MTD Sales Training International

Since their foundation in 1986, The Holiday Place Plc has built a reputation for offering a quality, personalised service and superb value for money for their customers. They are a specialist Tour Operator providing holidays for the discerning traveller to a diverse range of great value hotels & resorts in some of the worlds most exotic locations.

The Holiday Place wanted their telephone staff to be able to close more deals and up and cross sell a wide range of products and services. With a view to being the No 1 Tour Operator within the UK they called MTD in to design and deliver an ongoing sales training programme for their staff.

We designed a 3 module sales training programme for all of their reservation’s staff that included:

– Proposing specific solutions to the Customer, and securing their commitment (Closing Skills)

We also ran a series of sales coaching workshops for their Team Leaders so that they could get the best from every member of their team after we had conducted the training

“I would like to thank John Spencer-Ades and MTD sales training for their excellent training programme. Our telephone sales force underwent a training programme in sales closing and cross selling techniques. The three key modules were, relationship building, sales closing skills and effective negotiation.

The results were astounding; we now have a sales team that closes 50% more enquiries than previously. The conversion rate from lead to sales has more than doubled, and with certain products even quadrupled. The profit per sale has increased by over 15%.

The benefits were not only evident in the sales to our customers but also the relationships between the staff and B2B relationships with our suppliers were improved considerably.

All in all, the entire programme was a great success with the results being a happy and extremely motivated work force and a substantial increase on our bottom line”

"John (our trainer) was a very knowledgeable person. He often used his own past experiences as a salesperson, sales director to reinforce his point or opinion. He has the ability to identify the needs of all within the group he is training no matter what their skill level. He is very motivational & makes people strive to achieve results they never thought was possible. He is always available to give advice"

"John made the training sessions very enjoyable and included different training methods as opposed to just the standard method. I did enjoy all the training sessions as it was a relaxed atmosphere and at the same did make me think of different ways to approach different situations in a positive light. I am able to listen to clients needs as opposed to selling the client what I feel they want. Therefore not make assumptions. I find it easy to ask for the business now"

Porcelanosa Group, founded in 1972, is Europe 's leading ceramic tile, bathroom and kitchen manufacturers offering a wide range of products including showers, bathroom suites, whirlpool baths, floor and wall tiles and bathroom accessories

Porcelanosa has operated in the UK for almost twenty years, and over the last three years has invested over £50million in an expansion of its showroom and distribution network across the country.

This expansion has naturally led to the employment of more sales people across the UK in order to provide Porcelanosa customers with the highest standards of attention and service commensurate with the company’s products and philosophy.

To meet the demands of growth whilst offering a consistent and recognisable approach to advising customers and maximising sales results the need to promote and maintain high standards of Professional Showroom Sales Skills was evident across each of the operating companies.

Industry leading standards of performance were required from all sales personnel, including showroom managers and staff. These standards would have to be supported with high degrees of sales skills and knowledge so that consistency and effectiveness would be achieved through strongly motivated and professional sales people.

Amongst others, MTD were invited to explore potential training solutions to satisfy these needs. Drawing on their extensive experience in retail sales; considerable time and energy was invested in researching the customer experience, the knowledge and skill base of the people, and their current sales approaches.

Informed by this research a pilot Showroom Sales Skills Workshop was devised which was attended by representatives from all levels of the business.

The outcomes were very positive as the workshop focused on the crucial knowledge and skill areas in a way that engaged and motivated delegates to consistently build strong and profitable customer relationships. Coupled with the engaging and practical style of workshop leader Mike Clarkson, the MTD solution was unanimously selected.

To ensure maximum impact, final workshop design was further enhanced through face to face interviews with staff at a variety of locations. This enabled MTD to deeply appreciate the situation at the critical customer interface, fine-tune the workshop and maximise its value. Small, yet highly significant adjustments were included that ensured total relevance and efficacy of the programme. To provide the closest possible focus a range of 33 skill competencies in seven groups were identified and measured as a start point for the workshops.

