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In a turbulent radio advertising market that has been in structural decline year on year for almost 10 years now, the Lagardère Publicité group (Europe 1, Elle, Gulli...) has made the strategic choice to move away from selling advertising space to designing increasingly diversified global offers, tailored to their customers' needs. This highly strategic change in business model is beginning to bear fruit, but it also represents a minor revolution for the Group's sales teams, who must develop specialized skills specific to "complex sales", in order to convince key account customers whose decision-making cycles are long and involve numerous players : decision-makers, internal influencers and/or intermediaries (media, advertising or event agencies)... And to move from a product/brand orientation to a questioning approach focused on "customer issues"!

Franck GODIN, Radio Sales Director at Lagardère Publicité, heads up the team of some twenty sales representatives in charge of the group's 3 flagship stations (Europe 1, Virgin Radio and RFM), and looks back on the system implemented with KESTIO to develop the skills of its sales teams. The program was subsequently extended to more than 100 Lagardère Group sales staff.

1. What triggered your sales training project?

Franck Godin: At the outset, our main objective was to win new customers: after a complicated period, and in a market context that has been fairly tense for media in general over the past 10 years, we wanted to grow and win new business in our market, and to do so we didn't hesitate to review our business model.

Not an easy task, given that the radio sector - although less affected than the print and outdoor media by the difficulties associated with the massive arrival of digital on the advertising market - has been experiencing a structural decline in revenues for several years.

We have over 500 customers. Our customer renewal rate is around a third a year for advertising space purchases, and almost twice as high for "special operations" (which include an events component, editor's note). So the stakes are high.

Our strategy must also guarantee our margins in order to increase profitability : this is based, among other things, on the development of new integrated offers, drawing on the rich possibilities offered by our different media brands. We are constantly creating new solutions, in collaboration with different internal teams and in line with our customers' needs.

The sales profession in our field has thus evolved considerably in recent years : from sellers of advertising space, sales people have become sellers of global solutions around a media brand.

We called on KESTIO to support the development of our teams' skills, and the implementation of this new sales operating mode : we are now involved in much more complex sales, so we had to build a different sales model.

2. How did the collaboration with Kestio go? What training programs were put in place?

F.G.: Initially, KESTIO was asked by Lagardère to run a sales seminar for 45 people (the 20 sales people on the radio team, plus the creative and marketing teams).

This was followed by a 2-day training course on the Exchequer Method for the team of 20 radio sales representatives, to "set the scene" and provide the basics of the method.

This was followed by individual coaching over a one-year period, 2 hours a month, by 4 KESTIO consultants.

This kind of sales support represents a major investment, so we started with the seminar as a first step, before moving on to training courses.

In the end, the project took on much greater scope : we presented the KESTIO solutions to the Human Resources department, and the training was extended to all Lagardère Publicité sales staff (press, digital and TV), i.e. a hundred employees in all.

3. What objectives have you set yourself with this training program?

F.G. : The initial objective was simply to increase the sales force's ability to win new customers.

We then moved on to the idea of strengthening our sales teams' coverage of the "right contacts", i.e. being able to address not only the Communications Director, our traditional contact, but also other players involved in the decision or influencers (for example, the CSR manager for an environment-related event project) and of course all the intermediaries in the chain: media, creative and advertising agencies...

On some deals, we have up to 4 intermediaries or service providers involved, in addition to our customer, who each give their opinion on the final purchasing decision!

In addition to the number of customers, we also wanted to increase the share of "special operations" in our sales (operations that set our customers apart, but also event-based operations).

All this means developing in-depth knowledge of our customers, working more closely with them and gathering information on their organization and business challenges.

It's easy to say, but difficult to do, and KESTIO 's intervention helped us to progress and anchor these practices thanks to a highly individualized approach to each employee.

4. Are you already seeing results from these actions? What are the main benefits?

F.G.: First of all, we've noticed a real awareness on the part of our sales teams. Initially, they found the training rather confusing.

One sales rep even told me after the first training module that he felt he had to "learn to walk again". The image is strong, but there was a real destabilization phase.

Once this had been done, the sales team took to applying the method quite naturally. They now have a much better understanding of our customers and their needs.

We apply this method to our customers and to the intermediaries we have already mentioned, with the result that our success rate is on the rise when it comes to the famous complex devices (special operations), because we know how to adapt and react quickly to all the players in the decision-making chain.

This better understanding of our customers' challenges, combined with the diversification of our offerings, also enables us to win over new advertisers.

We are more effective in our overall sales strategy: we are fortunate to have a highly diversified range of offerings, so it's up to us to find the right solution for our customers, based on our in-depth knowledge of their challenges.

On a managerial level, the training has also brought about changes in our practices: individual coaching sessions based on questioning have been introduced and systematized between managers and their team members. These individual meetings are the perfect complement to team meetings.

Involving managers in the process is essential to support this transformation of sales practices. It must be integrated as far upstream as possible.

5. How do you see the future? What are the main challenges ahead?

F.G. : We now have a major challenge in sustaining the results of these actions: having passed a milestone in terms of special operations on the group's three stations (Europe 1, Virgin Radio, RFM), we now need to confirm these results over time.

Our main challenge is to integrate digital into our media recommendations. We have to convince our customers to use the digital levers integrated into radio programs in their operations.

There's still a way to go before we' re systematically using digital technology, and the prospects are real, for example with a site like Europe1.fr, which is consulted by over 5 million people a month, where we can imagine enriched and innovative content.

Finally, we also need to convince our customers to repeat the operation year after year, to have a real support logic. We're in a business in which customers are very much in demand, so we need to continue working on the notion of customer effort, by developing our listening skills through open-ended questions, by precisely identifying our contacts, and by being able to approach them intelligently, in short by having a more systematic approach based on the methods that KESTIO has passed on to us.

To achieve this, the sales teams will continue to pursue an increasingly "customer-centric" approach.

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To find out more about how sales practices are changing in the digital age, download our white paper :

The selection criteria, the range of solutions made possible by technology and know-how, discourage even the most motivated. And yet, if you have the right guide, you can find your way through this jungle.

