Is it time for your sales program to get a makeover? We get expert advice on fixing problem areas and slimming down the process.

The healthcare industry had changed so dramatically over the past decade that HCR ManorCare’s sales training program had become cumbersome and antiquated, said company official Veronica Fogelman.

Based in Toledo, Ohio, HCR ManorCare operates more than 500 skilled nursing centers, assisted living facilities, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, hospices, and home healthcare offices across the nation.

“When I started with the company 21 years ago, it was mostly private-paying patients who could walk into our facility,” said Fogelman, assistant vice president and director of sales management. “Now patients have higher acuity, are much sicker, get released much earlier, and are governed by Medicare.”

As Fogelman puts it, the sales process had to change from targeting Mrs. Jones in the community to focusing on referrals from Dr. Jones and CEO Jones at the hospital. It was Fogelman’s job to find a sales training program to meet the needs of the new millennium.

Having reviewed dozens of sales tapes, the ManorCare executive realized after watching five minutes of William Brooks, who developed the Impact Selling System, that she had found her new sales training company. Brooks, founder and CEO of The Brooks Group, grew up watching his father sell wholesale lumber and millwork, a job he held for 43 years. After college and a 23-month stint in Southeast Asia during the Korean War, Brooks realized that he enjoyed selling and became a student of the craft.

He is the author of nine books, including The New Science of Selling and Persuasion (Wiley, 2004). He’s currently working on a book about how small suppliers can sell to large companies and has the highest sales quota among employees at the Greensboro, NC-based sales and sales management training firm.

Get Pumped
Although a strong brand can certainly go a long way toward filling a company’s coffers, Brooks said strong brands tend to sell themselves and can breed weak salespeople who post strong sales despite poor training. “In fact, research shows that 75% of those in sales shouldn’t be,” Brooks said.

Rethinking the sales process should encompass every aspect of the organization, including obvious areas such as hiring and retention, sales management, product training, and the sales process itself. It should also include more esoteric considerations such as how a company introduces new products; the integration of sales, service, and marketing in a unified department; a culture of accountability; and the creation of a legitimate sales culture. Companies that can boast vibrant sales forces share those attributes, Brooks said.

Picking a sales training program should be a process, too, as Brooks reminded Fogelman. “I’m a buy-it, fix-it, and get-it-done kind of person, but Bill pulled me back and slowed me down,” Fogelman said, adding that it’s important to get the support of senior management.

Engaging senior managers was Brooks’ first step after ManorCare selected The Brooks Group for its sales training program, which was tailored to fit the company and its goals. “Bill spoke to senior managers for 90 minutes or so, and the message was about what successful companies look like,” Fogelman recalled. “They have a system that’s easy to use.”

Fogelman picked the Impact Selling System because it wasn’t rote, but a linked, sequential process that was simple to learn. It allows a salesperson to use his/her personal skills in the interaction with clients and welcome their questions.

Following the presentation to senior leaders, the directors for market development in ManorCare’s six divisions attended a three-day session on Impact Selling, providing their feedback to help tailor a program for ManorCare’s sales force. With the help of three national sales trainers that Fogelman hired, ManorCare and The Brooks Group jointly created a three-day program using the Impact Selling platform. Fogelman said the ManorCare program contains more role-playing activities than the basic module.

The Impact Selling System is designed to be customized because not all selling environments or companies are the same, Brooks said. Sales can be transactional, relational, strategic, price-conscious, or safe, with companies using the vendor that poses the least risk. There are subtle differences among companies, such as size, the product being sold, and the target
customer.

After ManorCare’s program was finalized, training began with the 52 managers of market development before expanding to their direct reports and down the chain of command until all 1,000 salespeople were trained. Following the training, each salesperson was enrolled in a 12-week coaching program, a combination of automated learning and conference calls with trainers and other salespeople to reinforce the concepts of Impact Selling.

From the date the contract was signed, four months were needed to refine the curriculum, with an additional eight months to conduct training, Fogelman said. The results can be seen by the director of administration at each ManorCare center. “The biggest success is that people are using it every day,” Fogelman said. “Everyone speaks the same language, and managers know the right questions to ask.”

The Brooks Group has worked with more than 2,000 customers in 400 industries, including Volvo Heavy Duty Trucks and Microsoft. The training component is only one area where companies can fail their sales team, Brooks said. The others include lack of coaching, no accountability (or accountability for results only and not the process), a flawed pay plan, too much or too little turnover, evaluating sales effectiveness at the end instead of the middle of the process, lack of prospects, and promoting the wrong people to sales management positions.

The importance of quality leads and superior sales managers cannot be overlooked, Brooks said. Five common traits of a good lead are a need and desire for a product, the ability to pay for it, a legitimate sense of urgency, trust in the salesperson and the organization, and a willingness to listen to a sales pitch.

“Most will settle for number five, and sales managers set quotas on number five,” Brooks said. “The catch is that great athletes rarely make good coaches. By the same token, great
salespeople rarely make great sales managers.”

Grayson Walker, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , is a freelance writer based in Atlanta.