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  1. ‘We have a good business. We are profitable. Our people are loyal and work hard. We know we can do better. I am frustrated at the lack of progress, despite all the good ideas and efforts we are not making progress as we would like. What can Qamvis do for me and my business?’
  2. Organizational Culture – what is it and why is it important?
  3. We are ready to grow the business, what will Qamvis do for us?
  4. We can’t find good people. It’s our biggest problem.
  5. How does Qamvis charge? Is it expensive? What are the rates?
  6. Our Company has been established for 12 years and we have good loyal customers. Our competitors are increasingly eating at our customer base, so we keep discounting our prices to compete. We are working harder, but not seeing commensurable profits.  Why?
  7. Recent customer satisfaction studies show our customers a very satisfied with our services. Why then do our sales people need to discount so much to win business?
  8. We are planning to launch a new product line. Can you help with a soft launch strategy and implementation?

Question

‘We have a good business. We are profitable. Our people are loyal and work hard. We know we can do better. I am frustrated at the lack of progress, despite all the good ideas and efforts we are not making progress as we would like. What can Qamvis do for me and my business?’

Answer

The most often expression heard around boardrooms is ‘what’s going on, why aren’t we making progress?’ Too often management experts have solutions to all known problems in a single phrase or trendy catch cry. At Qamvis we seek to understand the problem first, only then do we seek to find proven, most suitable and practical options for sustainable profit growth and most importantly positive improvements in shareholder value.

The most common shortcoming in most enterprises can be summarized as, ‘organizational alignment’, or perhaps better stated as organizational misalignment: The difference between good companies and great businesses is measurable in ‘minor degrees’ of misalignment of strategies to opportunities. 

Too often over simplified marketplace opportunities leads to under developed strategies which deliver poor results, and missed opportunities.

Over simplification of strategies correlates strongly with an organizations in-house skills and competencies. In other words  skipping detail, running with gut feel and lack of internal robustness breeds oversimplification – after all detail requires understanding, intellect and robust analysis.

Through Performance Management practices and capabilities reviews, Qamvis will identify key inhibitors and cultural gaps which strangle, retard and dilute full potential. Qamvis will realign the organizations vision and intent and purpose to results and performances – all within a framework of performance management. Why performance management? To ensure the organization moves ahead with real time performance gauges, results and market monitors and accurate radar warnings. 

No doubt MD’s and CEO’s have excellent insights into their operational strengths, capabilities and individual competencies. Insights are a skill: transforming them into successful initiatives is something else. Qamvis will assist in clarifying and resetting courses for success.

Question

Organizational Culture – what is it and why is it important?

Answer

What’s all the noise about? Over the past few years the term organizational culture has appeared in most management reviews. What is culture, what does it means and is it important? When do you have it, and what makes good culture and poor culture?

Culture and its relationship to the business model, performance management systems, profits and the organizations motivations is key to long term sustainable success.

Over recent years high frequency catchphrases such as entrepreneurial sprit, innovation and cost management have over run management agendas. Whilst they are important they are none more important than enterprise culture.  Culture drives the doing of business. Culture channels the business focus of thought, expectations and participation. Culture nurtures and guides performances through individual obligations, responsibilities and expected contributions.

Culture is the adhesive that locks the enterprise framework together.  Its’ strength and effectiveness is determined by how it engages core enterprise resources – people, investment, systems and customers.

Definable culture reflects an organization’s intent and purpose and its’ values, principles are pure core intellectual property.

The culture of an organization is often expressed as ‘the way we do things around here’ and consists of largely unspoken values, norms, and behaviours that become the natural way of doing things. In this paper we won't tell you what to think, but we will inspire you to think differently about values and how it impacts your business.

Read more: Culture and its’ relationship to performance and profit growth and motivation. Qamvis paper, find it under downloads.

Question

We are ready to grow the business, what will Qamvis do for us?

