Youd Andrews Programme Outcomes
In traditional sales training, a large volume of information is transferred in as short a period as possible. Industry research on ‘Retention’ shows that unless this information is quickly applied, recollection drops below 70% after 5 days; at that point salespeople lose confidence in using the remaining information.
The purpose of a Youd Andrews programme is to change sales behaviour over the long term, when working at senior customer level to develop business opportunities and then close them.
Specifically, the programmes develop skills, insights into vital business issues, confidence and motivation. The results of applying these additional capabilities are:
- Bigger deals: through better focus on solving the customer’s real business issues
- Larger pipeline: through taking bolder initiatives in the customer’s business areas
- Better positioning and higher close-rate: by focussing on the senior-level stakeholders, communicating relevant benefits, and differentiating the client’s brand
- Higher gross margins: through stronger focus on the customer’s business benefits from the client’s solution and less on the price.
Youd Andrews has helped its clients achieve over $3bn additional revenue in 25 years. Much of this has come from working with clients to grow business in specific target accounts or segments. The rest has come from the additional sales productivity made possible by combining Youd Andrews’ formal sales development programmes with clients’ sales improvement initiatives. Nearly 5000 sales and other customer engagement people have been through Youd Andrews’ formal programmes. Our clients’ feedback shows that sales teams on average improve sales results after a programme by:
- 15 – 20% in the first 12 months
- 20%+ in the second 12 months.
The unique virtue of the Youd Andrews’ programmes is that all participants ‘learn by doing’ in a highly challenging, intense environment, reinforcing understanding of the learning and making it easier for salespeople to apply their learning quickly in real life. Typically, we see three post-programme patterns:
- Rapid Adopter: ±30% of participants become highly energised, even liberated, by the programme, apply the learning very quickly to existing opportunities to win more business. Most of the sales team’s revenue improvement in the first 12 months comes from this group. This group goes on to expand penetration and build further pipeline.
- Pragmatics: ±50% of participants internalise the learning more carefully and use it mainly to develop new sales opportunities. This expanded demand creation builds pipeline in the first 12 months, leading to additional revenues in the second 12 months
- Inflexible: 0 – 20% of participants will find it very difficult to apply the new ways of working. Time and coaching may enable change in some participants but otherwise it becomes clear that some participants need to be in a different role, if the client is to achieve its sales goals.