Large Manufacturing Company

Larger Catalog Retailer

iSqFt

PDmB, Inc.

Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber

PC on Call

Kenton County Public Library

Large Manufacturing Company

“We needed some fresh ideas and strategies to help keep our sales volume increasing. Bob Riess provided customized training that really made sense and helped our Sales Managers focus on a sales plan that helped them better utilize their time and be more effective. I would recommend Bob to any company that wants to keep their sales force motivated and focused on growth.”

Chris Petroff
National Sales Manager
Large Manufacturing Company

Situation: Since 1931, the world leader in popcorn machines, concession equipment and supplies has been dedicated to helping their dealers develop innovative ideas and equipment to increase their profits. Their challenge was that the company’s zone mangers, that are responsible for overall sales in their assigned zone, were looking for some new ideas that would help them build sales plans to increase revenues through their existing dealers while opening new dealers and strategic accounts.

Solution: After attending a large dealer trade show, discussing ideas with the company’s senior managers and spending time at their headquarters getting to know their business, Bob Riess developed several half-day sessions that covered sales strategies, presentation and training skills and communication skills for the zone managers and senior sales staff.

Results: During the sessions, the zone managers and senior sales staff committed to implement many of the new ideas. Several quarters of data collection will be required to fully evaluate the impact of the sessions and reinforcement. However, the results so far include:

• In the first 5 months of the year, revenues for the 10 zone managers are up almost 9% over last which represents over $1,000,000 in additional business.
• The program was well received and company has a renewed focus on driving sales through existing dealers and opening new dealers where necessary.

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Large Catalog Retailer

“We needed some fresh ideas and an external set of eyes to help us continue meeting our challenging upsell goals. Bob Riess provided a thought provoking environment in which we as a leadership team brainstormed new strategies to continue building our already successful program. I would recommend Bob to help start an upsell program or to help add some new life and new thoughts to an already existing program.”

Mark Lewis
Call Center Manager
Large Catalog Retailer

Situation: One of the nation’s oldest and most respected names in catalog sales wanted to improve their cross-sell and up-sell numbers. Their challenge is that every year the customer service department is primarily staffed with temporary help to meet the demand of the holiday season. Both the permanent and temporary staff needed additional skills to exceed the aggressive cross-sell and up-sell targets while providing excellent customer service.

Solution: Bob Riess provided assessment and customized training for the managers and senior staff. The engagement combined cross-sell and up-sell training with train-the-trainer. This training helped the managers and senior staff effectively deploy new ideas and training throughout the organization.

Results: During training, the management and senior staff committed to implementing several suggestions discussed. As a result of the training and implementation:

• The company’s cross-sell and up-sell sales went from approximately $740,000 to over $1,000,000 in one year, which represents an increase from $3.00 to $3.33 per order in additional cross-sell and up-sell revenue.
• The company has developed a new approach for cross-selling and up-selling and has developed new training that will help them continue to exceed their aggressive sales targets in the future.

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iSqFt

The tangible results to me were that my team got a good feeling about their ability to train and sell folks on new ideas. We had a paradigm shift in the product we were selling/training and Bob’s sessions helped us make our training adaptable to accommodate that shift. It also helped us learn how to overcome any pushback issues to our product or to our training.

My team loved Bob’s sessions and that in turn, as a manager, gave me a sense of faith that they can handle training both online and in person. And since then we have drastically increased the number of companies we are training online, partly due to a merger with another company, but more importantly due to the training and selling tactics we learned from Bob.

Mike Ellis
Implementation Team Manager
iSqFt
www.iSqFt.com

Situation: iSqFt offers the most comprehensive online preconstruction management service in the industry and they recently needed to change the way they provided user training to their customers. The training needed to be educational and convince the users to take the next steps in implementing the online software.

By using the training to convince the customers that they should move from trial to implementation, iSqFt could close the deal and increase their sales. The challenge was that many of the implementation managers lacked either the training or sales experience necessary to overcome user hesitation.

Solution: The Customer Connector worked with the Implementation Mangers to improve their training and selling skills. Bob Riess assessed the user training and provided a customized version of training skills for non-trainers and selling skills for non-sales people. He also provided recommendations to keep the training momentum moving forward and increase iSqFt’s revenues.

Results: iSqFt and their customers will benefit from the work done with Bob Riess because:

• iSqFt’s implementation team now has the skills to provide future training sessions that will improve the skills of their users and reduce calls to the iSqFt help desk.
• iSqFt’s implementation team now can provide user training that will sell the benefits of the software and overcome user hesitation.
• iSqFt’s customers clearly understand the benefits of using the tool and feel comfortable implementing the software to improve their business results.

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PDmB, Inc.

“We needed to provide training to our users. The biggest trade show of the year was the venue for our first event. Bob helped our lead trainer to sharpen his training skills and insure a great presentation. The result was our most successful trade show ever. I would recommend Bob Riess for his professionalism and positive approach.”

Donald J. Peak
President
PDmB, Inc.
www.pdmb.com
www.palm-tech.com

Situation: PDmB, Inc. is dedicated to creating innovative software solutions. They needed a new trade show demonstration that would increase sales at important industry conventions for their Palm-Tech home inspection software. PDmB also needed to develop user training to support their customer’s user training requirements.

