Miller Heiman
The sales function is critically important to most organisations. Sales effectiveness has many aspects and Archimedes Sales works with organisations to help them assess their capability, identify development areas and put in place a programme to enhance their sales capabilities in order to drive volume and profit.
On Process and Tools
We partner with Miller Heiman to provide world class processes and tools to build exceptional sales organisations. For more than 25 years Miller Heiman, Inc. has helped sales organizations and sales professionals use the right strategies and tactics to deliver more business.
We provide proven, results focused sales development programmes such as the internationally acclaimed Strategic Selling®, Conceptual Selling® and Large Account Management Process (LAMP®). With a global presence in more than 20 countries, Miller Heiman is the sales partner for such global clients as Dow Chemical, Motorola, Johnson & Johnson,O2, Coca-Cola.
Unlike traditional consultants or trainers Miller Heiman practioners are both diagnostic and prescriptive. Our backgrounds are all as senior sales managers and as such we are grounded in reality not theory. We understand the key challenges of being able to win business faster and more consistently than your competition. It is our approach to solving these challenges that makes us unique.
- Sales Process is the underlying framework driving an organization’s internal and external sales methodologies. Implementing robust process should be seen as a change initiative not a one-off sales training.
- Miller Heiman processes bring logic and consistency to everything that must be done before face-to-face contact with the buyer. That ensures that the small amount of time with the customer is used to best effect.
- Robust process provides a consistent way to create, develop and manage accounts, opportunities and customer relationships
- Some examples of the benefits that robust process adds are;
- it provides a common language and common methodology that ensures some consistency and helps communication
- this is particularly advantageous for geographically dispersed sales organisations, or organisations with people or teams that have joined from different backgrounds, takeovers, amalgamations etc
- it shortens sales cycles because it enables people to get things right up front rather than a more costly trial and error approach
- it improves relationships with major accounts by focussing on the big picture and not by drowning in the minutiae and by focussing on joint planning and the strategic rather than tactical approach
- it improves strike rates/ close rates because it facilitates better preparation for precious time in front of decision makers
- it gives managers a valuable tool to increase visibility and hence manageability of what's happening in any given meeting, project or account
STRATEGIC SELLING PROCESS (SS)
- Strategic Selling is a step-by-step approach to winning business on specific deals or opportunities; the process highlights exactly how the buying decision will be made, it shows your strengths and weaknesses, qualifies the opportunity, uncovers your strengths and added value, and provides a prioritised action plan for your most important single sales objectives.
- For full details of this Miller Heiman programme, click here.
CONCEPTUAL SELLING (CS)
- Conceptual Selling helps sellers understand customer buying criteria of major prospects and to be customer centric by focusing in on the customer's “concept”
- They will learn how to position your solution to solve business problems and to differentiate based upon your strengths.
- For details, click here.
LARGE ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT PROCESS (LAMP)
- LAMP provides a process for protecting and growing your most important accounts.
- LAMP leads your account managers through a series of steps that reveal hidden needs, identify long-term opportunities, and help you engage with your most important clients in a more productive manner.
- For details, click here.
CHANNEL PARTNER MANAGEMENT (CPM)
- Channel Partner Management deals with the big picture strategy in the context of alignment between your company and your channel partners or distributors.
- CPM is designed to increase channel revenues and determine ROI whilst contributing significantly to the success and profitability of the partners' business.
- For details, click here.
Miller Heiman Website
On Skills
We design and deliver numerous sales skills programmes around introduction to sales, new business development and account management and sales for non-sales people. We also do client facing skills for technical people who often have little training in these areas when they move across into pre-sales/ client-facing type roles. These programmes are bespoke and are designed to fit with the client's culture and to complement their processes and tools.
Advanced Selling Skills
A successful sales force needs to combine the right strategy, the right methodology (sales process) , the right tools ( e.g. collateral and CRM systems) and most importantly the right skills to execute on the strategy and methodology. Programmes on advanced selling skills develop,hone and refine the skill element of sales capbility.
As with all our programmes, we design the specifc programme to meet the needs of the individual client (their current situation, their stage of development and their objectives). The outline below provides a idea of the concepts and topics we cover in this area.
Skill based work of necessity requires interaction so our programmes are developed to include pracice exercises, role play, forum theatre work and video feedback.
Questioning & Listening
- Why questions are so important
- Different types of questions, when and how to optimise them
- Questioning techniques
- Active listening, why do it how to do it
- Listening barriers and how to overcome them
Rapport & Influencing
- What is rapport?
- How do you get it and use it?
