Igniting a Growth Mindset at Outcomes Star

How Ethical Sales helped Outcomes Star build a growth mindset and shift towards a culture of commercial business development.

Client: Outcomes Star | Industry: Public Sector, Health & Social Care (Training & Development Consultancy)

Services Provided: Catalyst & Ignite Growth Consultancy | Ethical Sales Academy

Key Highlights:

  • Empowered team members to take ownership of business development and account management, leading to improved commercial confidence and outcomes.
  • Embedded a growth mindset through training, coaching and strategic input.
  • Developed customer retention and account growth processes.

The Challenge

Outcomes Star, a leading provider of outcomes measurement tools and training used across children, family, housing, work and social care, recognised the need to evolve its commercial approach to meet ambitious growth and impact targets. With strong values and a deep commitment to its client base, the team faced several challenges that risked limiting growth:

  • A fragmented approach to account growth and retention across teams. 
  • Limited internal resources or confidence in proactive business development. 
  • Lack of an established sales and marketing strategy to support organisational growth. 
  • A strong desire to embed a commercial growth mindset across the team without compromising their organisational values and service-driven approach to Outcomes Star clients.

The Solution

After an initial Catalyst review and roadmap project to agree priorities, it was agreed that the Outcomes Star team would benefit from ongoing strategic input, training and consultancy support to turn intention into action. Corinne Thomas joined the team as a trusted partner to deliver on these objectives.

This proposed work included:

  • Strategic consultancy on a range of commercial priorities from customer retention to account growth and organisational marketing strategy. 
  • Team enablement and training to improve commercial skills, such as using LinkedIn for business development, plus account growth and management strategies. 
  • Creation of new frameworks and processes to maximise the commercial potential of the whole customer lifecycle, from initial enquiry to licence renewal.
  • Ongoing coaching and support of the Services Director and two internal Working Groups to embed a growth culture in the organisation. 

Implementation

The delivery of our intensive Ignite Growth Consultancy includes strategic advisory, tactical input and training delivery. Here are a few examples during the six-month engagement:

  • Presenting at the Outcomes Star Team Away Day in London. To build relationships and kick off the project, including a keynote session on building an organisational growth mindset.
  • Delivery of bespoke training. Including sessions on LinkedIn business development and account growth strategies using real client examples to build internal capability. The Services Team signed up for the Ethical Sales Academy for ongoing sales training and development. 
  • Contributing to multiple working groups. To create new customer success frameworks from the initial buyer journey to account growth & renewal.
  • Advising on sales and marketing process improvements. Including input on discovery emails, pricing models, forecast reports and campaign planning. 
  • Creating a targeted lead list and messaging framework. To support the Client Services team in proactively approaching organisations that would benefit from Outcomes Star services. 

Results

Outcomes Star is now equipped with the tools, templates and talent to take a more strategic approach to growth. Here are some highlights:

  • A trained and engaged team: over 20 team members actively engaged in professional development through the Academy for six months, reporting increased sales skills from using LinkedIn for business development to strategic account management processes. 
  • Improved commercial processes: the buyer journey and customer success frameworks are in use across the Services Team and are in the process of being embedded into team members’ roles.
  • A cultural shift: the project catalysed conversations about commercial ownership, accountability and role evolution across the whole organisation, ensuring that it is set up for future success and can achieve set growth targets.

Looking Ahead

Having recently launched their refreshed brand and website, the Outcomes Star team is now poised for growth and ready to deliver lasting impact to organisations that need to establish a person-centred outcomes measurement tool to enhance their services.

Several members of the team are continuing their learning in the Ethical Sales Academy, benefiting from monthly live masterclasses on popular sales and business development challenges. 

Does your social impact organisation need to build a commercial growth strategy and mindset in your team? Book a consultation call with us to get started.

"I was nervous meeting Corinne for the first time and a little embarrassed to share our lack of experience thinking about growth proactively. Corinne didn’t make me feel judged. She listened and quickly understood our history, culture and the journey we were on. She found a level of support that felt comfortable, was keen to be part of the team, helped us navigate some barriers and did a lot of the heavy lifting when I didn't have capacity. I am so grateful for her insight, and her confidence rubbed off on us. I feel we can be proud of what we offer and aspire for growth. We still hold our values as an employee-owned social enterprise and are ambitious to help more services and practitioners because we know we can."
Marie Buss, Services Director, Outcomes Star