Financial Services Industry

A leader in the financial services industry wanted to increase their Request for Proposal (RFP) success rate and identified a need to upgrade the skills of the sales support team that wrote much of the RFP content.

Business Issues

An internationally-renowned financial services firm tracked their win ratio and found that they were not winning their fair share of RFPs.  Because their RFPs tended to be very lengthy and complex documents, many people and departments were involved in the writing and presentation of the RFP document. As such, they established a multi-functional management task force to investigate areas for improvement in the RFP process. 

The internal task force identified many areas for improvement, notably that the current process made it difficult to synthesize the work of many people to create a congruent message in the RFP.  In addition, other major areas for improvement were to do a better job of highlighting benefits and differentiators and to improve the Executive Overview.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Peak Selling interviewed the management task force and learned about the sales and business issues cited above.  When we discovered that the majority of attendees for the RFP training program were sales support personnel rather than the outside sales professionals, we next identified the steps in the RFP process that utilized the sales support personnel the most. We also recommended to management that these attendees receive a pre-workshop assessment survey to help identify their preferred writing style and areas for improvement.

Sales Training Solutions

Peak Selling began the process by sending a detailed Writing Styles Assessment Survey to each attendee. The assessment was used to highlight each person’s strengths and areas for improvement in writing and communicating with customers. In addition, the collective results would be used post-workshop to identify the most critical skills to coach and reinforce after the sales workshop was concluded.

Peak Selling designed a customized version of our sales training program titled Writing a Winning Proposal (RFP). Two of the most valuable concepts from the sales training were to learn how to customize each RFP for specific clients and how to write a concise and compelling executive overview.  Each participant received an  electronic email reinforcement (link) planning form to be used as a post-workshop tool. 

The output of the sales training program was that everyone became much more confident in their ability to write RFPs that would persuade clients to select their firm rather than competition.

A major mutual fund company realized that their corporate growth and profitability would be limited if they didn’t expand their offerings beyond mutual funds, and consequently they embarked on an aggressive growth strategy to expand their product and service offerings.  A new sales team was formed to cross sell additional products and services in the financial services segment. 

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Two different sales teams were created in the financial services division. The larger sales team concentrated on 401k and other retirement plans.  A newer and smaller sales team was formed to cross sell additional products and services such as payroll services.  Management initially believed that the two sales teams would work cooperatively; for example, they assumed that the 401k team would refer their existing clients to the payroll services team. In reality, the two teams did not work well together, so management decided that a team selling approach was required.  Upper management decided on a two-pronged approach: first, to have managers set expectations and motivate employees to convert to a collaborative, team selling approach; and, second, to have both groups go through sales training so that they would learn some common sales skills and also experience a team-building event. 

Sales Training Solution

Peak Selling designed a customized workshop on team selling and advanced selling skills, drawing on several workshops such as Influence Skills, Team Selling, and Sales Prospecting & Business Development.   This interactive workshop repeatedly mixed the two groups together to encourage them to work cooperatively and to establish trust and a good working relationship. 

Relevant training materials available for managers through our Coaching Kit product line, specifically the Questioning Skills kit. 

An international provider of point-of-sale data for investors wanted to upgrade the capabilities of their sales organization in order to aggressively grow their business worldwide.

Business Issues

A mid-sized specialty provider of point-of-sale retail data prided itself on the timely delivery of critical information that their clients could use for investment research in high tech and consumer firms.  They were large enough to have resources to provide a superior service yet small enough to be much more responsive than their larger competitors.In spite of these advantages, sales growth did not meet projections. Senior management felt that a contributing factor to the disappointing sales growth was a lack of consistency among the sales professionals, who were located internationally.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Peak Selling interviewed the senior business manager, who identified the sales issues cited above.  It became apparent that the existing sales force was not following a consistent sales process. In addition, each of the sales professionals needed to upgrade certain foundation skills such as handling objections and prospecting for new business.

Sales Training Solutions

Peak Selling began the process by sending a detailed Selling Skills Assessment Survey to each sales professional. The assessment was used in three ways. First, it clearly identified each salesperson’s strengths and areas for improvement. Second, the collective results provided us with specific data regarding the skills and concepts that needed to be addressed in the sales training workshop. Finally, the results helped the Peak Selling consultant to provide 1-on-1 sales coaching as a post-workshop service to some of the sellers.

We designed a customized sales training workshop to help the sales team become better at winning new sales. The overall theme of the sales training program was prospecting and business development. One of the most valuable concepts from the sales training was Peak Selling's trademarked questioning technique known as IDEAL® Questioning, for which participants received our electronic email reinforcement kit as a post-workshop tool.  The second major take-away was teaching them how to sell on value and overcome price as an objection.

The output of the sales training program was that the sales team became much more confident in their ability to ask great questions, differentiate their company from competition, and overcome objections.

Relevant training materials available for managers through our Coaching Kits product line, specifically the Handling Objections, Pre-Call Planning and Questioning Skills kits.. 

A nationally-renowned financial advisory firm had doubled in size due to the acquisition of another prestigious organization, and needed to teach newly promoted managers how to manage and coach effectively.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Peak Selling interviewed the Senior Vice President and his immediate direct reports.  They disclosed that an immediate consequence of the acquisition was the promotion from within for many new managers.  Although proficient from a sales and product perspective, many of these managers had never managed people before.

Sales Training Solution

Peak Selling designed a customized management workshop based on our Coaching for Sales Success and Influence Skills Workshops.  We emphasized how the managers could avoid mistakes that new managers typically tend to make, such as trying to be the "super seller" rather than developing the sales capabilities of their employees. We taught all the initial management workshops, and then worked with the client using our train-the-trainer option so that they could then teach the same workshop to new managers to be hired in the future.

A major mutual fund company felt that they could service their key accounts more effectively by using sales teams, but formed the teams without providing the necessary skills to the new team leaders.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

A few months after they had implemented a team selling initiative, Peak Selling interviewed the senior managers and internal training team to assess what was working well and what needed improvement.  Although some teams were doing well, most of the teams were not meeting the expected results such as client growth and retention.

Sales Training Solution

Peak Selling's Team Selling Workshop fit exactly with their expressed training needs.  Customized role plays were written in advance to ensure practice opportunities for individual real life situations.  In order to have the greatest possible positive impact, intact sales teams were sent to the same workshop.  This allowed the Peak Selling instructor to also provide some consultative support to the different sales teams.  All the team leaders were given a post-workshop team survey so that they could assess future areas for improvement.

Inbound call centers needed to improve their ability to cross-sell and be perceived as a consultative seller

Business Issue

A large financial services firm prided itself on the product knowledge and responsiveness of their inbound call center employees, but felt that many sales opportunities were being missed.

Sales Training Needs Assessment

Peak Selling interviewed the two call center managers, followed by a focus group meeting with a selective group of employees.  It became apparent that the employees did many things well from a sales and service perspective, such as professional phone presence, responsiveness, and product knowledge, but missed the opportunity to ask questions to identify additional sales opportunities.

Sales Training Solution

Peak Selling designed a customized sales training workshop with two objectives in mind: first, to improve the confidence and competence of the call center employees  to be more consultative and less product-focused and, second, to learn to ask better questions.  One of the most valuable concepts from the Essential Selling Skills Workshop was Peak Selling's trademarked questioning technique known as IDEAL® Questioning, for which participants received our electronic Sample Reinforcement Kit as a post-workshop tool.