The challenge now was to implement the package across the whole of the UK in the shortest possible time. A full schedule to roll out the workshops to 160 people from 26 locations was drawn up between Porcelanosa and MTD which was immediately implemented. The complete UK and Ireland programme was delivered at key sites over an eight week period in the autumn of 2007.

Delegates found the training was stimulating, inspirational and practical. They were able to absorb and utilise the material in ways that helped them develop their skills, abilities and confidence; this meant more success in dealing with customers!

Results included some delegates immediately increasing their sales figures by over 60%, an increase in conversions and a much improved approach to managing the elongated sales process.

Delegates found the content, style and delivery of the workshop were of a very high standard. This enabled them to readily understand how they can meet their objectives.

“Mike is extremely helpful, and knows how to pitch to all ages and backgrounds greatly – I found it very helpful, and it has taught me a lot and I believe it will have a huge impact on my selling ability.”

“I was pleased to learn from the course, which will help me in my work. I now have a fresh approach to areas I didn’t realise I needed support with.”

“The majority of it was very appropriate to the selling we do, and practical as well. I will try to apply this knowledge to the job of selling more professionally and in the process I will sell more!”

“I didn’t get bored; Mike kept it fresh without going over the facts more than required. I shall go away from this with lots of new ideas to try and find out which are best for me.”

“I found it will help to streamline all the previous techniques into one, which will make life simpler. A completely different approach – Mike’s presentation was good, passionate and very knowledgeable. He was firm yet friendly.”

“In all areas the training was beneficial, but particularly in the group exercises. It gave me an insight to alternative ways of selling and benefitted me by using different ways and techniques of selling.”

Started in 1996, coach holidays are a business offering the best value coaching holidays in the U.K. and Europe many of their clients come back year after year. The imminent delivery of brochures to customers prompted them to get in touch with MTD

The coach holiday company wanted their telephone staff to both maximize the call and ensure they gave staff the best experience coupled with the inclusion of “added sales” in the form of optional excursions, travel insurances etc

Firstly we contacted the business as mystery telephone shoppers to identify how the leads were handled currently.

From our findings we developed a one day solution to enhance the skills of the team both in handling up enquiries and identifying needs along with ensuring clients were fully aware of all options before they went on holiday.

The sessions focused on questioning skills and generating interest in the add on areas.

"I found the training fun and not boring…..I am now aware of effective ways to sell"

"From our point of view all of the directors, management and staff found the sessions to be very professional, highly entertaining and enormously productive. Our insurance sales have rocketed and the reservations staff have quickly adapted to a new way of speaking to clients"

Friends Reunited Jobs is an offshoot of the high successful Friends Reunited website.

As a job search portal it was the Sales staff responsibility to sell advertising space to businesses and they needed sales cycle training from the start to finish!

Whilst Friends Reunited Jobs were successful at what they were doing they wanted to improve upon the sales targets by handling objections more effectively and negotiating advertising deals with greater success.

“John, our trainer, was brilliant we all had a great day and enjoyed learning about personalities and how to adapt this into selling. We all thought the delivery was clear and we were given lots of opportunities to ask questions and make the training relevant to what we are selling. I think we will definitely want him back in the future. I put the techniques into practice right away and got 3 sales immediately! 100% happy customer”

Bank of Scotland Merchant Services enables businesses to accept plastic cards as a means of payment throughout the UK . Working across a broad range of retail and commercial customers, they offer the most comprehensive and effective card-processing solution to its customers.

As part of its competitive repositioning, Bank of Scotland Merchant Services needed to reinforce and develop its existing sales function through the re-establishment of several new roles, including the key Sales Management function. Critically, the need for professional training to focus on the creation, motivation and leadership of high-performing sales teams was identified as a top priority.

MTD designed and delivered a 2-day Sales Management Workshop that focused on applying the core skills of Team Leadership, Performance Management and Individual Coaching to the task of managing a diverse group of itinerant salespeople.

