CASE STUDY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROVIDER

Increasing Channel Sales Results with LinkedIn®

How Channel and Inside & Alliance sellers of a large telecommunications provider learned how to leverage modern selling techniques to expand relationships.

About the Customer

Vertical: Telecommunications

Company: The telecommunications provider delivers solutions for IT complexity, network management, and cybersecurity risks.

Team: Channel and Inside & Alliance teams.

Clients: Their Channel and Inside & Alliance divisions build long-lasting relationships with account partners that offer their products and services to global enterprise clients.

About the Training

Challenge: To more effectively support their partner channels’ sales teams, and to recruit new channel sellers to their network, the Channel and Inside & Alliance divisions needed to learn how to more effectively leverage digital selling tools and techniques.

Solution: Vengreso’s Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams.

Results: The training provided prompt and lasting results. The two divisions gained insights into effective prospecting techniques and modern sales skills to convert connections to conversations, enabling them to build relationships and increase their pipeline.

Overview

The Channel and Inside & Alliance sales teams of one of the largest telecommunications providers in the U.S. needed to learn how to leverage modern selling techniques to expand relationships inside of existing accounts, connect with prospects, and recruit new channel partners. They wanted to use modern digital selling methods to engage these accounts. To equip sellers with modern selling skills for prospecting and channel empowerment, the telecommunications provider engaged Vengreso to deliver our Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams training. This 15-week program is delivered in a blended learning model through online content delivery, live instruction and live coaching sessions that resulted in behavior and mindset change for 194 salespeople.

Key Results

15%

Average SSI (Social Selling Index) Score Growth.

75%

Above average or better LinkedIn® acumen of sales reps after training.

81%

Developed skills to make them more effective at their job.

63%

Learned how to connect and engage with prospective buyers and clients.

90%

Practiced skills taught during training to reinforce the lessons.

68%

Learned how to prospect using LinkedIn®.

The Company

For over 50 years, this telecommunications provider has offered solutions to enterprise customers in more than 60 countries. It is one of the largest U.S. telecommunications companies and meets the network demands of Medium-sized to Enterprise businesses. Their customers are global enterprises in the Financial Services, Gaming Network, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Media and Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals, Public Sector, and Retail industries. Their services range from adaptive networks, cybersecurity risks, hybrid cloud and IT solutions, voice and unified communications, and managed networks. They also offer solutions for digital experience optimization, operational efficiency, and exceptional customer service to produce better business outcomes for their clients.

The Challenge

With their growth, they have become a major player in the network and communications industry. As the telecommunications provider has expanded, their Channel and Inside & Alliance teams faced challenges in connecting with new channel partners and providing them the tools to increase sales.

Our client recognized the significance of buyer behavior shifts. The modern buyer performs more independent research before engaging sellers. When buyers do engage with sales reps, they seek those who provide value, deliver personalized communication, and understand their specific pain points. In fact, LinkedIn® states that 93% of decision-makers are more likely to consider buying from someone who provides personalized communications and had demonstrated a deep knowledge of their business.

This telecommunications provider chose to enable their channel sellers to become a valuable resource to their channel partners so they can deliver personalized messaging at scale that conveys their understanding of the business challenges their channel partners face.

Additionally, their channel managers struggled to develop deeper relationships inside their channel partner organizations, which prevented them from efficiently sharing more information. This included specific techniques, such as how to reach their target buyer through digital platforms.

The company also strives to recruit more channel partners to sell their services. Their channel managers weren’t leveraging LinkedIn®, the largest B2B social media platform, to develop their thought leadership and position themselves as experts. To succeed in the modern business environment, they needed to learn how to leverage digital selling platforms to connect with more channel partner opportunities and to stay top-of-mind with their existing channel sellers.

Vengreso’s Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams

The course features one live launch call, six live instruction sessions, six live group coaching, and a live award ceremony over the span of 15 weeks.

