Why Sales Innovation?

What’s Unique about Sales Innovation

Chief executive officers and sales managers work with Sales Innovation as a trusted advisor on their leadership team. They want the proven combination that only Sales Innovation offers:    

• Needs assessment to identify and prioritize business, performance and learning objectives
• Consultation when your organization is not ready for training
• When you are ready, courses created from the ground up with a laser focus on performance objectives
• Innovative approach to learning supported by a state-of-the-art delivery platform
• Instructors who are seasoned sales professionals
• Strategies to engage and energize participants at every experience level
• Practical application in actual sales situations during and after the course
• One-on-one coaching and individual feedback
• Performance measurement tools and resources for continuous improvement
• University affiliations for academic integrity

Needs assessment
Sales Innovation reviews the company’s internal environment, including their leadership philosophy, culture, organization, existing sales processes, prior training, performance measurement and compensation systems, and use of technology. We learn about the company’s competition and customers. We evaluate the current and desired skills and practices of the sales force and sales management.

The assessment provides the company with a third party, objective review of its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. The purpose of the assessment is to:

• Identify opportunities for improvement in the sales functions in the organization.
  
• Identify and prioritize desired sales skills and competencies.
  
• Identify and prioritize business, performance, and behavioral learning objectives.
  
• Design educational programs around the behavioral learning objectives and competency gaps identified.
  
• Uncover any barriers to transfer of learning to practice.
  
• Determine target audiences and develop engagement strategies.
  
• Identify methods to reinforce training, enhance transfer to practices, and measure impact.
  

The assessment helps us learn just enough about your organization to provide you with a meaningful proposal, whether for training or another sales performance improvement initiative.

When your organization is not ready for sales training
Many times training is not the first response. We consult with the company’s executives and sales managers, and help them review every aspect of their sales organization:

• Selection, hiring and onboarding processes
• Training, development and ongoing coaching for continuous skill improvement
• Segmenting customer markets for strategic focus
• Implementing best practices in formalized sales process.
• Maximizing use of information technology to support the sales and learning processes
• Integrating sales with marketing, operations, and customer support.
• Aligning management and leadership
• Measuring performance to achieve desired behavioral change
• Aligning compensation and reward systems with goals and objectives

We help the company prioritize initiatives, so their time and money will be invested only in the programs that will lead to sales performance improvement.

When you are ready, customized courses created from the ground up

Many programs make the claim of “customization”. At Sales Innovation, customization means that we are developing relevant programs from the ground up based on business and performance objectives. We bridge concepts to application using real life scenarios from each participant’s experiences, not just through generic company or industry examples.

Learning content is organized into individual modules, each with a focus on very specific stage of the sales process, strategic sales plan component, or a soft skill. Each module includes learning objectives, a lecture on the body of knowledge, forum discussions, classroom experiential activities, field work assignments, and post-course manager reinforcement and coaching tools

This structure provides us with the ultimate flexibility in designing courses that meet our clients’ objectives, time constraints, and budget. We are able to teach sales people exactly what they need to know so that we are not wasting resources of the company. Sales people do not have to wade through irrelevant information to find the concepts they need to be improve.

The modular approach allows us to build multiple training tracks based on learning needs of different levels of experience within the organization - from brand new to seasoned sales people. It enables managers to create personal development plans based on the strengths and weaknesses of an individual.

During the pre-class learning, participants not only get exposed to the concept through the online lecture they also have the opportunity to engage in forum discussions with their colleagues and facilitators to share ideas and raise challenges about the application in the field. Some modules even have a pre-class assignment on which the participants must report prior to the class session.

This helps us customize the program in two ways:

• The exchange of information and ideas allows the facilitator to create examples and exercises that integrate the real world application based each individual participant’s experiences.

• The facilitator learns how participants are understanding and relating to a concept before they get them into the classroom. They can then customize the experiential exercises based on where the participants are in the learning process. We are able to adjust the amount of time we spend on a particular subject depending on the needs of the group.
  

An innovative approach to learning

Today’s learners are acquiring knowledge differently, and organizations are leveraging learning and knowledge in new and diverse ways. As the pace of business continues to accelerate and work teams become more geographically dispersed, learning needs to evolve in innovative ways.

At Sales Innovation, we have combined technology with tradition. Our courses are a blend of learning and application – both in the classroom and in field work before and after class sessions. Skills become ingrained and behaviors changed through an iterative process of exposure, practice, application and coaching. This process is comprehensive, but not complex, and is all supported by a state-of-the-art technology platform.

With this delivery model we take the lecture out of the classroom, and deliver it to sales people on their own time through online lectures available on demand 24/7. This keeps sales people in sales activities during business hours, and lets us dedicate the in-person workshops exclusively to experiential learning, such as role play and group projects. Our online lectures are repeatable on demand for ongoing review.

