Mission Australia Employment Solutions is a not for profit organisation assisting people into sustained employment through the Australian Government’s Job Services Australia contract. Each time this contract is renewed it requires a new strategic response. Failure to respond adequately could mean not having the contract renewed in the next period, so the stakes are high.
In 2010 Primed assisted Employment Solutions to implement a vertically integrated sales strategy across Australia. We worked at three levels of the organisation; confirming and refining the strategy with General and Regional Managers at a national and state level; engaging, supporting and reinforcing the strategy at a business manager level and building skills and sales capability at the sales representative level. This ensured that everyone was not only hearing the same message, they were working towards the same outcomes. The workshop and the workplace came together as each level of leadership participated in the program level below them. That is where the magic began. Instead of dictating new behaviours, the context was set for new behaviours to emerge.
The Solutions Selling program was custom designed to meet the needs of a Job Services provider, the culture of Mission Australia and the sales strategy it wanted to implement. Our actors provided a means to practise and experiment with some new techniques as well as a way for participants to interact with characters and situations that were very familiar to their environment. Overwhelmingly the response from participants was “Now I get it and now I know what I need to do.”
“The cultural effects, if not done properly, can be a real issue. The practical, Mission Australia specific sales model, training and support shifted people’s mindsets at all levels and encouraged real collaboration. This set this program apart from an off–the–shelf sales training package. We can now model, measure and manage effective sales behaviours from top to bottom!”
Phil Schultz, GM Mission Australia Employment Solutions QLD/NT
