Case Study

MULTIPLE SALES CHANNELS*

An organization focused on the high school and college education markets, with separate sales channels for distinct product categories including:

• In-school photography

• Graduation products and class rings

• Yearbooks

The business had separate management, sales, training and marketing support for each channel even though they were often operating in the same accounts (schools). This created confusion with customers, inefficiency, and new account sales efforts were not integrated, which limited the ability for cross-channel leveraging of resources to gain new business

Each sales channel operated in a "silo" with minimal communication or cooperation between channels. Senior leadership had developed a strategic plan which required the channels to develop an integrated approach to new account acquisition, and a national sales meeting had been scheduled to announce this strategy.

In preparation for this meeting, all salespeople for each channel completed the Professional Selling SkillMap assessment. Aggregate group results showed the following broad differences between the three sales channels:

• In-school Photography channel showed solid strength in time management, territory management and presenting benefits. Significant weakness in asking strategic questions, gaining commitment and overcoming objections.

• Graduation Products channel exhibited strength in gaining commitment, self-motivation, handling adversity and overcoming objections. Significant development needs were in the areas of territory management and sales cycle management.

• Yearbook channel showed strength in asking tactical questions, confirming needs and gaining commitment. Development opportunities included territory management, overcoming objections and asking strategic questions.

Note that all sales channels showed strength in building rapport and integrity, and significant weakness in prospecting and sales cycle management.

In-School Photography                                          Graduation Products & Class Rings                                                 Yearbooks            

The results of these aggregate group assessments were used to facilitate small group discussions during the national sales meeting, in which the unique strengths and development needs of each sales channel were highlighted. Sales leadership requested ideas from the salespeople regarding how to "cross-pollinate" the strengths of each sales channel to the others.

Rather than announcing a top-down decision to integrate the sales channels, the national sales meeting started the discussion and thought process.

 Over the course of 6 months each sales channel initiated their own training efforts to improve on those areas where they had scored low on the assessment. In this effort they leveraged the contents of the PSS facilitator guide, using outside trainers as well as their own internal training staff. Each sales channel also reached out to salespeople (from their own channel as well as the other channels) who had been identified as exceptionally strong in the relevant skill categories. The "subject matter experts" were utilized to provide a practical perspective during the training delivery.

Sales representatives from all channels were given the opportunity to complete any of the 20 PSS e-learning courses and/or order any of the 20 PSS audio CD programs.

• 52% ordered at least 1 audio CD program.

• 34 % started at least 1 e-learning course (although less than 20% completed every course they started).

• Sales managers were required to complete all 20 programs (e-learning or audio CD, their choice) and were given 6 months to accomplish this.

• During monthly regional sales meetings, managers facilitated discussions regarding best practices in the targeted skill categories.

FOLLOW-UP NATIONAL SALES MEETING

At the following national sales meeting held 6 months later, a day was dedicated to "selling skills development" and breakout sessions were held in all 20 PSS categories. Each breakout session was facilitated by a team of 4 people: 1 salesperson from each channel and 1 sales manager (for any channel).

Salespeople were assigned to attend two specific breakout sessions, and could self-select which third session they wanted to attend. Even though the specific sales topic was different, at every breakout session they heard from a team of salespeople representing all three divisions.

This was the first national sales meeting in which the activities of all three channels were fully integrated, and the feedback was exceptionally positive.

At subsequent national and regional meetings, this integration continued with deeper skill development and (eventually) actual cooperation in developing sales strategy for current account support/maintenance and new account growth (prospecting).

"While the transition process was significantly longer than our senior leadership had initially planned for, we were able to accomplish it with minimal disruption and very little resistance from the sales organization. Had we attempted a 'top-down' directive, the results would have been very different. The PSS assessment was a key component to kick-starting the discussions between our sales channels. It gave them a tangible line of sight to both their commonalities and their differences - and helped to facilitate the sharing of best practices between the sales channels. Plus all of the associated training materials made it easy to move from discussion to actual training implementation."

                                                                                           - Vice President of Sales

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