We create learning communities through forums on the course site. This facilitates the sharing of best practices, promotes cross-selling, and helps create a common culture and language. Leaders can mentor their teams whether in the same office or across the globe, and knowledge can be transferred from one generation to the next.

The platform allows for scalability in a large organization through a train-the-trainer delivery option. It provides for flexibility in timing so that investment in learning can be spread out based on the budget and business needs. It allow us to link people that are spread geographically when it is not feasible to bring people together physically.

New sales representatives do not have to wait to begin their training until a course is scheduled. Managers are able to access the course curriculum to onboard a new employee, or for ongoing personal development plans for existing sales people– all available in one place 24/7.

The technology allows for complete transparency so that the process is visible to company leaders, and leaders are visible to participants. The leadership visibility heightens the importance of the learning, creates buy-in, and promotes better engagement.

Instructors who are seasoned sales professionals
All of our courses are taught by career sales people with a track record of success in their field; participants benefit from a coach who has “walked in their shoes”.

Course facilitators have advanced degrees and experience working in the industries in they are teaching. They speak your language and are knowledgeable about the challenges you face in your industry.

The Sales Innovation facilitator becomes an extension of your sales leadership team. With the depth of their business experience and education, they are able to serve as a consultant to the CEO and CSO. They know the right questions to ask to understand your goals and your barriers to success. They leverage the right resources at the right time to help you meet your goals.

Strategies to engage and energize participants at every level of experience
The programs actively engage participants at every phase of their careers. The company’s most experienced sales people sharpen their own skills and show their co-workers how to improve sales performance. In group discussions and role-playing exercises, participants demonstrate their grasp of the concepts covered in readings and lectures. It’s a lively, collaborative environment that uses adult learning techniques to successfully transfer knowledge. 

Practical application in actual sales situations
Research on adult learning shows that practical application is the key to retaining knowledge. Every concept taught is applied in a very practical way before, during, and after class session. As participants apply new strategies and techniques with prospects they are asked to weigh in on the experience in the forum discussions. Through the discussion they can hear where others are having similar successes or challenges. The facilitator uses the opportunity to reinforce best practices, and to coach those that need additional development.

This process forces accountability for sales people to immediately apply what they have learned to reinforce new behaviors as routine and habit. It provides participants with immediate self-reflection and feedback for continuous development.

During the course the facilitator becomes an extension of the sales manager , and by example, shows them how to manage to new behaviors

Practical application minimizes opportunity cost of the training; it keeps your sales people on the street from day one for immediate return on the investment in learning.

One-on-one coaching

Traditional single-event workshops take a one size fits all approach without helping a person individually relate the concept to their every day world. Sales people all have different strengths and weakness, and varying levels of experience. Successful transfer of learning to practice and behavioral changes requires ongoing evaluation and development of each salesperson on an individualized, personal basis.

Our program facilitators provide specific, individualized feedback to each and every program participant on pre-class and field work assignments through the course of a program. Through coaching we help each sales person successfully apply best practices, improve their individual performance, and achieve better results for their organization.

We engage sales manager to begin coaching to the new behaviors under our direction. In other words we coach the coaches. We then teach the managers how to continue the process of evaluation, reinforcement, and individualized development of each of their salespeople after the program has ended. We work with managers so that this become a way of doing business; the manager finds that it is easier to do their jobs with the tools we give them to coach and develop their sales people.

This process improves the transfer of learning, increase the retention and application and accelerates the return on investment in learning.

Management tools for continuous reinforcement

Sales Innovation places a very strong emphasis on the transfer of knowledge for lasting impact on employee behavior.

Sales managers must "own" the transfer of learning when the program is complete, so that the processes being taught are the processes that will be managed. Sales managers are trained to be mentors, coaching employees to use their new skills on the job. Managers are able to observe and learn from the interaction and the coaching provided by our facilitators. They can assess participation, and communicate with those who need encouragement to be more engaged in the learning.

Measuring the impact of sale training

When our clients invest in sales performance improvement, the conversation naturally turns to measuring the impact of training and development programs. Stakeholders ask, “What is the expected ROI?” Even those who inherently believe in investment in workplace education feel pressured to monetize the results.

Sales Innovation has authored a white paper which addresses this issue, and explains the resources we provide to help our clients with the measurement process. Measuring the Impact of Sales Training Programs

University affiliations for academic integrity
Sales Innovation works with faculty in top-ranked business schools to apply the most current, evidence-based research to our curriculum. Our academic director, Dr. Jeff Tanner helps us ensure that our clients get the most up-to-date solutions, rather than stale concepts dating back decades. All of the research is done in the real world, enabling the experts to bringing back best practices from top sales organizations.

Our affiliations also provide our clients with access to other resources of our partner universities’ school of business. Executive education programs in areas such as leadership and strategic planning can complement sales training and lead to greater long term impacts.

Participants often feel they are getting a program with greater credibility because of the university affiliation; skeptics are more inclined to become engaged and give the learning a chance.