A personal approach to training and a solid sales process: a real game changer
Problem
Analysis & diagnosis
- The sales process needed to be thoroughly reviewed and completely overhauled to align it with the company's objectives and strategy.
- Until now, in-house training had been company-centric and technically focused on product specifications, not customers.
- The solution: to offer our sales staff an intensive, tailor-made, personal and customer-focused training session.
Challenges and objectives
Finding the right partner, as most of the offerings available on the market focus on existing methodologies and generic approaches. This was not what we needed.
Select the right trainer with business acumen and being a former executive, with the energy and presence/authority to challenge our team members individually so that we could successfully transfer a strategic approach AND a pragmatic process implementation to get everyone up and running.
Results
Beyond the excellent, solid process that each salesperson now deploys consistently as part of a group self-assessment approach, this training really united our team, making it a very rewarding experience.
We then held small training meetings where we practiced handling objections and asserting our credibility, which helped to strengthen the bonds within the team.
I’m already getting feedback from the reps, like oh I did that, and it really worked, so they also have a lot more confidence in their own abilities.
And I think it’s also about highlighting individual strengths and weaknesses and knowing that, you know, sometimes we think everyone should be the same, or do everything the same way. But looking at the individuals, what motivates them and what they need to work on, I think that’s a really unique aspect that we know in the team.
Performance and efficiency have already improved considerably. We now expect to see a significant and lasting impact on sales results.
Key success factors
- Trainer Elizabeth's personality, openness, coaching skills and professionalism.
- The targets and objectives set by Getinge
- The process used with 121 sessions before the training session, the sales process, the examples used, the face-to-face sessions after the session to adjust deployment individually.
Conclusion
Would I do it again? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. Yes, I think we’d have you back every month if we could Elizabeth. I think everyone learned a lot, it was a truly transformative experience. I think we’ll be referring to it for a long time to come. And we’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Elizabeth Thomas interview with Dr. Fiona Taylor, Bioreactor Sales Specialist, Life Sciences, Getinge Applikon.
