Safaricom Kenya — Kenya's largest telecommunications company — increased its sales conversion rate from 20% to 37% after attending Mihir Koltharkar's Impossible Sales programme. That is an 85% improvement in conversion, documented and verified. The product did not change. The market did not change. The pricing did not change. What changed was the system the sales team used to approach every customer conversation. This case study explains what happened, why it worked, and what it means for any sales organisation that is hitting conversion ceilings it cannot break through.
The Challenge: Talented Team, Inconsistent Results
Safaricom Kenya is not a small organisation. It operates in one of Africa's most competitive telecommunications markets, with a large, experienced sales team and significant market presence. The team was not underperforming because of a talent gap. They were underperforming because of a structure gap.
When a sales team has talented individuals producing wildly different conversion rates, the problem is almost always the same: each person has their own approach, their own way of handling objections, their own instinct about when to push and when to back off. Some instincts are good. Some are not. But none are systematically teachable, and none are consistently replicable.
What you end up with is a team that performs well on average but cannot consistently beat its ceiling — because the ceiling is set by individual variation rather than organisational system.
What the Impossible Sales Programme Delivered
The Impossible Sales programme introduced Safaricom's sales team to the CIMTA framework — a structured, sequenced approach to the sales conversation:
- C — Connect: Build rapport and establish professional credibility before any selling begins
- I — Investigate: Use structured discovery questions to understand the customer's real situation, not just their stated need
- M — Match: Match your solution specifically to what you discovered — not a generic pitch, but a targeted response
- T — Test: Test commitment before assuming the sale is close
- A — Advance: Advance the sale to the next concrete step — never end a conversation without a defined next action
Why CIMTA Works Where Other Approaches Don't
The CIMTA framework is not a script. It is a sequence — and the sequence matters enormously. Most salespeople jump directly from a brief "how are you" to pitching their product. They have skipped the Investigate phase entirely. They are matching their solution to an assumed need rather than a discovered one. This is why most pitches sound generic — because they are.
When the Safaricom team learned to spend real time in the Investigate phase — asking structured, layered questions that surfaced the customer's actual situation — their Match phase became significantly more powerful. Customers felt understood, not sold to. The conversation shifted from "let me tell you about our product" to "based on what you've told me, here is exactly how this addresses your specific situation."
The Role of Objection Handling
A second significant shift was in how the team handled objections. Before the programme, objections were experienced as resistance to be overcome — often leading to either capitulation (dropping price) or confrontation (arguing the product's merits).
The Impossible Sales programme introduced the team to the FAB framework — Features, Advantages, Benefits — combined with the understanding that objections are almost never about what they seem to be about. "It's too expensive" is almost never about the price. It is usually about unclear value, unconfirmed trust, or a misalignment between the solution and the customer's actual priority.
What African Market Sales Teams Need That Generic Training Doesn't Deliver
One of the most important aspects of this programme for the Safaricom team was that it was customised for the Kenyan market — not a generic global sales methodology imported unchanged.
B2B selling in Kenya involves relationship layers that differ from both Indian and Western norms. Decision-making timelines, the role of trust in the purchase decision, the cultural expectation around negotiation — all of these needed to be addressed within the framework rather than ignored. Mihir's experience across African, Middle Eastern, and Asian markets meant the programme reflected the realities of how deals actually close in Kenya.
Evaluate the Impossible Sales Programme for Your Team
Whether your team operates in India, Kenya, UAE, or the Philippines — the Impossible Sales framework adapts to your market and your deal type.
Explore the Programme →