Sales Coaching – PMC Groep

Consulting Firm Grows Client Roster by 29%

PMC Groep — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 08:10:16 +0000

Challenge

Management consulting firm, Maetrics, serves the life sciences industry—in particular, pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech manufacturing companies. The company helps its clients navigate FDA regulations and solve compliance, quality, engineering, and technology challenges.

Echoing a challenge familiar to many consulting firms, Vice President and General Manager Terry Spartz says, “We’re always busy serving our current clients and find very little time to look for new ones and prospect for new opportunities.”

Maetrics relied on a small sales force of former consultants to identify and secure new business. The typical six-to-12 month sales cycle required a sustained outbound sales process on behalf of the team. The highly regulated nature of the business, with its legal ramifications behind complying with FDA regulations, made for a complex sale and a relationship-driven business.

To meet its new business development and growth goals, the company needed to strengthen its sales process.

Solution

When Spartz and his team sought a firm to help them improve their sales process, they turned to Cosine.

Find a Training Partner That Understands Your Business

Spartz was especially attracted by the Cosine’s strength in the professional services sector. “A lot of other [sales training] companies tend to be generalists. I find that Cosine’s knowledge of professional services makes them very effective at understanding our needs and then helping us in a more focused way,” says Spartz.

Create a Shared Sales Process

Maetrics found they had greater success when the sales team was staffed by former industry consultants, as opposed to traditional salespeople. What they needed in order to boost success was a strong, shared sales process – one that would engage both the sales team and the management team.

The company decided to adopt the Cosine Selling^SM methodology to drive their sales process. To begin, Cosine’s Rainmaker Assessment provided insight into the strengths and capabilities of the existing sales team. These results helped pinpoint the areas that needed improvement so the program could be tailored to this team’s specific needs.

Deliver Custom Training to Sales and Management Teams

A two-day in-person Cosine Selling training session was held that used action-learning – including role plays and case studies – to develop sales skills and knowledge. The program was customized based on the results of the Rainmaker Assessment and extensive interviews with leaders and participants. For example, one element of the training focused on helping the team to skillfully ask questions to understand what was of value to the prospect. Once they understood that, they would be able to articulate the impact of the company’s solution.

“We went through it as an entire group including our management team,” reports Spartz, “everybody was very positive about the experience and felt like they gained some very good insight into how to sell in terms of more effectively selling a value proposition.”

Extend the Learning to Improve Results

Following the in-person training, a series of monthly lunchtime reinforcement webinars were held. These sessions, which focused on specific topics such as Leading Rainmaking Conversations, Overcoming Objections, and Nurturing Long Term Leads, gave participants a chance to share and gain feedback on their experiences using the techniques and approaches they had been introduced to during the training. Spartz says, “These lunch sessions were a good way for us to reinforce the training.”

Results

As a result of the training program, Maetrics met their objectives and increased the number of clients on its roster. Within 10 months, the company increased the number of active clients by nearly one-third and significantly increased their penetration of existing accounts, with a corresponding increase in revenue.

Moreover, the company’s sales force and management team now have greater clarity around its sales process. “Because we changed our internal sales process to match the Cosine Selling methodology,” says Spartz, “we have the added benefit of all speaking the same language and understanding what we need to do as we bring an opportunity through the selling process.”

Highlights

Client: Maetrics
Industry: Management Consulting
Services: Sales Performance Improvement Assessment, Sales Training

Management Protects and Grows Accounts

PMC Groep — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 08:04:38 +0000

Challenge

Toyota Fleet Management (TFM) aspires to transition from being a Trusted Fleet Manager to a Trusted Fleet Advisor to their customers. To achieve this, TFM identified some gaps in the knowledge and skill-sets of their Relationship Managers (RMs) that would need to be addressed. At the same time, they were concerned about recent sales trends and felt there was more that their RMs could be doing to retain and grow their customer base.

