Insight

Many salespeople complain of time-wasting in deskwork, ‘dead horses’, unviable tenders, roulette games with unknown players and dynamics. This best practice standard for sales professionals ignites a shift to time investment – the right preparation for the right face-time with the right stakeholders and sales partners. From short-term encounters to lasting business relationships.

Benefits

• More productive lead generation – efficient, deliberate and strategic
• Conversion rate improvement – consistent mastery of all steps of the sales process
• Faster identification and advancement of opportunities – with both new and existing customers
• Heightened understanding of customer needs – including operational issues and value drivers
• Improved value perception by relevant stakeholders – key players identified and addressed with impact
• Greater face-to-face impact – powerful value propositions, business cases and presentations
• Maintained confidence as the stakes rise – price and margin protection, negotiations, deal closure
• Consolidation of embedded partnerships – thanks to distinct and sustained added value
• Transformation of clients into ambassadors – benefiting from your most powerful ally

Audience

• Sales representatives 
• Account managers

Programme

Day 1 Me, the market,  my positioning, my target

• The ideal profile and criteria for excellence of the sales high performer
• Perceptions about myself, my job and my challenges
• An extra target: my learning goals, ambition and current opportunities
• Back to the gym: Fundamentals of inter-personal communication, learning new skills and repertoire
• Maximum 3 minutes: customer oriented positioning
• The power of positive influence
• The 5 supporting attitudes of commercial negotiation
• The 4 types of client conversation: relationship, possibilities, opportunities, agreement
• Network analysis assignment

Day 2 New and existing clients, opportunity identification and qualification

• Your learning experience:  a benefit for others
• Generating leads - exchange of strategies and best practices: cold, warm, inevitable and vital
• Mobilising your contacts, engaging guides to opportunities
• The economic engine: our active references
• Go/ no go decisions to advance in the sales funnel
• The power of questions, formulating, directing, motivating  to create or discern issues and needs
• 'The Briefcase’:  personalised preparation to obtain the best result from our sales meeting
• Best practice training client cases: framing opportunities
• The ‘meta-message’: a message beyond words – how to decode what our clients do not voice

Day 3 Understanding the client’s needs, framing the opportunity and need, identifying the players

• Progress report: matching audience needs with what I can offer
• The case and how it is presented by the client: feedback and questions to the client
• Client issues, solutions and benefits
• Questioning techniques: specification and value drivers
• Understanding the buying process and the power and position of key stakeholders
• Stakeholder oriented questions, identifiying value drivers

Day 4 Presenting the customer-specific value proposition and driving the win-win match

• Progress report: active references/ network strategy and key opportunities
• Exchange of best-practice: proposal writing, rfi’s and rfp’s
• Prepare for presentation: strategy, roles, who will be present, what will happen, who will take the decision, who are allies?
• Presenting the proposal - issues, requirements, solutions and unique buying reasons: highlighting benefits
• Group presentation: expectations, presentation, teamwork, interruptions and dealing with the Q&A
• Repositioning options, handling indecision, using pressure
• The ‘doctor’-attitude: know and communicate what is good for your client - assertively advise

Day 5 Negotiation, closing and further development of the relationship

• Progress report: stories of last month’s presentations, application of lessons learned, negotiations and request for feedback/ sparring
• Securing price and margin. Clearly state our position and stick to it.
• The 'competition’ objection: how can we help the prospect to make an objective comparison – one in our favour?
• The partnership: moving beyond the basic sell to becoming a long term business partner
• Developing accounts to create a flourishing source of business
• Networking: identifying, developing and enriching our network to become better known
• Final feedback

Highlights

Small groups: each group is comprised of between ten to twelve participants from different organisations. This ensures optimal conditions for genuine individual development combined with best practice exchanges between participants.

Role plays and practical exercises: our teaching method stimulates self-knowledge, promotes awareness and leads to long term behavioural change.

Sequential: the training process involves 3-5 weeks’ application on the job between training days, allowing each participant to integrate the content long-term, and to take ownership of it in the form of new attitudes.

Feedback: at the beginning of the day, each participant presents his or her feedback based on the concrete results achieved. The successes and/ or difficulties are then analysed and commented upon, and the learning points transformed into a new action plan. The training day continues with new modules, according to the same process.

The "blended" approach: before, during and after the training programme, the participant is asked to continue his or her learning process online to gather feedback from his or her colleagues with the 361°.

Beyond their training programme, participants will have access  to the Krauthammer Alumni network for sharing among peers and exposure to new insights.

Brochure

pd_sales_and_account_management_091111_en.pdf