Answer

Shareholder value growth is elevated when core assets such as people, processes, clients, intellectual property and technology are aligned and tuned to perform at optimum levels. The bottom line is always ‘return on deployed capital both loan and cash, resources (people and infrastructure) company focus, effort and opportunities lost – diversions form other projects. 14% on capital deployed is standard measure for a low risk business (in other words not a high risk investment such as health research, IT development and new services initiatives). ‘Are you making 14% or greater on your capital!’ asks Anne Renshaw, Qamvis Associate.

Firstly, it’s the absolute accountability of the Chief Executive to optimize the organizations inherent capabilities, harness its’ strengths and exploit all potential value creating opportunities. Shareholders demand no less of their investment, employees demand career satisfaction, growth, and security, and customers demand that their suppliers grow and add continual business value.


New growth opportunities are plentiful in most industries. New ‘ideas’ are generally free flowing in any organization, however translating them into quantifiable business initiatives is something else. Daily pressures prioritize how ideas, Customer suggestions and market intelligence are treated.  It’s common to hear from our Customers that they have little time to seriously consider new ideas or test new concepts, or plan for growth, as daily work pressures, lack of staff availability or inappropriate internal skills hinder new business development.

Qamvis methodologies follow a path of detailed yet swift pursuit of ’testing’ new growth opportunities against proven Business Development, Review, Validation & Implementation Process and Framework.

The process provides for a stepped, contained and secured process to:
  • Test the opportunity against predetermined market ‘knowns’, and market ‘wants’
  • Understand and quantify the competitive advantage
  • Identify and validate the budget(s) for technology (products and services) development and the required roadmap
  • Identify and validate key business enablers
  • Quantify and validate and test the reasons, the triggers and the compelling events ‘why this initiative is a winner’
  • Secure trial sites, secure early reference sites and customers and validate the sales penetration strategy
  • Lead internal staff skills refresher initiatives, skills enhancement programs and coaching to meet the new challenges
Qamvis specializes in working with Senior Management Teams as an outsourced, results remunerated resource centre. Our seniority, internal disciples and experience ensures our engagement is confidential, secure and conducted in a participative and communicative environment. Our Customers appreciate our constant reference to growth, rewards, human impacts, risks, shareholder rewards and appropriate (fit for purpose) processes underpinning strategies, all subject to corporate governance and risk management disciples and best practice

Question

We can’t find good people. It’s our biggest problem.

Answer

No its’ not! Sounds like the enterprise has a non effective culture. In other words don’t blame the system until we conduct a health check Retaining people, nurturing and growing them – that is everyone’s role and accountability. That’s enterprise culture. Your best sales person may be sitting right next to you! But who has the time to train them? Who will educate them and who will monitor their performances?

We—Qamvis will work alongside your key people to shape sales behaviours. Our methodologies, hands on guidance and coaching will drive sales results. Our style is to shape sales culture and trigger pride, achievement and success within the Team—self development and accountability form the platform of such change in behaviour.

  1. Qamvis will demonstrate, train and support new skills development, particularly:
  2. Prospecting for business that can be won
  3. Selling value and not price
  4. Increasing the flow of prospects into the sales funnel
  5. Filtering out the loss making opportunities
  6. Request for tender—winning major contacts
Strategic selling—winning the most prized  business and why strategy is the key factor
Saying NO to unprofitable business. But then persuading the customer to consider an alternative offer that is profitable and is win/win—get the sale at a profit (that’s what sales people are paid for!!)

Call Qamvis – we can discuss the issues over coffee, no obligations.

Question

How does Qamvis charge? Is it expensive? What are the rates?

Answer

Qamvis is a strategy, execution and performance management enterprise. We deliver our promises or no fee. We also live by the motto that without strategy you have no execution and it follows that there’s little chance of success.

A Client of Qamvis has increased its’ revenue 4 times over 4 years and has launched 4 new businesses over the same period. This Client has had 3 offers, all from public companies to acquire the business. It has re aligned its business to allow each business unit to be valued separately. This makes for easy spin off’ businesses, partial sell off and new business expansion without impacting the overall group value. The millions in increased shareholder value and operating profits are far, far in excess of the Qamvis fees charged.

