Retraining a sales force on new service offerings

Increasing competitive pressure from abroad prompted Eaton Truck to investigate new and profitable service opportunities. XPLANE was asked to help educate an experienced sales force, accustomed to selling manufactured products, on a host of new service offerings.

CHALLENGE | A new “black box” service offering needed to be added to the repetoire of Eaton Truck’s seasoned yet product-focused sales force. Challenges tended to arise when targeting clients outside Eaton’s usual customer base. To be successful, Eaton wanted its sales professionals to know the following:

• Strategic changes were being made to transition the sales organization from selling only products to offering services.
• A new kind of service sale needed to be made directly to the end user in fleet management.
• Specific types of customers needed to be targeted for each particular service.

ACTION | XPLANE conducted a client consulting session and recommended the following tools to facilitate change in Eaton’s sales force:

• A visually engaging PowerPoint deck that illustrates Eaton’s strategic direction and motives.
• Descriptions of how the black box service works.
• Further presentations defining the new sales cycle and approach for selling services.
• An informal learning card deck featuring pitfalls and solutions to facilitate conversation and success.
• Training on how to use new sales tools efficiently.

RESULTS | The Truck Group’s sales team had an enthusiastic and immediate reaction to the new training. Requests were soon made for additional support materials.

Eaton continues to utilize XPLANE’s approach as the company’s service offerings evolve.

“XPLANE’s approach to training created a clearer picture of the change required in our organization in a simple and intuitive way.”

— Scott Adams, Vehicle Solutions Business Unit, Eaton Truck Group