Cencora MWI Animal Health Division Exceeds Plan Objectives
Cencora is formerly known as Amerisource Bergen
The Results
116.6%Average Improvement in Sales Call Preparation Skills
66.6%Average Improvement in Engaging Customers in Needs Based Dialogues
29.8%Average Skill Improvement Across All Skills
The Challenge
Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen) Corporation is an international healthcare distribution company. They provide drug distribution and consulting related to medical business operations and patient services. Cencora was seeking a way to drive profitable growth within the Animal Health division. MWI Animal Health recognised that doing so meant changing their go-to-market strategy because their end customers – animal caregivers and “companion animal pet parents” now think differently about companion and productional animal needs and how to manage and enhance animal health and wellbeing.
Our Approach
The goal of the programme was to move from a “product provider” approach to selling to a customer-focused approach in which a consultative style is evident in the sales professional’s thinking, actions, and words.
Cencora engaged Richardson Sales Performance to develop a customised, multi-stage approach to learning and behaviour change.
Learners were introduced to the Six Critical Skills and the Consultative Selling Framework on Richardson's Accelerate digital learning platform before starting their virtual instructor-led training sessions.
Then participants completed a pre-assessment of their selling skills which established a baseline. This step enabled sales professionals to quantify the impact of their learning journey.
Third, sales professionals participated in virtual, instructor-led consultative selling workshops focused on building customer-centric selling skills including positioning, gaining access, questioning and listening techniques, resolving objections, and gaining commitment to close. The competencies targeted were chosen because they were applicable to a range of sales professionals positioning many different products. This approach was critical to success because MWI offers a wide range of about 35,000 products from over 500 vendors. The range of products covers almost everything a customer needs. Products include pharmaceuticals, vaccines, parasiticides, diagnostics, capital equipment, supplies, veterinary pet food, and nutritional products.
The programme was integrated throughout the animal health division. As a result, participants included new hires and seasoned sales professionals. By engaging the entire sales organisation in the training AmerisourceBergen had an opportunity to approach the market with a united selling style. Additionally, a universal sales language and methodology meant that adjustments to sales techniques could be made at scale.
The Impact
During and following the training the Companion Animal group exceeded their plan objectives for the fiscal year 2020 at a significantly greater percentage than other teams that had yet to start sales training.
Learn more about Cencora's experience working with Richardson from Director of Commercial Learning and Development, Jeanne Delancey in the video below.
Richardson’s been a great consultative partner… an extension of our commercial learning team…
Solutions that made this possible
Richardson Accelerate™ Sales Performance Platform
Accelerate provides a digital learning experience that uses assessments, video, gamification, and bite-sized modules to build sales competencies.
Virtual Instructor-Led Workshops (VILT)
Sales organisations operating in an era of global instability are seeking solutions to continue salesforce development in light of travel restrictions. As leaders look to video and digital technology to supplement their performance initiatives, they are looking for assurance that they aren’t sacrificing quality. Richardson Sales Performance has pivoted to virtual training by creating our robust virtual workshops, conducting hundreds of virtual instructor-led training (VILT) workshops and enhancing the sales performance skills of thousands of participants to-date.
Six Critical Skills Training
The Six Critical Skills training programme helps your team build the soft selling skills they need to help them open more doors, better understand customer needs, and position more value.
Consultative Selling Training
This training programme teaches a customer-focused approach for planning and executing sales calls. Teams learn to engage customers in needs-based dialogues that build credibility, enable better problem solving, and foster customer openness to uncover critical information needed to position a compelling solution that differentiates your team.
Sales Skill Assessments
Find clarity on where your team is today and where you need to go with our proprietary sales skill assessments.