ARE YOU Fit to Fly?
Together with our clients, Flying Penguin Private, develops training courses & programs for that part of the organization that works closely with customers; sales, marketing and customer service.
And those customers, they're changing fast. Very fast! Expectations are higher, information is omnipresent and the role of the traditional salesperson, marketeer or customer service employee is also changing.
Flying Penguin works closely with its clients to shape this transition with the help of internal stakeholders and management.
Fit to Fly™ has been developed from the vision that a broad involvement from the client's organization in combination with a long-term approach yields the best results.
That’s why we pay a lot of attention to the before and after process.
We will plant a tree in our Flying Penguin forest for all participants of our Commercial and Private training programs to reduce our global footprint.
Our Fit to Fly™ approach
Analysis
Most of the time our relationships with clients start off with dialogues at various levels of their organization:
we host management workshops,
we spent time with staff,
we run individual and team scans,
we speak with stakeholders.
By involving both internal and external stakeholders, we ensure that we truly understand the situation and the position of each person involved.
This helps us set the stage for phase 2. Co-design
2. Co-design
In this second stage we needs buy-in from all those involved to be successful.
Using co-design we work closely together with key-players in our client’s organization:
• management, HR, project teams,
• customers, ambassadors, suppliers,
• staff.
Our ultimate goal is to envisage the desired result. Together we work towards this desired result and determine who is responsible for what, what will be measured and how.
The result is a program, tailor-made, widely carried internally and with clear definitions and agreements.
3. Act
The time for talk is over as we will work to develop participants, teams and organisations.
We aim to combine as many different aspects of learning and development as possible. Over a set period of time face-to-face sessions are followed by on- and or offline practice simulations, webinars and intermission sessions. The entire environment is blended and sometimes confronting. For this we work together with specialists, such as: Trainers & Coaches, Psychologists, Serious gaming, Personality testing and online platforms for training, practice, webinars, and social media.
The focus in this stage is very much on what each participant can do him/herself in order to positively influence the desired result.
4. new reality
One of the biggest challenges with development programs in general is to capitalize on the investment made. How can we make sure people actually embrace and use what they have experienced or learned?
We do not proclaim to have found the holy grail. We do however actively promote making each and every part of our programs important. By making it part of the performance measurement of both management and participants.
Where possible we use blended learning together with multiple intelligence principles. Each individual learns in his or her own way.
By varying between face-to-face & online elements. By using web-sessions, peer feedback, practice online and on-the-job coaching effectively we claim to cover all 8 intelligences needed in order to fully benefit from training.
Examples Pharma
Bio Pharma Services | Laboratory Products & Services | Customer Service & Service
Sales Enablement
Sartorius is one of the leading and most innovative biopharma companies in the world. To maintain their leading position Sartorius invests heavily in their customer experience. When they approached us in 2019 that was the brief they gave us: make us a value company.
They didn’t have to say that twice!
Together with MTI we created the Sales Enablement program where we brought together Sartorians from all over the world. We challenge them to come up with innovative solutions to actual and future commercial challenges.
Sales professionals from all levels work closely together with marketeers, service engineers, product specialists and managers to create specific approaches and solutions which they then immediately apply in their local markets.
This program, has been running for close to 3 years now and has been widely implemented in the BPS and LPS division. Since the introduction, the program has been added to in the form of Value talks, Follow-up sessions, a Champion program and various Master Classes.
The Sales Enablement program recently won the silver owl at the prestigious BDVT 2022 awards in Berlin.
excellence in Customer Service
To boost Sartorius’ return on the Sales Enablement program, we convinced Sartorius to collaborate with us to create a similar program for the Customer Service departments as well as the Service organization. The diversity & complexity of these departments invited us to run programs on different levels; from fundamentals for new hires to advanced programs for the more experienced agents. We also added a Leadership Program to ensure understanding, support and continuous improvement.
The program is running globally and in Q3 2023 we will start with a completely new program as part of the induction program of new Sartorians.
examples automotive
Automotive Aftermarket Division
Sales excellence
Image is key when you are the world’s largest automotive partner and provider. For the past 10 years we have been working closely together with this German giant to maintain their commercial prowess in the market. Our programs constantly challenge their professionals to improve and innovate. Under the umbrella of Sales Excellence we are running programs on Price Management, Customer Focus, Train-the-Trainer, Workshop Concepts, Digital Ecosystems, The Future of Mobility and many more.
examples logistics
Excellent Customer Service
Together with Faculty of Skills we provide Gefco with a global initiative for their customer service departments. Our program is geared towards uniformity of approach, customer focus and entrepreneurial thinking.
Selling innovative Value
Margins had to be improved. We needed to make the transition from giving discounts to selling value. We did.
Initial focus started with sales, but as is often the case going on ride-a-longs and interviewing staff and customers proved only part of the puzzle. The solution was to be found in internal communication. Teaching empathy, making contact connecting, dealing with objections and resistance positively, whilst expressing yourself clearly, assertively and politely / respectfully. The result was that communication was greatly improved, ultimately leading to improved margins.
Global leadership
Providing guiding stewardship at middle management level in an international and highly competitive environment: Create goals together, identify areas of influence and no go areas. Focus on what you can influence yourself! Personal development planning together with and for staff. Attention for topics such as: motivation, encourage ideas, rewarding, delegations, providing guidance, letting go or take charge.
Connect selling
Specifically focused on deepening the level of contact with customers. The entire sales process is covered from initiating first contact to closing the deal. The difference: Starting at the back: What is the desired customer experience? What is needed from us in order to meet that desire? Blended learning approach, global workshops, online practice, all elements of the Fit to Fly™ method were applied.