Business Issue
A global industrial engineering company set the target to achieve an above-market growth rate every year, yet recognized they had not invested in sales development for many years. As a result, the organization’s salesforce lacked structure and needed to gain a stronger skill set for the organization to differentiate from the competition and win new business. It was essential for product-savvy salespeople to shift to a customer-focused problem-solving sales approach and develop versatile communication skills, while sales leaders needed to drive the sales team to improved performance levels to meet the organization’s increased revenue targets.
Solution Summary
Working closely with the organization, Wilson Learning implemented targeted salesperson and sales leader learning journeys designed to embed desired behavioral changes and reach the organization’s goals. The salesforce benefited from a common consultative sales methodology and versatile communication skills that strengthened their abilities to work with their customers’ key decision-makers and solve business problems. Sales leaders acquired coaching and leadership skills specific to reinforcing the methodology.
Outcomes
- As stated by a regional sales manager, “Our sales team is multi-location, multi-language, and multicultural! It was impossible to aim for organizational excellence without a framework for developing people individually and as a team.”
- Double-digit revenue growth was attributed to The Counselor Salesperson™.
- The organization realized an increase in sales profitability along with a decrease in cost of sales.
- Salespeople better qualified opportunities and focused on winning the right business for long-term profitability.
- The cost of the sales development program was recovered within three months.
- Salespeople gained sales methodology tools for immediate on-the-job use.