For one of our clients, a medium-sized company that produces and sells components and complex industrial solutions worldwide, a significant increase in sales and earnings was necessary after the company was carved out of a large group. There were also untapped opportunities in the sales regions and in cooperation with existing customers.
The approach
It quickly became clear during the scoping discussion for the assignment that what was needed was not the roll-out of a sales training that focused on the selling skills and product knowledge of the sales staff. In order to understand the complex challenges in more detail, the actual change facilitation was preceded by an analysis phase in which the Movendo consultants were able to experience the sales organisation through shadowing. Accordingly, we were present at meetings and coordination processes and accompanied the sales force during customer calls. On the basis of this insight into the actual complexity of the sales organisation, a change project was initiated that also did justice with this complexity.
"We have to move from being farmers to hunters!"
The change started directly with the top management. Here, in addition to the public messages for internet and intranet communication, particular attention was paid to the personal messages of the board members so they could present themselves in direct contact in a way that was authentic, personal and coordinated. This resulted in the slogan "We have to move from being farmers to hunters!" In order to support the actual change, namely to focus on new sales strategies in the future and to support it in everyday life with a new sales approach in which sales teams serve the various contact persons and decision makers at the customer, all sales executives initially became co-designers in this process. They developed the ultimate goal of the sales teams, while at the same time were trained in both the change process itself and in the future sales approach taking into account their leadership role. Therefore, the main focus was placed upon the design of target-oriented framework conditions, without having detailed control of the daily sales activities, in order to help the future sales teams to more autonomy and entrepreneurial action.
Subsequently, all sales staff worldwide were trained within 12 months. They went through a development process, which in addition to three on-site modules also included virtual interactions, individual transfer coaching and self-organized exchange with the respective colleagues. It was the responsibility of the leaders to actually carry out change in the respective organisation and to support the implementation of respective learning sequences in everyday life. In the regions of Germany, France, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and the USA, the development programmes for the approximately 200 sales staff were carried out directly by Movendo and other trainers for the organisation in Italy, Korea and China were introduced to our approach as part of a train-the-trainer process.
The feedback on the efficiency and practical orientation of the training and coaching always led to further individual measures. The positive response in the company was noticeable everywhere.
The result
As a result, the organisation is successful today because the new sales approach - to provide the customer with choices rather than to persuade them - is globally supported by the sales team and lived, because the new structure of the sales teams successfully mirrors the structure of the customer teams. This ensures a high degree of connectivity and at the same time the new sales systems and incentives also support this approach. Just as we have seen in this project, we at Movendo believe in systemic sales development that creates a framework for sales crews to work successfully to take decisions in the customer's system.
