Business Issue
The new Vice President of Sales and Marketing at a national printing company immediately saw the need for a consultative sales approach. He had implemented Wilson Learning’s The Counselor Salesperson™ with his sales team at a former employer and knew its four-step process was extremely valuable.
The new salespeople were asking for help in accelerating their territory growth by developing customer-focused solutions. Moreover, the sales team did not have a common sales language, making it challenging for this VP and his Commercial Sales Manager to coach the team on targeted account selling techniques and consultative selling skills.
The VP also saw a need to bring Customer Service Representatives and salespeople together to work more as a collaborative team.
Having implemented a targeted account selling approach on his own, the VP was looking for training that complemented this approach. He called on Wilson Learning to help his sales teams upskill their consultative selling skills.
The new VP saw the upcoming national sales meeting as a perfect opportunity to implement The Counselor Salesperson. The meeting’s two-day time constraint was proving to be a challenge for accommodating what is typically a three-day The Counselor Salesperson training experience, in addition to the time on the agenda needed for regional account reviews.
Solution
Instead of attempting to truncate three days of content and application into the two-day sales meeting, Wilson Learning and the VP creatively approached the time challenge by configuring the training around the first three steps of the Counselor Approach—Relating, Discovering, and Advocating—during the meeting. The fourth step, Supporting, would then be trained at a subsequent meeting scheduled about six months later. This six-month time span would also allow salespeople to use and develop their newly acquired Relating, Discovering, and Advocating skills.
To maximize the effectiveness of mastering these new selling skills, the VP and his Commercial Sales Manager were trained on Coaching the Counselor Salesperson™. They learned a simple but powerful coaching method and were equipped with application, support, and reinforcement tools to coach for improved performance.
The final component, Supporting, was delivered at the meeting six months later and was positioned as a way for the sales team to incorporate their Customer Service Representatives into the Supporting phase of the sale.
During the meeting, the Customer Service Representatives participated in a team building experience to build more of a collaborative relationship with the sales team.
The Customer Service Representatives were also briefed on The Counselor Salesperson problem-solving mindset and key principles so they could better support the sales team and share a common sales language.
Outcome
All members of the sales team benefited from The Counselor Salesperson training. The newer members were able to more quickly grow their territories and are now establishing themselves as top contributors for the company. The more experienced members of the team valued the training as a way to refresh and enhance their sales skills.
As strategic learning partners, Wilson Learning and the VP continue to creatively explore ways to continue to develop and grow the sales team in response to disruptive technologies and competitive pressures in the printing space.
Ultimately, the new VP’s goal is to be known as the most professional and accomplished sales team in the print industry, and he has the expertise and credibility of Wilson Learning to help him realize that goal.