Sales training in Northern Ireland: Developing a high performance sales culture in a Mid Ulster manufacturing business

Shift Control works with a number of businesses that sit within the category of manufacturing / engineering offering B2B sales training. Many of those businesses are situated within Tyrone / Mid Ulster, a region renowned for its tradition in manufacturing and home to a number of Global leaders in the production of recycling, materials processing and waste management equipment.

Our client supplies many of those Tyrone based companies as well as a network of others that are situated throughout the rest of Ireland and the UK.

A consistent problem that sales training can solve
The company had a business development team comprising of field sales, telesales and marketing team that had been operating at a certain revenue threshold for a number of years with both the competition and market both moving at a faster pace.
New customer acquisition rates were poor across the sales team and the pipeline was dominated by 2 particular customers who are always under threat from competitors. The management team were well aware of the underperformance but unsure as to the best way  to respond to the lethargy.

The sales training solution
Usually the problem that needs to be solved lies somewhere behind the problem you are looking at. The company had a track record in manufacturing and engineering and had grown quickly over a short period of time, in terms of revenue and employee numbers. For a number of years they were able to move with the market but were primarily reactive, enjoying a high percentage of referral business. Slowly the sales and business development team had become complacent and developed the characteristics of an administrative or order taking team.

The culture of the business had not clearly been defined and whilst the tech and production teams had become more refined in their processes and capabilities the sales team did not fully support the overall ambitions of the company. Over the course of 6 months, we worked with the company’s senior management to help develop a cultural framework for the organisation with clearly defined values which were to be supported by actions and behaviours across the company.

In collaboration with the senior management and the  business development team we produced a business development strategy for the business through which evolved a series of meaningful value propositions, brand messages and an impactful sales narrative to help support the marketing team and to empower the sales force across the telemarketing function and the field sales team.

Our sales training work centred on a more targeted new business strategy and also a clear focus on managing the relationships that had been fostered over the last 22 years.

“ Shift Control helped us quickly identify where the problem was with our sales efforts. The problem wasn’t as bad as we had thought it to be but it needed a bigger fix company-wide and not just getting the sales team to increase their call ratios. No doubt there is a real positive energy about the place now and much of that is down to the work that Paul did with the management team on strategy and with the sales team with – it has to be said – some fairly unconventional sales training and sales coaching. The impact shows in the bottom line and in the improved performances and behaviour across the business development team.”

Sales training in Northern Ireland references and performance validation available on request.