Both the trade show demonstration and user training had to make Palm-Tech’s current customers more effective and show prospective customers how the software could positively impact their business. PDmB identified the staff to lead the effort, but needed additional expertise.

Solution: The Customer Connector worked with the staff to meet the tight timeframes. Bob Riess assessed the current trade show demonstration and existing user training. Bob then provided train-the-trainer services and recommendations that would increase sales during the trade shows.

Results: PDmB and their customers will benefit from the work done with Bob Riess because:

• During the first trade show of the year, sales for Palm-Tech products greatly increased as a direct result of the new trade show demonstration. During the demonstration, 1/5 of the participants purchased immediately and over 1/3 of the participants identified themselves as solid sales leads.
• PDmB’s staff now has additional in-house skills to develop future demonstrations and user training for all PDmB products.
• PDmB’s customers can take advantage of user-friendly training programs that will have a positive impact on their business.
  

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Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber

“We needed to learn the skills in order to increase our ability to sell the value of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

“Bob Riess provided the basic tools in which non-sales people could embrace. The process was simple and easy for everyone to understand and implement.

“I would recommend Bob Riess for organizations looking to increase sales without adding additional resources.”

Lori Holiday
Director, Customer Focus Center
Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber
www.cincinnatichamber.com

Situation: The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber provides numerous services, including business retention and attraction, education and networking, benefit products to improve members' bottom line and solutions to members' workforce challenges.
The Chamber hosts a monthly leadership luncheon series. Bob Riess provided an abbreviated version of “Selling Skills for Non-Sales People” for the July meeting. July’s event sold out and was well received by the attendees with participant comments including “Excellent program” and “This is one of the best sessions”.

Solution: Recognizing an opportunity, Lori Holiday from the Chamber asked Bob to provide a training session to the Chamber’s Customer Focus Center. The objective of the training was to ensure that the Customer Focus Center employees asked for registrations and offered Chamber members additional value when contacted.

Results: The Chamber’s Customer Focus Center and the Chamber’s members will now benefit from the work done with Bob Riess because:

• The customer focus center is trained to meet their new goal of increasing event registrations by at least 30%.
• The center now has a process to offer additional value to Chamber members and prospective members when they are contacted for information regarding events and services.

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PC on Call

“We needed a training program that would enable non-technical end users to quickly adopt and accept a new technology. The program needed to be robust enough to allow for the clients specific needs and would require replication in a variety of environments.”

“Bob provided technical training development and delivery with a consultative approach. He took the time to understand the technology and developed training tools and materials with the end users perspective in mind.”

“I would recommend Bob Riess for training, development, delivery and general consulting.”

Joe Jeandrevin
Vice President Operations – PC On Call, Inc.
www.pconcall.com

Situation: PC on Call is a leading partner to small and medium-sized businesses for outsourced IT services, computer hardware and upgrades. They were faced with the challenge of providing effective and measurable end-user training for VoIP installations.

PCOC needed a training program that could be delivered by the PCOC team or by The Customer Connector for their internal installation of the new technology. They needed a plan that could be easily replicated for all of their customer installations.

Solution: The Customer Connector worked with PCOC throughout their own installation to complete the user training. A training program that can easily be replicated was also developed.

The training program is comprised of hands on user labs that give the participants the ability to use the new technology and perform a set of job specific tasks.

Results: PC on Call and PCOC’s customers will now benefit from the new partnership with Bob Riess:

• PCOC will be able to increase their revenues by including end user training in all customer engagements. They will be able to ensure customer satisfaction by providing effective end user training for the new VoIP technology.
  
• PCOC’s customers will benefit because users know how to use the new technology to do their jobs effectively.

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Kenton County Public Library

"We were undertaking a major customer service training initiative so we needed to develop a team of staff trainers. Unfortunately, most of the team members had little or no experience in staff training. Bob accepted the challenge of developing skills needed by these team members."

"Bob provided training and support that enabled us to develop a quality training program that will result in high level customer service throughout our organization. I would recommend Bob Riess to any organization for staff training needs."

Wayne Onkst
Director
Kenton County Public Library
www.kenton.lib.ky.us

Situation: The Kenton County Public Library is dedicated to providing the best customer service possible. Wayne Onkst, the Director of the Library has said, "When people think of great customer service, I want them to think of the KCPL".

To reinforce their dedication to customer service and ensure consistency among all employees in the three library branches, KCPL developed a customer service training program to be delivered by a team of ten KCPL in-house trainers.

The challenge was that the KCPL in-house trainers needed additional training skills to successfully implement the customer service training.

Solution: The Customer Connector developed and delivered a train-the-trainer program that allowed the KCPL in-house trainers to apply the skills of training design and delivery to their customer service training program. Bob Riess worked closely with the library's training coordinator, Nancy Parsley, to ensure the trainers would be well positioned to deliver (and provide suggestions for) the training that Nancy had developed.

Results: The Kenton County Public Library and their customers will benefit from the work done with Bob Riess because:

• The KCPL in-house trainers can now provide effective training on customer service skills (and additional topics) without the added expense of hiring outside training companies.
• The customer service training provided by the KCPL in-house trainers will ensure a consistently high level of customer service provided by the KCPL staff.

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