Sony brought together its European Video Conferencing sales team for a four day programme focused on developing the skills and strategies needed to win account sales in a highly competitive market.
Six teams of delegates competed over the four days to win the business in a custom built simulation of a sale. Managers coached their teams at each step of the sale with senior managers playing the customer roles to bring the simulation alive and to ensure it reflected as closely as possible the real selling situation in which the Sony sales teams have to compete.
To overcome the language difficulties, inevitable in such a large group drawn from so many countries, Huthwaite International provided trainers from its European network to explain inputs in the appropriate languages and to allow delegates to practise their selling skills in their native language.
Tony Willshire of Huthwaite, who developed the programme, commented: “This was one of the most complex programmes I have ever delivered with 30 delegates drawn from 15 countries all competing in a sales simulation. We were given tremendous help in developing the simulation by Eric Sierveld and Adam Fry of Sony Video Conferencing, without them we couldn’t have produced such a realistic event.”
In addition to inputs covering a wide range of skills needed to influence customers at each stage of the decision-making process, the programme also introduced delegates to a set of planning documents to guide them through each stage of the sale and to help them plan their account strategy.
Adam Fry, European Business Manager said “The Huthwaite SPIN Opportunity Management programme gave us a rare opportunity to bring together so many of our people of different nationalities, and see them working as a team. It also allowed Sony sales managers, who played the role of buyers in the simulation, to have insight into the skills of the entire team in a short time which would have been difficult to create in any other way.” At the end of a demanding week the winning teams received their prizes from Nick Twyman who is responsible for developing the global market for Video Conferencing.
“The Huthwaite SPIN Opportunity Management programme gave us a rare opportunity to bring together so many of our people of different nationalities, and see them working as a team. It also allowed Sony Sales Managers, who played the role of buyers in the simulation, to have insight into the skills of the entire team in a short time which would have been difficult to create in any other way."
Adam Fry, European Business Manager, Sony