Choosing a CRM solution means first and foremost addressing three key issues:

- Firstly, to meet business challenges, i.e. to support the roll-out of sales policy, improve customer knowledge, develop new processes to support customer relations, effectively integrate customer data, etc.

- Then integrate historical data and anticipate future developments, i.e. be sustainable and compatible with the existing information system,

- Finally, respect the budget and schedule, in other words, stay consistent with your real needs.

So how can you meet this challenge and choose the best solution while respecting your constraints?

Best practice suggests organizing a call for tenders on the basis of a complete set of specifications. However, this is already an investment in time (and therefore money), which will mobilize resources for drafting, distributing, evaluating and selecting candidates. This is not always compatible with cost and deadline constraints.

What's more, the number of solutions available on the market makes things even more complex (220 solutions listed in 2013). Between generalist solutions that are more or less open, innovative challengers, cutting-edge specialists, or even safe bet solutions that aren't necessarily finely tuned to your specific needs, you may be forced to make a very broad call for tenders, or make choices that limit the relevance of the responses.

In our opinion,there are solutions that meet your specific needs (functional and technical), your context (knowledge of the business, size of the company) and with which you'll want to move forward.

The best solution on the market in terms ofexisting comparative analysesis not necessarily the most effective for you. The best solution doesn't exist in absolute terms: it's relative to your own situation.

That's why we've built the Quick Choice © CRM approach, based on a benchmark of the 20 most relevant CRM solutions on the market , and a database updated every year. It meets two objectives:

- Formalize a CRM requirements expression based on our 300-item functional map,

- Automatically filter your best short list from all existing solutions.

Over a period of 2 to 5 days, and based on workshops with business teams, we gather your expectations and needs (from the most common to the most specific), using our exclusive "CRM Functional Map" tool, reviewing over 300 functional items.
These workshops are also opportunities for discussion, during which we show you the possibilities offered by CRM solutions, challenge your needs, and help to develop your vision of CRM usage.
To identify the most suitable CRM solutions, we use our knowledge base, which is updated every year and includes more than 20 tools. So, by comparing our ratings with the levels of expectation expressed in the workshops, you can be sure of having a shortlist of relevant solutions.
The final choice is always made on the basis of suitability for the project team, budget and ergonomics, which results in more than convincing feedback: 100% of our short-list candidates propose a suitable solution!

To find out more about CRM and to help you with your projects, find all our methods and tools here :

It's an indispensable and solid foundation on which to build your action. The hardest part, however, remains to be done: ensuring that this strategy is deployed as effectively as possible in the field, so that it bears fruit and achieves your results objectives. There are 3 major levers available to you in this area: the commitment of your teams, the translation of your strategy into operational action plans, and the implementation of effective management. What are they?

Guarantee a high level of commitment from your teams

Engaging means getting your teams to decide to take concrete, effective and measurable operational action. The level of commitment of your management and sales teams depends on a number of non-exclusive factors. How can you positively influence this commitment?

First of all, by sharing the defined strategy : present this strategy to your teams, clearly explaining the why, the what and the areas of work defined to involve them in its implementation.

But commitment also meanslistening to your teams about their motivations and obstacles, in order to deal with the latter, and involving them closely in the development of the actions to be taken.

Finally, don't lose sight of the fact that you also need to "make people want to do it", beyond the constraints, by proposing an exciting ambition ! Annual seminars, in particular, are key moments for effectively engaging sales teams (we have devoted an article to best practices for successful seminars and team engagement).

Translate sales strategy into operational action plans

Sales action plans are your staff's "roadmap": they determine the year's major highlights (sales seasonality, trade shows, contract renewals, etc.) and the precise planning of actions, resources and tools to be implemented on a weekly, or at least monthly, basis.

They are the operational relay for the sales strategy defined upstream: number of opportunities to be identified, frequency of visits by customer or prospect segment, type of visit to be carried out (discovery of needs, identification of decision-makers, closing, etc.).

They ensure that the level of effort, coverage and sales pressure expected of their portfolio is translated into concrete action in the field.

To guarantee the implementation and scope of these action plans, however, one final point is crucial: their management.

Deploying effective sales management

What are the components of sales management to ensure effective deployment of your strategy and implementation of action plans?

- Action monitoring and support for sales staff: segmentation of accounts in the CRM, action planning, creation of reports and monitoring of coverage and sales pressure dashboards, combined with regular one-to-one interviews and co-construction of progress plans to improve results.
- Analysis of results: monitoring and management of KPIs. For example, during sales pipeline reviews, monitoring and analysis of volume, value and time spent on opportunities to optimize allocation of sales effort.
- Coaching and regular training of sales staff: developing sales performance by acting on skills and competencies. Field accompaniment and coaching sessions, in particular, deliver convincing results. (See our article on field coaching).

It is necessary to act on all these levers to ensure effective deployment of the sales strategy you have defined, and to secure the achievement of your objectives. In some cases, however, it can be complex for Sales Managers to act on all these factors in a coordinated way, for example in a context of strong market pressure. That's why we offer support programs that enable you to act successively or globally on each of these levers, with a view to accelerating the implementation of actions and optimizing their results.

Adopt a tool adapted to your business and your expectations: choose a CRM... To better understand the usefulness of CRM and choose the right tool, watch this webinar:

Indeed, with millions of registered members (LinkedIn announced it had passed the 11 million member mark in France in early 2016[i], overtaking Viadeo), it's possible to find your targets and engage with them. How do you go about prospecting on social networks? Do you have a strategy? If you're a sales manager, how do you guide your teams in using this platform? A structured approach is essential for successful digital prospecting.
In this article (the 1st episode in our series on social selling), discover some of the keys to turning a simple contact into a future customer .

1- To prospect with LinkedIn, start by targeting your contacts and stop the "network race".

