Athena Alliance Members – A Closer Look at Linda Cousineau

Since I started the Athena Alliance blogtalk radio show I have had the opportunity to share with our listeners the expertise of our diverse group of trainers, facilitators, coaches and consultants.  Each member has a profile featured on our website and I thought for upcoming blogs I would share with our readers a more personal look at some of our partners and in no particular order.

Linda Cousineau

Linda was referred to me by our alliance partner Claire Sookman.  I was looking for a bilingual experienced facilitator and coach for a clinic who had an office in Montreal.  During our first conversation it was clear to me that Linda would be a great addition to our alliance.  After checking her references I was able to connect her with my client.  They were thrilled with her work.

She is one busy lady and travels globally delivering programs, in fact she is in Paris at the time I am writing this email.  Recently I had the pleasure of working with her more closely when I was training her on my sales program that she would be delivering in French for me.  I got to experience her in a new way and saw that Linda is a seasoned professional in every way.  Her years of experience are evident as soon as you speak with her. 

Once when she was in Toronto I was introducing her to one of my clients.  We were having lunch together when my client mentioned that she was going to Greece in a few weeks.  Linda got all excited and shared with us the details from her recent trip to Greece.  In just a few minutes my customer and Linda talking like they had known each other for many many years.  That is just how Linda is friendly, authentic and easy to talk to.

I am sure if you ever get the chance to meet her you will agree with my experience of her.

Here is a link to Linda’s profile:

 http://webmarketingnorth.net/athena/alliance-partners/linda-p-cousineau

From Manager to Coach

One of the many things I love about the training and development world is being given the opportunity to contribute to another person’s development.  Recently I was in a meeting with a client and she was explaining to me that they were having difficulty getting their account reps to embrace a new attitude towards selling.

This company historically had not expected their account representatives to do any sales activities, simply manage the accounts and provide great customer service.  Several years ago that changed and president felt they were missing huge opportunities by not having the account reps letting their clients know of their many offerings and the other options available to them.

The client explained to me that when they decided to make this change they provided the account reps with a sales training program.  This program was delivered by a gentleman who was very familiar in their industry and was able to customize a program that was most applicable (someone not in our alliance).  She shared the information from the program and it was an excellent design.  She said nothing had changed since the training and the senior folks were frustrated.  She asked me if I had any suggestions.

The first I wanted to know was if the managers had attended the training with the reps.  She said yes they had so they would be familiar with what was covered in the program.  Then I asked her if the managers changed anything about the way they managed the account reps.  She said not that she knew of.

I shared with her that I thought there is a big difference in managing a group of managers and managing a group of sales people.  I suggested the managers needed to change how they interacted with their account reps and be clear on the new expectations.  I suggested that they learn a sales coaching model that would help them interact differently, ask different questions and set the parameters around metrics and accountability.  She thought it was a great idea.

We did a one day Manager as Sales Coach program to provide the managers with a general overview and some coaching tools.  This session was followed up with six telephone training sessions to role play, conduct actual coaching sessions and to focus on specific areas needed to support them becoming powerful coaches (i.e. listening, asking questions).  While most of the managers have embraced the coaching mindset, a few are still skeptical. 

During the last call one manager shared that he had actively started to use some of the new tools and happily reported it was slowly making a difference.  I debriefed the others and they too were experimenting with their new tools.  We have three phone sessions left and I am confident the managers will transition into becoming effective sales managers.  It is often slow to transition from old ways of doing things, the key is to stay committed to the results you want and take necessary actions required to get there.

By Cindy Stradling CPC, CSP