Are Miller Heiuman Sales Trainings Effective?Have you ever attend a sales training only to think that you can indeed develop the techniques and do what they are recommending? And then you go home and merrily resume your old way of doing things, right? Yes, I know from experience. Take a tip - never stop learning. While recently reviewing some case studies from the Miller Heiman Sales Training web page, I came across a study that peaked my interest as it is about a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, company. My daughter lives in Pittsburgh, which is why I started reading the article. Then, I realized that I use the sleep apnea equipment manufactured by this company, thus making me even more curious about whether this training was effective. As I read more about the accomplishments of the Miller Heiman sales training concerning this company, my interest switched from a curiosity about a 'local' company to interest in the sales techniques and effectiveness of the presentation from Miller Heiman. The company's goal was to help its salespeople better understand the needs of their customers' before calling on them through the use of Miller Heiman's Conceptual Selling presentation. The company contact said, "To help increase revenues, we wanted to give our salespeople a game plan for going into a sales call. When a lawyer goes into a courthouse, he or she goes in prepared with a game plan. Everyone has a game plan in life. And salespeople need a game plan too." I couldn't have said it better myself! Anyhow, this company trained both the sales force and its marketing people in Conceptual Selling. In this way, they could all discuss and understand the techniques, talking in the same language so to speak. In the four-hour online session and the following day of certification, these employees learned the benefits of doing their homework on their accounts before making the call. Questionnaires were introduced asking pertinent questions to discover what each customer's needs were. These questionnaires then created a type of 'model' questionnaire for each sales call. According to the article, it is too soon for documented outcomes, but current feedback is very positive with numerous success stories. "It's only been less than a year, but we're hearing that Conceptual Selling is getting our salespeople's minds back where they need to be..." Looks to me like not only do the salespeople benefit from this training, but the company does as well! |