Case Study: Hot Spring Spas
Continuous improvements with 8 years of sales coaching
SUMMARY
A retailer and wholesale distributor of premium spa pools wish to continually improve its sales skills, sales management, sales recruitment, and sales processes. Jason Dinan at EXCC has been working with the business for eight years – and has provided a return on investment from the outset.
BACKGROUND
Hot Spring Spas is a retailer and wholesale distributor of premium spa pools and swim spas throughout Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia. The company has over 25 sites in New Zealand, and nearly 40 employees, including a retail team of 12 people. Hot Spring Spas has been working with Jason Dinan for eight years.
THE PROBLEM
Eight years ago
“When we started working with Jason all those years ago, we had a competent sales team in place,” says General Manager, Aaron Sampson. “But we didn’t realise individuals’ strengths and weaknesses, and we didn’t know what areas they needed to work on. So the team wasn’t realising its full potential.” “We then realised there were gaps in what we were doing, and started working with Jason,” says Aaron. “Also, so many sales resources are generic, and aimed at B2B, and our sales team doesn’t engage with the generic material. We needed a customised solution.”
Recently
For 16 months, Aaron was overseeing the sales team in addition to his duties as General
Manager. The sales team didn’t get the time and focused attention they needed to thrive.
Also, sales meetings lacked structure and weren’t as effective or as timely as they should have been.
Jason Dinan has provided Hot Spring Spas with a wide range of services, tailored to the organisation’s needs:
• Sales recruitment tools, including Extended DISC.
• Re-mapping the sales process and identifying gaps in the previous sales process.
• Implementing consultative selling.
• Sales management.
• Sales training, both one-to-one and as team sessions.
• Sales collateral development.
• Sales playbook.
• Online learning via EXCC’s PX3 technology.
• Extended DISC profiling, to help with recruitment and team communication.
• Client surveys.
• Leadership training.
• Leadership mentoring for the General Manager.
• Introducing Hot Spring Spas to a digital marketing team to help with lead generation.
• Virtual Sales Leader: providing experienced sales leadership. The training material and techniques continue to be personalised to Hot Spring Spas.
“Anything new is always a risk, particularly the financial investment that’s involved, but when you quickly see a return on investment, it’s reassuring. We were hiring the best salespeople, and the existing team were getting better results. Plus we had a robust sales process. We definitely get a return on our investment. Having someone come in with a singular focus on coaching and development for the sales team was a sensible solution for us, with lower risks and costs than having a permanent employee in the business.”
Jason was recently engaged as a virtual sales leader
While Jason was providing sales training and leadership training, he saw an opportunity to work with the retail team. Jason was consequently engaged as a Virtual Sales Leader to take the load off Aaron, and support the team further by giving them a dedicated sales manager. This was at a lower cost (and with less risk) than hiring a full-time Sales Manager. “Jason has gone above and beyond to help us,” says Aaron. “He’s running our twice-monthly sales meetings at no additional cost to us – which is way beyond his engagement parameters. He really goes the extra mile to make sure our business is a success.”
Why work with a sales coach for eight years?
A long-term relationship with a sales coach is ideal for companies that continually strive to improve and be the best they can be.
“We have a professional sales team that’s always in constant development,” says Aaron. “We need to constantly fine-tune our skills, and through the success, we’ve had to work with Jason, we wanted to keep working with him.
“We also want to work with someone whom we get along with, and Jason is great at communicating and motivating the multiple different personalities that exist in our sales team.
I’ve always found Jason great to work with.
“I’m also still using the tools that Jason introduced us to eight years ago, as that’s made instrumental to our sales success.
“I’m very happy with the way things are headed.”
OUTCOMES
Return on investment, right from the outset
Hot Spring Spas seen success reaching its sales targets, and has been outperforming competitors in terms of sales revenue. “We’ve also seen really good consistency in our sales since we started working with Jason,” says Aaron. But how did he feel at the outset – eight years ago, when he initially engaged Jason: was he apprehensive?
Virtual Sales Leadership provides a dedicated resource for the sales team
Engaging Jason as a Virtual Sales Leader is working out well, and the sales team is benefitting
from having a dedicated coach working with them. And the flow of information between the management team and the sales team is now more timely and efficient. “The team’s responded well to Jason as Virtual Sales Leader,” says Aaron. “Jason has a unique ability to connect with many different personalities, and I think that’s important in a sales team scenario. The team’s responded really well. Having a clear process and structure in place around sales meetings has been really valuable, and has improved the flow and timeliness of communication between management and the sales team. Jason’s sales planning template is working very very well.”
On-demand sales training with the PX3 online learning system
Hot Spring Spas has recently started using EXCC’s proprietary online learning system, called PX3. “There is a lot of gold in the PX3 online learning system Jason’s developed,” says Aaron,
“especially around mindset and behaviours. That’s extremely beneficial, especially as it’s online and always accessible.”
Drawing on Jason’s wealth of experience and positive energy
Aaron has found Jason to be a great mentor. He says: “It’s evident that Jason has been in the sales, sales management, and leadership space for a very long time. There are never any challenges that come along that he hasn’t encountered before, so he is always able to provide good advice. That’s a real asset to anybody working with Jason.”
Existing tools are being better utilised, too, thanks to Jason’s experience. Says Aaron: “We’ve been using HR profiling for close to 20 years, and use it religiously for every single hire. But Jason’s experience with Extended DISC means we can also use that information after a recruitment programme is in place, so we’re getting more value out of those assessments through Jason’s experience of working with Extended DISC.”
Aaron adds: “I also love Jason’s positivity. It doesn’t matter what day or time you speak to him, or what the circumstances are, there’s always a very positive vibe about him, and I think that’s extremely important.
“Jason’s core value of Passion resonates strongly with the team at Hot Spring Spas. He’s very passionate about what he does in developing sales, sales teams, and sales leaders. That passion aligns with our team’s passion for our product. Our team’s very proud and passionate about what they do, too.”
Benefitting from Jason’s business partnerships
“One of the unexpected benefits of working with Jason was connecting with his digital marketing team,” says Aaron. “They’ve created a digital enablement programme that’s led to significant improvements in the quality of leads and number of leads we receive. That’s worked out really well, to the point of being revolutionary, and has been a huge part of our success over the last 18 months. It also means we’re no longer spending significant amounts on billboards, TV, radio and press.”
“JASON HAS GONE ABOVE AND BEYOND TO HELP US!”
“I would definitely recommend Jason to the right type of business – they will significantly benefit from having someone like Jason work with their team. I’d recommend Jason because of his experience: there haven’t been many situations where I’ve asked Jason for advice on that he hasn’t been in before. That gives you confidence in what he’s providing, and that shines through in conversations with Jason.”
Outstanding feedback from customers
Customer satisfaction is an important measure of sales
success, and Hot Spring Spas is performing well in this area
too
– Aaron Sampson, General Manager at Hot Spring Spas NZ
“Our customer feedback says it all: a customer recently told our team just how great their sales experience was with Hot Spring Spas. They said that the team was very consultative; was able to answer all their questions; weren’t too pushy; and found the best solution for them. The customer was at ease knowing they’d selected the right product for their needs. Getting that kind of fantastic feedback comes down to having a good sales structure in place, and doing the right things for the right reasons.”
If you’d like to find out more about working with EXCC, please contact us.