All delegates found the content, style and delivery of the workshop were of a very high standard. This enabled them to readily understand how they can meet challenging objectives through their sales teams. Some of their comments are:

“Mike had obviously undertaken research, as the course was very relevant to my role. The module was very useful, and all of the topics were very beneficial, and it will certainly help me to achieve more with my team and to get more participation from them in my coaching sessions.”

“Good environment, appropriate to the role. Good theories that can be used unchanged in the real world.”

“Mike did well to hold the attention of all the delegates. Demonstrating his belief in what he teaches, by putting into practice what he preaches. The style in which the course was delivered was very beneficial, along with the handouts provided – thanks Mike”

“The course was excellent – Mike tailored it closely to the specific needs of our newly recruited sales management team. Sales management theory was delivered in an engaging and innovative way, setting the scene for the ultimate goal – providing the team with the practical tools to put the theory into practice.”

Shropshire Tourism is a not for profit membership body that exists to promote the County of Shropshire as a visitor destination. Its work includes providing advice and support to all tourist based businesses in Shropshire , and attracting visitors to the county through advertising, promoting and marketing activities.

A number of Tourism Officers work within the organisation, whose roles include providing business advice and tourism services to members. Part of that role is to sell advertising space within the various publications that are used topromote the area. Traditionally this includes county and district brochures; the print runs of these brochures have significantly been reduced as more visitors choose their holidays and short breaks on line.

Shropshire Tourism also has a strong internet presence, which carries high quality information and booking facilities, supplementing and replacing the traditional paper-based material. This has been developed and is maintained by the organisation’s own internet design team which delivers ground breaking standards of website production to members in a highly cost-effective package.

The organisation is part funded through the public purse and members’ subscriptions. However, this funding does not meet its whole financial needs, and the majority of income has to be self-generated each year. Part of this income comes from advertising revenues and undertaking contract work.

In response to the changing needs of members, and to widen its scope of service provision, a new web design and hosting product has been developed to help members take advantage of the organisation’s web design ability to obtain and maintain a high quality presence on the internet. This will attract high quality bookings from visitors to the county in an economical way, and compete with major commercial web sites providers on equal terms.

The challenge then is to market and sell the idea of web site design and hosting provided through Shropshire Tourism to its members. Whilst the team of officers had traditionally sold advertising space in brochures, they found it extremely difficult to get members interested in the new service, and sales were not being made.

It was decided that training in telephone sales was required. A key feature of this had to be that it didn’t come across to members (or the officers) as a “hard-sell” exercise – more a consultation process aimed at advising members on the need to become more tuned into the fast evolving world of the internet and see the benefits of this as an effective marketing media for their business.

Research of several potential training providers was undertaken to establish who would represent the best fit from those who had the experience and ability to work closely with the Shropshire Tourism team. It was important that the trainer had a style that would match the people and the credibility to deliver a well-researched and bespoke solution. As a result, MTD and their consultant trainer Mike Clarkson were chosen to provide a day’s training followed with regular coaching sessions to embed and drive the development of effective sales skills. The programme was implemented over a three month period, taking the minimum time from the daily tasks yet allowing a clear focus on the key skills involved. As the programme developed, the content and emphasis were adapted, and innovative methods were applied to encourage ownership and clear direction of the training content.

Importantly, all the delegates found the style and methods used were extremely helpful and pertinent to their jobs. They were able to understand the key principles of a sales advisory style and were able to apply them readily to the task. Universally they reported that the training was helpful to their jobs, relevant to their needs, presented at the right pace and pitched at the right level. Comments included that Mike was informative, helpful, and always ready with new ideas, that having the tools and techniques to conduct an efficient sales call and how to respond improved confidence to turn in more sales, and that it was enjoyable and very beneficial – “Mike tailors it to our needs and delivers what we want to learn”. Another stated: “Mike was very good at gaining enthusiasm, his diligence in researching facts and presenting them revealed a patience and dedication that goes beyond sheer professionalism.”

Simon McCloy, the Chief Executive found the training hit the spot exactly, with sales improving and better team motivation. He said: “Without exception the entire team has benefited significantly from the supportive training you have given and all of them have seen a marked improvement in their own personal individual sales skills and techniques.

