Account Strategy for Major Sales (ASMS) methodology focuses on the acquisition and development of major accounts. It helps sellers understand the psychology of making high-value, complex decisions from the customer's perspective, and where each of their key players are in the decision process. By understanding the individual decision guidelines of each key player and effectively mapping how the decision making group see your offering versus your competitors' in terms of these criteria, you and your team will be able to develop an effective strategy to turn every opportunity into a sale. The methodology is backed by  electronic tools to help maximize success rates.

Account Strategy for Major Sales is designed to help sales managers, account managers, sales executives and any other specialists tasked with the management of long-cycle sales involving multiple influencers/decision makers, strong competitive activity and a perceived risk for the customers of making a wrong decision.

Delegates will derive maximum benefit if they have previously attended the SPIN® Selling programme. For those without this background a 'bridge' can be built with an introductory session or pre-course work.

Account Strategy for Major Sales

Most managers happily accept that a coaching culture is vital to business success. Why, then does it not happen? For many, demands from other areas, such as being client responsive, get in the way.

If you would like to try a new approach to coaching, Huthwaite's coaching programme will give you a flexible repertoire of coaching skills that turn demands into managed solutions. Through the implementation of Huthwaite's best practice coaching skills model and our Behaviour Analysis tools, coaches will be able to track, measure and give objective feedback on a regular basis, applying coaching effort to best effect.

This programme is suitable for anyone responsible for helping to develop the performance of others. This naturally includes all people managers, but could also include senior, very experienced members of staff or technical specialists or trainers who are frequently required to share their knowledge in a one-to-one coaching role.

Effective coaching

You know the feeling. The deal was in the bag. It was forecast with a probability better than 0.9. It meant your team had exceeded its quarterly target. And then the account manager comes into your office with a hangdog expression and drops the bombshell: the order has gone to a competitor.

If this is happening more often than you'd like, you may have overlooked two skill sets that can make or break the sale; especially in very high-value deals, right at the end of the sales cycle. In the complex selling process proposals and presentations give you the best opportunities to relate the benefits of your product to the perceived needs of the entire decision making group.

Presentations and proposals can be addressed either as separate topics or through an integrated programme that capitalises on the synergy between the two skill sets.

Effective sales proposals

This workshop gives sellers the opportunity to analyse an existing proposal of their own for persuasive content from the perspective of the decision-making team and how to give more focus to each individual's decision criteria.

Effective sales proposals will equip salespeople, managers, technical specialists and any staff who contribute to the preparation of proposal or tender documents. The programme is especially valuable if ‘bid teams’ attend together, as this ensures that the technical content of the proposal is persuasively integrated with the customer’s needs uncovered by the account managers or sales executives.

Persuasive sales presentations

After an initial presentation and exercise to allow each participant to surface weaknesses or concerns about their current presentation style, they are introduced to Huthwaite's best practice skills model into conducting presentations: 'S.I.E.V.E.' They then have the opportunity to put their newly found skills into action.

This programme is suitable for all those who participate in making formal sales presentations, usually to the customer’s decision-making team, as part of the selling process. Particularly if technical specialists are required to make part of the sales presentation, continuity of style and the persuasive message will be improved if the whole bid team attends the programme together.

Effective sales proposals and persuasive sales presentations

Unsurprisingly, corporate hospitality was one of the great growth industries of the 90's. Was it effective then and where does it fit now? Choosing to spend wisely is a must these days and so how do we first justify the spend and then ensure we get best value from our corporate socializing?

Achieve key strategic objectives while entertaining your clients. Gain the confidence, processes and skills to enjoy yourself, and ensure your customers enjoy themselves, while you progress your business agenda.

Effective social influencing is for anyone who regularly attends social events where there are opportunities to develop business contacts. It is especially valuable where high-value business-to-business contact is often a more important part of the marketing mix than conventional promotion.

Effective social influencing

When it comes to the strategic issue of account development the three biggest questions facing the salesforce are: Which accounts are worth developing? How do we create value for the customer beyond our products and services – beyond even the process improvements we may be helping them to realise? Do we have the skills to initiate and develop these relationships into profitable new business?

Use tools to assess your clients and targets for development opportunities. Be confident in knowing that you are concentrating your efforts in the right areas. Build long-term relationships within your client orginisations as a trusted advisor.

Major Account Development and Key Account Management (MADKAM) is suitable for Account Managers, whatever their job title, who are responsible for managing and developing strategic and/or major client organisations. Our objective is to change the mindset of account managers from just 'sellers' to 'business entrepreneurs'.

Major Account Development Key Account Management

Our clients tell us that Huthwaite negotiation skills is one of our best kept secrets, and they would like it to stay that way! One energy company reports having "saved $37 million on one contract alone" by using the formal planning process we taught them.

We help negotiators break out of the price war, by providing a unique combination of process and planning tools, and a best practice behavioural skills model. This equips negotiators with a highly effective preparation framework and a face-to-face behavioural formula for gaining win/win negotiations with long-term profitable relationships.

Huthwaite negotiation skills work in all areas of negotiation, whether used by sales negotiators, project implementers, buyers, contract negotiators or industrial relations practitioners.

Negotiation skills

Knowing how to sell well and showing others how to do it is not the same thing – as senior management teams worldwide can testify!

The Huthwaite salesforce management programme is designed to build on the sales managers proven sales skills and looks at other aspects of the sales management function. It focuses on tactical sales planning, chairing meetings, resource application, leadership, motivation, styles of persuasion and coaching skills.

Whether new to the job or looking to improve an existing role, this course will provide sales managers with the necessary skills for improved sales management enabling them to hone high performing sales teams and perhaps earn respect and a more rewarding role in the process!

Salesforce management

Looking for a higher response rate? More effective PR? Stronger sales reinforcement through brochures? More powerful presentations? A happier salesforce?

As a rough estimate, based on thirty years of research in the field, we would expect a trained salesperson to initiate a new sales cycle with one call in five – and many are much more successful. A direct response mailer, by contrast, would be considered very successful by most companies if two percent of recipients said, "Come and talk to me".

So, would you say that if you can find a way of creating marketing messages that replicate as closely as possible what a skilled seller does with a customer you would be on to a winner?

SPIN® Marketing will equip you with the skills and process to be able to analyse and develop your customers' needs and offer your solutions using the same tools and language as your most effective salespeople. It's a simple concept: 'live' marcoms supporting 'live' sellers - a synergy that will maximise your marketing messages.

SPIN® marketing

SPIN® is one of the most successful and widely adopted sales training methodologies in the world. Being a behaviour-based sales model SPIN® is flexible in its application, allowing many Blue Chip companies across numerous sectors to use it cohesively within their business environment. Through the SPIN® questioning model, sellers learn how to uncover and develop customer needs for the greater benefit of their sales. The methodology is backed by electronic tools to help maximize success rate.

SPIN® selling is appropriate for employees involved in the sale of goods or services, which are seen as high-value, important decisions by the buyer. In addition to the obvious audience of sales executives and sales managers, this programme can be very beneficial to engineers, technical specialists or sales support staff who are involved in the selling process or who may be exposed to selling opportunities in the course of their work with customers.

SPIN® can be delivered consistently in 29 languages.

SPIN® selling