Module 1:

Why You Need to Change Your Digital Sales Mindset

Module 2:

Get Off to a Fast Start by Building a Strong Foundation

Module 3:

Be More “Attractive” – Your LinkedIn® Profile Makeover

Module 4:

Learning to Engage by Finding the Right People

Module 5:

Why You Need to Change Your Digital Sales Mindset

Module 6:

Best Practices for Learning to Connect (Inbound)

Module 7:

Best Practices for Learning to Connect (Outbound)

Module 8:

Feeding your Network with Curated Content

Module 9:

Feeding your Network with Created Content

Ongoing Coaching:

The Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams training was delivered through the Vengreso on-demand platform, supplemented by live instruction and live group coaching across the span of 15 weeks.
75%
of buyers agree or strongly agree that it’s important for a seller to have an informative LinkedIn® profile, and 60% say that reaching out via LinkedIn® impacts their thought process positively. Source: LinkedIn® 2020 State of Sales Report
My SSI is up from 66 to 73 in 10 days, I’ve pulled in 13 recommendations to my LinkedIn® profile and I’m beginning to formulate my personal brand.
– National Channel Manager
[We are now viewed by the customer as a close partner of this vendor. We are working on next steps which could provide a sizable deal for [us]!
– Director of Alliances

The Solution

The telecommunications provider invested in Vengreso’s Instructor-Led Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams training for their Channel and Inside & Alliance divisions. The two teams consisted of a total of 194 people comprised of 157 sellers, 29 managers, seven directors, and one vice president.

The Vengreso training program, which won a Gold Stevie Award for Best Sales Training Product of the Year in 2019, is built on the premise that the modern buyer requires a modern seller.

The Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams training was delivered through the Vengreso on demand platform, supplemented by live instruction and live group coaching across the span of 15 weeks. The goal of the training was to equip sellers and managers with modern sales techniques to find, engage and connect with more prospective channel partners.

The training also taught how to expand their relationships with existing channel partners and earn more referrals, which helps channel managers increase their pipeline.

The Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams training has empowered the channel managers to become more effective with modern selling techniques.

Why do we include live coaching and instruction with an on demand program?

Through our experience of training salespeople on how to leverage digital selling techniques (and we’ve trained over 140,000 sales reps) we’ve proved that training alone is not enough. To achieve success, we need to create behavior change. Only with on-going coaching do participants build confidence and change their behavior, which is why our Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams training program includes individual and team coaching to reinforce key concepts and support new skills taught during the 9 training modules.

The Results

Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams includes on demand training reinforced by learners’ application of the concepts, live instruction and live coaching. This learning process has delivered prompt and lasting results for the telecommunications provider’s Channel and Inside & Alliance sales divisions. With the two divisions combined, 75% remarked that after the training, they had above average or better knowledge of the proper usage of LinkedIn® for selling activities. This resulted in 91% of the participants properly updating their LinkedIn® profile, with 61% experiencing an increase in profile views. With profiles that address the specific pain points of their target buyer, 81% of participants developed skills to make them more effective at their job and 68% learned how to prospect using LinkedIn® by applying the techniques taught during the 15 weeks of training. Through Selling with LinkedIn® for Teams, sellers in the Channel and Inside & Alliance sales divisions were equipped with the skills to build new relationships while strengthening current relationships through LinkedIn®. These behavioral changes directly increased the number of sales conversations which has led to more sales opportunities.

More Views

95% of sellers experienced an increase in LinkedIn®profile views. This trigger event, which is a starting point for conversations, means the data storage company’s sellers gained more exposure with their target audience.

More Connections

58% of sellers received a response from a client or prospect on LinkedIn® as a result of the training. These sellers are focused on turning their online connections into offline sales conversations.

More Conversations

74% of sellers engaged with prospective buyers or clients through LinkedIn®, providing the foundation for more sales conversations. The next step is to take these conversations offline.

Additionally, 37% of sellers booked an appointment during the 15-week training program using the lessons learned. And, 37% gained a commitment to receive a referral introduction.

During the 15-week training, 11% of the data storage company’s reps closed a deal using the techniques taught during the training. With an average deal value of $5,000 and an average lifetime value of a customer at $10,000, these Closed-Won opportunities provided immediate ROI. As sellers continue to apply the modern selling skills taught in the training they will be able to leverage digital platforms to build their pipeline.

LinkedIn® is a registered trademark of LinkedIn® Corporation

 

Future Considerations

On-going Coaching:
The training we delivered across the span of 15 weeks is a proven approach. On-going coaching is imperative to reinforce and support new skills by providing participants an opportunity for continuous learning, confidence building and behavior change.

Selling with Video for Teams:
Vengreso’s Selling with Video training program teaches sellers how to leverage video to create even deeper relationships with prospects and existing customers. The training includes a review of sales video technology, effective recording techniques and templates

Learn more about Selling with Video for Teams.

About Vengreso

Vengreso is a sales training firm that believes the modern buyer requires a modern seller. Our digital sales training and coaching helps B2B salespeople create more sales conversations with buyers through an omni-channel digital sales approach.