The Client's challenge

Our client a major UK based Business to Business media owner has a number of publications and related products, which are aimed at agents, developers and others involved in the commercial property sector. At the core stands a weekly business title. In 1996 the weekly title was the result of a merger between the No.2 and No.3 titles in a three-title market. Post merger , market share had sunk and the merged sales team was suffering from a low skills base and ineffective management.

The ITC WS programme

ITC WS’s involvement started with a team-wide field assessment. Following the report on this assessment a number of sales people and managers left the company. Training programmes were developed and delivered with the objective of establishing models for excellence in key areas:

        field sales skills
        negotiation
        activity planning and management
        field sales coaching

The core focus was and remains to avoid the typical media sales approach , ie ‘selling pages’ rather than understanding the advertiser’s business drivers. ITC WS’s intervention has contributed to the establishment of a sales culture which has been sustained despite staff turnover (which itself has been lower than typical for the publishing sector). Year by year the same skills have been re-visited and ITC WS has worked closely with team managers to maintain the impetus of field sales coaching.

Results

Within its parent company, the sales team is widely regarded as its most professional. There is, and has long been established, a serious sales culture. Coaching is part of the natural way of working. Team managers, currently the third/fourth generation since 1996, expect to coach because this is how they themselves have been developed. In 1996 our client had a market share of 16%. This share has climbed and climbed. It currently stands at c.44%; in some sectors over 50%. There are few, if any, other examples of such a renaissance in UK Business to Business media.