Customer Service and Sales Training Case Studies

Skills Development Viewed as Company's Competitive Advantage

Industry: Retail

The new merchant leadership of this big box retail specialty business with 500+ stores recognized the benefits of providing their merchant organization with fundamental negotiation skills and a common language around which they could all rally.

Critical Issues

• Provide a universal training experience for a diverse merchant group in a company experiencing significant growth—the organization has doubled in size since the relationship began
• Equip buyer's to negotiate superior terms with increased profit margins and greater collaboration in mind
• Establish standards and expectations for effective vendor relationships that result in strengthened vendor partnerships, and improved competitive advantage

Solution

The new leadership engaged Novations to address these basic training requirements because of a past relationship with Novations. They started with an off-the-shelf program to improve negotiation skills.
Over time, the training has evolved into a four-level curriculum for developing new buyers, refreshing and enhancing the skills of seasoned buyers, and equipping the senior managers to model and coach the program internally. As a result of a consistent ROI, other non-merchant groups in the organization including, Operations, IT, and Legal have adapted the program for their use.

With increased demand for planning and negotiating skills in other parts of the organization, the client is implementing an internal training strategy to expand the reach of this program outside of the merchant group. This year Novations is engaged to work with a senior group of the organization to help them shape the organization's direction and move them to the next level. Today the client views the Novations partnership as a key competitive advantage in maintaining market share and increasing profitability.

Results

Once the basic skills were acquired, the organization focused on developing a strategic planning process and best practices for effective vendor negotiations. At the end of the first year, the client attributed a $27M savings to the Novations solution that improved the buying group's ability to plan more strategically and negotiate more effectively with vendors.

view all case studies