The Problem: Selling Telecommunications in a Changing Landscape

It started with a telegraph… and now we’re here.

Today’s B2B telecommunications customers demand faster data, increased connectivity and security, and more creative business solutions than Alexander Graham Bell ever could’ve dreamed of. To meet those needs, one legacy telecommunications company has continuously innovated its products and services to stay on the cutting edge — but their enterprise sales teams weren't keeping up.

To keep growing, it was imperative that this company broke into new global markets and new areas of their clients' business. To achieve this, their enterprise sales teams needed to shift from static, product-led selling, to creating dynamic, platform solutions through collaboration with prospects.

Initial Solution: The Pilot Program

Seeking more than just another tech solution or incentive-based quick-fix, this company reached out to Somersault Innovation to run a pilot Sell By Design training program with their Latin American sales team. Somersault's expertise in people-centric selling was perfect for helping these sellers close complex, customized deals in a global market.

The Sell by Design Process

1. Pre-work

Before the workshop, Somersault reached out to the telecomm. sellers to learn:

  • What they loved — and didn't love — about their current sales process
  • Accounts the sellers were targeting, and the challenges associated with them

During this stage, Somersault also sent the sellers key concept videos and readings so they would be ready to hit the ground running as soon as the workshop began

2. Kick-off

Next, Somersault held a one-day Sell by Design workshop that empowered the sellers to start selling with increased curiosity and genuine empathy. Throughout the workshop, hands-on exercises gave the sellers a chance to apply their new skills to the real-world.

Then, the real learning began: sellers practiced applying their new skills in actual accounts with a 90-Day Challenge from Somersault.

3. Coaching

During the 90-Day Challenge, Somersault followed up virtually with the sales team every three weeks to:

  • troubleshoot problems,
  • share their successes, and
  • advance their deal momentum.

4. Capstone

At the end of the Challenge, Somersault signed off with a Capstone session. During this virtual event, sellers and their managers shared the quantitative and qualitative results they achieved in their accounts using Sell By Design methods.

Pilot results

At the end of the pilot engagement, Somersault helped their team of 20 sellers (each of whom had selected a target account) in the Latin American market add $11 million to their pipeline. These results proved that Somersault could take this company's entire fleet of enterprise sellers to the next level — spurring an even larger engagement…

The Engagement Grows

After the success of the pilot program, the company hired Somersault to run Sell By Design training programs with five more of their enterprise sales teams around the world.

For every team, the Sell By Design process was repeated — giving each of them a customized approach for how to leverage Design Thinking in their market.

Overall Results

At the end of this engagement, Somersault helped 65 telecommunications enterprise sellers:

  • Expand their stagnant pipeline by adding $65,781,000
  • Closed new revenue with $1,480,000 added to their total contract value

The best part? They loved it. After the engagement, one seller told Somersault:

“I’m loving [Sell By Design]. I’ve been doing this job 25 years, and the conversation has been the same: what’s your WAN, how’s your service? This just takes you into the business, gets you talking about different things. And, they forget about the competition.” - Enterprise Telecomm. Seller

After the workshop, sellers were ready to implement Sell By Design the next day. There was no downtime, no tech migration — just sellers doing what they love: genuinely connecting with prospects and helping them solve problems.

Ready to transform how you sell with Sell By Design? Get in touch to schedule a Sell By Design training session today.