Helping Lumen’s engineering consultants embrace a new problem solving approach to sales
MD of Lumen, Dan Tombleson manages a team of engineers specialising in energy. Keen to upskill his team in business development, he booked sales coaching for his senior specialists.
Dan explains, “We’ve almost more work that we can handle right now, but we can’t be too arrogant and think it’s all our doing when the market’s so busy. We want to be proactive rather than reactive. For me the ultimate success in consulting is to have good work lining up at your door so you can choose your projects, and good people lining up to work for you.”
“We realised we needed to upskill our team in business development, so they’ve a better understanding of why it’s important to promote our services. We’re always looking to grow our key client base, so we don’t become too reliant on one client.”
Engineers won’t tolerate buzzwords and bullshit
Dan got in touch after a sales skills workshop I ran for the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce because he wanted to offer sales coaching in house to his team.
Lumen had already explored possibilities with other sales coaches, but Dan says, “They were the sales coach cliché, larger than life, loud voices, and lacked the substance that connects with our people. My first discussion with Ian, I discovered we shared an electrical engineering background, and it was quite easy to see how he could build a rapport with our key players.”
“Engineers won’t tolerate buzzwords and bullshit. And Ian’s not your stereotypical consultant looking for the sell in everything. He’s given us some very frank advice. The things we’ve worked on together haven’t been just spray and walk away. Often you get nothing out of training courses because people go back to their day job and change nothing. This time’s different. Were doing our best to action the stuff we learned, and Ian’s supporting us.”
Equipping your team with the language they need to sell
Dan recalls how the workshop came together. “Ian started by giving us some good advice for the workshop content, then we worked together to tailor material based on our context and the people who would be there. Ian’s approved as a Regional Business Partner Network service provider, so the workshop was partially funded, which helps. We selected 12 key leaders, managers and senior technical staff, to do the workshop as a pilot and assess if we wanted to roll it out to the rest of our team.”
“The workshop was focused and fun, lots of good content, but not too intense. We had an agenda, but Ian wasn’t too fixed on it, the day developed organically as people found things they wanted to explore. Everyone enjoyed it, there were breakout groups, where we workshopped challenges. For example, each business group developed their USP.”
Helping your team articulate what you do for your clients, the problems you solve, and how you do that better than other consultancies is central to helping them sell more confidently.
Because Lumen have no dedicated sales team, sales and marketing is everyone’s responsibility. Equipping their team with the language they need to talk about what they do, helps them have confident conversations with clients and potential clients.
Changing wheels while driving
Dan explains the lightbulb moment for his team. “Ian got our team onside by reframing business development as problem solving. Engineers love solving problems, so that’s been one of the most valuable insights so far.”
“Another valuable part of the process was simply getting our senior team together to share ideas. It was a strategy session where our team could brainstorm together, as much as it was sales coaching. Some of our team are really good at business development, others are not, so there’s plenty of expertise in the team to share, and Ian facilitated that.”
“After the workshop Ian gave us recommendations, and he’s been checking in as we work our way through the list. It’s a bit like changing wheels while driving, but we’re getting there.”
I recommended Lumen work on six areas, including:
Refining their sales process.
Consulting the wider team on the USPs for the different business units.
Creating client personas.
Developing a customer management strategy.
Planning their marketing.
Adopting more formal sales and marketing governance.
A small but key cultural change was setting expectations for how long senior team members should spend on business development activities and allocating a code so people could track their time. This empowers their team to invest time hunting new work and building relationships.
The Lumen team feel positive about their new focus on sales, with Dan saying, “Ian’s really genuine, there’s nothing flashy about him, he’s a decent person who knows what he’s doing and cares about results. He knows his stuff because he’s been there and done that, and his material’s on point. We’ll definitely work together again.”
If you want to evolve your sales approach to be more consultative and effective, I’m here to help. Check out sales coaching for engineers or contact me directly for a bespoke programme of business mentoring at hello@iancartwright.co.nz.