Sales Unit Instructor-led Training Project

While working for a telecommunications training company, BSI members designed and developed a three-week course in selling skills and new product lines for the business sales division of a national U.S. telecommunications corporation.

 

To retain and increase market share, the client needed to sell integrated systems that met customer needs rather than individual products. This required a significant change in the company's business perspective, particularly its front-line sales staff of Customer Service Representatives (CSRs).

In this new model, CSRs were responsible for working with their customers to develop turnkey solutions to customer needs. To do so, they required enhanced consultative skills as well as a thorough knowledge of the features and benefits of the new product lines.

 

An intensive instructor-led course with a suite of companion job aids.

We chose instructor-led training for this project because of:

• the focus on soft skills (such as interviewing, analysis, and consultative selling) which require live practice to acquire and hone
• the short life of the product lines, which were changing every few months to offer new features
• the client's need to have all staff trained at the time they were introduced to the new product lines

The training solution featured:

• brief, peppy lessons with lots of entertaining activities and frequent practice sessions to keep the learners engaged
• performance-based exercises using "real-world" case studies which grew and changed to respond to learner actions and choices throughout the course
• a companion suite of tools that CSRs could use on the job to assist them with the interviewing and customer needs analysis tasks. We were therefore able to train learners on how to use the tools rather than training them to remember every step of a complex and demanding process.
• forum sessions in which CSRs exchanged tips and techniques on identifying customer needs, dealing with indecisive customers, and trends in customer needs and wishes

The training package included:

• a comprehensive Instructor Guide for each lesson specifying lesson objectives and resources, suggested time frames for each topic, detailed teaching points, and practice and review activities
• a PowerPoint presentation for each lesson, containing summaries of key points, visuals, diagrams, and exercise instructions
• a Participant Guide summarizing the course content and exercises, with room for additional annotations
• handouts and job aids
• an Administrator Guide, setting forth the overall time frame and the materials and human resource requirements for the course

 

The training solution more than met the needs of the client, and we received high praise for our design and development of an integrated suite of job aids that reduced training time and improved on-the-job performance.

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