Sales Proformance

Increase sales, profitability, productivity, and morale ... all at once!

Audience

Edensilk's Sales Proformance Programme (the SPP) is formatted but flexible, which means it can be tailored to your particular requirements.

Participants can include all manner of customer/client facing personnel who may be known under various titles such as:

• Sales Executive
• Business Development Manager
• Account Manager
• Client Relationship Manager
• Customer Service Representative
• Sales Representative
• Territory Manager

The SPP is applicable to those focused on new business and/or repeat business.

The Programme also may include sessions especially for the managers of these people.

Approach

The SPP is based on the rationale explained in other Edensilk brochures entitled Sales Strategy, Selling Skills, Technical Sales, and Closing Closing Closing.

The SPP provides certain input for all personnel, as well as additional input specifically and exclusively for managers.

Typical Programme

A common arrangement is to run a series of workshops, each of 1.5 hours duration, conducted regularly (usually each week) at your premises (or off-site if you prefer) for groups of up to 12 persons at a time.

Limiting each workshop session to 12 participants preserves good learning dynamics.

Limiting the duration of each session to 1.5 hours maximises learning per hour and reduces interruption to regular work demands.

Weekly spacing provides time for application, to reinforce learning between sessions.

Workshop training on your site means your people are not wasting their time traveling.

Training only your people means:

1. the content and examples can be tailored to your own organisational and industry requirements and challenges, and
2. your way of selling becomes unique in itself and so gives you a competitive advantage.

A highly participative format encourages the sharing of knowledge between participants, and encourages ‘learning’ as opposed to merely ‘understanding’.

Video material, role plays, quizzes, game playing, etc is used to add variety to the content and presentation, which further assists adult learning.

Components

There is a well established body of knowledge that must be applied to most every situation in order to achieve sales.  This we refer to as the 'psychology of persuasion'.  It is the 'core component' of the SPP which not only familiarises every participant with this knowledge, but will assist participants and the organisation to apply it in every customer facing circumstance.

This 'core component' requires 10 workshop sessions, but it is only one component of the comprehensive SPP.

We will guide you in the design of your own ideal Programme by choosing from among the optional/additional components including:

• 184 page participant workbook
• Individual coaching sessions for each participant
• Extra workshop session topics
• Direct assistance from Edensilk consultants
• Group coaching sessions for managers only
• Personality profiling

For the team

The core component addresses the following 10 topics.

1. Selling or Buying? (how customers make decisions)
2. Positioning (ensuring a connection with the market and the marketing function)
3. Prospecting (getting into the game)
4. Listening (and how to make your customers need you)
5. Questioning (and setting up the sale)
6. Influencing (and competing)
7. Handling objections (and overcoming fears)
8. Closing (and negotiating for profit)
9. Implementing (and account management)
10. Programme review (and case studies)

The comprehensive participant workbook contains more detailed information and examples for each of the core topics, with a chapter on each.  It provides an excellent means of preparation, reinforcement and revision which more than doubles the retention and application of material addressed in the workshop sessions.

To further reinforce participant learning and application in the context of their particular competencies and challenges, one-on-one coaching sessions can be integrated into the programme.

Also, extra workshop session topics may be included, such as:

• Time management
• Goal setting and motivation
• Rapport building
• Telephone appointment setting
• Copy writing that sells
• Presenting effectively
• Team building

Your organisation may also or instead, wish to appoint various Edensilk consultants to complete certain tasks that require specialist skills beyond those currently available within the team, and where you do not have time to train them eg copywriting.

For managers

Those businesses that engage Edensilk to deliver at least the core component of the SPP may enrol the manager of the participants in a series of group coaching sessions specifically designed for sales managers only.

'Sales manager' is a generic term which may include the usual suspects, as well as call centre managers, customer service managers, state managers, area supervisors, team leaders, etc.  The defining characteristic of group coaching programme participants is that they are responsible for the performance of customer facing personnel under their supervision/management.  Is that you?

If so, you could join 6-10 other managers from different (non-competing) businesses who are brought together by Edensilk for half a day, once a month, for 6 or more months, to address the topics and issues that all 'sales managers' must be on top of, including:

• Sales meetings
• Strategy formulation
• Planning, budgeting, organising
• Leadership and Management
• Field management
• Change management
• Account Management and Client Service
• Recruitment, selection, hiring, induction
• Training
• Performance management, motivating, counselling, coaching, firing
• Policies, procedures, systems, measurement, reporting
• Targets and remuneration
• Team building
• Pricing, margins, discounting, negotiating, supply
• Communication (methods and media)
• Interdepartmental considerations
• Personal management (time, career, stress, balance, politics, etc)

The diversity of the group assists each participant to help, and be helped, by others.

Each group determines the priority and timing of topics by mutual agreement.  The Edensilk facilitator thus models group management behaviours, and participants may also practice chairing/facilitating roles.

A commitment to a minimum of 6 group sessions ensures some continuity of membership and benefit to all.  Accordingly, as a participant, you will be enrolled in one particular group and may not 'shuffle' around.

Group membership is managed by Edensilk based on the combination of personalities revealed in profiles conducted by psychologists at Caliper in Melbourne.

All potential group coaching participants are required to complete a personality profile assessment to verify their aptitude for their role, and their compatibility with other group members, while also pinpointing potential strengths and weakness that will assist the group facilitator and other participants to fully develop each participant's potential.

Every group participant is expected to devote at least 2 hours per week to the application of lessons learned in the group sessions to their own business situation.  This is in addition to the session times themselves.  The group facilitator and other participants will hold you accountable for action which delivers results.

And now?

The SPP requires an investment of at least $6,000+GST for the core component, and more for other components tailored to your needs.

Happily, the areas we address in this programme directly improve top line and bottom line performance, so the programme can be designed to ensure rapid payback from results, meaning the programme is effectively without cost.

If you can't afford to invest in the continuous improvement of your customer facing personnel and their managers, then you need no better reason to do so!

Call us now on 08 9271 7661 for a quick exploration of whether or how this programme could be applied profitably to your business.

If it is something else you need, we do have other configurations, or we could refer you to others that might help if we can't.

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