It's an unfortunate fact of life that too many sales reps are still adding people they don't know to Linkedin. What do you hope to achieve by doing this? The law of numbers! Out of every 100 people added, one of them will one day do business with us! Unfortunately, it doesn't really work that way. Worse still, frantically adding contacts and racing to see who can "network the most" weakens your image with your contacts. A sales rep from an unknown company with 5,000 contacts? These are all signs of heavy prospecting and the promise of unwanted advertising messages. We're here to help!

Adding contacts on the fly, or conducting a basic search and adding people who seem relevant to you in a few seconds, or "who have a good head", is not a strategy. What happens after this untargeted addition? Usually nothing. If you send an advertising message right away, nothing either. In reality, we're on the verge of a SPAM approach, the opposite of an interesting conversational approach. In fact,approving a contact request does not imply an immediate need for a product or service. Some people are looking for help, others are on the lookout, and some are in an advanced purchasing process.

To send the right message from the outset, you need to find a communication angle that initiates the relationship and helps contacts build their thinking, regardless of their level of knowledge of your company. You need to accompany them whatever stage of their research they're at, without rushing them.

It'snot about having one more contact, it's about having one more reader who sees you as an asset to their thinking, one more person to whom you can provide an answer.

In practice :

- You don't connect to social networks at random. Whenever possible, it's best to use a common contact to make the connection;
- Always write a message explaining why you want to be put in touch with someone. Nothing is worse than an unmotivated request that has no basis in fact;

2- Get approval for a contact request on LinkedIn

As we've just seen, you can connect via a shared contact, who introduces you to someone, or choose to contact another user directly. In all cases, use the InMail function, i.e. LinkedIn's internal messages.

In practice :

- "Pitch your request so that the person you're talking to sees the advantage of accepting it;
- Ask yourself the right questions before writing a message: what problems this person may be experiencing, what could help them produce more value for their own customers, help them in their day-to-day life...

Contact request accepted? The job's not over yet. On the contrary! Once you've "connected" via your network or InMail, the last thing you want to do is contact the newly added person in an intrusive way.

Quietly build your relationship by helping your new contact and providing value, focused on their objectives, not yours.

Suggest a white paper, a customer testimonial, something relevant to read. This is where marketing managers have a key role to play alongside sales, providing well thought-out communication elements to ensure that contacts gleaned from LinkedIn enter the engagement funnel in the best possible way.

Build your credibility, your legitimacy, and be perceived as an expert. Be patient. This is often a long-term approach, not the push approach used in traditional outbound prospecting, which aims to land an appointment in a matter of minutes. A well-selected LinkedIn contact can bring you business weeks or months after the first exchange.

And remember: it's much better to have a few contacts with a good conversion rate thanks to the construction of a quality online conversation, than to issue invitations by the dozen, which will not produce any results!

Discover the following episodes of our social selling series on this blog, which will teach you :

- What LinkedIn groups are (really) for and how to run your own
- How to develop an "interesting, not interested" sales approach and distribute quality content tailored to your targets
- How to develop and animate an engaged community around your brand's values

To find out more and learn more about the concept of social selling, and the different tools available for communication, you can watch this webinar:

KESTIO regularly trains the sales teams of many companies in digital prospecting (social selling), and in particular in the use of LinkedIn, which is the social network preferred by company directors and therefore the most suitable for BtoB prospecting.

Read our previous articles on this topic:

[i] http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/le-net/1172473-linkedin-atteint-11-millions-de-membres-en-france/

Quality is being driven down, product value is being lost, and pressure on suppliers is increasing (On this point, see our previous article Stop lowering prices... Focus on Customer Experience!). Generating profits through increased sales and improved customer retention: this is sustainable, and it requires focusing on your customer experience. Today, the companies that make profits and generate overall value are those that have understood that the customer is their primary asset, and therefore the first lever to be activated.

Are you wondering how to become one of them? Here are 5 tips to help you do just that, based on an analysis of the winning strategies developed by companies at the forefront of the Customer Experience movement. On your marks, get set...Perform!

1. Personalize the customer experience, thanks to intelligent use of data

Never before have brands had access to so much information about their customers as they do today. The term "Big Data", which is on everyone's lips, refers to this mountain of data that companies are amassing, and it's still clearly under-utilized.

A 2015 eConsultancy study[I] reveals that nearly 80% of consumers say that brands don't know them as individuals.

How can we change this? By appropriating this data, and using it to enhance the customer experience. Here are a few pointers:

- Establish multi-channel campaigns that are no longer based solely on the brand's desired messages, but on data derived from customer knowledge.
- Carry out individualized nurturing by focusing on behaviors, purchasing patterns and interactions.
- Involve your customers in product design, solicit their suggestions and ask for their opinion on prototypes, thanks to collaborative platforms and social networks.
- Continuously improve the customer experience by drawing on the many methods now available forlistening to and analyzing the voice of the customer: semantic analysis of comments made on social networks, real-time field observation, satisfaction surveys and cold statistics, predictive analysis of behavioral data...

This personalization work needs to be combined with an effort to rethink the messages and marketing pressure you need to apply. By personalizing the customer experience, you can increase the trust your customers place in you, and thus their loyalty.

2. Be responsive: master multi-channel to adapt to customer choices

Today's consumers can access your products and services where they want, when they want, through the channel of their choice. Multi-channel is no longer an option, but a reality.

Your entire company and all your services must therefore become "responsive"[II] :

- Your strategy, first and foremost: adapt your offer to your customers' demands and new uses. Test small series, adjust and scale up.
- Your customer service, of course: after-sales service and technical support must be consistent (in terms of discourse and identity), and easily accessible by all means: from the website to the telephone, via chat, video tutorials and paper instructions. Adapt messages and service provision according to the medium, but always with a concern for the overall coherence of the customer experience.
- Finally, your services : do your customers like to order online and collect in-store, or vice versa? Give them this option. Only a third of brands (34%) allow their customers to start a journey on one channel and finish it on another[III]. Yet this is a vital practice to ensure a smoother customer experience.

