About HD Supply

HD Supply is one of the largest industrial distributors in North America. The company provides a broad range of products and value-add services to approximately 500,000 customers with leadership positions in maintenance, repair and operations, infrastructure and power, and specialty construction sectors. Through approximately 650 locations across 48 states and seven Canadian provinces, the company's approximately 15,000 associates provide localized, customer-driven services including jobsite delivery, will call or direct-ship options, diversified logistics, and innovative solutions that contribute to its customers' success. Learn more at: hdsupply.com.

Training Challenge

Major challenges face HD Supply New Sales Hires including:

• New Sales Hires at HD Supply may have previous industry selling experience, but they do not know how to navigate the organization of HD Supply in an efficient manner. This can result in making fewer sales calls and struggling to reach sales goals.

• There is no centralized way to communicate key product knowledge across a vertical.

• Many New Sales Hires do not have the experienced eyes of a seasoned veteran and are not able to spot sales opportunities when they are at a customer’s site.

• They lack the ability to differentiate between the features and benefits of products and the ability to introduce the products into a conversation with a customer in a consultative manner.

Training Solution

Allen Interactions partnered with HD Supply to create a web-based, elearning sales course for New Hires focused on three areas of interactive practice.

Feature vs. Benefit product knowledge drill-and-practice.

Using the Corrective Feedback Paradigm (CFP), an effective drill-and-practice approach that sets an effective pattern for the rehearsal of failed problems, New Hires:

1. become familiar with top 5-6 products in their vertical
2. learn to differentiate between features and benefits of those products to the customer and benefits to HD Supply

Needs Identification scenarios.

These interactions allow New Hires to:

1. visually identify customer needs within the customer’s environment
2. have conversations with customers in a way that allows the identified needs to be naturally integrated into the conversation

“Week in the Life” sales scenarios. 

In these interactive scenarios, the New Hire salesperson must make choices about how to handle interruptions and customer requests as efficiently as possible by using resources within HD Supply effectively. They learn to:

1. balance daily appointments and unexpected client needs
2. determine who to call for assistance in different situations
3. develop practical organizational understanding
4. differentiate between client needs they must handle personally, those the client can handle themselves, and ones which can be handled by others in HD Supply