Chemical Industry

A major chemical producer had grown substantially through a combination of business growth and acquisitions, and their sales force had increased dramatically in size as well. Because of the number of newer salespeople and their diverse experience levels, the sales managers were encountering some motivation and sales management issues.

Assessed Sales Training Needs

After consulting with the President of the chemical firm and his senior-level management team, Peak Selling identified some common sales management issues to work on.  Two areas identified were time management for salespeople and building successful sales teams. Peak Selling was asked to work 1-on-1 with the sales managers, and sent each of them a survey to assess the specific challenges that each manager was encountering with his or her sales team. Typical responses included comments such as "…one of my best sellers is spending all his time on his key accounts and not enough time on prospecting” and "…some of my experienced sellers think that their performance is better than it actually is.”

Sales Training Solution 

Peak Selling designed a series of 1-on-1 sales coaching sessions with each sales manager. Each sales management session was divided into two parts. Part 1 taught some advanced sales skills on how to build an effective sales team, and was taught to every manager. Part 2 was customized for each manager, and addressed the specific sales and management challenges faced by that individual manager. For example, one manager used our conversation to improve her ability to vary her management style with each person on her sales team.  Collectively, the material presented to the sales managers used many key concepts from several Peak Selling sales training programs:  Key Account Management for Managers, Team Selling,  Sales Prospecting and Business Development, Time Management for Sales,  and Coaching for Sales Success.

A major international chemical manufacturer headquartered in Europe wanted to implement a team selling approach with their key accounts in the United States.

Assessed Sales Training Needs 

Upper management had become dissatisfied with a lack of sales growth and client attrition with their key accounts and felt it was due to three interrelated problems. First, the sales force for two major divisions shared responsibility and geographies for most of their key accounts, yet sales personnel were not communicating with one another and no synergy existed at the customer interface. Second, the manufacturing and technical staff were not being utilized to support the sales effort ("I wasn't hired to sell."). In some cases, the manufacturing or technical personnel were working at cross-purposes with the sales force ("We can't do what you want for that customer, because..."). Third, there was poor communication and a lack of trust between headquarters in Europe and the U.S. operation.

Sales Training Solution 

Peak Selling designed a customized  workshop that addressed the communication and sales team issues with key accounts. A combination of our Key Account Management and Strategy and Team Selling workshops provided most of the teaching content. In addition to classroom training on key account concepts, we used outdoor orienteering and low ropes activities so that the various cross-functional groups could work together as teams during the event. The entire organization learned how to form and sustain successful key account teams and increased the level of trust between departments. The session was rated so successful that it was repeated throughout the entire organization.

An independent chemical distributor made a series of acquisitions and needed to upgrade their sales force capabilities so that they could service larger key accounts.

Assessed Sales Training Needs 

Many of the salespeople were making far too many price concessions and using high pressure closing techniques during their sales calls. None of the acquired companies had a common sales methodology or sales skill set. The new consolidated sales force needed a consistent sales process and philosophy. In addition to improving the selling skills of the entire sales force, management wanted the training to also serve as a common team-building experience.

Sales Training Solution 

Peak Selling's customized Selling on Value workshop focused on how to sell on value rather than price, with emphasis on highlighting the key differentiation's of their product and service offerings. Additionally, the training helped the sales people focus on sales techniques for forming and maintaining long term customer relationships with major accounts. The Value Selling workshop was taught at various regional offices around the country in order to save them travel time and time away from the field. The sales training provided an opportunity to learn various selling styles and work more effectively together as a sales team.

Additional training materials for managers available through our Coaching Kits product line, specifically the Selling on Value Not Price kit. 

A large chemical manufacturer needed to upgrade the capabilities of the sales force to become more proficient at sales prospecting and business development.

Assessed Sales Training Needs 

A new chemical plant had recently come online but the timing was bad because demand had softened due to the economy, resulting in excess plant capacity. The existing sales force had been predominantly responsible for servicing existing customer accounts and the prior plant capacity had been fully utilized for many years. As a result, the motivation of the salespeople to bring in new business had atrophied. The company needed to teach the sales force how to prospect for new business, as well as sharpen their sales skills to grow existing accounts.

Sales Training Solution 

Peak Selling designed a customized workshop for them based on our Sales Prospecting and Business Development workshop. Their sales professionals developed a sales process to identify and capitalize on the best business opportunities, and learned the sales skills to advance these business opportunities through the various selling stages of the sales prospecting pipeline. The client initially committed to teach the entire senior-level sales force but expanded the effort to include all sales personnel as well as the sales management team.

A mid-sized specialty chemical manufacturer wanted their sales force to learn to sell on value in order to extract a better profit margin.

Assessed Sales Training Needs 

The prior sales management team had not effectively segmented and targeted the right customers, and had encouraged the sales force to go after the "quick win" resulting in a majority of price only buyers. The new sales management team realized that the prior approach had created three related problems. First, the current customer mix was poor and offered few opportunities for revenue and profit growth. Second, profit margins were not commensurate with the high value specialty chemical line offered by the firm. Third, the sales force had not learned sales techniques to sell on value, nor been encouraged to do so.

Sales Training Solution 

Peak Selling designed two complementary sales training programs to build mastery among the entire sales and support organization to sell on value. The initial sales workshop taught the fundamentals of Selling on Value, such as how to prepare a customized value proposition for a specific customer. The second workshop, titled Key Account Management and Strategy, focused on more sophisticated sales skills of value selling, such as how to gain access to the higher level decision makers and present your value proposition in a compelling way. Results measured after the training documented a five-fold growth in profits.

Additional training materials for managers available through our Coaching Kits product line, specifically the Selling on Value Not Price kit.