day.
Mark Shields
Chairman, CR360
The solution
We created a new induction process and training programme to speed up the effectiveness of new recruits, coupled with a module learning programme enabling account managers to demonstrate the company’s complex sustainability software solutions and modules. We also created customer user group workshops, segmented by industry, and increased sales productivity by refining customer and sales journey workflows.
Customer administration and technical support, measurable account management sales processes, sales pipeline activity and customer advocacy programmes were provided, alongside in-depth customer analysis, account segmentation and major account planning.
We delivered individual and team sales team best practice coaching workshops and implemented activity based KPIs and performance tracking, with individual sales targets, one-to-one coaching and personal development plans. Before the company’s ultimate sale, we carried out a complete sales and customer audit and negotiated a realignment of all global customer agreements.
The impact
Our solutions helped to grow CR360’s major global accounts from 200 to 300 and drive upsell revenues and recurring income from £1.5m to 4.5m, and total business sales to £12m within two years.
Within six months, we had coached, recruited and developed a competent major account management team with improved account management and sales skills. Pipeline growth was up by 81%, with a higher mix of module license recurring income sales.
After ten months, the results were very rewarding, and by Q3, we had met our annual target – up 64% on budget and up 44% year-on-year.
Growth continued strong, and by the end of the second financial year of our involvement, we had far exceeded the original expectations, more than doubling revenue and, importantly, growing license sales from 30% to 52% of revenue.
Before the company was sold to a global American corporation, we helped streamline all sales and implementation processes and harmonised all customer agreements in line with due diligence requirements.