3. Create a customer community

Your customers want to be involved and share their experience! You don't think so? Well, in the age of collaborative consumption, and with digital word-of-mouth having a multiplied impact (both positive and negative...), there are real opportunities tointegrate groups of customers and unite them around shared emotions, passions, places or desires.

The key to community marketing is to encourage exchanges between consumers of a brand, around shared values. Communication takes place between a brand's "supporters". Not just via social networks: think about creating "quality groups" with representative customers to constantly rethink and improve their shopping experience.

Proposing to your customer community to develop a bond based on passions or desires, and not just raw information about your products, is a very powerful loyalty lever, far more powerful than loyalty cards. Customers feel "committed" to the brand, and become your most effective ambassadors.

Going beyond the logic of rewards linked to the level of purchase, creating a feeling of belonging to a group that likes and shares the same interests, developing a real community relationship... these are all levers that will engage the customer with you.

4. "Enchant your customers: simplify the customer journey and create scenarios

A good customer journey is a simple one! The trend, thanks in particular to new technologies, is to "relieve" consumers by making it ever easier for them to find their way around the store.

According to the^3rd AFRC Customer Effort Barometer[I], of the 9 different sectors studied, 69% of the courses evaluated by the French did not require any particular effort.

A sign that brands are making progress in problem-solving. There is no shortage of examples of simplified purchasing processes, whatever the channel used;

Reducing customer effort by optimizing the key stages of the customer journey removes constraints that slow down purchasing or limit customer loyalty. Efficient customer journey, satisfying customer journey!

This wave of simplification will become even more pronounced in the months and years to come, with the arrival of connected objects. Because they are destined to find their way into consumers' homes, certain connected objects will serve as a link, a gateway between the brand and its customers, to quickly resolve a problem, intervene, provide information... or re-order!

Improving the customer experience can also be achieved through small gestures, based on personalized marketing: your customers are sensitive to the little attentions you pay them. A surprise box in a parcel, a humorous message on a shelf, a unique fragrance... These little touches create a surprising andenchanting customer experience.

Which is why - once again - you need to pay particular attention to the proper use of the data you collect! Customers know that they are entrusting you with their personal data: they may be delighted by a relevant message sent at the right time... and conversely, an overly intrusive message, which demonstrates clumsy use of data, risks provoking a refractory posture.

5. Consider the customer as a genuine company "asset

You need to think of your customer as a company asset, in the resource and financial sense of the term. The rhetoric we've heard, read and seen everywhere about "putting the customer first" must be translated into action, because the impact of the customer experience on customer acquisition and loyalty, and therefore, ultimately, on your company's revenues, is real (for a reminder of the link between the quality of the customer experience and companies' stock market performance, read our article : Stop lowering prices... Focus on Customer Experience!)

Companies that claim to have such a concern in their annual report, but don't offer connected customer journeys, or make use of the customer data they collect, are talking an empty talk that nobody believes. Not even them.

How does a company's willingness and ability to make this shift, which positions the customer as an asset , really translate? Through projects and investments geared to improving the quality of the customer experience (particularly in the areas mentioned above), and through the implementation, monitoring and analysis of real performance and return-on-investment indicators.

The quest for continuous improvement in the customer experience can only be achieved by adopting these indicators, which enable the company to adopt a strategy, and take directions, based on facts. Quantify and qualify your efforts. Equip yourself with indicators to measure your progress, adapted to your objectives, your industry and your company's customer experience maturity.

[i] Expérience client : écart de perception entre marques et consommateurs – Infographie E-Consultancy et IBM

[ii] Se dit d’un site internet au design responsive, c’est-à-dire qui a la faculté de s’adapter au terminal de lecture pour être consulté sur plusieurs supports différents.

[iii] Baromètre des pratiques digitales 2015 Sia Partners / Econocom / Ifop

For the past 10 years, KESTIO has been helping companies - from SMEs to major corporations - to improve their Customer Experience, with a view to optimizing customer loyalty and acquisition. In particular, we offer exclusive support programs and methods for :

In the field of customer journey improvement, KESTIO has developed the exclusive WELCOME EXPERIENCE© method, based in particular on the expertise developed with companies in the Leisure, Sports and Events sector.

Conventional methods of making contact (such as cold calling) are facing ever-decreasing returns. Digital technology (with social networks at the forefront) can help counterbalance this trend, and energize the entire sales process. Provided you organize your sales process to effectively integrate this new component, of course! So, should you choose between traditional methods and digital techniques? And how can you make the most of the latter to generate leads?

Here are some answers based on our operational expertise and customer feedback.

Sales process: conventional methods no longer suffice

Have you developed in-house sales techniques? Do you have "recipes" for generating leads that salespeople are familiar with, and which bring satisfactory results? Excellent. So why not stick to these methods? Because they're no longer enough. They're no longer enough to convince your contacts, who have become better educated in sales techniques and sometimes resistant to marketing designed to generate mass requests. In some cases, these classic techniques are no longer sufficient to meet contact and sales targets, or, when they are, they entail high costs and a heavy investment of time.

- The number of appointments obtained by telephone calls is steadily declining. The ever-decreasing cost of telecommunications for businesses, and the multiplication of prospecting services, generate a flood of calls that we all often try to avoid. What's more, the information used for these calls is poorly traced and very short-term oriented;
- The way buyers work has evolved. The Internet has become a preliminary or parallel step to any "real" exchange. We get information from blogs and official websites, and we "Google" a whole host of things. Ignoring this new stage in the customer journey is doomed to failure;
- Companies that have a very distinct organization, between the marketing department that generates leads and the sales department that exploits and transforms these leads, lack a global vision. Interaction strategies need to be thought through as far upstream as possible if they are to bear fruit and deliver quality leads. It's no longer enough to have a simple vision of the salesperson who is "fed" by marketing. They must become players right from thepre-sales stage.

