SDI Case Study

 

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Scottish Development International

SDI wanted to improve their effectiveness in attracting inbound International investment into Scotland in their target markets of Life-sciences, food and drink, electronics, financial services, energy and tourism. The overarching goal is to create net new jobs in Scotland from foreign investment. SDI let a competitive tender and contracted CogBooks Ltd to provide consultative sales training and performance support for the entire 220 person team.

Admarco partnered with CogBooks Ltd. to develep and deliver both the training and the Performance Support program. SDI had experienced professionals and non-salespeople in key selling roles and it was felt the teams were under-achieving their potential. In some cases SDI sales-people did not have the right skills or the confidence to call at the executive level in order to engage business leaders in conversations around overseas investment.

Admarco created a custom one-day classroom sales training curriculum for the entire company and an ongoing E-Learning curriculum to raise the standard in consultative selling. The training deliverable needed to be specific enough to raise skills of experienced sales professionals, but general enough so that everyone in the organization benefited. In addition, Admarco facilitated the development of Buyer-Relevant-Messaging for the Life Sciences sector and transferred the methodology to sales-people in each market to share the best-practices of top sales achievers around articulating Scotland's unique value.

The best sales calls are conversations not Powerpoint presentation and we focused on soft skills training including;-

  • rapport, empathy and non-verbal communication
  • effective face-face communication and listening skills
  • using precision language to create clarity in communication 
  • diagnosis and qualification skills.
  • using buyer-relevant messaging to engage buyers in conversations around how an inbound investment in Scotland creates value.

The head of SDI in Scotland announced on conclusion of training that the Admarco/CogBooks one-day training session was the best training session she had ever attended.www.SDI.co.uk