Business Issue
A global supplier of building solutions to worldwide residential, commercial, and industrial construction sectors experienced rapid growth through acquisitions and diversification. As a result, the company’s sales professionals brought a myriad of different experiences and approaches to selling. It was imperative that the entirety of the global salesforce use a consistent sales language and methodology to gain customer trust and cooperation in sharing critical information required to solve their business problems and add value.
The company selected Wilson Learning’s The Counselor Salesperson™ as its selling methodology and Coaching the Counselor Salesperson™ to support leaders in reinforcing the specific sales skills of the methodology. The initiative launched in North America, rolling out two-day The Counselor Salesperson live classroom trainings and one-day Coaching the Counselor Salesperson live training sessions for sales leaders, followed by reinforcement and coaching activities.
Executive engagement was clear—the president of the residential division kicked off each workshop, endorsing the strategic priority and importance of the training initiative.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing the salesforce to shelter at home and the organization to search for a viable alternative solution to in-person training.
Solution
Management understood that in order to achieve organizational growth goals and ensure strong and ongoing competitiveness, it needed the full engagement of its salesforce and sales leaders. Top-down messaging and support for the sales and coaching training built early momentum and success. This momentum needed to be maintained during the training’s global deployment in the midst of COVID-19.
Through Wilson Learning’s agility and delivery flexibility approach, salespeople and sales leaders continued to receive training through Wilson Learning’s virtual versions of the learning solutions. Knowing the importance of high engagement, the virtual classroom engaged participants’ energy and attention with infused interactivities. Facilitators skillfully utilized tools, such as polling, chat, and Q&A, and provided frequent application opportunities using small-group breakout rooms, dialogue partners, and screen-sharing tools. Just like in-person training, virtual application exercises focused on real-world sales situations, making them highly relevant and immediately applicable.
Participants noted the benefits virtual training provided for collaborating with their global colleagues. They worked through real-world sales situations, learned from differing perspectives and experiences, and discovered new ways to work together.
Both in-person and virtual modality options adhered to sound principles of learning transfer, with skill practice and coaching key to sustained sales performance improvement.
Outcome
Data from Wilson Learning’s Impact Evaluation survey, administered to salespeople, detailed the dramatic performance improvement achieved:
- The sales team attributed a 21% growth in revenue to the new sales methodology.
- 88% agreed that they “are able to establish a greater level of trust with clients faster.”
- 88% agreed that their “client discovery is more accurate and complete.”
- 86% agreed that they are “better prepared to address clients’ issues and questions.”
Participants also commented on their appreciation for the highly collaborative nature of virtual learning.
Throughout the process, sales leaders gained added visibility with the virtual platform and used the opportunity to endorse the success realized from the training initiative, reporting an increase in demand for products and services across divisions.
