Delivering behaviour change in a national sales team

One of the greatest achievements for any facilitator is to see their programs deliver real impact back in the workplace. We’re excited to announce that this has indeed been the case for a small group of sales representatives who recently completed our flagship Intelligent Selling™ program. We were keen to assess whether this program actually delivered behaviour change and provided a set of new skills and tools to boost the performance of the sales team.

We delivered the standard two-day program to 15 sales representatives in July this year and asked these participants and their managers to complete an EI multi-rater survey (the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, or EIQ). We collated this data and then re-assessed the same representatives, as did their managers, in October this year. We also asked a number of qualitative questions in the re-assessment to get an indication of the types of strategies representatives were using and in what circumstances.

The Intelligent Selling™ program focuses on building and developing effective customer relationships in challenging sales situations. The program helps participants apply strategies to develop their sensitivity to the needs of others, their own self-awareness and their ability to manage emotions (both theirs and their customer’s). It was reassuring for us to achieve significant recall and recollection of these strategies as recounted in specific real-life situations. What was also very reassuring was the observation that the overall level of EI (as rated by the representative’s managers) had improved by almost five per cent. The most impressive result was a significant increase in the representative’s ability to moderate their frustration and anxiety with customers and focus on the relationship as well as the task when under pressure. This measure of ‘emotional resilience’ had improved by 13 per cent.

The results from this group have demonstrated that EI can be developed and can make a substantial impact on the effectiveness of customer-facing sales staff. The use of a multi-rater survey has addressed many of the limitations in using a self-rating approach which has been found in other studies to suffer the effects of rater bias (where the participant’s over-rate their ability). This sample has provided important validation of the program design and the methodology utilised in the Intelligent Selling™ workshop.

Some responses to our question asking ‘how the strategies and tools from the Intelligent Selling™ workshop helped on the job’ include:

• Fantastic, the workshop gave me great insight, thus making it easier to identify potential issues or problems.
• It gave me more confidence in controlling how I felt.
• The workshop improved my communication with customers.
• Quite useful as I was at times stressed with some of the behaviours of certain colleagues with whom I have a completely different work strategy. The workshop helped me learn to cope and accept their behaviour a bit more without it upsetting me so much.

Team Profile - Dorienne Spennato

Dorienne has gained considerable experience as a senior Human Resource Development specialist with over ten years experience in both the corporate and retail environment. With a strong track record in the social sciences and various roles in training and development she has worked with both front-line staff and managers to deliver lasting behaviour change.

Experienced at all phases of the talent management cycle Dorienne has been involved in facilitating team alignment, researching and delivering a variety of training programs at multiple levels and providing a range of HRD solutions to both internal and external clients. Her social science background provides a wealth of knowledge and experience to assist individuals one-to-one in a variety of coaching assignments. Dorienne has designed and facilitated programs including performance management, leadership development, customer service and diversity. Her experience also extends to implementing nationally recognised training packages.

In addition to extensive industry experience, Dorienne holds the equivalent of a Diploma in Assessment and Workplace Training, a Bachelor of Arts (Social Work) and a Masters in Clinical Social Sciences.