Traditional sales methods are not to be banished. We simply have to realize that they are no longer sufficient to achieve results, or even to stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive environment. To improve the financial efficiency of prospecting, and to find that little extra that makes all the difference, you need to integrate digital technology and take into account new customer behaviors. This effort to digitalize the sales process will initiate a transition towards a more radical change that is inevitable in the long term. Don't see digital as a constraint, or as your enemy! Traditional and digital methods are complementary. The new methods are an evolution of the classic ones, so the whole business doesn't have to be reinvented. What we do need to do, however, is work on the content, so that the focus is no longer solely on the brand and its products, but rather on the benefits for the customer.

Initiating a "commercial digitization" process: the essential steps along the way

Renewing sales processes, touching them and making them evolve by infusing a little digital (website that encourages contact requests, white papers, mobile app, etc.) is the hardest part. This digitalization has a fundamental effect on the way tasks are carried out, and thus changes certain processes in a lasting way.

Let's take an example: if you embark on a process of better lead qualification, and decide to use predictive analytics, it will be easy to implement the tools that enable these changes. On the other hand, it will be much more difficult to change the way your employees use this data, and integrate it into their day-to-day missions.

So you need a roadmap. A change of mentality within the company is needed to shift priorities: everyone needs to get involved and think in terms of customer benefits and real consumer expectations. How do you launch this transformation? Through change management support, and gradual implementation, depending on the characteristics of your company.

- Start by clearly defining lead segmentation, scoring criteria and processes, as well as conversion scenarios and funnels to qualify these leads and deliver them to the sales team at the right time (maturity, progress in the buying decision process);
- Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to better monitor these different stages. Take care of your internal processes for tracking, storing and using contact data. This is a raw material that must not be neglected, and you must take care to ensure its quality;
- Set up procedures for assigning leads and "passing on" them to sales reps according to your own criteria;

However, digitizing sales processes involves much more than defining procedures and operating diagrams. You also need to integrate a "marketing" approach in the upstream (i.e. pre-sales) phase, and get sales people involved. They need to be present at every stage. They are the ones who know the products and customers, and have a concrete vision of needs. They need to be involved in defining the themes and "content" designed to attract and engage leads. This represents a real paradigm shift in the way they work.

They need to be offered support (training, highly educational explanatory sessions, group work between departments) to help them adapt. We need to communicate more than usual to explain the changes underway and their purpose. All-round support is needed, mobilizing all the different internal players, in the service of sales efficiency and customer experience... digitalized!

As you can see, lead development strategies involving interaction on social networks or websites can gradually bring a future customer closer to the prospecting company. This approach is not at odds with the traditional approach of making appointments by telephone or canvassing in the field. Salespeople need to be an integral part of the digitization process, adding new tools that don't break their job, but rather help them to reappropriate it. Now more than ever, digital technology makes it possible to maintain conversion with prospects over the long term, to build a relationship over time and to adapt to all expectations, whether the prospect is already mature or in the discovery phase. A "better" way of working and winning orders that you need to explain to your sales force to win their support.

And for you, what areas of work can improve your sales performance?

Get a free analysis of your company's marketing and sales performance by clicking on the following link:

Selling is a sport. It requires behavioral and methodological skills, and perseverance. An outside eye, provided by a coach (usually the sales manager himself), can help you get back on track with your performance and/or improve a sales technique you've already honed: we've observed a 20% to 40% improvement in sales results following the implementation of a field coaching program.

Why is this type of real-life coaching essential to your teams' success? What involvement does it require on your part, as a Manager or Sales Director? And above all, how can you make it a success so as to reap all the benefits? Here are a few keys to success from our field coaching missions.

1- Sales coaching in the field must be integrated into the company's regular practices

Sales coaching in the field must be a major part of a manager's mission. It's the only way for a sales manager to get to grips with the practices of his sales teams "in real life", but also with the reality with which they are confronted on a daily basis: that of their customers' expectations. In terms of management, this is a vital complement to the monitoring of figures and reporting carried out by the sales teams themselves, and enables much better results to be achieved.

To achieve this, field coaching needs to be installed, almost "automated", with regular check-ins and follow-up appointments. Field coaching should not be used on an ad hoc basis, but as part of an ongoing process, to maximize its beneficial effects.

Beware, moreover, of epidermal reactions if coaching is "sprinkled in" from time to time. Some sales reps may tend not to accept coaching, which is potentially perceived as a "punishment" if it is not integrated into the company's logical processes. For reasons of ego and fear of outside scrutiny, rejection is common. Such reactions are limited if support is presented as a benefit offered to all (see next point), and not as a patch for under-performance.

2- Coaching should apply to all salespeople

The mistake made by many companies is to "reserve" sales coaching for just a few salespeople. Yet sales coaching is for everyone. Whether it's someone who is just joining the company, a salesperson who is firmly established and posting good results, or someone who is experiencing a slump, coaching can and should support them in their mission.

But what's the point in supporting the best? Isn't there a risk in over-qualifying? Don't forget that some sales people are good at what they do because they have good practices and solid experience, but others can achieve great performances thanks to a combination of phenomena, and a large element of luck.

Personalized support aims to identify the contribution of these irrational and unknown factors, so that an already excellent performance can be built on solid, lasting foundations.

Even the best need a coach! Take Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. He calls on a coach because he knows he has to do everything he can to maintain his excellent level of performance, and even improve in certain areas. He leaves nothing to chance.

This also applies to salespeople. Accompanying an already-good salesperson will help him/her to confirm the areas in which he/she has talent, and to work on the areas in which he/she has difficulty, to help him/her become even better.

Coaching is not just about identifying areas for improvement, but also about building confidence and commitment. A real HR tool!

3- Coaching isn't there to help you "win" business...at least not right away! 🙂

Sales coaching involves helping a person to progress, whatever the outcome of a sales meeting or negotiation. The aim is to capitalize on what is seen and heard, to exchange ideas and find keys to improvement. Whether or not an order is won is of secondary importance... as opposed to puresales coaching, when a manager supports an employee to help him or her win a contract.

Don't lose sight of the goal. When you're involved in a coaching process, don't focus on the commercial aspect and the purpose of the order. It's not always easy: you're going to attend meetings that don't go well, and therefore potentially lose business... Difficult and frustrating? Yes, but that's precisely why you'll be able to identify mistakes made by a sales person, so that you can prevent them from happening again!

