Orbital Net – a Telecoms company based locally to me started 2025 by getting me in to do some work with their sales teams.
Their sales department is split into essentially hunters and farmers; one group whose job is to find and engage with potential clients so that, when they have a need, they give Orbital Net an opportunity to tender for their services. The other team then provides account management to their clients to ensure continuity of business whilst maximising all opportunities to provide services and products.
Overall, the sales department has been doing ok and, after a period of consultation, they asked me if I could work with each team to give them more tools and skills to help them move from being ‘ok’ to being excellent.
Being candid, I’m always hesitant about doing sales training because so many companies fail to understand that, without ongoing reinforcement, 80% of training knowledge is lost within a few days so effectively rendering it a complete waste of time. Some companies only want 1 session which is absolutely pointless for EVERYONE involved. Some companies agree to more than 1 session but no leaders take part – how can the leaders reinforce new knowledge they’re unaware of? Some companies agree to a program of sessions which are then rescheduled or cancelled at short notice which clearly tells everyone what the attitude towards training is!
So when I’m asked if I can do training for a company, I probe a lot to understand the why, what, how, where and when to help both sides decide if it’s really going to be worth the investment of time and money. If I can be convinced that the company genuinely takes the personal development of their employees seriously, there is a clear objective to achieve and, should they see value in the program, they have the right culture and leaders to help reinforce the newly acquired knowledge – I’ll put forward a proposal for how I can help them achieve what they need.
Orbital Net were the 1st company in a year to manage to do that so, after they accepted my proposal late 2024, I started the New Year really invigorated about doing the program with them through January.
I admit to being nervous as to whether they’d genuinely engage with the content and sessions and, despite lots of planning, I wasn’t sure if I’d factored in enough flexibility for necessary changes of direction. Thankfully, engagement grew with each session and, with their input, the content of the program did change as we went through it meaning we focused on content that was, as they’d highlighted themselves without any prompting from me, clearly important and very relevant to them. These are some of the key takeaways mentioned by the group:
- Use a script to focus on problem focused statements/questions
- Segment call lists for sessions so you have more similar conversations
- Work out the best times to call your ICP
- Let conversations flow and active listen
- Don’t negotiate pricing over email for key deals
- Use LinkedIn to build a better understanding of your customers
- Leverage your network to make introductions
- Build as many relevant connections as possible at the top of the tree of your customers
- You cannot create urgency, only understand the customer’s timeline
As part of my usual process, once the program was finished, I provided an overview to the Board which we’re due to discuss in more detail soon and explore whether I can continue to help in any capacity.
If your company has a sales department which is struggling in any area of their sales results and you’re genuinely serious about changing that, contact me so we can discuss it confidentially and understand together what are the best options for solving your issues.
