The slow economy had caused a decline in the construction and development of several pending major business projects, but the upper management team decided to use the slowdown as an opportunity to maximize revenue from their existing developments and assets.
Sales Training Needs Assessment
Peak Selling consulted with the Vice President of Sales to learn as much as possible about the business development issues cited above. He advised that the entire upper management team, excluding himself, did not have enough sales and marketing experience, yet they were the ones who would lead the sales effort for their respective business units. We scheduled a follow-up call with the President of the company, and he confirmed what the VP, Sales had reported. He captured their business development challenge in one phrase, namely that "…these are different times, and now we have to maximize the return of our current assets.”
Sales Training Solution
Based on the needs assessment, Peak Selling customized a Sales Prospecting and Business Development program that blended some basic and advanced selling skills. One of the key topics in the sales seminar was how to identify the best new sales opportunities. Upper management supported this action, and was flexible enough to target some new market and client segments. However, to win these new sales required that their entire staff be taught how to sell and generate new leads. In order to do this in the most cost-effective way, a Peak Selling principal taught the initial selling skills program to the upper management team, after which these upper managers then taught the selling skills and key concepts to their respective employees. The total expense was about 20% of what it otherwise would have cost them to have an outside instructor teach all their employees.
Additional training materials available for managers through our Coaching Kit product line, specifically Elevator Speeches, Questioning Skills and Pre-Call Planning kits.