You have to accept losing a deal and missing an appointment, so that you can give your sales person the means to win the next 10 deals alone!

Do you find it hard to stay calm and not intervene? You need to do some real work on yourself to remain observant, because intervening at this stage would be counter-productive and would disrupt the coaching.

4- Coaching must have a precise objective

In order to achieve concrete results and provide relevant answers to sales needs, coaching must have a precise objective. It may be to improve sales argumentation, to enhance customer contact, or to reinforce physical attitudes. It doesn't matter. But each time, it's important to communicate in advance with the coached salesperson the objectives to be achieved and the points to be observed. Without this precision, the sales assistant will have the impression of being evaluated on a global basis.

Moreover, it's time to move away from the classic evaluation scheme, with the post-visit report listing the black spots and the good marks. There are techniques for exchanging ideas, initiating discussion and raising questions. Just blurting out what's wrong doesn't help a person to become aware of his or her shortcomings, and to correct them. It's essential to question a person properly, to get them to express their knowledge.

5- Coaching must be a long-term process

Coaching must be part of an ongoing process (which ties in with our first point) and, to this end, must leave a trace. It's important to formalize observations in writing and to record them in a reference document. This will serve as a guideline for monitoringthe evolution of objectives over time, and remind everyone of the progress of the support. Because words fly but writing remains, take the time you need for this step. This will also enable you to measure the progress made andevaluate the scope and resultsof this supportover time, which represents a real investment. So it's not a waste of time - on the contrary!

It's also an important motivating factor for the salesperson, who can refer to the elements set down on paper: not only will he or she be able to recall the concepts evoked, but he or she will also have the satisfaction of knowing that his or her manager is genuinely committed to his or her success.

How do you help your sales team achieve their goals?

Did you know that 95% of your success is linked to your state of mind? To learn how to manage your emotional charge more effectively, discover the Triad method in this webinar:

KESTIO 's expert consultant-trainers in commercial excellence:

Train managers in field coaching
Coach sales representatives in the field themselves

To find out more about our methods and get feedback on their results, register for a free session with one of our experts:

A "must" in the lives of many companies, it's an annual event to which they often devote considerable resources in order to make it a memorable and "successful" occasion (with the help of charming hotels, exceptional destinations and original, fun-filled team-building activities). This outpouring of resources is justified by the underlying aim of the event: to engage teams in a lasting commitment to achieving the company's business objectives. But it's far from a guarantee of success!

Depuis 10 ans, KESTIO intervient régulièrement en Ingénierie de séminaire commercial. Nous vous livrons ici 5 clés essentielles à la réussite de vos séminaires commerciaux, issues de cette longue expérience.

1) The objective of the seminar is more important than the "wow!

Let's be clear. For a company, the greater the resources allocated to a business seminar, the greater the chance of finding a venue that will delight participants, or an activity that will leave a lasting impression. This is what we call the "Wow" effect: a positive emotional marker, which can stay in people's minds and provide a powerful experience for employees. But this positive marker should not be the sole objective of a sales seminar. The "Wow" effect is a one-off. What will remain of the seminar 1, 2 or 3 months after the event?

You have to combine the "Wow" effect with a real strategy thought out in advance, and define what the seminar should leave behind.

If employees only remember the buffet and the sublime decor, but not really the sales techniques taught, you've failed. It's time to stop focusing on form and start focusing on content. The objective of a sales seminar must become the primary concern of the management in charge of the event. The choice of venue comes next.

2) Each seminar has (in reality) a different objective

Last year's sales seminar was a great success. Good listening, good feedback, a venue that participants loved. Above all, we didn't change a thing. Unfortunately, many companies have this reflex of putting themselves on "automatic pilot". They replicate past successes and minimize risk-taking. It's a mistake. Every seminar is different. Sure, it may take place in the same place. But each seminar has a different objective. So each time, you have to ask yourself what the real objective of the seminar is.

What kind of change do you want to instill in the company? What strong message do you want to convey? What new techniques do you want to convey? What do you really want to achieve as a result of the seminar?

Too busy repeating the success of last year's sales seminar, many companies fail to anticipate the future, and are slow to change and evolve. This was particularly evident in 2008 and 2009, at the height of the crisis. Instead of reassuring sales teams, working on fears, self-confidence and the future, many companies chose to hammer home a well-mastered corporate message... an exercise which is unfortunately futile, if the underlying expectation of employees is actually to be supported and listened to. The phase of defining the objective of a sales seminar should therefore not be dismissed out of hand; on the contrary, it should be the focus of all reflection, and is in fact the decisive point.

Discover the KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

all topics related to sales performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, General Manager

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

3) A seminar must have a precise rhythm

For the sake of simplicity, too many companies have fallen into the bad habit of organizing their sales meetings in silos. In other words: in the morning, it's a conference in a plenary room with 80 slides on a giant screen, and in the afternoon, it's go-karting! This sequencing between serious moments and moments of relaxation should be avoided, as it is counter-productive. You recreate unconscious mechanisms already experienced at school... There are moments in class to learn and be serious, and moments in the playground which allow you to let off steam, but are considered "useless" in terms of the final objective.

It's possible to create interaction and fun while conveying serious messages. In particular, it's a good idea to organize time for co-construction with the participants. If they are involved, they will apply the rest of the seminar with conviction.

There are always "off" evenings or times of distraction, which allow you to let go and are obviously not to be banned, but beware of overly categorical organization which will make serious periods painful to follow in top-down mode with participants having in the back of their minds "Can't wait for tonight..."...! Fun yes, but with a purpose! Go-karting, paintball or laser-gaming, why not, but with an objective, to serve a purpose. Make sure that the message conveyed is consistent with the theme of the seminar, and ask yourself what symbolic or practical bridges can be built.

4) A good seminar must incorporate digital technology

The digital revolution needs to make business seminars even more enjoyable, productive and sustainable. Start from the premise that if something is produced, it will have value only if it is digitized. Ideas thrown on a flip chart, discussions in the room - everything can be digitized today with simple co-creation and sharing tools. We can't let this creativity and these exchanges go to waste.

