Psychological Associates

Nationwide Manufacturer
Aligns Sales Efforts
to Maximize Sales Goals

The experience of one national manufacturer is typical of what many companies have undergone in the last decade or so — a series of mergers and acquisitions. These have helped this company become one of the five largest in its category nationwide. However, the rapid merging of diverse sales personnel into one organization has also presented challenges.

In 2007, the salesforce of 250 was a collection of veteran salespeople, salespeople from similar companies, and those new to selling its products. The Performance Improvement Director could see that this made unity and cohesion difficult. “In some cases, we had almost a Hatfield-McCoy situation. There was not much collaboration.”

Another factor dividing the salesforce was unique: This organization was split into two divisions of salespeople. The two groups had little cross-communication.

Partnering with Psychological Associates

For these reasons, the director called on Psychological Associates (PA), the behavior-based leadership and sales development firm. PA had often helped deliver assessment, training, and development solutions during the director’s 30 years in HR. “I have found that the people at PA really try to get to know you and your needs. They listen and have always been willing to customize to find the right solution.”

This individual is familiar with many different management and sales development programs. He knows what works and what doesn’t. What he particularly liked about the content of PA’s approach was the foundation that supports all of their programs, the Dimensional^® Model of Behavior^™. Applied to sales, the Dimensional Model is a tool for categorizing and understanding both customer and sales behavior to help develop productive relationships. The Model is easy to apply to any selling situation, but most important, it is a proven success in advancing sales. “It’s a terrific foundation because it’s elegantly simplistic, yet extremely profound,” he stated.

A Customized and Comprehensive Solution

Together, the Performance Improvement Director and the PA team decided a good fit for his company would be PA’s comprehensive sales process, SELLING TO THE POWER OF Q⁴ (SPQ⁴). This program builds consistency among a salesforce by providing a common platform for selling, and then aligns all sales activity with the company’s own unique sales goals or strategy. It includes these four components:

•	Senior sales management team develops and communicates an overall sales strategy.
•	All levels of the sales organization are surveyed to determine commitment and capability to support the strategy. (All surveys are conducted confidentially online.)
•	Salespeople and managers build foundation skills online and, then, practice them in a short application workshop where they develop action plans for selling to a real-life customer.
•	Manager coaching, completion of the real-life customer sales effort by reps, and a follow-up survey process (6 – 8 weeks) to monitor sales results round out the program.

“I liked SPQ⁴ because it was all-inclusive. We needed a program that was usable for the entire salesforce, regardless of their previous sales training,” the Performance Improvement Director noted. He elaborated on advantages of SPQ⁴ for his organization:

•	Developing an overall sales strategy. “Our company never really had a bona fide single strategy that our two main sales groups could operate from. Yes, it was a struggle to agree on our strategy, but it was well worth it. It provided a tremendous kick for winning people over to SPQ⁴ in advance of the first session. It put us all in synch.”
•	Surveying all levels of the sales organization for capability and commitment. “I was concerned at first that the results might be discouraging to one group or another. It turned out the sales managers’ self-assessments agreed with those from the sales reps. The two groups had common ground for what we were trying to accomplish.”
•	Surveying customers. This additional survey was requested by our partner because he wanted concrete evidence from actual customers regarding the skill and professionalism of the reps. “It was a significant value-add to highlight certain trends. It fit into our overall feedback process from customers.”
•	Online core skill building, including applying the Dimensional Model of Behavior. “It was good that the online material was offered in two distinct learning styles. The Boomers took the more traditional learn-and-apply approach. The younger reps like the game method better. Everyone agreed that the content was relevant.”
•	Action-learning workshop for salespeople and sales managers. “Some of the veteran salespeople had previous sales training, but not in behavior or relationship building. They were intrigued by it. Most hadn’t worked with the idea of leveraging themselves as a key part of the selling process. When they watched the videos in SPQ⁴ and practiced the techniques on a real case in their teams, it really kind of spread like wildfire. They had a story to tell.”
•	Follow-up coaching and completion of the real-life case. “We didn’t have a great history of managers coaching. The managers didn’t mind attending their own workshop. The fact is, after several acquisitions, a number of managers were faced with quite an array of sales methods from the reps. They readily embraced SPQ⁴ as a common denominator for discussion and dialogue, rather than just telling people what to do.”

Concrete Business Results

The Performance Improvement Director is pleased with the overall results. “SPQ⁴ has provided a platform for a process approach to all aspects of selling: planning, prioritizing, considerations of time and territory, evaluating potential, adapting behavior to the customer, and building a relationship.”

Not only has SPQ⁴ helped unify the entire sales organization’s efforts, putting the selling principles into practice has garnered concrete results. In surveys of salespeople between July of 2007 and May of 2008:

•	Over 70% of those responding stated that the SPQ⁴ selling skills they learned and applied increased their sales revenue/productivity by 25 to 50%.
•	73% said they had successfully implemented the real-life selling case they had brought to the SPQ⁴ workshop to practice and analyze.
•	92% felt SPQ⁴ is currently helping them to increase revenue/productivity.

SPQ⁴ also expedites opportunities for reinforcement programs that keep momentum going. In this case, our partner was thinking about a sales coaching or negotiating workshop for salespeople who are being groomed for promotion. “Any time you can introduce something new and still reinforce previous learning, that’s a high return on investment.”

SPQ⁴ has allowed this organization to adopt a process that accommodates the wide range of experience and selling styles within its sales organization and to marshal everyone’s energy and drive toward a single, unique sales goal. “With SPQ⁴, you have a consistent message. So, you avoid a ‘flavor of the month’ approach or having your efforts fall through the cracks. SPQ⁴ raises the bar on professionalism in sales.”