Best Program for Sales Training and Performance (training and performance)

Transcription

1 Brandon Hall Winner 2012 Best Program for Sales Training and Performance (training and performance) 2 Business Conditions & Business Needs 3 Overview and Outcomes 6 Design and Delivery 8 Measureable Benefits

2 Business Conditions & Business Needs DHL Express is a division within the German logistics company, Deutsche Post. Through a network spanning more than 220 countries and territories and more than 500 airports, it provides courier and express services to business and private customers across the world. In 2011 its revenue was 11.8 billion Euros and it handled over 468 million shipments across its 2.5 million customer base. Given the global economy and the competitive landscape within logistics industry, DHL Express had taken a decision to focus on becoming International Specialists for time definite express logistics. Having gone through two years of cost reduction and stabilization, the primary objective for DHL Express was to grow its market share and raise its EBIT by 20 per cent in two years. To do this, DHL Express realised that increasing the effectiveness of its 6,000 sales team was key to achieving this goal. After a rocky couple of years, the primary objective for DHL Express was to align its 6,000 sales team to become the number one sales force in the logistics industry. This would not just mean enhancing the performance of the sales team it would also encompass changing the whole culture of the sales team internally and externally, so that a coaching culture could be realised and that the company could become renowned for attracting the best sales people in the industry. The CEO devised a concept called the Certified International Specialist (CIS) program in order to align the sales force. However, the company needed guidance on how it could bring this concept to life through its training programmes and overall global team performance. Previously sales training at DHL Express had been fragmented and country specific. The company had over 14 training workshops and lots of elearning packages, but it had no global curriculum or consistent approach to training across country borders. As a result, there was a lot of duplication across the workshops with multiple suppliers delivering the same content, but in different ways. Plus some territories were missing out, as translation wasn t being addressed. The company knew that they needed a strategy to engage with every salesperson within the business, from sales management leading their teams; to the relationship sales people including telesales and field sales, and to direct sales people involved in lead generating and lead qualifying. 2 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

3 Overview and Outcomes At this stage, DHL Express approached Strategy To Revenue (STR), a global sales effectiveness consultancy with offices in the UK, US and Singapore. 90 per cent of STR client base are global enterprises and it works in partnership with these businesses to transform the way their sales force sells by developing and executing integrated marketing and sales campaigns that are consistently executed from the sales management team, across each region, then each country to all frontline sales staff. Increase Acquisition from new customers by 10% Increase Development from existing customers Reduce sales staff turnover by 15% Improve the customer loyalty measurement result Click image below for CIS_Sales_PowerSession video STR worked with DHL Express to define and break down its goals for sales performance and training. It was agreed that these would be: Develop a high performing sales force recognized as number one in the international logistics Industry Bring the sales community of 6,000 people working in 150+ countries to same level of competence Provide an excellent on-boarding experience for new hires Customize the programme for each role Deliver the programme in 13 languages Have a clear programme in place to support training delivered by sales managers The bottom line objectives for enhancing the sales performance and training were: In order to fully understand the current situation with sales performance and training, STR analysed all of the inconsistencies and inefficiencies that has resulted from the old approach to ascertain what would be required to create a world class sales organization that is known as the best in the logistics industry STR used the Anatomy of a World Class Sales organisation model (Corporate Executive Board 2009 Copyright) to benchmark DHL Express on a number of key factors that drive Sales Talent Management (see above). 3 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

