This U.S. Based Banking Firm Achieved 33% Loan Volume Growth with a Consultative Sales Approach and Interpersonal Versatility

The Importance of Management Involvement
In a traditional, hierarchical organization, it was not the norm for sales leadership to “sit through” training. This company’s deployment strategy was to involve senior and mid-level managers in the training alongside the reps. This not only signaled the initiative’s importance, but also built leaders’ capacity to execute the sales process and, more importantly, coach and reinforce it.

“We now have tools that help us assess where our account executives are in the sales process and what we need to do to advance the sales cycle. Management involvement is really the key to keep it going,” expressed the VP of Sales.

Wilson Learning research clearly shows the impact that coaching has on performance improvement. We found that when managers receive a combination of new coaching skills and training in the skills their employees learned, performance improves by 32–55% or, on average, 41%.

The Power of Creating an Inclusive Learning Culture
The salesforce, including managers and support staff, also completed The Versatile Salesperson™ program. People who work closely with the salespeople, including training, customer database management, and product development, attended as well.

“What we attempted to do with The Versatile Salesperson™, in addition to teaching employees how to work with different types of customers and recognize different styles, was to get them to start thinking about value instead of price,” explained the VP of Sales. “We are also giving them better training on what our products and services can do, how they interact, and how they impact customers so that we’re able to show value to customers and overcome the price argument.”