The seminar is a source of information and reflection. Digital technology helps to capture these elements.

Digital technology can also be used to prepare a sales seminar in advance. In the same way as for quality training, it is possible to send elements before a meeting so that participants can familiarize themselves with them beforehand. On the big day, they'll already have a knowledge base and won't be discovering the subject, which will improve information retention, the quality of participation and the effectiveness of exchanges. For information to be retained, it has to be communicated 3 times. So it's a good idea to get the key messages across before the seminar, repeat them during, and reiterate them afterwards.

5) Your sales seminar must be consistent

Beware of the inconsistency between organizing a seminar in a prestigious setting and cutting budgets for several company departments in the same month! It's not possible to talk about rationalizing costs all year long, only to "splurge" on a very high-end seminar. Consistency!

The seminar must be part of an ongoing process, and make sense in terms of corporate strategy. It must also fit in with the company's financial logic.

It's possible to alternate venues and activities, and to vary the resources allocated according to the health of the company, but also and above all according to the objectives of the sales seminar. One event may well take place in a privatized château, while for the second meeting of the year, 6 months later, there's nothing to stop the offices from being fitted out differently, to provide more fun for the duration of an effective seminar.

Do you want to optimize your sales force's time? In this webinar, you'll learn how to target your sales force and use the right tools to increase your number of sales meetings per month by a factor of 2:

Depuis 10 ans, KESTIO accompagne des entreprises – de la PME au Grand Groupe – dans la préparation et l’animation de leurs séminaires commerciaux :

Seminar engineering: definition of objectives and content, development of the program, help in choosing choice of venue and themes, suggestions for events...
Creation of animation media: definition of key messages, conception and design of original and effective presentations, creation of "intelligent" participative quizzes and games.
Running all or part of the sales seminar: communicating strategic messages, running worshops and games, challenge-based sales training.

But a lot has changed over the last few years - particularly under the influence of digital technology - and a real change of model is underway, which is considerably modifying the sales organization of companies. With one major impact: salespeople are going to have to move into "collaborative" mode!

1- The end of the unique sales-customer relationship

A lot has changed in recent years, challenging traditional business models.

In the first place, technology burst onto the scene, and shoppers reclaimed the balance of power they'd been missing: total control of the buying journey.

As we have already seen in several of our articles (The salesman is dead, long live the advisory salesman and Are your sales systems lagging behind?), most of the decision-making and purchasing process is now outsourced to the salesperson, via the Internet, social networks and peer review.

In parallel with this fundamental change in purchasing behavior, companies and their sales teams are increasingly faced with obstacles of various kinds. of different kinds:

- Customer volatility
- Longer sales cycles
- Lower average selling prices
- Difficulty contacting decision-makers for reasons of interest and availability
- Higher acquisition costs than customer retention costs

In addition, many products/services are now perceived as "commodities" under the influence of the multiplicity of suppliers: the best quality at the lowest cost has become the norm and therefore seems in the short term the only option for survival, although intrinsically unsustainable in the medium/long term.

What impact does this changeover have on organization and business models?

2- "Everyone is a Salesperson

The first impact is that these upheavals mark the end of the unique sales-customer relationship.

To caricaturize a little, before the changes mentioned above, the sales "go-to-market" strategy essentially consisted of asking "what size bait should I use?" to win customers and keep them coming back.

Usually, we had a segmentation of customer profile/sales contact type: telesales in charge of small customers, the field sales force in charge of the mid-market (SME/ETI) and key accounts in charge of national customers and more. This system made sense at a time when the sales representative was still the sole point of entry to the supplier.

Today, as we've seen, a customer completes most (57%) of his or her purchasing journey without a salesperson. They only approach the salesperson two-thirds of the way through, having defined their needs from the comfort of their own office, and in a much more objective way than with a salesperson who is inevitably the judge and arbiter.

In terms of sales organization, the approach of initiating the relationship when the salesperson catches the prospect's interest no longer corresponds to reality.

Nowadays, a prospect's or customer's relationship with a company is triggered well in advance (and sometimes even outside) of any contact with the salesperson.

The company's first "ambassadors" are often: discussion forums, comparison and evaluation sites, the supplier's official website and/or its official pages on social networks.

If the customer completes the entire purchasing process online, the efficiency of your logistics department, the clarity of your order tracking and the simplicity of your after-sales procedures will do even more to build customer loyalty than the relationships established by your sales force...!

Today, all company employees play an important role in how customers feel about their brand! This means they all have to be "customer-centric", aware of their role and mission with regard to the customer.

However, what has always been self-evident for salespeople ("pampering" their customers) is not necessarily the case for professions that are farthest removed from direct customer contact, such as logistics.

Hence the fundamental change represented by the entry into the era of "Everyone is a sales person": it underpins a real evolution in the sales organization model, with different professions working closely together, first and foremost marketing, sales and customer service.

3- Towards a new sales organization model

Today, as a result of these developments, companies are moving away from traditional customer profile/salesperson segmentation towards a sales organization built around the customer journey and its successive stages on the different channels.

Now that the salesperson has lost his or her role as the single point of entry for the prospect/customer, other functions will have to assume a decisive role: These include collecting customer data and generating "commitment", before handing over to the sales people in charge of converting the trial.

The traditional approach is vertical, siloed and sequential: emailing by marketing, follow-up by an outsourced sales force, appointments by sales and analysis of the campaign conversion rate by marketing and sales.

The new cross-functional, integrated sales approach requires tasks to be distributed throughout the customer journey: a visit to the supplier's website gives rise to a content proposal in exchange for obtaining the email, which may generate a newsletter subscription, a technical webinar proposal, a visit from a sales rep, the sharing of a white paper, an invitation to a customer event, and perhaps, ultimately, a meeting with the sales rep.

The marketing approach has evolved towards Inbound Marketing, and this means that the allocation of sales resources has changed: a large part of the decision and purchase cycle is handled through a marketing response, not a sales response.

