1. Fending Off a Direct Competitive Threat

Challenge: To prepare a large sales staff to counter a potentially serious marketing innovation from this client's number one competitor.

Solution: "Zero Tolerance: How to Sell Competitively." A series of 20 person half-day training sessions focused on competitive analysis and being pro-active in handling expected objections.

Result: Increased confidence in meeting their new challenge and minimum loss of business to their competitor.

2. Winning in a Price War

Challenge: To defend vs. price-cutting competitors.

Solution: "Selling Value vs. Price." A one day program for 17 people focusing on how to establish value in the probing process, sell value in presenting, manage the challenges to value in handling objection, and defend value in negotiating.

Result: More empowered reps and increased profit margins.

3. Getting to the Point

Challenge: To satisfy senior management's needs for relevant information and to cast this IT department in a more favorable light for career promotions.

Solution: "How Make the Complex Simple and the Simple Meaningful." A two day program for eight people: one day video-tape based group learning workshop followed a week later by a morning of group video-taped presentations and an afternoon of individual 45 minute tutorials.

Result: Increased confidence on the part of the IT people to give crisper, more relevant presentations. Happier senior management. Enhanced image of IT department overall.

4. Upselling for Non-Sales People

Challenge: To get non-sales, client service managers to cross-sell and up-sell various asset management products to existing clients.

Solution: A one-day program for fifteen people that changed this group's negative perception of selling, showed them how to identify selling opportunities, and gave them the skills to initiate potential new business discussions.

Result: Participants lost their fear and discomfort with their new mandate to help bring in new business and were able to generate additional leads for the bank.

5. Supercharge Creative Thinking

Challenge: The Editor-in-Chief of the number one publication in its field wanted to inject fresh thinking into her editorial staff.

Solution: A half-day creative thinking program for fifty people including editors, promotion, research and marketing staff.

Result: That afternoon at their idea generating session, they came up with totally new ideas that they implemented in the magazine.

6. Basics for "Newbies"

Challenge: To give presentation skill basics to 75 new hires as part of their orientation to a top investment banking firm.

Solution: A two hour "monster" class in presenting incorporating lecture, brief exercises and a sample before-and-after video-tape of a typical client presentation meeting that we created just for this program

Result: Participants left with a basic understanding of what works/doesn't work in a presentation and tools to ensure that they could acquit themselves reasonably well in a client meeting.

7. Polish the Pros

Challenge: Top financial services executive search firm experiencing increasing competition wanted to increase consultative selling and presentation skills of its 6 top producers.

Solution: One day group program using videotape followed by one day of individual tutorials with video.

Result: Amazed participants! They didn't realize how much more they could be doing to build trust with clients, develop stronger business opportunities with better strategic questioning, and present more effectively to win business.