“Of equal importance to me was to ensure that the approach taken was complementary to our own company and ethos and the style of training recognised the individual personalities and strengths and weaknesses of the team – I have to say that on all counts you were spot on.”

The partnership style and bespoke nature of the training programme has been so useful for Shropshire Tourism that further personal development in both sales and management is now being planned.

ABS was set up to sell and offer services that the college can offer to businesses through "Aspire Business Solutions". These include Foreign Languages for business, Distance Learning, E-Learning and Management Training.

Whilst the sales staff had excellent product knowledge they did not know how to make cold calls and conduct follow up meetings with their clients to ultimately "close" more business.

A 1-day consultative selling course was designed that was delivered to their sales team.

It focused on generating leads through the telephone, how to understand and implement the sales process and how to overcome objections and close more clients.

"We had a very productive training course. We had a broad range of sales experiences in the group & Mark did an excellent job of pitching at the right level to meet everyone's needs. We enjoyed the informal style of presentation & found the group work interesting, useful & fun. Our training event was very interactive and has made an immediate impact on our sales team. We have made significant changes to our sales processes and techniques as a result of the training and we are anticipating an increase in our business as a result. I am happy to recommend MTD to any organisation wishing to increase their sales successes and should we need further sales training I'll be coming back to you"

Due to Non Disclosure Agreements We Are Unable To Name The Following Clients:

Top 3 European vehicle rental and fleet management organisation, a subsidiary of a major vehicle brand.

Sales force very effective at taking orders from existing customers and managing existing relationships, but demonstrated a large degree of weakness in developing new business, cross-selling and up-selling.

A six step sales skills development programme, of modular structure and delivered over three months, interspersed by monthly one-one coaching sessions, comprising of:

1. Before the Sales Begins
Developing a commercial mind set
Eradication of self-limiting beliefs
Customer research and customers’ business understanding

2. Powerful Prospecting
Effective and unobtrusive information gathering
Creating commonality between sales person and customer – relationship building
Securing meetings that count

3. Customer meetings
Psychology of Human Interaction
Building exceptional customer relationships
Excellence in questioning and listening skills
Identifying wants and needs
Creating wants and needs

4. Proposing Specific Solutions
Providing specific advantages and benefits
Directional psychology and identifying buyer motivations
Buying criteria and decision making process
High Impact Presentation Skills
Asking for the business

5. Account Development
Creating effective account development plans
Proposal writing
Bid/Tender responses
The ‘12 Touch’ technique
Ongoing relationship management

6. Account Management
Effective Account Management
Preferred supplier positioning
Managing the buyer
Ring-fencing relationships – protecting your business!

Internal sales force, under increasing market pressures, were not performing as proactive sales force, concentrating on taking orders and issuing quotes for stock requests on a reactive basis, with little or no follow-up.

Working with three divisional internal sales forces, and in conjunction with their management, we carried out a skills audit, ad compared it then to the ideal skill set that the business felt it required.

A structured and totally bespoke training programme was then designed, and delivered in a modular fashion to each of the groups, thus ensuring minimum down time and disruption to the business.

With real focus on effective telesales, as opposed to the incumbent ‘order-taking’ approach, this programme really had to combat the ‘hearts and minds’ attitudes that were entrenched within the business – as the staff in the majority of cases felt that things were not broken, why should they fix it?

Therefore, in an environment that was somewhat resistant to change, we had to work very closely and sensitively with the management and HR functionality to ensure that the sales force were taken on a journey that they wanted to be on, and this was completed with resounding success.

A staged sales skills development programme, of modular structure and delivered over five months, interspersed by monthly one-one coaching sessions, comprising of:

1. Customer Service Provision vs. Selling Skills
Developing a commercial mind set
Building your own sales toolkit
Beliefs, Attitudes, Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours of Effective Sales People
Eradication of self-limiting beliefs
Understanding he power of self.