However, in the current revolution, marketing has taken the lead over sales, creating a significant performance potential that needs to be exploited: using the leads transmitted and the information collected in a timely and constructive way to progressively refine sales tactics and therefore conversion rates.

4- Collaboration at the heart of digital transformation

As a result, new sales and marketing models must now meet the following challenges, and the internal organization must adapt to them in terms of skills and resources:

Make the act of buying simple and easy:

Information and processes must be available anytime, anywhere, in any mode. Of course, as B2C companies have long understood, all channels must be connected, and the experience must be seamless from one part of the buying experience to the next.

Right from the start of the purchasing process, interactions should enable buyers to define their needs precisely, so that suppliers can provide the most personalized response possible, and respond precisely to their expectations.

Delivering customer value differently

Today, virtual tools (online video, 3D animation, augmented reality...) are gradually replacing face-to-face sales pitches and demonstrations.

BtoB salespeople, given buyers' level of autonomy in terms of product knowledge, need to provide "advice" to help customers think through and build their projects.

Getting to know customers better through a collaborative approach

Involving non-sales teams (customer service, after-sales service, technical teams in charge of deploying the solution, etc.) and sharing information via a 360° CRM tool around customers will enable us to collect rich data on the customer's life.

Reconciling marketing, sales and customer service is therefore a key factor in the performance of BtoB companies.

This reconciliation requires a better definition of each person's contribution to the customer journey, and greater sharing of information from lead detection through to after-sales service.

How do you perceive these changes in your business? Have you modified your internal organization and the distribution of sales effort?

Lise Ferret, Head of Human Resources, and Benoît Malraison, Deputy Employment Director, give us their feedback on the sales training program implemented with our consultants.

1- What triggered your sales and management training project?

Lise Ferret:

From an HR point of view, we have a sales force with a predominantly senior profile, and most of them are very experienced, with the risk of operating after a while partly on habits. They receive regular in-house training, but we wanted to go further, to push them out of their "comfort zone" and discover that they still had challenges to meet in their professional practices.

At the same time, in 2015 the Employment Division initiated an internal reorganization of its sales force. In particular, this resulted in a new breakdown of customer portfolios: we moved from a breakdown of customers by business sector to a breakdown by portfolio size. We felt it was necessary tosupport our teams in this new organization and in the change of posture it implied.

Benoît Malraison :

Until recently, we lived on a form of rent... Today, in a mature market where competitors are more numerous and customers much less in demand, we are much more in a "real sales act".

We now have pure "hunting" sales teams, entirely dedicated to winning new customers. The vast majority of these teams are made up of new recruits, who have not yet fully mastered the internal reference system. The aim was to reactivate the most advanced sales techniques to enable them to perform rapidly.

They coexist with sales teams more dedicated to the follow-up of our historical customer accounts. The other objective was to provide a common frame of reference for our different teams, and a methodology for our entire sales force.

2- How was the link made between this reorganization of the sales force and the training program implemented?

Lisa Ferret: The aim of the new organization was to avoid dispersing efforts and to achieve a more efficient sales organization.

Our job is to help our customers find the best solution to their specific recruitment problems, according to their market and objectives, not to sell them our offers!

It's this consultative approach that we wanted to develop among our sales people: how to bring value to our customers and enhance our expertise.

Benoît Malraison: The training program and the reorganization took place simultaneously, but one could have taken place without the other, and vice versa.

The fact that we have oriented our sales teams towards a specialization is not directly connected to this training approach, which has always existed with us and which aims to ensure a high level of sales methodology for all our teams.

But since we were "putting the hunt in the spotlight" on this occasion, this naturally led us to place even greater emphasis on the sales techniques needed to perform, and in particular on mastering the structure of a sales meeting.

3- How did the collaboration go?

Lisa Ferret: In practice, training sessions took place throughout 2015. In all, they involved 80 people: sales people, managers and sales directors.

The proposed program primarily involved sales managers and a number of key account sales staff : they were to become more proficient in complex sales, using the "Méthode de l'Echiquier©".

The entire sales force was then trained in the fundamentals of the "value selling" approach, and managers were trained in field coaching.

The involvement of managers was a major factor. It was important for them to share the same language, to guarantee the scope and impact of this training later on.

Team buy-in came naturally. The method has brought them to a higher level of mastery in their trade. It's motivating for them!

Benoît Malraison: It's a little early to give figures: we've scheduled a debriefing and follow-up session in the near future, to define how we're going to capitalize on the actions already carried out and continue to upskill our sales forces in 2016.

The next step is to provide individual, tailor-made follow-up for training beneficiaries, depending on their level of appropriation of the method: some sales reps are in the process of acquiring the method, while others have already made it their own.

4- How do you measure the contribution of the KESTIO system?

Lisa Ferret: The roll-out of the training was accompanied by the introduction of an evaluation grid for our sales reps' prospect and customer interviews.

This evaluation grid is a concrete and highly effective tool for putting the method into practice, a real day-to-day monitoring tool that makes the link with the method and encourages its immediate application.

In addition to enhancing the skills of our sales staff and managers, this training course has also helped to build cohesion within their teams, with senior and junior staff sharing the same language and challenging each other.

Benoît Malraison: I measure the impact of this system by regularly accompanying team members in the field, and of course by studying their results statistically.

I also make great use of the evaluation grid we developed with your consultants, which really is our reference tool: I use it systematically, and its adoption by all Sales Managers is a real challenge, both in terms of monitoring/steering and coaching salespeople.

We can already see that the teams dedicated to conquest are performing well and achieving the objectives we had set ourselves internally: since these are the most recently recruited employees, we can largely attribute this performance to the contribution of the method.

At this stage, we can already see that it has borne fruit with the sales staff, who have assimilated the method in the quickest and most complete way!

The Méthode de l'Echiquier© - a method for significantly improving business volume and complex sales transformation rates - is exclusive to KESTIO.

To find out more, request a FREE consultation with one of our consultants.