The interface between retailers and CPG manufacturers continues to change and become more multi-faceted and complex. In this environment customer management skills must grow and evolve to keep pace.
CPG manufacturer sales executives must have well developed business management skills while account team managers and account managers must be absolute “Students-of-the-Business”. This requires in-depth knowledge of the P&L and financial management, highly developed account and category management skills, knowledge of retailing concepts and trends, the ability to influence behavior through collaboration and the ability to understand and apply consumer and shopper insights to business building solutions.
In order to achieve desired outcomes and the highest return on investment, training must be applicable to the business situation, produce measurable performance improvements and be institutionalized to produce sustainable results.
WWA Adds More Value
The leader of our competency enhancement team is recognized industry wide for his expertise in instructional design, development and delivery of training programs. Working alongside our senior consultants with extensive CPG manufacturer and retail experience, this blend of skills provides a unique capability that is not typically available to CPG manufacturers. The expertise of our chief instructional designer, combined with the “I’ve been there” insight of our senior consultants, reinforces the integrity of program content, ensures the ease of translation from the classroom to business building application and virtually guarantees the highest return on investment for our clients.
Our Competency Enhancement ModelSM provides the foundation for all skills development initiatives. It is designed to optimize the return on training investments and to overcome the shortcomings of “spot” training and periodic seminars outside the context of a disciplined skills development system. All programs are customized to meet the specific needs of the client.
Our 23 years competency enhancement experience includes CPG manufacturers, retailers, brokers, syndicated data companies and industry associations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Australia and Asia.
Our Competency Enhancement ModelSM
We conduct comprehensive skill assessments to identify common and individual needs across an organization. We then design skills development strategies and plans that align with the skills assessment, the availability of support tools, operational priorities, learning capabilities and the desired pace of change. Our training program methodology depends on the objectives of each program or module, content and participants. Programs are highly interactive, and designed for ease of translation from the classroom to practical on-the-job application. We design and assist in the implementation of disciplined reinforcement processes and measurable outcomes that ensure the highest return on training investment.
Our extensive competency enhancement experience covers all management and support functions within sales and marketing.
Skills Assessment
Our skills assessment process identifies skill strengths and development needs from an operational and technical application perspective. This process, which consists of in-depth individual interviews, provides a more accurate picture of skill development needs than commonly used questionnaires or input from routine performance appraisals. The output guides the development of learning strategies and plans, including specific training program content.
The following outlines the skills assessment process:
- Review job requirements and expectations.
- Define key skills required to meet job expectations…current and future.
- Conduct one-on-one interviews.
- Identify individual skill strengths and development needs across all positions.
- Identify common strengths and development needs across each position group.
- Rate skills on a scale of one to four.
- Prepare a people/performance rating grid.
- Categorize people into performance/potential groups.
At the conclusion of the assessment process, common strengths and development needs are identified across managers. Skill development needs across the participating group and by individual are prioritized based on immediate and longer term requirements
WWA senior consultants, each with extensive CPG manufacturer and retail management experience, conduct the interviews.
Training Programs
Our specifically tailored training programs focus on six critical skill development areas.
Training programs are typically designed within the following guidelines:
- Designed to address common needs of the group or sub group to be trained
- Typically 2-21/2 day seminars…20-30 participants per seminar
- Content is guided by the skill development needs identified in the skill assessment
- Content may also be guided by alignment of the skills assessment output with the execution of specific go- to-market initiatives
- Training modules may be designed to accommodate the importance of “next day” application of the newly learned skills
- Pre seminar assignments are included as a part for each program
- There will be a combination of lecture, reading, reinforcement exercises and case studies
- Programs will be highly interactive address individual skill development needs.
We also provide one-on-one tutorial training and coaching to address individual skill development needs at the senior executive and mid management levels.
Training Reinforcement
Emphasis on training program reinforcement is the only way to ensure sustainability and optimum return on investment. This requires a performance based, shared responsibility approach to skill development; the responsibility for skill development is assigned to the immediate supervisor as well as the person being trained. We prepare post-training reinforcement question and answer guides for use by participants and their supervisors, leader’s guides for field managers and we often participate in post training exercises.
A CPG manufacturer may want to consider the innovative WWA Learning SystemSM. Designed to bring sustainable value to training investment, the system establishes a disciplined approach to post-training program reinforcement of those skills and technical aspects of the job targeted for development. It aligns the progression of an individual’s expected skills development with the proficiency of the position. It measures progress versus the desired pace of change, identifying shortcomings that can be addressed through tutorial training or other means. Importantly, it is a precise way to measure return on training investment.
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