2. Customer Understanding
Understanding what your customer does, why they do it, and how they do it.
Simple and Effective information gathering
Understanding the supply chain and ‘Shamrocks’ of business
Cost of Sales, Opportunities and having the competition eat your lunch whilst you pay for it!

3. Picking Up the Phone, proactively
Psychology of Human Interaction
Building exceptional customer relationships
Excellence in questioning and listening skills
Quotation follow-up and asking for the order
Identifying future wants and needs
Creating future wants and needs

4. Proposing Specific Solutions
Providing specific advantages and benefits
The role of the buyer and their issues
Buying criteria and decision making process
High Impact Presentation Skills
Asking for the business
Handling price objections.

5. Account Development
Creating effective account development plans
Proposal writing
Bid/Tender responses
Ongoing relationship management

6. Negotiation Skills
Effective negotiation techniques
Positioning attitudes and powerbase creation
WEB methodology
Margin motivation
Value Added Services
Variables for effective negotiation
Goal setting

Poor telephone technique meant they were losing customer satisfaction points.

Bad follow up with customers was providing ongoing problems with repeat business and customer loyalty.

There was little understanding of the sales processes that would create a good
impression on the phone

What we did...

An analysis of the telephone skills of the team showed poor grasp of the fundementals of customer care and sales techniques when talking to callers.

The solution...

Rather than a simple and basic "phone course", we decided to look at their overall approach to the customer and how that was reflected in the systems and processes they used to create an impression.

It was found to be not providing the key results that they required, so we set about working with them to raise their overall standards, and incorporate a phone process that would support their sales and service operations.

By conducting trials and process improvement techniques, the team were able to identify their roles and responsibilities more clearly and to quickly assimilate what they needed to do to improve their service on the phone.

A team exercise showed how they needed to work together to create a good impression and how that could be maintained over a period of time for the customer.

The results...

The feedback was very positive and offered much scope for improving the way the team worked together to improve overall service.

Morale improved and they found it easier to work together as a team to create more positive experiences for the customer.

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Client: Claire's Accessories

The client...

Claire's Accessories identified the requirement for all of their District Sales Managers across 350 locations in the UK to be able to coach and develop their Branch Managers to improve sales in each of their stores.

A program was required to train and develop their District Sales Managers in the art of coaching and staff development.

The solution...

A 2 day "Coaching For Managers" program was designed and delivered that covered coaching models, learning styles, management styles, body language, tonality, inflection, how to conduct one to ones and how to deal with under-performers and over-achievers. These courses were delivered over an 8 month period.

The results:

Now all of their branch managers throughout their stores nationwide are performing at a much higher sales level due to the enhancement in their personal and professional development.

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Client: Serono (Switzerland)

The client...

Serono is a global biotechnology leader with over 4,900 employees and worldwide revenues of USD 2.46 billion and a net income of USD 494 million in 2004.

MTD received a call from the Director of Customer Services Division who wanted to improve the communication skills of his sales and service staff.

He didn't just want the "bog standard" communication skills course.

Instead he wanted to be "WOWed"!

The solutions...

We put together a 2 day Advanced Communications course and delivered it at their Head Quarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

We also included some NLP techniques and Serono were that impressed that they have rolled out and offered our Advanced Communications course to the rest of their company!

Feedback

"On behalf of all the participants, I want to convey our highest level of satisfaction on the course we have received from your trainer. He was a MASTER in communications, an excellent coach and a very friendly person.

Our objectives have been exceeded!

Thank you so much,

Luis Llull
Director Customer Services
Serono International SA

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Client: Sandiford

The client...

Sales of Ford cars and parts were down and the managers were unable

to see how and what to change to improve matters without cutbacks.

What we did:

We analysed the processes used within the business and the motivation of the staff to improve matters.

We discussed ways to increase customer turnaround and marketing ideas that could be used to create more parts sales.

The solution...

We ran a program that covered advanced selling skills and areas that would improve the sales staff's overall confidence in dealing with customers.

We launched a skills program for the after-sales staff that would increase the potential for sales in the locality.

The results...

Within a few months the company were back on track with their sales operation and the parts sales had increased beyond original targets.