Writing a success script - Tip #2

The Second Tip - writing a screenplay of sales skills training for multi branch companies

The current challenge which is faced by many companies' training managers these days is to train sales skills to employees in dozens and hundreds of branches geographically dispersed.

The current situation of economical crisis in most countries in the world (hoping for post crisis era soon) affected many corporate training issues.
On one hand, the importance of sales skills has increased significantly. It's even more important in sales' driven companies, which usually have branches, which are widely geographically dispersed. From the other hand, the corporate training budgets have decreased significantly.
Managers are facing the challenge to find a cost effective solution for sales skills training to employees in these branches.

The traditional solutions are gathering the employees from all branches to a central location for training sessions in several dates or providing training sessions in the various branches. These solutions may be very expensive due to the cumulative time spent on behalf of working hours of the workforce, logistic issues and the effectiveness is also in question.

In this post, I would like to suggest a different attitude to this challenge. My suggestion is based on using the video as a medium to distribute the corporate knowledge in one time investment for its production and to enhance its effectiveness by producing it with involvement of leading team of employees, who can serve as role models.

Case Study

One of the largest health institutions was recently facing the need to provide basic sales skills to service employees' groups inside the organization - medical secretaries, doctors, laboratory staff, nurses, etc., all are not officially sales people par excellence. "Everybody needs to know how to sell in a today's competitive market. All of you are in daily contact with our customers!”, was a clear statement which came from the senior management.

The aim was to provide sales "way of thinking” and sales terminology to the entire staff emphasizing presenting real desire to assist and "spark in the eyes" in situations of interaction with the customers. The training process goal was to align employees around the institution's services benefits, corporate values and vision.

How can one change the way people feel and act accordingly? - and especially after the executives have never used this type of language with the employees?

The answer was: through a powerful emotional experience of engagement. Such an experience exists in the world of filmmaking.

Why do we prefer one film to another? Why do we get excited from a specific commercial advertisement or feel that it irritates us?

The reason lies in our personal identification with the characters and messages. While watching a specific film, we will be affected, when one of the heroes will carry a message (using speech, gesture, action or behavior), that reflects a certain situation or feeling we experience. A person who is changing careers will identify with a character facing personal transformation and discovers new insights about life; a frightened mother who concerned about her soldier-son destiny will identify with a film character of a mother helps her son to fight with a serious illness; a person belonging to a minority will feel very close to a character of a child, battling to be part of a bunch of kids in his new home town.

Let’s go back to our friends in the medical organization: In the process of filmmaking they experience, they create a universal content, which each employee can identify with, using the special language of the organization, employees personal experiences, the company's history and a unified statement about the company vision and mission. Characters which are generated in the process are representative, one can identify with them emotionally and mentally - hence create a process of listening, understanding, analyzing and getting conclusions - translated into real daily decisions and actions.
There is the "Cutting edge" team, a group of employees which creates the film in a genre of commercials, a genre that "forces" them to transform the messages in a short, focused and clear way as possible - this is a positive propaganda act for the organization. And we haven’t discussed yet the endless creativity opportunities of self-expression which this genre provides…

And what about the completed film?
The film becomes internal of the shelf product - relevant, with a long shelf life, customized, "viral": it is distributed in the company, everybody watches it and talks about it, it creates buzz, raises energy and motivation, creates a new spirit...

And what about the training manager?
Yeah, he feels he has achieved his goals and his organization’s needs and priorities. He led a focused, short - term, cost-effective move with a long-term impact. In addition, he managed to change employees' attitude, "shook the tires”, and made a positive change in the corporate environment. Director of Training has pointed out that it was a success.

Want to know more about this positive change? Read more about CastEffect Film making and Corporate Training Videos.
I would love to hear your opinions, learn from your experience and share knowledge.

Here is a Question For You: What films you would recommend to use to address effectively the issue of change in corporate thinking from service driven company to sales driven company?

Sincerely,
Yulia Reinshmidt
Co-CEO, Content & Production Manager
yulia@casteffect.com
CastEffect

Our next post will be tip #3 - writing a screenplay about "management inside-out"