Our fees are segmented into three categories.
  1. Initial and preliminary discussions to determine the scope and issues of the project; these discussions are at no cost
  2. Once the scope has been determined we then outline the course of actions, expected results and shareholder value growth quantification
  3. Our fees are linked to our value growth. The task of value growth is complex and of course can not be accomplished in a few hours or several days, but rather over a period of time. Subsequently, our fees are set, and budgeted for: no surprises. They come from increased profits only. Shareholders enjoy increased profits and increased shareholder wealth with options.

Question

Our Company has been established for 12 years and we have good loyal customers. Our competitors are increasingly eating at our customer base, so we keep discounting our prices to compete. We are working harder, but not seeing commensurable profits.  Why?

Answer

We need to firstly understand the (real) reasons behind your ‘loyal’ customer’s behaviour, secondly why your competitors believe your customers are worth winning.

The key to profitable business lies in the loyalty of customers. Whilst lost customers can be temporarily substituted by adding new customers (generally through price incentivation and through aggressive sales activities), the game of filing the customer funnel without proper sales profit processes is value destroying, expensive and morel sapping. Qamvis methodologies and sales processes focus on 5 key aspects of customer growth and loyalty:

  1. Customer retention, and more importantly retention of the ‘right customers’ that provide long life growth and value
  2. Quantifiable, value based measurement, of customers, people and partners
  3. Retention of human capital, skills and know how
  4. Sales effectiveness, including pre and post sales delivery of promises, brand appreciation and customer responsiveness
  5. Customer differentiators, including sustainable superior value delivery

Customer retention, and in particular retention of profitable growth customers is directly linked to the marketing strategy and marketing effectiveness to drive the sales function. Some key questions which may assist in better understanding the robustness of customer loyalty are:

  1. How are your customer’s feeling about you and your company? Do they feel they are understood? Do they feel they are important and treated accordingly?
  2. How often do your sales people conduct a customer review – collaboratively with the customer, management and marketers around one table to exchange views, ideas and report against promises, expectations and future developing needs? Are the respective CEO’s invited?
  3. Where is the customer sitting on the ‘customer rating’ table? Are they committed? If not how can they be encouraged to commit for the long term?
  4. What is the customers spend with you, verses your competitors? Is this ratio shifting? If so why, has the customer review process detected the competitive sensitivities?
  5. What is the customers business situation – organic growth, hold share (monopoly priority), diversification, acquisition etc
  6. Does the customer act as a reference site? Do they promote your services?

Securing a long term customer commitment has been difficult and somewhat rare in the past. Customer commitment is very different from customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is no guarantee of customer loyalty. Several studies recently have clearly indicated that whilst customers may be ‘satisfied’ they hold little loyalty:

  1. Whilst customers may be satisfied with a particular supplier they may hold little commitment, this is more so if the customer has low value expectations (Cheap prices, commodity product, me-to service)
  2. 90% of customers who defect have reported ‘satisfied’ with product/service (customers defect for many reasons, convenience, impulse, price sensitive, availability etc)
  3. Little brand visibility and experience  

When customers perceive superior service levels, they effectively seek-out customer partnerships relationships. However such status is not easily achieved particularly with a product based strategy (product based advantages are either marginally superior or are quickly replicated). For these reasons, customer partnership relationships require superior understanding of the customers business and intent, effective and open relationships and a superior insight into the customer’s value perceptions. Many organizations (more so with sales and marketing people), claim to have such status with customers, but in reality customer partnerships are not easily secured. 

Qamvis know-how, experience and performance can assist in mastering effective customer commitment strategies, orchestration of continual customer penetration improvements, customer value leadership, and sustainable ways of creating and delivering superior customer value. Such strategies will serve as the gateway for competitive superiority, customer profitability and long term customer commitment.

