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.