John Hogg are taking their commercial teams to the next level

Written by Huthwaite International

Challenge

Highly specialised and qualified teams needed to strengthen their commercial skills across the board to drive growth. They wanted to trust in sales and negotiation methodologies that offered exceptional new skills and rigorous processes that met the expectations of their academic/research focused backgrounds.

Solution

A Huthwaite sales, negotiation and communication skills pathway was delivered by training professionals who really understood them as an organisation. A collaborative learning journey made the best of their eagerness to learn and focused on changing their behaviour together as a group.

Outcome

A common language and behaviours are used and understood by teams across the organisation. This coupled with the collaborative learning journey they experienced gave them the confidence to quickly and successfully integrate their skills into their daily sales, negotiation and communication practices.

A highly qualified team

John Hogg faced a challenge that many specialised firms face. A motivated team of exceptionally intelligent and qualified professionals who needed to strengthen their commercial skills to drive new business and reassess how they were targeting, winning, and retaining clients.


“Mike engaged our teams immediately and was able to assess individual and group capability precisely. He captured our team’s attention quickly, earning their trust and respect - the collaborative learning journey we undertook together was so engaging and really helped to hone skills quickly so we could practice them with confidence in our real work”.

Yun You, Commercial Manager

The Huthwaite Learning Journey

Huthwaite’s rigorous behavioural research and skills development programmes are built on what the very best salespeople, communicators and negotiators in the world do differently. The Huthwaite Academy full learning journey implemented at John Hogg ensures the sustainable delivery of behaviour change through the following stages:

“Training can be a brilliant intellectual exercise, but I was keen to know how the skills would show up outside the classroom. I found that the Collaborative learning platform really provided us with space for everyone (even those who are normally shy in a group setting) to contribute naturally, and we really benefited learning from and with each other. The Huthwaite skills we learned became more relevant and timely because of the way you learn and use them - it all happens at work and within the context of your own business – it’s so easily translatable to real sales leads and projects”.

Philip Double, Technical and Commercial Director

Key outcomes


  • Working together to map out the skills pathways and where the skills intersections are between teams was crucial to the success of the training.  The Huthwaite Sales Academy approach that John Hogg ultimately chose for their teams demonstrates their commitment to investing in their people.  The comprehensive training programme also offered additional supportive solutions to the main programmes, including SPIN Proposals and Presentations and Communication in a Virtual World that gave teams the confidence they needed during the pandemic when client relationships depended on virtual communication.  

  • John Hogg sell into complex markets which are often very different from each other. Huthwaite training gave them the tools to understand customer needs consistently, regardless of industry or market and a methodical approach to handling very long and complex sales cycles with large buying groups. 

  • John Hogg's shift to integrated commercial teams that are buyer-oriented not product-oriented was a critical change to meet their customers’ changing needs and expectations  - the Huthwaite methodologies supported this change by offering them a process to follow that reinforced their market led approach - ensuring they focus on the value proposition for individual clients.

  • The right trainers are crucial in creating the right conditions for the translation of learning into the ‘real world’. Huthwaite’s lead trainer was selected for his experience training complex sales teams. He was able to identify key behaviours and related skills the team needed so they were able to make the leap quickly and confidently from classroom to workplace, to achieve the sales and strategic success they planned for.

“One of the key skills that the negotiation training has given me is an understanding of what behaviours the other side are using and knowing how to respond to our advantage, while still maintaining a positive overall relationship. There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t use the skills taught in the Complex Negotiations programme - a few things I already did before, but now I can properly structure and plan my responses with confidence!”

Liz Taylor, Buyer

“We’ve really been able to understand our customers in more depth and analyse their needs with more precision and understanding. Overall we have a better idea of where we are in our deals and what we need to do next”

Will Cousins, Senior Customer Manager

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