Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

Nutrisystem - Sales Training or Coaching Program of the

 

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2019, Click to Enter The 2020 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service

Company: Nutrisystem, Inc., Fort Washington, PA
Company Description: Nutrisystem, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRI) is a leading provider of health and wellness and weight management products and services and has helped millions of people lose weight over the course of more than four decades.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Training or Coaching Program of the Year - All Other Industries

Nomination Title: New Coaching, New Outcomes

Tell the story about your organization's sales training and/or coaching program since the beginning of July 2017 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Our Contact Center sales force is the heart and soul of our company and defines how we do business -- it's also the machine that converts hundreds of millions of dollars in direct marketing (e.g., TV advertising, digital, direct mail, etc.).

Our Sales Department has never been stronger or more strategic. Few things are more personal than weight loss and, accordingly, our sales team must not just convert on an initial sale, but also provide an overall experience that fosters a customer relationship resulting in higher lifetime customer value. This takes specialized training and ongoing coaching support.

This year, our Training and Development team revampedour sales training methodology and added new performance coaching to their responsibilities to assist agents in progressing through an ever-steeper learning curve more quickly as the dynamic weight loss space evolves and the range of offers becomemore personalized and complex.

Specifically, performance coachingwas added to Training and Development to support new hires and existing agents performing at or below the department average(selection is made the week prior to the start of the new month looking at the overall department conversion average). The coaching methodology is based on 30-minute interactions allowing the agent to partner with a coach on 1 to 2 distinct areas of opportunity for better skill retention and also includes:

  • Modeling live calls to demonstrate the skill
  • Call calibration – side by side monitoring of recorded calls
  • Side by side monitoring – side by side live call listening
  • Classroom reinforcement – classroom workshops on identified skills
  • After each coaching session, coaches provide a recap of areas of opportunity to the agent’s supervisor, training supervisor and quality assurance to address opportunities for follow-up and close the feedback loop.

The initiative was tested and immediately fast-tracked in Q42017 and enhanced in advance of our peak order/"diet season" (beginning Dec. 26th). Once post-holiday orders started pouring in, it was even more clear the new coaching was driving performance.

Concentrated coaching efforts to optimize performance resulted in 11 reps exceeding $1M in revenues a 120% increase over 2017 in the sales group and our first time $1M achiever in the retention team.

Key metrics for the new training initiative included:

  • On average, sales coaching yielded an increase of 20% sales conversion during our peak season of Q12018.
  • Looking at the full year when efforts are focused more on tenured staff, we also realized a sales conversion improvement of approx. 10% acrossthe reps they coached.
  • On average, coaching also resulted in an increase of 18% in orders shipped over the year.
  • Additionalfocus was spent on driving incremental cross-sell revenue; through these efforts, we saw meaningful increases in cross-sell revenue produced per month as coached agents began consistently presenting a single or dual cross-sell offering along with a full program order.

The case for coaching and the business impact is clear. Moreover, we're thrilled with the impact this new training program has had on the professional development of our agents and the overall customer experience.

To that end, the coaching program has already evolved (beyond sales) as follows:

  • Moving away from department skill-based training and towardoverall professional (soft) skill training;
  • Started cross-department sessions tohelp foster understanding of what each discipline does throughout the contact center;
  • Began initial phase of a leadership-specific group of modules to help prepare and train current and future management; and
  • Initiated coaching concepts for inclusion in broader companywide development plans.

We're particularly proud that this new coaching/training program was developed, tested, applied, refined and expanded this year. We hope you agree this is aterrific testament to the far-ranging relevance of sales training achievement and the power of coaching.

We appreciate your expertise in reviewing award submissions and thank you for your consideration.