The Challenge

Global manufacturing company SMC was highly successful in Australia but its parent company in Japan had high growth expectations for the APAC region. Demanding sales targets were set for all subsidiaries and SMC Australia recognised that investment was necessary to build sales capacity and enable its sales team to achieve its stretch targets.

In order to meet its strategic goals SMC determined that it needed to cultivate and drive a positive sales culture. In particular salespeople needed to foster deeper customer relationships, acquire new customers and better understand their customer’s business requirements and critical success factors by asking more future-focused and challenging questions.

The Answer

The Sales Director, James McKew, decided to implement The Counsellor Salesperson (CSP)*. James was introduced to CSP in a previous role at Ecolab. The impact on sales results, and on James personally, were such that he subsequently introduced CSP into three other sales organisations in Australia, plus global sites in China, Brazil and the USA.

CSP is regularly updated to keep pace with changes in the market and fits perfectly with today’s communication methods. Consistently, I have seen it bring people amazing personal and professional growth.

James McKew, Group Sales and Marketing Director for SMC

A group of SMC Regional and Branch Managers was selected to participate in a CSP train-the-trainer program. Once accredited, they delivered CSP to the entire SMC sales force in Australia and New Zealand.

The Value

Four months after attending CSP, a study group participated in an Impact Evaluation. They each selected a recent sale, totalling AUD 964,978. Measurement indicators showed that 45% of this sales revenue was attributed to the skills gained from CSP.

On average, 77% of participants said that CSP resulted in significant positive change in their behaviour, with managers reporting an even higher increase. The biggest improvements were in their abilities to establish deeper levels of trust and credibility, confidently address customer issues and questions, achieve a more accurate and complete client discovery and understand customer business needs, motivations and requirements.

CSP enables salespeople to build relationships that differentiate them to the point that they are not seen as a sales professional, but rather as a trusted advisor who brings value to the table far beyond the products and services on offer.

Glen Ricks, SMC Regional Sales Manager

* A Wilson Learning Worldwide program

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