Michele Bicego
Director, Leadership & Development
What was the impetus for your sales management training initiative?
As part of our growth strategy, we identified that our Regional Sales Managers were a key point of leverage in the management and development of our Territory Managers. To realize this potential, we established a project team with representation from all functions including sales, operations, and senior management to define our requirements for our training initiative.
What were your specific objectives for your training program?
Our goal was to help our Regional Sales Managers develop the skills necessary to become better sales coaches, improve how they manage sales performance, interview and hire based on sales competencies, and develop their sales teams. We also needed to provide practical, easy to use tools that would allow for field implementation and ongoing program sustainability.
Why did you choose SRG vs. other options?
After reviewing 17 different vendors, we chose SRG because their content aligned best with our objectives. Their materials were very professional and presented concepts that are clear, and could be immediately applied through exercises and role plays. Their facilitators also resonated well with our leadership based on their expertise and ability to provide tangible examples that were relevant to Ritchie Bros. SRG was also able to support our customization requirements in terms of branding, graphics, and terminology.
What’s it like to work with SRG?
We view SRG as a partner that is willing to get in there and roll up their sleeves, understand our business, and help us customize the content so that it really fits our specific learning and developing needs versus a cookie cutter approach. I was very impressed with how quickly SRG was able to understand our business. They were immediately seen as credible in an organization that is typically resistant to third party training.
Can you discuss the business impact of working with SRG?
Our work with SRG has resulted in a cultural shift where development of Territory Managers is now seen as a central responsibility of our sales managers. We now have development plans in place for every member of our 300+ person sales organization, and there is ongoing coaching in place to improve the quality of conversations they have with our customers.
About Ritchie Bros.
Ritchie Bros. is the world’s largest seller of used equipment for the construction, transportation, agriculture, and other industries. With more than 40 auction sites in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia, Ritchie Bros. serves equipment buyers and sellers all over the world by conducting live, unreserved public auctions with both on-site and online bidding, selling a wide range of used and unused equipment. To learn more, please visit www.rbauction.com
