Assessing for Top Sales Skills and Gaps: Technology & Services

Assessing for Top Sales Skills and Gaps

Identifying the Top Money Making Sales Skills and Gaps

Client Case Study

Assessing for Top Sales Skills and Gaps at a Technology & Services Firm

Situation

This global Fortune 500 technology and services company wanted to identify the top “money making” sales skills required to execute their new go-to-market strategy so that they could invest wisely in the training and development of their 250+ person sales force.

The company wanted to:

  1. Get sales leadership aligned with the most critical skills
  2. Identify the specific core skills that are differentiating high from low performers

Complications

  • Varied sales processes, sales tools, and sales methodologies
  • Moving from “taking orders” to selling more complex holistic solutions to more executive buyers

Approach

  1. Identified key metric to move
    % Attainment of Quota
  2. Identified target audience with the greatest potential impact
    253 sales reps
  3. Created a customized Leader Assess Survey
    for executives and leaders to prioritize the key skills required to succeed both now and in the future
  4. Created and administered a customized Team Assess Survey
    to identify the proficiency levels of the sales force
  5. Analyzed and Benchmarked
    Correlated high and low proficiency levels to % attainment of quota and then benchmarked sales performance coaching activities against AT&T, DELL, Ernst & Young, FedEx, IBM and Xerox.

Results

  • 88% response rate
  • 12 key consultative sales skills agreed to by leadership
    out of a list of 150 behavioral-based sales competencies:

  • 39% difference in % Attainment of Quota
    between high and low proficiency levels across the 12 key skills
  • Identified top three major strength areas to reinforce
    • Sales Team Alignment
    • Qualifying
    • Technical Knowledge
  • Identified bottom four weak sales skills areas to develop
    • Sales Negotiations
    • Financial Acumen
    • Positioning and Presenting
    • Consultative Selling
  • Identified a lack of Sales Performance Coaching
    as a foundational limiting factor in the areas of Sales Managers:

    • Debriefing meetings and presentations (52.1% of the time)
    • Helping to prep for meetings and presentations (52.2% of the time)
    • Sharing concerns of ability or progress (52.4% of the time)
    • Modeling how to deal with customers (58.3% of the time)
    • Setting clear annual goals, performance standards, and personal objectives (64.1% of the time).

Assessing for Top Sales Skills and Gaps: Technology & Services – Client Impact

Related Information

We engaged with LSA Global to help our sales team identify opportunities to accelerate our commitment to sales excellence. The facilitator’s shared passion for our goals created a foundation for sales skill adoption, as did LSA’s keen understanding of our unique business environment.

This insight allowed LSA to deliver customized and impactful business sales training workshops which were adapted to reflect our specific business dynamics and provided our employees with the sales models and tools to leverage on every call with customers.

Grant Clarke
Director Client Delivery

Service Source

Seagate has always found LSA to be a highly valuable consulting, training, and coaching resource.

The recent business sales training programs they’ve delivered for Seagate University have been the right solution, of highest of quality, and highly customized to our unique business and culture.

I would highly recommend LSA to any company interested in offering top notch learning solutions that make a difference.

Tammy Dujmovich
Sales, Marketing & Customer Service

Seagate

We engaged with LSA Global to deliver a highly customized sales territory planning and management workshop. They have a unique ability to quickly understand our business and needs. This keen understanding allowed for a sales solution that was specific and impactful.

Their sales consultants and facilitators were well prepared and ingrained themselves to become one of us. We’ve come to see LSA Global as a true sales partner.

Pratiksha Patel
Assistant Vice President Talent

L'Oreal

We value the relationship we have with LSA Global. They customize and deliver top quality sales solutions when we needed them. They pay special attention to ensuring the solution fits our unique needs, business, and culture.

I would recommend them to anyone looking to greatly improve the skills of their sales force.

Carol M. Harbin
Manager, Worldwide Sales L&D

AMD

LSA’s customized Effective Presentation Skills program has helped us elevate our presentation skills to the next level. I personally now have a much greater self-awareness of my presentation skills and can leverage my strengths while working to improve upon other areas.