4 Rebecca Stephens, who was once sponsored by DHL Express on her mission to climb Mount Everest Changing Roles and Responsibilities for Learner, Trainer and Manager One of the most important stages within this process was getting under the skin of a business s challenges by engaging with the employees. With that in mind, STR met with DHL Express top 50 sales people across the world to identify what had previously helped and hindered them in their learning process and what they believed to be most influential to get the best results. As a result of this research, STR identified that there was a clear need to change the way sales people viewed training and learning. With that in mind, STR broke the roles down to develop the strategy that outlined the journey that each role would need to go on to reach their potential, which would ultimately uplift the performance of the sales force across the globe. These were: The sales person would need to step up and be proactive in meeting their learning needs Moving from a passive trainee, to a proactive learner to a high performance employee The sales manager would need to support and develop the sales person through coaching and mentoring Moving from a manager to a manager/ coach to a coach/ manager The sales trainer must become more than a trainer they must become performance advisor Moving from a trainer to a facilitator to a performance advisor With that in mind, STR developed a journey themed programme based on a mountaineering metaphor The Sales Manager being the Guide; The Sales Reps the Climbers; both working together to achieve one goal reaching the summit. To support this mountaineering theme DHL Express interviewed a famous mountain climber, Rebecca Stephens, who was once sponsored by DHL Express on her mission to climb Mount Everest. This mountaineering theme intended to align the overall business by helping each member of the sales force reach their potential which in the short term would bring the Certified International Specialist (CIS) Sales concept to life and over the long term enable DHL Express to achieve its wider objective of becoming the number one sales force in the logistics industry. The programme would entail various tracks, aligned to the role of the salesperson, so that they could be trained in areas that are particularly pertinent to their job. The key facets for each track included: Sales Management To lead a high performing sales team in support of the DHL Express Go to Market Strategy Using the pipeline information to produce accurate forecasts Using data on individual sales performance to direct coaching and development activity 4 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

5 To manage and develop the sales team to deliver a consistent performance that meets or exceeds the company s expectations Fieldsales & Telesales To optimize activity on large portfolio of accounts Drive acquisition, development and maintenance business in balanced and effective manner Skilfully conduct customer interactions to win and sustain loyal customers Maintain a predictable pipeline of sales opportunities Close profitable business in a timely and predictable manner Lead Qualifier Maintain a consistent high quality approach to converting suspect leads to prospect leads Skilfully conduct customer interactions to create a positive first impression of DHL Express DHL Express Trainer Work with the sales organization to ensure sharing of best practice Helping individuals to meet their learning aspirations through expert facilitation Supporting the sales manager in improving the performance of sales individuals by offering advice and guidance regarding coaching, learning and development Accredited to deliver the CIS Sales Tracks relevant to their level So far the following activities have been achieved: A CIS Sales Kick Off two day workshop to the top Sales Leadership has been rolled out in each of the four regions (Americas, Europe, Emerging Markets and Africa/ AsiaPac.) It was essential that the top sales leadership in the regions were behind the program and could communicate the benefits through the rest of the sales organization. Train the Facilitator (TTF) concepts for the top DHL Express Sales Trainers were used to deliver the Sales Management program The CIS Sales POWERsession was delivered by DHL Sales Trainers to the sales managers and sales representatives to launch the program The Sales Management program was rolled out in 13 languages The Field Sales & Telesales program was rolled out in 13 languages 5 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

6 Design and Delivery As outlined, the concept behind the CIS Sales program was to create an engaging and well executed learning journey. The learning journey comprised of five key stages, with stages one three being completed within an eight week period. Each stage of the journey represented a different mountain to climb, each of which has different characteristics and challenges. The mountaineering metaphor was used for a number of reasons; the Learning Journey and the metaphor can be considered to have a number of common characteristics: facing a challenge, realising a sense of achievement on completion, working with others, sometimes being guided, using different approaches for different aspects, occasional setbacks, and ultimately being representative of peaks and troughs. Click image below for My Learning Journey video Stage one The Rockies Journey preparation Overview, Goals, Motivation Stage two The Alps Welcome to History, Brand, Global Network, Countries, Functions Stage three The Himalayas Application and execution On the job delivery Stage four Mount Kilimanjaro Continuous improvement and reinforcement Results Focused Stage five Mount Fiji and beyond Continuous improvement and reinforcement Results Focused The time that each employee spent on each stage would be dependent upon their requirements and the progress they made, but there were certain check points for which they would get a stamp in their learning passport as recognition of how they were advancing. Employees could monitor their progress within their Learning Diary. Along the journey there are stamps and accreditations. The number of stamps in their passport ultimately builds up the overall CIS accreditation the learner requires a 95 per cent pass rate in order to be fully qualified. 6 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

