Change Makers
What the client wanted
To develop its UK Sales Distribution team, Old Mutual Wealth partnered with ConsultF5 a UK based leadership development consultancy. ConsultF5 was asked to create an innovative phased programme of diagnosis that would provide details of existing skills. ConsultF5 approached Impromptu to co-design an initial large-scale business simulation and then support a series of further workshop sessions to enhance and build sales capabilities. The programme needed to challenge WMC’s, develop their self-awareness and stimulate thinking about individual’s effectiveness. It also needed to swiftly develop capabilities, skills and behaviours to equip each WMC to achieve organisational ambitions.
In essence, Old Mutual Wealth wanted an inspiring, radical and challenging programme, enabling WMC’s to step up to a new level of personal effectiveness and become the best consultants they could possibly be.
What we did
Working closely with the OMW Learning & Development Team, ConsultF5 developed an initial series of diagnostics to develop self-awareness:
A sophisticated online bespoke 360 Assessment Tool
A Saville Wave Psychometric Report
One by One feedback and coaching sessions to circa 100 members of the UK Sales Distribution Team.
In a parallel process during the diagnostic phase of the project, the design and development of a bespoke business simulation was also in progress. Impromptu and, ConsultF5 created “Being the Difference”, a challenging, hi-impact, immersive and experiential 2-day programme of skills practice and development in a real life business scenario, for 90 participants.
The simulation engaged the participants in a series of tasks that reflect the reality of the world of a WMC including:
client segmentation and prioritisation;
building relationships with existing and new clients;
adopting a consultative selling approach;
delivering high impact client presentations.
Through engaging in the simulation, each participant explored key themes that emerged from the diagnostic, taking away practical insights and tools to be applied in their day-to-day work environment.
The Outcomes
Feedback from every participant has been extremely positive with 99% saying that they had learning takeaways with such comments as:
“The shallow dives in each area worked very well, team picking up a basic knowledge and putting to use in role-plays – actors fantastic.”
“The format and structure were very good and relevant to our roles. The actors were very good and made it feel realistic.”
“Lots of energy and teamwork – made me remember how good our sales force is.”
Noticeable changes amongst the participants include enhanced communication skills, increased awareness of personal impact and a deeper understanding of essential sales skills behaviours such as questioning and listening, building rapport and influencing.