I definitely recommend LSA Global to anyone for whom presentations are an integral part of their job.

Jim Elliott
Senior Marketing Manager

Samsung

LSA is a great and high quality training and consulting resource. In less than a week turnaround time, they were able to design and deliver a ‘best in class’ inside sales solution to meet my team’s unique needs.

They definitely met my high expectations and were very responsive to my specific objectives.  Thank you!

Olivia Flach
Americas Retail Sales

Sandisk

LSA’s introduction and continuous reinforcement of the MEDRAD objectives, vision, and mission were very impressive. The majority now understands and is openly able to verbalize these key items.

LSA did a wonderful job introducing the importance of sales coaching and reinforcement and was able to keep everyone focused.

Cindy Steffen
National Manager, Telesales

LSA custom designed and delivered the best sales training session that I have ever attended.

They focused on our industry, our customers, and our competitors. The materials and facilitators were world class.

They were passionate about helping our global sales force understand the fundamentals necessary to be successful and not leave money on the table.

I recommend them to any sales force looking to drive profitable revenue and beat the competition.

Carl Dickenson
Director of Sales

Cutera

LSA Global demonstrated excellent expertise in sales and sales leadership, spent the time required to make sure the objectives were clear, and showed flexibility in shaping and sustaining everything that they did.

They “MEDRADized” the session to meet our unique needs, looked beyond the obvious, and got the key points across in a way that made sense.  Thank you!

Doug Stantial
North America Sales Training Manager

We recently hired LSA Global to help take our sales team to the next level. Specifically we focused on targeting the ideal client, differentiating our solutions, getting more qualified leads, and closing a higher percentage of our pipeline through a proven referral selling methodology.

So far, the results from the business sales training have been great. We were pleasantly surprised with the results-oriented approach and thoughtful follow-through plan to ensure that the new sales practices “stick.”

We look forward to a long-term relationship, and I would recommend LSA to anyone looking to increase the effectiveness of their sales force.

Patrick Arnold
President

Filice

We selected LSA Global over several other sales experts based upon their ability to clarify and align our sales strategy, their expertise in identifying the critical sales scenarios necessary to meet our growth targets, and their willingness to stand behind the results with targeted sales management training and coaching and a pay-for-performance guarantee.

They have become an integral part of my sales team as we rapidly scale. I would recommend them to any sales  leader looking for a true partner.

Anthony Lanham
SVP, Sales North America

Jumio-Logo-LSAGlobal

LSA Global has been a great partner in helping us move toward being “the leading developer of talent in the service performance management industry.”

I have engaged LSA to help develop best-in-class programs in the areas of: Executive On-boarding, Manager Training, Sales Training and Coaching, Employee Engagement, and Instructional Design.

They have consistently met or exceeded my (very) high expectations and are always responsive to my needs to increase performance, engagement, customer satisfaction, and sales growth.

Mike Normant
Senior Director, Training & Development

Service Source

We needed a way to improve customer training. We had to reach a disparate group of people in a very short period time. LSA gave us a new training methodology and a better way to go to market with our customer training that improved their experience and our brand positioning.

LSA delivered exactly what we needed and exceeded our expectations.  Thank you.

Hinda Chalew
Vice President of Marketing

We evaluated 6 well known sales development partners in the market. We ended up selecting LSA global because of their unique ability to get results selling solutions.  They also had the strongest assessment, implementation, measurement, coaching, and global capabilities .

We’ve had such strong feedback from the executive selling program that there are requests to roll it out within the Marketing, Product Management, and our Leadership teams.  Thank you LSA!

Stephanie Lucey
HR Manager

LSA Global rocks! Thank you for helping our executive team get aligned by creating a powerful and clear strategic direction and go to market sales growth plan that we could all fully commit to.

From a sales growth perspective, I am really energized about the outcome and grateful for what I have learned throughout the strategic clarity facilitation process.

Stacey Wong
VP Sales

Servicon-Logo-LSAGlobal

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