Solution

Toyota Fleet Management engaged Cosine to help their RMs become more customer-centric, strategic, and better prepared for identifying opportunities and having high-value conversations with their customers. Cosine:

Delivered a customized Key Account Management program to develop account management and sales skills
Trained sales managers in Sales Coaching to support the RMs and implement the use of account planning tools
Rolled out a Key Account Planner in the training program, allowing RMs to work on account plans directly in the program so training would transfer immediately on-the-job
Reinforced in-person training with sales performance coaching of the sales managers to ensure accountability and support during the embedding phase of the method

Results

Toyota found Cosine’s training to be well researched and insightful. Relationship Managers were given the processes and tools to find and seize opportunities to grow their customers. Using the account plan developed during the training program, within 2 weeks of completion one RM had already grown a single account by 400 vehicles under fleet management, which protects and grows the account considerably.

The Sales Coaching training is enabling sales managers to get the best out of their teams. They are regularly holding coaching and accountability sessions and they’ve seen a boost in activity following the training—both from coaches, in putting the processes in place, and from the sales team, in preparing and executing their account plans.

Highlights

Client: Toyota Fleet Management
Industry: Business Services
Services: Key Account Management, Sales Coach Training, Insight Selling

Grows Strategic Accounts by 110% Year-Over-Year

PMC Groep — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 07:55:43 +0000

Challenge

Woodard & Curran is a top-tier engineering, science, and operations company. As the firm grew and expanded the diversity of its offerings, they faced the challenge of maximizing value for clients across their full set of capabilities. They saw a great opportunity to grow accounts, but knew they needed a specific and focused effort or the promise of expanding work with existing accounts would not materialize.

Solution

Woodard & Curran engaged Cosine to help implement a strategic account management process and build strategic account management skills among their professionals and business development team. Cosine:

Analyzed professionals’ and business developers’ strengths, weaknesses, skills, and challenges in account management using the Rainmaker Assessment.
Delivered a customized Strategic Account Management Training program that taught professionals how to develop executive relationships, analyze and maximize value at their accounts, and effectively cross sell while finding and aligning key buying influences.
Rolled out a Strategic Account Planning tool, which provides an ongoing guide and system for keeping professionals focused on their opportunities.
Developed an Opportunity Management tool to be used in conjunction with the Strategic Account Planning tool to help ensure that the likelihood of winning each sales opportunity is maximized.
Reinforced in-person training with an online training curriculum and regular webinars.

Results

After implementing Cosine’s strategic account management process, Woodard & Curran saw significant growth in the named strategic accounts associated with the program. Through the recession, the 4-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of Woodard & Curran was 7% across the board. However, in the named accounts where Cosine’s strategic account management method was applied, the 4-year CAGR was a whopping 110%.

In a single account alone, sales grew from a quarter of a million dollars to $3.5 million as a direct result of implementing the strategic account plan.

The results of the strategic account management program were so strong they were featured at the Strategic Account Management Association’s (SAMA) national conference.

Highlights

Client: Woodard & Curran
Industry: Engineering
Services: Assessment, Strategic Account Management Consulting and Training

Building a Sales Manager Academy

PMC Groep — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 03:03:43 +0000

Description

For one client, elevating the coaching and leadership skills of their more than 1,000 front-line sales managers was critical. In response, we developed a more effective sales management process, then translated it into high-impact sales manager training.

Challenge

The practical challenge then became: how to bring this sales manager training to life as quickly and consistently as possible? With competitors reliant on passive virtual training, we advocated for a more powerful experiential experience that would allow hands-on practice and peer-to-peer learning. But like so many companies today, our client lacked the large corporate training center and staff needed to execute the plan

Solution

The Cosine solution relied on our nationwide partnership with eight university-based sales education centers and two-dozen business school faculty. This university hub structure minimized travel costs and time-out-of-the-field. Small cohorts of front-line sales managers were brought to one of the different campuses for three-day professional development experiences that included videotaped role-plays and moderated discussions during playback.

Feedback

Feedback on the university-based training was overwhelmingly positive. Post session assessments revealed significant improvements in sales coaching frequency and effectiveness. As a larger organizational benefit, the new training signaled to the sales organization the client’s new commitment to the front-line sales manager role. Motivation and engagement levels reached all-time highs.

Highlights

Designing and executing a large-scale residential learning experience for a massive team of front-line sales managers.

Client: Fortune 500 Industrial Products Maker
Timing: 12 months
Results: New coaching process consistently implemented; all-time high motivation and engagement levels