The sales programme that generates £250,000+ every time it runs
How we used AI to create mci group’s Growth Accelerator Programme, and generate tangible new revenue via its learners.
Sales training that pays for itself
mci group is a global marketing organisation with multiple agencies and capabilities serving both corporate and institutional sectors all over the world. They wanted to create a sales training course for their high-potential account managers that did three things:
- Encouraged collaboration between high-potential account managers from all their agencies around the world.
- Gave their account managers the skills to position a broader portfolio of solutions to their clients.
- Transitioned them from account servicing to consultative growth, equipping account managers to uncover client challenges, shape opportunities and articulate value across mci group’s full portfolio of capabilities.
The dream for any sales training is for it to tangibly generate revenue for the business in a way that can be absolutely attributed to the training salespeople have been through.
For mci group, the ambition was to create a programme that could be linked directly to account growth, increased client engagement, and new multi-capability opportunities.
So that’s what we set out to deliver.
The sales capability programme Lima Delta designed has been a very effective investment.
Our account managers are central to growing our client relationships, and the programme is giving them the skills to do it. We’re already seeing the results. The feedback has been really positive, and I’m really happy with how far we’ve come. Lima Delta helped us get to the heart of what our account managers needed, and built the programme around it.
We created the Growth Accelerator Programme, affectionately known as GAP.
Every 4 months, a select 15-20 account managers from around the world are invited to join it as a sales ‘Centre of Excellence’. Account Managers are put into teams, and assigned high-potential accounts that they share, but may not have collaborated on yet.
Participants are grouped into teams around shared strategic accounts, giving them the opportunity to jointly identify growth opportunities that no single office or agency could pursue alone.
Each team develops a practical growth plan, identifying real client challenges, shaping live opportunities and building new multi-capability solutions that can be pursued immediately – not just theoretically.
Along the way, the teams are mentored by experienced mci group account managers and directors, to combine the course’s insights with their real-world expertise.
The programme is split into 6 modules. And the crucial part is that after each module, teams apply what they’ve learned to their real, assigned accounts before moving on. The modules themselves include:
Conducting a Client Needs Assessment (CNA)
Strategic account planning
Opening up multi-capability opportunities
Co-creating solutions with clients
Pitching and proposal writing
Spotting opportunities for further growth
Practising on AI simulations of real stakeholders
Throughout, participants practise what they learn on AI simulations of their accounts’ real stakeholders, via IMELD. So by the time they take a new technique to a real client, they’ve already built up the confidence and the reps to nail their new skills for real.
Built on behavioural science
The Growth Accelerator is built on a handful of behavioural science principles:
Learning transfer
Skills that aren’t used soon after training tend to fade. Knowing you’ll need to apply the learning, and then actually applying it means people focus more during learning, and new skills get used for real while they’re fresh, making them much more likely to stick.
Behavioural rehearsal
Practising techniques for real, but in a safe environment. The AI client simulations let account managers try a conversation, get it wrong and try again, before a client ever sees it.
Social learning
We tend to learn most from watching and working with people we respect. The mentors give participants exactly that, from colleagues who’ve done the job at mci group themselves.
Scarcity and social proof
Places are limited and by invitation, so being on GAP means something. It makes others want to join, and makes those on it want to do it justice.
increase in revenue opportunities, per cohort.
Directly from account managers applying their training to their live accounts, and generating new-found opportunities.
What made the difference was the partnership with Lima Delta. They took the time to truly understand our growth ambitions, our account management challenges and the capabilities we needed to build.
Together, we shaped a learning experience that combines practical skill development, coaching and application to real client opportunities, making the programme both highly relevant and immediately actionable for our people.
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