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As a result of the Integrity Selling course,

advertising sales increased 14%—and that was

during a slow period. In the last of our series,

Mike Kelly reviews the reasons why.

Wi t hResults

Integrity

Looking back over the sales training coursef rom Integrity Systems we rolled out thiss u m m e r, the results we’ve gained fall into

t h ree distinct areas: practical, emotional, andf i n a n c i a l .

The Integrity Selling course has a practical feel-ing from start to finish. The company is run byseasoned salespeople who have devoted theirworking lives to sales and sales training. Fro mthe first contact with the company, you knowy o u ’ re dealing with a professional organization.

Right from the start, I was impressed by thesetup of the “train the trainer” seminar I attend-ed. From the venue to the technology used and,most import a n t l y, the quality of the facilitators,Integrity Systems made a very strong statementthat we were important to them and would bet reated accord i n g l y.

The course is based on a customer- f o c u s e d ,needs-driven system and is rife with practical,no-nonsense ways to improve sales eff i c i e n c y.The Aid, Inc process developed by IntegritySystems’ founder, Ron Willingham, is a simple,step-by-step route to making a sale. By followingthe six-stage process, you reach a win-win situa-tion by creating mutual value for you and yourc u s t o m e r.

Positioned throughout the course are usefulm e t h ods for handling objections and diff i c u l tquestions, time management problems, behaviorstyles, and planning issues. In short, it deliversexactly what I’d expect from any good salestraining course.

But at the center of the course is a fundamentalquestion. In a group of salespeople with similarb a c k g rounds and education levels, why wouldthe results vary wildly from person to person? Is t a rted my working life as an engineer, and itsoon became clear to me that you could taketwo skilled craftsmen and get a vastly diff e re n tfinished product, even though they used thesame tools. Obviously, the tools they use are lessi m p o rtant than the way they are used. Whywould it be diff e rent in sales?

This is what takes Integrity Selling far beyondthe other courses I’ve attended. Integrity Sellingd o e s n ’t just supply a good set of tools, they put a

l a rge emphasis on theperson using them.

I t ’s in the congruityThe corner piece of the“emotional” side of thiscourse was also developedby Ron Willingham; hecalls it the SalesC o n g ruence mod e l .Willingham believes thatan individual’s view ofselling, belief in their ownabilities, personal values,commitment to activities,and belief in product hasmuch more to do with their level of success thanp roduct or industry knowledge. This makes ag reat deal of sense—yet most sales training isi n d u s t ry- or prod u c t - f o c u s e d .

You have no doubt worked with someone whoseskill or education level was below that of theirpeers, but their results were above averagebecause of their grit and determination. A sales-person like this succeeds because they are is pre-p a red to do the hard parts of the job in additionto the easy parts. They believe that the prod u c tt h e y ’ re selling benefits their customers, theyknow they have the ability to succeed, theyrefuse to act in a way that contradicts their ownpersonal values, and they believe selling is anoble profession. This is Wi l l i n g h a m ’s SalesC o n g ruence model at work.

Because it’s quantifiable, sales managers typicallyhone in on commitment to activities as theroute to making salespeople hit their targets. Butthe truth is, if any of these five dimensions areout of alignment, it will have a significantimpact on results.

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E v e ry team has people within it who, on paper,a re as good as anyone else but do not deliver theconsistent results of others. The biggest impro v e-ments I have seen as a result of this pro g r a mhave come from bringing these dimensions intoalignment (a.k.a. congruence) in the members ofmy team who were underperf o rming.

Not just for superstarsP a re t o ’s 80/20 law says that 80% of my re v e n u ewill be generated by 20% of my people. Whatthis course has done is raise the bar for the aver-age as well as the superstar salesperson. Pare t o ’slaw may still apply, but the sales figures are high-er overall. In fact, eight out of 10 of my sales staffhave a better average perf o rmance for the lastt h ree months than for the year to date.

During the summer—including the sales grave-y a rd shift that is August—we had a 14% averagei n c rease in sales revenue from the people whop a rticipated in the course.

Top-line increases are always good to see, butt h e re are numerous underlying benefits. Justmeeting for an hour a week and discussing mutu-al problems has made us a more cohesive team.The course has given each team member thetools to consistently beat their targets and, morei m p o rt a n t l y, the belief they can do just that.

S p o rts commentators talk about needing a win-n e r’s mentality to become great, and I can seethat in my team. They now have a confidencethat wasn’t there before.

Even if you are simply interested in bottom-lineresults, Integrity Selling can have a major impacton your company. The 14% sales increase overthe three months of the course meant instantROI for our company. Because the learning con-tinues long after the course ends, it’s a re a s o n a b l eexpectation that we’ll see an even higheri n c rease in sales.

But the aspect that’s affected me the most is theemotional dimension. Rather than a flash ofinspiration, I’ve seen a slow dawning on myteam that they are the biggest obstacle to theirown success.

The pro g r a m ’s approach involves understandingother people’s behaviors, but in doing so, it’s hardnot to learn about yourself.

I use the lessons from this course in my every daylife—and not just the business portion of it. It’stempting to dismiss this segment of the course astoo emotional for the business world, but beinginvolved in this program has had a major impacton my life and the lives of my sales team. Andthat can’t be a bad thing.