One-on-One With Imparta’s CEO, Richard Barkey
Imparta Ltd. is a Tier 1 global sales effectiveness organization based in the U.K. with presence in 32 countries including the U.S. They have many strengths, especially in the areas of creating customer value and methodology. Imparta’s sales training programs encompass sales, marketing, and leadership training. ESR commenced formal coverage of Imparta last year. They are serious about taking a leadership position as a global player.
On top of the research we perform on Imparta as a component of our vendor coverage, ESR had an opportunity to see Imparta in action twice: First, we were an active participant, along with about 15 other people, in a half-day seminar on coaching salespeople. In addition, as a task related to our work with a large client where we were guiding them through a sales training vendor evaluation, we sat in on a presentation in response to the client’s RFP. We were able to view their learning and reinforcement technologies first-hand. In both instances we were impressed.
I thought that it would be interesting for you hear what Richard Barkey, Imparta’s CEO, thinks about a number of subjects related to sales effectiveness.
Dave Stein: What buying trends are your clients experiencing with their customers as we slowly escape from the recent global recession?
Richard Barkey: For most of our clients, this recession was very different from the last downturn in 2001. Business customers were more careful in the way they cut costs, ring-fencing areas where clear value was being delivered, and then working to increase that value as far as possible. This focus on value has continued as the economy has started to pick up, but we have started to see a slight relaxation in the way it’s measured. During 2009 we were often helping clients to quantify the benefits of their offerings for buyers wanting a 3-6 month payback period, and that is beginning to return to a more normal timeframe.
In particular, strong companies see significant opportunities as the world staggers away from recession, so they are looking at longer-term investments again, but risk management is still very much the order of the day. What does this mean for business developers? The good news is that they can start rebuilding their longer-term pipelines if they focus on companies with a strong forward-planning culture, but they will have to be ready to demonstrate tangible value, and bring professional risk-alleviation skills to the table.
DS: Imparta has proven capabilities in a number of areas that ESR sees as critical for sales performance improvement going into 2010. Those include technology-enabled learning, and coaching. Can you take me through them one at a time with respect to your philosophy and an example of how you’ve helped a client?
RB: First of all, technology certainly plays a major part in our vision for performance improvement (and I’m glad you call it that rather than training!). In fact, it’s a critical enabler of the whole process.
- At the needs analysis stage, we use online 180 degree assessments and a comprehensive sales competency model to identify where the skill gaps are, and provide a benchmark against which to measure improvement;
- At the learning stage, we use animated pre-work so that we can focus the classroom time on experiential learning. We’re also a leader in computer-based sales simulations, which provide that experiential learning around the strategic elements of a sale. (I’m still a believer in good old role-plays, but they’re best used to “simulate” a single interaction);
- Back in the field, e-learning is used for reinforcement and – critically – as-needed task support. We’ve also developed a new e-learning approach called Sales-Enabled Product Training (SEPT™) that allows rapid development of… well, what it says!
- In the application space, you’ve reported on a number of companies who have made progress during 2009 in integrating their tools into a range of CRM systems. This is an important development, and we will be releasing our own CRM-integrated tools during 2010;
- Technology is also critical at the measurement stage. We use our i-Coach tool to deliver learning, but also to capture and process a wide range of information across all four Kirkpatrick levels, from coaching activities and results, to competency assessments, business impact assessments, and actual salesperson performance. It sits at the heart of our Sales Performance System™, and includes a very powerful reporting system that helps to keep the whole process on track.
Second, coaching. It’s pretty well documented that the quality of sales coaching will make or break any sales performance initiative. As a result, we probably spend as much time getting sales leaders and managers to understand how to coach consultative selling, as we do working with the salespeople and account managers themselves.
To take Telefonica O2 as an example, we train sales managers how to coach, of course, but we also provide them with coaching toolkits, and assign them an Academy Coach who offers “coach the coach” sessions. These involve watching the manager coach a team member, assessing them against a coaching competency framework, and then providing coaching to improve their coaching. Confusing, but it works!
We’ve also found during the recession that we have been asked far more to get involved in direct coaching of deal or account teams. These “deal clinics” are incredibly effective as a way of opening up accounts or putting together winning pitches, and we’re willing to run them a success fee basis.
DS: I know Imparta has a presence in the U.S. How are your expansion plans progressing?
RB: Yes, I’m delighted that we have a strong U.S. client base, including GE, HP, the WPP Group and Intelsat. I lived here for a few years and have an MBA from Harvard, so I have a great deal of interest in the U.S. and spend quite a bit of my time here (as you talk to me I’m actually in Washington DC). We have been steadily growing our presence in this market despite the difficult economy, and we have significant plans for expansion in 2010/11 – as indeed we have across the world. I have appointed a senior executive to oversee our expansion plans, and while in some countries we will be seeking partnerships to drive our presence, in the US we are more likely to continue expanding our existing Imparta account management and delivery team. We are also looking at possible acquisitions here to help accelerate our growth. Despite 2009 being a difficult year for many sales training companies, I see this as an exciting market, and one to which we are culturally much aligned.
DS: I understand you’ve just acquired a company in the field of service excellence. How does that fit with your strategy?
RB: The Procter Consultancy has a great reputation for delivering service improvement, and the acquisition is designed to reinforce Imparta’s ability to add value to the whole of our clients’ customer-facing organizations.
There are plenty of sales training companies around, but very few who combine Sales and Marketing as we do. A big part of our work with our sales clients already involves getting Marketing lined up behind the sales initiatives – for example, producing product training that doesn’t just explain what a product does, but also how to sell it.
Once you add in the service element, you can really start to align all the customer-facing elements of a company, ensuring that the product delivery reinforces the brand and the sales philosophy, and provides a strong input to the “team sell.”
We think this breadth of coverage is fairly unique, and it’s especially important now, because customers are increasingly unforgiving, and quick to share their experiences online. For private and public sector organizations alike, it is critical to ensure that the customer experience delivers on the promises made by sales and marketing.
DS: Thanks, Richard.
Filed under: coaching, CRM, Economy, Interview, Marketing, Methodology, RFP, Sales Training Companies
