Major global steel company (European division)

Challenge
Following a successful project in partnership with a major consultancy firm, this multinational steel company requested follow-on work to implement sales capabilities and improve mindsets among their 65-strong European sales directors and managers, headquartered in eastern Europe. The key challenges were around sales dialogues, price negotiations, presentation skills, and the ability to give feedback and coach others. A key requirement was also for us to train a local coaching company to share the training across the organisation in Slovakian. We worked together with Hendrik Backerra.

Program
We designed a base camp program within 2 weeks of being commissioned. This program included two 2-day workshops, a half-day follow-up workshop, and coaching 10 selected participants. The materials included facilitator notes, participant workbooks, handouts, laminated guides for sales personnel to keep at their desks, wall posters, and a pocket “best seller guide”. Each workshop was with 30–35 participants.

Results
In the weeks and months after the training, sales managers reported increased effectiveness through the use of the questioning techniques in the training. Several reported closing new contracts as a result. The sales directors realized the importance of coaching others, to enable best performance from them. In addition to sales capabilities, there has been a shift in the team’s mindset: from being driven by others to having the energy and adaptability to drive effort themselves, and from always wanting control – wanting to beat the customer - to valuing effective two-way dialogue – being interested in the views of their customers.