Program Implementation Process

5 Programs

The Program Implementation Process is a roadmap for the way in which we work with customers to ensure that our client partners have a process for building accountability and execution from the senior leaders to the front lines. Measurement and validation services are built into the process to assess the skill/knowledge transfer and business impact of sales and sales management training initiatives. This assures that clear measures of success are built into the implementation from the beginning.

Effective installation of any change effort, be it a new sales culture or simply elevating current levels of performance and results, requires that people do things differently. Therefore, it is mandatory that any consulting intervention:

      • Results in behavior change on the job.
      • Results in long-term sustained change.
      • Provides the organization with new and higher sales, sustainable revenue growth, and sales management performance standards.
      • Achieves measurable top and bottom-line impact.

To achieve these results, careful thought must be given to the Implementation Process, which must:

 

      • Provide key stakeholders with the opportunity to give input into the implementation process and content.
      • Integrate key systems, processes, best practice, policies, and products into the training, or recommend adjustments to those that exist.
      • Identify current base lines of sales and sales management performance and competence.
      • Create organizational excitement around the changes being implemented.
      • Ensure the organizational readiness necessary to achieve results.
      • Orchestrate senior management ownership and involvement.
      • Ensure the content of the program captures the culture and the most critical organizational issues.
      • Ensure that performance management and reward systems reinforce the training.
      • For the implementation process to reach these objectives, Versability’s approach is as follows:

Programs Include:

1. Start by establishing clear outcomes and desired behaviors

It’s not enough to simply identify the problems or skill gaps – you must clearly define the behaviors you want your sales team to use. You must also link the behaviors to a clearly defined process. It’s the combination of behaviors and process that allows your managers to coach your team to better performance. Versability’s Balanced Seller® sales methodology provides that common language.

2. Ensure that product knowledge and market intelligence are included

Sales process never stands alone. It must be learned and applied in the context of the products you sell and the marketplace within which you compete. Your sales team has a portfolio of products that can outperform competitive offerings. But it does no good to have a Ferrari in the garage if no one knows how to drive it. It’s essential that you ensure that your sales team is fluent in your product suite and knows how to position these offerings against all competitors. Product fluency is a key competitive differentiator and one that is often overlooked.

3. Establish a post-implementation process to support and drive the new behaviors

Providing consistent training is just the first step. Now you need to make sure the training is applied consistently and accurately in order to get the results you want. This means establishing a consistent method of selling (i.e., sales process) in order to raise performance for everyone. This will require ongoing coaching from sales leaders that includes clear goals and regular reviews.

4. Create “stickiness” for the learning and behaviors

Learning new skills is hard – forgetting or ignoring them is easy. You must recognize that putting new skills/processes into place is going to require ongoing reinforcement in the form of follow-up learning, monitored practice, feedback and recognition. This must become your sales leaders’ primary focus until the new behaviors and practices are fully integrated into the organization.

5. Hold people accountable

Without accountability the entire process collapses. You must establish metrics that go beyond simply measuring sales results. Sales managers must be held accountable for providing ongoing evaluation and feedback against an established set of measurements that include behaviors as well as results.