Forum

Driving Growth Through Consultative Selling at TNT Southeast Asia and India

“We needed to make a paradigm shift from transactional to consultative selling so that the organization could achieve its aggressive business goals.” —Phaswan Sangasubana, Manager for Regional Sales Process for Southeast Asia and India

The Situation

TNT Express is a leading transportation and logistics company, which delivers documents and materials around the world for its customers. The transportation industry has faced significant challenges in recent years, including increased competition and rising fuel costs. Amidst these business pressures, TNT launched an ambitious initiative to grow its business in Southeast Asia and India. The strategy, called “Fast Forward,” involved offering customers a broader range of services and shifting from managing documents and small parcels to managing customers’ full-scale transportation and logistics needs. Executing the strategy required preparing the sales force to serve as business consultants rather than transactional salespeople.

The Solution

Forum worked with TNT SAI to develop Strategic Selling Skills, a learning program that prepared salespeople to find, win, keep, and grow their medium and large accounts. The research-based program enabled salespeople to learn best practices, tools, and processes to identify high-potential accounts and to build relationships with customers by becoming a trusted business advisor. Sales managers also participated in a program that prepared them for their role in coaching salespeople and helping them achieve aggressive business targets. The program, in addition to process improvements, was rolled out to the sales organization over the course of a year.

The Results

The program has generated numerous success stories and accolades from the sales professionals and their leaders. For example, sales managers said their salespeople were better prepared for sales calls, asked more effective questions to understand customers’ needs in greater detail, and were more successful in building client relationships and closing larger deals. Despite adverse market conditions, share rose from 5 to 8.5 percent (a 70 percent increase) in the first 2 years after the launch of “Fast Forward,” and TNT SAI is well on its way of achieving its 10 percent market share goal in the third year.

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