- Body language
- Communication styles
- Identifying your own & learning to flex it
Networking
- What is a network
- Why should you do it
- Defining and analysing your current network
- How to build and use your network
Account Penetration
- What is account penetration
- Why bother with it
- Test your current knowledge
- How to gather and store data
- Analytical models
Managing Conflict and Difficult Customers
- Objection Handling
- Handling emotion in business
- Valuing differences
- Acknowledging and exploring other views
- Finding the win-win point in the spectrum
- transactional analysis
Business Creativity & Problem solving
- Relevance of creativity to sales
- Thinking techniques
- Mind- mapping
- Brain storming
- Creativity techniques e.g. Upside down thinking / metaphorical thinking
New Business Development
Developing new business is the lifeblood of many companies. Even those with a strong, established customer base need to be developing new lines of business or risk complacency and decline. New business development (NBD) is however one of the most challenging areas of sales. This programme looks at a clear four stage process for new business development that helps people and organisations tackle this demanding area.
As with all our programmes we design the specifc programme to meet the needs of the individual client (their current situation, their stage of development and their objectives). The outline below provides a idea of the concepts and topics we cover in this area.
Key Topics
- New business development
- A different type of selling (click here to hear a sample podcast on this topic)
- Hunters or farmers?
- Understand what type you are and how to best use your skills
- Stage 1 ~ Prospecting (Identifying opportunity)
- Developing a robust process not leaving it to ad hoc circumstances
- Generating leads and targets. Creating a pipeline
- Research
- Qualifying ~ ensuring you’re not wasting your time
- Stage 2 ~ Making initial contact
- Cold calling ~ Often the least favourite thing to do. How to make it fun
- Developing your "elevator pitch"
- Having something compelling to say
- Why are you different? Your Unique Selling Points (USP’s)
- Stage 3 ~ Progressing the sale
- Doing the leg work
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- Research
- Networking
- Controlling the progress (funnel management)
- Pester or Persistence?
- Stage 4 ~ Closing the sale
- Timing is all
- Contingency planning
- It's in the detail
Account Planning & Management
Too busy fighting fires to ever feel in control of your business? Most good sales people don’t like spending too much time at their desk. However to be successful requires some time spent getting a clear idea of where you are, where you want to go and how you are going to get there. Good planning ensures that your time out there with the customers is being well spent. This course helps account managers devise their own robust but concise account planning and management processes.
As with all our programmes, we design the specifc programme to meet the needs of the individual client (their current situation, their stage of development and their objectives). The outline below provides a idea of the concepts and topics we cover in this area.
Key Topics
Nature of account management
- Evolution- different levels of account management
- Account management models
- Understanding the nature of your relationship with the accounts and your own business
Account planning
- Situation analysis
- Data gathering & analysis
- SWOT / PESTLE analysis
- Competitor analysis
- Priority mapping
- Customer feedback
- Strategy setting
- USP definition
- Corporate & departmental alignment
- Customer alignment
- Core strategies
- SMARTER objectives
- Strategy Execution
- Resource requirements
- Time lines & dependencies
- Using critical paths
- Contingency planning
- Monitoring & measurement, Review process
Account Management
- Account penetration ~ detailed analysis & understanding of your account
- Gathering & using data (CRM)
- Contact mapping and planning
- Forecasting
Understanding Sales
This one day programme is designed to give people an insight into sales departments and sales people. It is for people very new to sales, or for other functions that deal with sales and need to understand a little about sales and selling.
As with all our programmes, we design the specifc programme to meet the needs of the individual client (their current situation, their stage of development and their objectives). The outline below provides a idea of the concepts and topics we cover in this area.
Key Topics
- Beyond the stereo-types
- Fast cars and expense accounts? Or is there more to sales and sales people?
- What are the qualifications, requirements and people specifications to be in sales?
- Types of selling
- Hard sell / transactional / consultative / strategic partnering
- Inside the mind of a sales person
- The motivations and drivers of a typical person in the sales function
- Why people buy
- The psychology of selling
- Understanding the customer
- Needs analysis
- Features, benefits and advantages
- Questioning techniques
- What are the techniques sales people are taught, to elicit the information they need?
- Essential sales process
- Preparation
- The steps of the call
- Persuasive selling structure
- Professional selling
- Territory management
- Account management
- Customer relationship management systems (CRM)
Client Facing Skills for Technical Managers
This programme is designed for people with technical backgrounds and training who have moved into pre-sales, technical consulting or other client facing roles. It's deigned to give them some tools and techniques for handling client interactions and for technical selling.
As with all our programmes, we design them specifically for individual clients according to their specific requirements. The key topics below provide an outline of the concepts we typically cover in these type of programmes.
Key Topics
- Understanding behavioural styles
- Comparing technical behaviours and priorities with other functions
- Understanding how to recognise and work with styles different from your own
- Types of selling:
- Hard sell / transactional / consultative / strategic partnering
- Pre-sales
- Opportunity identification
- Up selling & cross selling
- Setting and managing client expectations
- Avoiding over promising
- Being assertive
- Messaging & communication
- Understanding required levels of detail
- Brevity & summary
- Repetition
- Communicating complex concepts simply
- Questioning and listening
- Core sales skills to identify requirements , identify issues and
- Establishing rapport
- Establishing and maintaining strong client relationships
- Handling problems and escalations
- The emotional impact of conflict
- LAER conflict handling process