Case Study: One Company's Sales Training Vendor Evaluation
Last June I was delighted to be interviewed again by Geoffrey James. Geoffrey writes the informative and ever-entertaining Sales Machine blog for BNET. As I’ve said before, he’s a great writer and he really understands selling.
The result this time was Geoffrey’s fine piece (PDF, with permission) that was just published in Selling Power about how my firm, ES Research Group, assisted a client through a sales training vendor selection process. (For those interested in this important topic, John Esposito, VP of Sales of AMICAS, another ESR client, will be keynoting at the upcoming ASTD Virtual Sales Training Conference. He’ll be talking about his company’s journey through that process.)
I’m not only pleased about the coverage. I’m delighted that companies have been coming to ESR to provide resources and guidance for something that few companies get right—selecting a sales training company. From those engagements we’ve got other case studies to share. We’ll be doing that over time.
It’s not easy for sales leaders to successfully evaluate and choose a long-term sales performance improvement partner. They have too little time, too few resources, too much pressure to do it quickly, and many just don’t have the experience or knowledge of how to manage a process such as this. And, when there are potentially dozens of what would seem like viable alternatives, including trainers that aren’t well-known, the challenge multiplies in size and complexity. That’s why buyers of sales training take short-cuts and wind up with little or nothing in return for their investment of time and money in training.
On the other side of the equation, sales trainers are loathe to respond to RFPs. I understand that. I really do. As we all know, most RFPs are are driven by a vendor who got in there first, so everyone else is at a severe disadvantage. Plus, it takes work to respond to an RFP. Few sales training companies have resources available to respond to them.
Where ESR is involved, however, we assure all participating vendors that 1) there is a real opportunity, 2) it is adequately funded, 3) it has executive sponsorship, 4) the requirements have not been influenced by any vendor, 5) they stand an even chance of winning out of the gate, and 6) they will have an opportunity to present their unique value, experience and vision of a solution to the client. Vendors serious about earning a client’s business appreciate this and assist in the process by providing the answers our clients need.
The good news for vendors in not only this case, but others in which ESR was involved, is the vendor winds up being selected because they have the highest chance of being successful meeting the client’s requirements, not because they outsold the competition or influenced the buying criteria to meet their unique strengths. The vendors who are selected through the process highlighted in this article are delighted with the outcome. So are their clients.
In any case, I hope this two-page story provides some value for you. Thanks to Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and publisher of Selling Power, for his help in bringing this case study to you.
Will you be joining me at SMT’s annual conference in Orlando, October 14-16? My keynote will cover the state of sales training and what we all have to do, from both the delivering and consuming sides, to (finally) increase sales effectiveness. If you will be there, let me know. We’ll set up a time to chat, one-on-one.
Filed under: Sales Training Companies, sales process
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