Direct Sales Case

Title:  Raising Skills & Standards Across a Worldwide Sales Organization

Client:  ATG

Background:

As a provider of sophisticated portal technology, ATG's sales organization had achieved great success. But after the internet bubble burst, their sales efforts were no longer delivering like they used to. They had engaged a company to make cold calls and set up appointments, but the resulting meetings were often dead ends and resulted in few sales.

Greg Lazar, then VP of North American Sales, realized that his team needed new skills and better tactics to compete and win in the new, more challenging economic environment.

 

Why Tactics Were Important:

He had researched almost a dozen sales methodology training programs, but found them all heavy on theory and light on tactics.

"They'd arrive with your solution; it didn't matter what the problem was.

"My people already knew the basics; I just wasn't sure what they'd get from another process or thick binder of charts and graphs."  

 

He later told us that Competitive Selling Tactics was the only training that

was different. Unlike static sales process training, the focus was on ATG and their sale. A CST program would learn their specifics and then teach tactics that were custom-made for their real-world sales situations.

 

What We Taught, and To Whom

Based on Lazar's goals and timetable, a tailored training program was developed. Because the training spanned several quarters, it was designed so workshops could be adjusted 'on the fly' to respond to previously unknown new competitive challenges.

For two days each quarter, these tactical workshops were brought to ATG's sales offices in SF, Chicago, New York and Boston. They had been customized specifically for ATG's sale and the massive changes that had occurred in the prospect's world. 

The ATG Competitive Selling Workshop taught account managers how to create desire for their magical-but-hard-to-describe product - in less than 60 seconds. They learned how to work with the prospect to achieve commitment and success despite organizational and economic constraints. And they learned ways to use 'Words that Work' to revive dormant accounts.

Each learned and honed new ways to sell their product more effectively

The Leverage -- and Results -- of Tactics

While specific results are proprietary information, we can tell you that ATG reported significant strides within four weeks of the first workshop, particularly in the desired areas of reopening and reviving dormant accounts and 'cracking into' accounts that had long been inaccessible.

Because of this success, ATG extended our work and our workshops were brought to their overseas sales offices as well. 

The next year, Greg Lazar -- now the Sr. VP of Worldwide Sales -- brought us back the for an even more ambitious program that included mentoring as well.  He has called our work instrumental in adding over 100 new accounts within a three year period.

"Extremely valuable -- exceeded our expectations."

-- Greg Lazar, Sr, VP WW Sales, ATG