Question

Recent customer satisfaction studies show our customers a very satisfied with our services. Why then do our sales people need to discount so much to win business?

Answer

Customer satisfaction does not guarantee a valued relationship, only that expectations have been met.

Firstly, effective pricing and sales strategies can never compensate for poor business execution.

Price lists have lost their credibility: customers have become tougher negotiators: the price charged have lost connectivity with the value received. Subsequently, many companies have lost control of the sale price.

Three (3) key causes of price pressure are:

  1. Where no significant superior customer benefits can be demonstrated over competitors
  2. Where the product/service(s) have relative superior attributes, but marketing and management are insufficiently aware of the customers value drivers, and subsequently marginalize the value proposition
  3. Where the product/service(s) are superior, but the customer does not understand or recognize the value

Attaining customer value recognition is the fundamental role of the marketing and sales team. Pricing is actually the interface between marketing and finance. The need to find a balance between the customers’ desired price on value and the need to recover costs and earn profits is the key challenge. Customer value, and perceived customer value will ultimately determine the sale price:

  1. Value = Customer benefit divided by the price, relative to competition
  2. Benefit = The end result of doing business with us as perceived by the customer
  3. Price = Total cost to the customer, as perceived by the customer. Today this is more becoming the Total Cost of Ownership
  4. Superior Perceived Value = Customer believes the product/services are of a higher value than competing alternatives


Qamvis know-how, experience and performance can assist in mastering effective sales techniques which will balance the ‘price’ argument against value crating activities and customer pricing decisions. Qamvis know-how, experience and performance can assist with specific help re-establish a connection between the value offered and the prices finally negotiated. Moreover, Qamvis can demonstrate how to defend sales price levels, retain pricing credibility and migrate the sales behaviour from price discounting to pricing for customer value delivered.

Qamvis know-how, experience and performance can assist in mastering effective customer commitment strategies, orchestration of continual customer penetration improvements, customer value leadership, and sustainable ways of creating and delivering superior customer value. Such strategies will serve as the gateway for competitive superiority, customer profitability and long term customer commitment.

Question

We are planning to launch a new product line. Can you help with a soft launch strategy and implementation?

Answer

Yes. Soft launch is the new terminology to ‘market test’ your new initiative, but be mindful. If the concept is a customer focused initiative, then securing a customer partnership arrangement will deliver far superior outcomes than a ‘soft’ launch program.

Qamvis know-how, experience and performance can assist in mastering effective customer partnership strategies, authenticated trial sites and reference sites, and ‘hot house’ environments to ensure product/services testing accurately reflects actual market responses.

Question

We need to win this bid. We have the products, experience and know-how. The customer likes us, but we know we have some serious competition. Can you help?

Answer

Bid development, bid strategy and bid presentation is a key competency within Qamvis.

Qamvis know-how, experience and performance can assist in mastering:

  1. The bid opportunity assessment.
    • Is there a real opportunity?
    • Can we compete effectively (coming second in bids is absolutely useless with a high price)?
    • Can we win it?
    • Is it worth winning?
  2. Sales skills and resources to effectively compete at the tactical, strategic and competitive levels
  3. Sales level credibility and positioning
  4. Customer access and relationship management
  5. Go/nogo gates for effective in-house bid management
  6. Effective Bid Evaluation Review Teams
  7. Presentation and customer coverage
  8. Competitive analysis and strategy
  9. Best foot forward and closing

Qamvis can assist in providing management support and bid development process reviews and implementations. Key areas to monitor are:
Sales skills and competencies

  1. Customer relationship and penetration
  2. Market intelligence, customer preferences and competitive position
  3. Pricing processes
  4. Sales process, including bid development processes
  5. Customer segmentation and profiling
  6. Bid preparation, testing, presentation
  7. Delivery
Qamvis can assist in providing direct support and/or actual on-the-ground resources to significantly increase customer coverage and sales skills.