Does it really take someone with CDIA certification to manage sales professionals? At Ricoh Americas Corporation, the answer is, “Yes!” The subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd., a global technology company specializing in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems, and IT and on-site services, believes that sales managers need technical knowledge, as well as coaching and leadership skills, in order to more effectively coach sales teams selling on a services-led model.
Because Ricoh Americas’ advanced services and imaging systems interface with client networks, CDIA+ training and certification was chosen as a way to enhance the IT knowledge of the company’s sales leaders, while helping them best understand how Ricoh’s portfolio supports client workflow.
Program Details
Launched in 2013, CDIA+ training for managers links to the corporate goals of supporting Ricoh Americas’ transformation and enabling the sales team to sell services-based solutions by enhancing both manager coaching support and the professional skills of sales employees. It was developed in-house using material from industry experts and partners from CompTIA. Ricoh’s Learning and Development team collaborated with sales managers and CompTIA to develop the program in house, while working with an external certification body to ensure that the training addressed all of the formal exam objectives.
CDIA+ training is delivered to all sales managers with the expectation that participants will pass the CDIA+ certification exam following the class. The objectives of the training are:
1. Managers will understand the technical elements of Ricoh Americas’ imaging portfolio and explain the business application it is designed to address.
2. Managers will be able to engage IT decision-makers and influencers when coaching the imaging sale.
3. Managers will support sales rep positioning of complex services.
The training is delivered in a blended format, with 40 percent of each workshop consisting of exercises designed to provide hands-on experience with workflow. In addition, simulation resources are provided to manager participants, who then cascade them to their teams following the workshop.
Results
One hundred percent of the managers who completed this course in fiscal year 2014 took and passed the CDIA+ certification exam. Further success is demonstrated by the expanded partnership with CompTIA. Following the development of this internal program, CompTIA asked Ricoh Americas to license its training content for public purchase. Ricoh Americas completed a review process with Procert, an external third party, and subsequently licensed the materials for global publication. Today, a version of Ricoh Americas’ CDIA+ prep program is publicly available on Amazon, iBooks, and Nook and is the only authorized prep for this exam.
The success of this training at meeting the business goal of enabling the sales team to sell services-based solutions can be seen in higher services performance from teams whose managers completed the CDIA+ course. In FY2014, those teams scored 37 percent higher than teams whose managers did not attend the training, indicating that managers are using their new knowledge and skills to coach their teams, and enabling better services-based support to customers.