7 Knowledge Transfer Portal Various tracks will be run within the learning journey, so that the content within the training is aligned to the requirements of the role from managers, through to telesales/ fieldsales/ lead qualifiers and sales trainers accommodating new starters through to seasoned professionals. To complement their learning journey, learners were equipped with a Learning Diary which instructs the participant through their learning; providing selfassessments and linking them to coaching conversations with colleagues on the same track across the globe. To further complement the Knowledge Transfer Portal, STR developed a series of regional ACTIONsessions high impact face-to-face workshops. These sessions enable participants to learn effective application and execution of the principles learnt through the Knowledge Transfer. As part of their learning journey, participants also have access to an online coaching feedback survey whereby the sales managers can assess themselves and then all of their sales team can also anonymously feedback on their progress. The results of these reports are delivered in the ACTIONsessions.To promote the programme, DHL Express developed comprehensive marketing communciations materials. This included a dedicated CIS Sales Microsite to help promote the Sales Management program and also the release of a CIS Sales Magazine explaining the program and its benefits to the people and the business. CIS Sales Magazine To further support their learning journey, STR developed a Knowledge Transfer Portal. This was a hub for information and was led by a video presenter introducing a library of learning topics including online modules, whitepapers and PDFs. The Knowledge Transfer also linked to a number of offline activities to be completed through the Learning Diary. 7 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

8 To support the DHL Express trainers, a Facilitator portal was developed to provide an automated approach to sending out invitations; ordering the Learning Diaries and materials for the ACTIONsession and to send out evaluation feedback surveys post the training. The portal was integrated with the ordering system of the printer supplier Knowledge Point and also with DHL Express own online shipment tracking system. This has radically reduced the burden on the DHL trainers and ensured a scalable approach to roll out the program. Click image below for CIS_Facilitator_Portal_Demo video Measureable Benefits How did we measure ROI/Impact & What were results (Kirkpatrick) Level 1 Feedback from KT & ACTIONsession Level 2 Are people using it in their daily work Level 3 Change in Behaviour Level 4 Change to the business (forecast accuracy, attrition, customer loyalty) Level 5 Measurable ROI Recent results published show that DHL Express continued to boost its revenues and earnings in the first quarter of Revenues climbed by nearly 10 percent to more than EUR 3 billion in the first three months of 2012 (2011: EUR 2.8 billion). The CIS program as been seen as a fundamental initiative to support this upward trend. What is next Enterprise Key Account Track STR are now developing a learning journey for the Enterprise sales teams including all the key components of the knowledge transfer and ACTIONsession aligned to the advanced skills needs for their role. Video Skills Reinforcement Modules STR are developing a series of short 5-10 minute video skills modules to show good and bad practice in action. 8 Brandon Hall Winner 2012

9 POWERsessions on key sales skills and development topics STR have started the development of the DiSC POWERsession for Sales Managers to deliver to their teams to help reinforce the importance of understanding personality profiles when engaging in both coaching and with your customer selling activity. Advanced Sales Management Programme We are embarking on research and analysis behind an advanced program for elite sales management Coaching Playbook to support sales managers with root cause analysis and the specific coaching conversations with sales executives This is an online coaching playbook that will increase the effectiveness of the coaching interactions between managers and sales reps. Managers will be able to access this on the web via their laptop or tablet device. Tim Martin, Global VP, Sales Strategy & Development at DHL Express explains: When I started, I worked for TNT and I always remember at the time, DHL was the only company that could send to Saudi Arabia, DHL at the time was the only company that could send to China, we had Africa locked up, we had so many service advantages but of course over time competitive advantage started to narrow with the advent of technology and the changes. So the feedback that we ve got from the field of course is that whilst our colleagues in Operations and the GMB are always supporting investments in our network and in our service standards, we do need to make sure that our sales people on the front line continue to sell value and are able to differentiate. So CIS Sales is about sharpening the sword to use an old analogy or metaphor, and it is about really reinvesting back in our people to make sure that when DHL Sales professionals are in front of the customer, they are absolutely the number one in their profession and they are well supported. Clearly now what CIS is about is about reinvesting back into our people and back into the frontline. 9 Brandon Hall Winner 2012