IOOF Pty Ltd

Training Case Study

Financial Services – BDMs

Mark Oliver
General Manager – Distribution, IOOF Holdings Ltd

1. What were the challenges you were dealing with and needed to solve?

I needed to have an assessment of the team’s sales capability and the current sales framework to understand where the gaps were and how to improve them. There were two key areas – leadership skills and sales skills. It was a great help to have an external perspective that I could trust to provide feedback. The program expanded in scope from being one department only to including all salespeople across all departments. The big change in scope. Budget and time restrictions came up because of it.

2. Why did you choose to work with Bill?

I inherited the working relationship and the program was already in ‘mid flight’.

3. What have you liked most about the work that Bill has done with you?

I trusted Bill’s perspective and appreciated his experience. Bill was able to take the CEB ‘Challenger’ information and tailor it to our business in such a way that we could get the maximum benefit from it and make it work for us.

I was very appreciative of the good work that Bill did!

4. What results have you achieved that you can attribute to the work that you did with Bill?

We now have a common sales language across all states and sales departments from the Client Engagement Framework and Skills that Bill has trained and coached the business in.

There is consistency now in the way people implement things and how they do them. Bill also helped shape the CRM requirements and other mechanisms developed for the department.

Bill has helped us put in place robust and measurable qualitative assessments, rather than having just subjective conversations which were not creating the accountability we needed with our salespeople.

5. In your experience in working with other training providers “by comparison, what does Bill do well and what are things he might consider doing differently/more of/better?

Bill was brilliant at keeping me informed and engaged with the process. Bill’s ‘stakeholder’ management was excellent.

Bill gave me unsolicited reports back around benchmarks which were perfectly timed. On one occasion I had to report back to management within days of receiving it and Bill’s report on the Sales team and Managers was exactly what I needed.

Bill understood what would be required and provided it proactively.

My only comment was that Bill could do more of it – more often, more information – as his perspectives are very insightful and valuable!

6. Would you recommend any colleagues or friends that Bill could talk to

I am very happy to be an advocate of Bill’s services.

7. What keywords would you use to describe Bill Carson?

Focused, energised, engaged