Retail Industry

A small family-owned specialty retailer had been in business for many years and had developed a reputation for superior service and higher quality that allowed them to hold their own against large national discount stores. However, as the economy worsened and customers became much more price-sensitive, the owner realized that they needed to become more pro-active in highlighting the value that his company’s products and services could provide. Otherwise, sales would deteriorate if customers decided to buy based on price only.

The owner also realized that the majority of their customer interaction was done by support and delivery personnel, who did not think of themselves as sellers. As such, he decided that the entire organization needed to become more confident and competent at sales.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Peak Selling interviewed the owner and he identified the sales issues cited above.  When we learned that the majority of attendees for the sales training program were non-sellers, we next identified the skill areas of greatest need, which were questioning & listening skills, selling on value rather than price, and handling common objections.

Sales Training Solutions

Peak Selling began the process by sending a detailed Selling Skills Assessment Survey to each attendee. The assessment was used to highlight each person’s strengths and areas for improvement. In addition, the collective results helped the owner to identify the most critical skills that he needed to coach and reinforce after the sales workshop was concluded.

We designed a customized selling skills workshop to help everyone become better at interacting with customers and to follow a consistent sales process. One of the most valuable concepts from the sales training was the creation of a brainstorm list of differentiators that the employees could use to demonstrate the value and safety of their product, especially when compared to the lack of service provided by larger competitors. This list was also sent to participants as an electronic email reinforcement kit to be used as a post-workshop sales tool. 

The output of the sales training program was that everyone became much more confident in their ability to ask great questions, differentiate their company from competition, and overcome objections.

The management team felt that external customer relationships were good but that they could improve their ability to interact internally, in the hope that the entire organization would then understand the value of customer retention and growth. Because this regional cable provider competed with two prominent national cable companies, management felt that any improvements in customer interaction would differentiate them from their larger competitors.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Peak Selling interviewed several managers. The managers originally believed that our Customer Service and Support workshop would best meet their needs. However, after doing some additional assessment, we found that there also was a need for some skills and topics from our Influence Skills and Essential Selling Skills workshops.

In addition, the management team cited that two of the most important groups in the sales training workshop would be their sales professionals and installers. These two groups met with customers in person and were the employees most likely to encounter customer complaints, as well as to be in a position to identify additional sales opportunities. For this reason, these topics and skills were added to the workshop.

Sales Training Solutions

Peak Selling designed a customized sales and customer service skills workshop that used modules from the three workshops shown above. Some of the key skills and topics included how to wow customers, questioning and listening for needs and sales opportunities, managing customer expectations, and resolving difficult customer situations.

In addition, each participant completed an assessment survey that identified his or her natural strengths and areas for improvement at influencing and interacting with clients and colleagues.The output of the workshop was that the entire organization became more confident and competent at interacting with clients.