MTM, Inc.’s Customer Communication Program is a custom-created internal sales program introduced in 2020-2021 after the new Chief Sales Officer (CSO) structured the sales environment to focus on a model specific to the company’s industry (MTM is a transportation company that offers healthcare and public transit services). The program is mandatory for client-facing roles across all departments companywide. It also has been implemented as part of onboarding for client-facing positions.
Program Details
This Customer Communication Program is a blended learning solution designed with business flexibility in mind. Learners complete a series of five on-demand modules blended with live role-play assignments to be completed with their direct supervisor. As part of the on-demand training, each participant completes a choose-your-own-adventure-styled journey building out role-based scenarios. Upon completion of the on-demand course, the learner meets with their direct leadership to role-play these scenarios as they would with a customer.
In addition, to ensure retention of these skills, cross-departmental alignment, and implementation of MTM’s sales process, the CSO hosts quarterly training sessions. During these sessions, the team participates in multiple breakout sessions to role-play scenarios and receive feedback and guidance from the CSO. These live refresher sessions ensure that skills learned during the on-demand modules can be implemented consistently in the live roles. These live sessions allow time for learners to be guided through MTM’s customer relationship management (CRM) system with real-world examples, learn best practices, and complete hands-on training while partnered with subject matter experts (SMEs).
Upon completion of training, the learner is added to MTM’s Microsoft Teams Sales space. There, the CSO and sales team provide updates, celebrate client wins, and give pop quizzes, with winners receiving gift cards. Additionally, the Sales team completes remedial training via mock interviews and quarterly business reviews with the teams on an ongoing basis to ensure knowledge transfer, consistent use of common language, utilization of tools such as MTM’s pre-call form, and transparent reporting. Using the CRM, weekly reports are sent out to the team showing usage levels.
Aligning with the Kirkpatrick Levels of Evaluation, MTM tracks and monitors the effectiveness of its Customer Communication Program through firsthand observations, surveys, reports, scorecards, and its CRM tool.
Results
Behavior change has been impacted by creating alignment across all departments involved in supporting current and new contract opportunities. MTM has been able to create open and customer-focused communication, improving its ability to find differentiators or value that the company provides and negotiate on such value rather than cost. This improved client relationships, which led to renewing 83 percent of contracts last year. Through these negotiations, MTM increased profitability of current non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) business by 3 percent.
The behaviors learned also led to a year-over-year increase in MTM’s request for proposal (RFP) win rate of 19 percent for the second year in a row. Negotiating on value rather than cost contributed to a 5 percent increase in profitability on new opportunities closed.
