The American organisation Training Industry has included the Institut für Wirtschaftspädagogik on the international Watchlist 2023 Sales Training & Enablement. Inclusion on the Watchlist recognises providers with emerging and unique strengths in the field of sales training. The analysis and selection process takes into account the skills, experience and expertise of the providers, whereby the focus is on a unique selection of tools, topics and technologies that individually tailor and optimise the learning experience for participants.

The selection process for the Watchlist 2023 Sales Training is based on the following criteria:

• range and quality of programmes and services offered,
• visibility in the industry, innovation, and impact on the sales training market,
• variety of clients and customers, and
• company performance and growth.

The agricultural machine manufacturer John Deere wanted effective, targeted sales training with measurable results. As a basic target, John Deere defined the achievement of a market share above 30 %.

The John Deere sales board selected the most experienced and successful John Deere sales consultants to test the quality and effectiveness of the training with experienced employees. In addition to a personal development horizon, quantified sales targets were defined for each individual John Deere sales consultant within the scope of the training programme:

• D.O.B Landtechnik AG’s goal was to achieve a margin above 8 %. At the same time, their turnover and own market share were to be increased. Furthermore, the training was to generate 100 new customer appointments. During the training, 176 new customer appointments were generated live by the sales consultants at DOB AG.
• Deppe & Stücker Landmaschinen GmbH also defined a significant increase in new customer appointments as the programme’s goal. Together with the trainer, the company set itself the target of generating 120 new customer appointments. The result was that 280 new customer appointments were arranged by the sales consultants.

The result: From January to August 2022 alone, the training conducted by IWP trainer Wilfred Kochannek resulted in >30 % increase in turnover compared to the entire previous year 2021.
The targets of the individual sales consultants were also clearly exceeded. For example, at D.O.B Landtechnik, instead of the 100 appointments targeted, a total of 176 customer appointments were made. This corresponds to a target achievement of 176 %.

With the participants divided into several groups, Wilfried Kochannek conducted eight days of classroom training with each group. In addition to the telephone training (getting through to the decision-maker, handling the decision-maker’s objections), the content also included the actual sales talk (qualifying needs, price negotiation, closing strategies, up-selling and cross-selling).

Structured dialogue guidelines were developed for telephone acquisition and sales talks and then practised in simulated customer talks.

Following the classroom training, Wilfried Kochannek accompanied the salespersons with regular telephone calls and video calls. In this manner, questions could be answered directly, and a target/performance comparison of target achievement could be conducted on a regular basis.

Anyone who asks Wilfried Kochannek on what he puts particular emphasis usually receives the answer: the following questions:

• What do we want to achieve? How do we pursue our goal?
• Which strategy shall we employ?

And equally important – self-reflection after the appointment:

• What was achieved during each customer visit?

By critically reflecting on a past sales talk, the salespersons continuously learn and adopt valuable resolutions, because the next customer talk is already in the pipeline.

D.O.B Landtechnik AG is one of the largest John Deere authorised dealers in the DACH region and participated in the IWP training with its own sales consultants. D.O.B board member Anton Loibl is elated:

IWP and Wilfried Kochannek are delighted with the successes achieved and look forward to continuing to support John Deere with target and result-oriented training measures.

The participants, too, are thrilled with the training. Watch the entire germanproject report in the video now.

Our project “Combined Training of Sales and Product Skills via Blended Learning” has been credited with the eLearning AWARD 2022 in the category Sales Training by the expert panel of the eLearning Journal. Together with the Westcon Group, a training programme was developed to teach participants both the sales psychology and the technical aspects of a newly launched Westcon product.

The Westcon Group specified the following requirements for the project:

• Portrayal of the true sales process
• Reduction of participants’ classroom time
• Support for digital self-learning

In order to meet these requirements, the training course was designed in the form of blended learning. A characteristic of blended learning is the close interlinking of digital self-learning units, virtual classrooms, and classroom training. On the one hand, the participants have the possibility of digital self-learning. On the other hand, the participants’ classroom attendance times are reduced. This results in lower costs for Westcon overall and minimises the loss of employee productivity.

Within the framework of blended learning, knowledge is imparted in digital form and behavioural change is trained in classroom attendance. Within the digital phases, learners determine their own pace and can thus adapt their learning times to their individual workload.

Didactic concept of the “Sales Academy”

For the sales know-how, existing training modules from the Institut für Wirtschaftspädagogik were employed, which were compiled into an individual solution for the Westcon Group. A particular focus of the training is on the topics of new customer acquisition, needs analysis, motive evaluation, and customer-oriented benefit argumentation. The sales psychology aspects were closely interlinked with the modules on the technical features of the products, so that the participants completed a particularly realistic training course and were able to put the contents directly into practice.

In the digital self-learning units, participants are offered a diverse mix of web-based training, videos, forms of coaching interaction, and interactive videos. Each learning unit is concluded with a short, graphic summary, our PowerCard, and a knowledge check-up.

Thanks to the blended learning approach, concrete statements can be made about the learning success of the participants via the platform. The assessment before the training course and again upon completion allows clear conclusions to be drawn with regard to the success of the programme. In combination with the measurement of the real sales successes achieved by the participating sales staff immediately after training, this results in a unique evaluation method for the Sales Academy.

In July 2021, Jens Wünderlich and Rainer Bielinski from the Institut für Wirtschaftspädagogik were guests at the Plaudertaschen Podcast. In their podcast, Robin Nehring and Patrick Fritz discuss everything related to the topic of “Banking of Tomorrow”. In episode 40, the topic of further professional training is discussed with a focus on blended learning. Blended learning is a combination of classroom training, online lessons and digital learning units. The advantages for companies and banks are evident. You can hear what they are from our experts in the podcast episode.

Why are new learning approaches being developed? Learning itself has not changed fundamentally. From birth onwards, learning is a natural process for us, based on curiosity. According to a study, by 2025, 50% of the world’s workforce will have a different job to what they do now. In addition, due to the baby boomer generation going into retirement, we will have a shortage of 3 million workers within the next few years. For this reason, we need learning systems that adapt quickly to new circumstances and enable contextual learning.

We warmly congratulate our IWP partners Michael Knapp and Harald Herrmann (fltr) on achieving their certification as Management Trainers according to the Magellan Principle.

The further training as Magellan Management Trainer lasted over half a year, during which our participants worked most stringently. This commitment to continued training is a significant quality feature.

Their certificates were presented on 5 February 2020.

The Institut für Wirtschaftspädagogik received an invitation from the TV broadcaster RheinMain TV to participate in their programme “Wege zum Erfolg” – “Paths to Success” – of 18 January 2020. We are pleased about the positive response to our work.

Whole programme: Click here to go directly to the programme

Excerpts: Click here to go directly to the excerpts