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Developing Salespeople Competencies Through
Training The European B2B Sales Institute
Initiative
Sergios Dimitriadis Athens University of
Economics and Business Athens, Greece
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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

The need train the sales professionals of SMEs
(salespersons, sales managers, sales support
people, entrepreneurs) acting in a
Business-to-Business complex sales environment
Why

• Lack of time
• Lack of budget
• Lack of marketing and sales skills
• Lack of awareness of training benefits
• Complex role of the salespeople

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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

• Complex selling is characterized by
• A long and complex sale cycle
• A multi-actor and complex purchasing group
• A strong customer and problem solving orientation
• A sale of solution, customized through several
  internal or external contributors
• A long term customer relationship based on
  confidence

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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

The project EUBBSI a blended vocational
training program (mix of face-to-face and
on-line courses) to develop the managerial
culture and skills of these sales professionals
and to improve their expertise in the
implementation of complex sales processes.
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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

The partners

• 4 European Business Schools
• 1 e-learning content instructional design
  company
• EU co-funded

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List of salespersons activities
1. Selling function Make sales presentation Prepar
e sales presentation Overcome objections Call on
potential accounts Plan selling activities Leads
for prospects Call on new accounts Products to
take on call Presentation "aid" Introduce new
products Help clients plan 2. Working with
orders Expedite orders Write up orders Handle
back orders Handle shipment problems Find lost
orders
3. Servicing the product Present during
repairs Test product Supervise installation Perfor
m maintenance Make deliveries Teach safety
instructions Train customers to use product Order
accessories Learn about product 4. Information
management Provide feedback Check in with
supervisor Feedback from clients Provide
technical information
5. Servicing the account Take inventory for
client Point of purchase Stock shelves Handle
local advertising 6. Conferences
/meetings Attend sales conferences Attend
regional sales meet. Attend periodic
training Work client conferences Fill out
questionnaires Set up exhibitions 7.
Training/recruiting Look for new sales reps Train
new salespeople Travel with trainees Design sales
plan
8. Entertaining Entertain clients Take clients to
dinner Take clients out to drink Throw parties
for client 9. Out of town travel Spend night on
road Travel out of town 10. Working with
distributors Sell to distributors Good relations
with dist.
Source William Moncrief (1986), Journal of
Marketing Research
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List of salespersons competences

• Fundamental business knowledge and skills
• Competences for analyzing the situation at
  customer level
• Competences for managing the sales process
• Competences for working in and with my company
• Competences for cooperating for solution
  implementation
• Competences for maintaining and developing the
  relation
• Competences linked to sales performance

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From salespersons competences to training content

• 1 - Fundamentals of Business
• Understanding the Sales Environment
• Understanding globalization
• Behaving ethically in business
• Dealing with cultural differences in an
  international selling environment
• Getting to know legal aspects of sales
• 2 - Fundamentals of Marketing for Sales
• Solution consultative selling
• Analysing competition and competitors
• Networking for creating a global solution
• Segmenting Markets
• Understanding the position in the supply chain

• 3 - Finance skills for Sales
• Understanding cost structures and cost-drivers
• Financial control of implementation projects
• Evaluating the investment for the buyer and
  understanding its financial goals
• 4 - Understanding Customers Behaviour
• From transactional to relationship selling
• The buying process of industrial customers
• Assessing the customer and evaluating his
  life-time value
• Positioning the offering of the company
• Managing Key Accounts
• Understanding companys culture

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From salespersons competences to training content

• 7- Managing the Sales Performance
• Improving sales performance
• Managing Time
• Learning and development
• Sharing best practices

• 5 - Preparing my Company for Sales
• Understanding and contributing to the marketing
  strategy of my company
• Promoting customer orientation in my company
• Understanding the information system
• Understanding Customer Relationship Management -
  CRM
• Knowledge sharing and management
• 6 - Managing the Sales Process
• Prospecting Phase
• Qualifying a new account
• Revealing the need of the sales prospect
• Building a selling strategy at sales prospect
  level
• Developing your leadership
• Presenting the offer, negotiating, closing
• Managing a project of solution implementation
• Introducing change management
• Building a long term partnership with my customer

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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

The output

• The range of tools, services and resources
  provided by EUBBSI
• Competences Assessment
• Coaching
• 40 learning units, in English French
• Practical exercises
• Group seminars allowing the trainees to meet
  professionals and professors, to engage in role
  playing and to share their experiences
• An e-learning platform
• A certification issued at the end of the training
  program

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Competences Assessment
Competence N6 To know how to reveal the problem of my customer and measure the consequences on his organisation Competence N6 To know how to reveal the problem of my customer and measure the consequences on his organisation
Are you concerned by this competence in your working environment? YES ? NO ? Are you concerned by this competence in your working environment? YES ? NO ?
In order to be able to design my offering, I must know how to reveal the problem of my prospect and help him to measure the consequences of this problem in his organisation For this Your level Weak Middle Strong
I must know in-depth my offering and reveal what could be improved by the solution in the prospect company ? ? ?
I must be able to detect, for each member of the DMU, his main motivation and his main fears ? ? ?
I must be able to lead my prospect to reveal his potential lack of satisfaction ? ? ?
I must be able to lead my prospect to measure the importance of the problem by listing all impacts of the problem on his organisation ? ? ?
I must be able to lead my customer to the desire for a solution ? ? ?
I must help my prospect to feel comfortable and confident so that he can freely express himself ? ? ?
I must be able to be rigorous and convincing in my questioning in order to get an exhaustive and exact information ? ? ?
I must be able to adapt my questioning and arguments to the profile of my contact ? ? ?
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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

• A e-learning Unit consists of
• 30 introductory video lecture
• quiz associated with the video
• hard copy readings
• practical exercise, applied to the trainees
  context
• short report prepared by the learner

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The learning process
Step of the learning process
How
Initial competences self-assessment Meeting 1,
learning path Workshop 1 E-learning Workshop
2 Final session certification
Indiv. vs group, face 2 face vs
on-line Face-to-face, coach Face-to-face,
group On-line, coaching Face-to-face,
group Face-to-face, group
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• European Business-to-Business Sales Institute

The training program
Results

• Training tested on 80 sales professionals and
  100 students
• Technical issues (people, PC, internet)
• Need for practical content (case studies, role
  playing, experience sharing)
• Importance of the face-to-face training part
• Importance of coaching
• Coachs role understand trainees professional
  context, adapt the process, facilitate learning
• Need for local adaptation (language, professional
  context)

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www.eubbsi.com
As a guest, you may access to collective
seminar's presentations and to 2 open e-learning
modules Elearning Catalogue 2 Solution
Consultative Selling - LU 7 Elearning Catalogue
6 Revealing the need of a sales prospect - LU 35

Thank you for your attention!