Since January 2011, when ABF Freight first introduced Applying Sales Essentials (ASE), the organization knew this new sales approach was going to become the real difference maker in creating a better-trained, better-prepared, professional sales staff. To date, ABF Freight has introduced and taught the principles in ASE to more than 50 classes.
ASE is an approach that teaches a salesperson how to become an effective trusted advisor to customers by asking effective questions. Prior to ASE training, salespeople were rewarded for their ability to build relationships and make a high volume of sales calls while spending large amounts of money sponsoring entertainments. Activity was being rewarded rather than results—quantity over quality. Today, ABF Freight recognizes that its customers are looking for a professional who isn’t trying to “feature-dump” or buy their business, but is there as a trusted advisor attempting to help them solve supply chain problems.
Program Details
ASE class set-up includes field account managers and district-level sales managers who act as coaches. In addition, at least one company officer is included to provide guidance, leadership, and credibility. The sales approach ABF Freight calls RITE Selling is the cornerstone of ASE training and involves multiple group exercises, role-plays, games, and classroom discussions. The idea is to do less lecture and PowerPoint and more shared activities.
ABF Freight relies heavily upon its district sales managers (DSMs) and branch managers (BMs) around the country to reinforce this training to more than 500 salespeople. It is typical for DSMs or BMs to include in their weekly meetings a time dedicated to doing role-plays and having discussions about actual customers who are in the pipeline. This reinforcement allows all of the sales staff to observe and learn best practices. ABF Freight encourages all salespeople to be themselves when role-playing and integrate these concepts into their daily lifestyles. The organization has received feedback that the techniques it is teaching are being successfully used with union labor, dock supervisors, and even in personal parenting situations with excellent results.
Results
ABF Freight can clearly define sales growth from participants who have attended ASE class versus those participants who have not. The data continues to be confirmed year after year that ASE graduates have a 9 percent increase in revenue and 234 percent increase in logistics business compared to a 2 percent decline in revenue and 76 percent increase in logistics business for participants who have not attended the ASE class.
