Sabien Tech (LON:SNT) is to keep a close eye on its sales pipeline in the coming months as a gauge on the group’s new sales strategy.
The boiler efficiency group, which today revealed disappointing financial results, highlighted that recent changes and improvements aim to accelerate its sales process.
“Whilst the outlook looks encouraging, a key indicator of progress will be the size of the sales pipeline as we progress during the year,” the company said.
Sabien, via its new strategy, essentially plans to increase the number of customer pilot projects.
These pilots will no longer be charged for upfront, and they aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of the group’s boiler efficiency product, and show customers how much money they can save by installing the units.
Sabien intends to run up to 35 multi-site pilots this coming ‘heating season’. It represents a significant increase from last year, which saw eight, and numbers are expected to continue rising over the next five years.
This new strategy has involved bringing on additional technical and sales personnel, as well as routine development spending on the core product. The company said it expects the financial results from these investments will take at least 12 months to materialise.
In terms of Sabien’s financial results, for the twelve months to June 30, the company reported sales of £1.74mln compared with £2.14mln in 2014. It reported a loss of £570,000 for the year, versus £290,000 in the preceding year.
The sales pipeline was reported at £6.2mln, as of June 30, while the 2015 comparative was £5.8mln, and it is currently said to be around £5.5mln.
Sabien ended the financial year with £1.17mln of net cash – by September 30, it had increased to £1.3mln.
Alan O’Brien, chief executive, said: “Despite a better second half, 2015 turned out to be a disappointing year as revenue targets were missed.
“In the latter part of the year, we carried out a review of the Group's sales strategy and identified certain areas where improvements could be made which would help accelerate the sales process.”