Kimball Midwest’s PIVOT training program is designed to pivot sales representatives from transactional selling to system selling. PIVOT helps reps make this selling transition by providing the necessary tools and resources to increase new account attainment and development, market share, retention (both customer and rep), sales, profitability, and income.
Program Details
During PIVOT, reps for the company—which has been in the maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products business since 1923—learn how to increase their customer base and connect with customers by identifying accounts with growth potential, building prospect lists, route planning, and utilizing Kimball Midwest’s marketing selling programs.
Prior to PIVOT, Kimball Midwest had Fundamentals of System Selling, a one-day introductory training about system selling. Seeing a need for this program company-wide, the company improved the training by developing a standard training every rep would receive, which included the creation of leaders’ guides, participant workbooks and worksheets, presentation slide decks, etc. The company used the best practices learned from Fundamentals of System Selling and is in the process of making the training accessible to every rep throughout the company. Ultimately, Kimball Midwest aims to incorporate PIVOT into its First Year Journey program and eventually have every sales rep who is working through their second Building Block sales milestone attend a PIVOT training taught by their region’s key account executive (KAE).
After a PIVOT class, sales development specialists who oversee the Building Block program host a PIVOT sales contest with former class attendees. After the six-week contest, the specialists review the attendees’ sales in several key programs and reward winners with funds they can use to grow their business. From the contest data they collect, they examine the impact the training and knowledge gained has on Kimball Midwest’s Building Block passes, KAE utilization, and account growth.
Results
In 2021, Kimball Midwest conducted at least 14 two-day PIVOT training workshops with 95 participants. After attending PIVOT classes, approximately 86 percent of class attendees completed the second major milestone of their First Year Journey. The company believes this is a tremendous result because sales representatives who complete this milestone are much more likely to be retained. Additionally, after this class, the participants averaged a weekly increase of $890 per week in sales.
