Case Study

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Business Issue

This global giant of chemical industry-leading products faced increasingly fierce competition in their top accounts. Cheaper competitors with less advanced products were threatening the industry leaders’ wallet share, prompting a strategic reassessment.

The company equipped worldwide sales teams with skills and tools to execute account plans and developed themselves from in-house templates. Most importantly, the salespeople needed to know how to identify and address genuine business problems by adopting a problem-solving mindset shift supported by trust-building and other consultative tools.

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Industry Manufacturing

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Category Sales

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Product Counselor

Solution Summary

In response to the challenge, the company partnered with Wilson Learning to implement the Counselor Salesperson program to support the company’s account planning strategy in both the Advanced Oil Production (AOP) and Mining divisions. The program was translated into Russian, Chinese, and Spanish to reach 150 employees worldwide through instructor-led workshops and ongoing digital reinforcement with manager coaching.

The company encouraged Champions, employees who adapted quickly to the program, to mentor other salespeople in applying the skills to their important accounts.

In the Oilfield division, the learning strategy focused on maximizing content relevance to clearly link sales tools to the building of profitable relationships higher and wider in key accounts. Through customization, salespeople learned how to apply tools in their specific environment, and how to integrate their incumbent communication model and CRM for additional gains in sales performance.

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Outcomes

The group of participants reported:

AOP attributed a min 30% approx. USD 9 million, to the CSP training for a recently accomplished deal.

A price-rise negotiation attributed an increase of AU $200 K per annum to the program’s empathy tool.

Behaviors that showed the greatest level of change:-

Participants were able to:

  • identify customer concerns and priorities.
  • use questioning techniques to understand personal and task-related motives of contacts.
  • engage in multi-level selling to address various levels of seniority.
  • address concerns and turn tense situations into positive outcomes.

The group was able to facilitate and secure agreements with their accounts on mutually satisfying terms

Quote

“I firmly believe CSP [Counselor Salesperson] gave us the tools to keep the conversation going, to ask the right questions, to connect the needed dots, and to refine our internal and external strategies.”

- Global Market Development Manager, AOP
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