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Henkel smooths out its sales training

With globally recognized brands on their roster, most of us have been touched by Henkel in some shape or form. Henkel’s hair care products have long been a firm favorite among hairdressers and salon owners. When the team decided they wanted to take their sales process up a level, Attensi knew just how we could help - by implementing Attensi Skills and Portal to drive impactful, engaging training at scale.

Speaking to Neil Charlton (Head of Sales Process) and Barbara Klapper (Henkel Consumer Brands Professional Division), we learnt more about the role Attensi training has played in uniting Henkel’s sales team and distributors.

Why does Henkel need high-quality sales training?

Neil explains how Henkel is always looking for new ways for teams to connect with their customers. This comes down to two main factors.

From a sales perspective, that means ensuring that they can ‘speak the language’ of the hairdressers and salon owners. A high level of product knowledge and confidence in communicating that is absolutely essential.

Secondly, Henkel runs a unique sales operation. While there are their internal sales teams who sell directly to wholesalers and salons themselves, in less established countries, they also operate a distributor model.

Henkel needed a training system that would

Strengthen product and catalog knowledge

Help increase confidence for individuals in the sales teams

Be flexible and adaptable for new territories

How have you delivered training previously?

Neil shares that in the past, there’s been a lack of structured support for salespeople. They tended to learn as they went, with everyone picking up their own way of doing things. This has led to a pretty serious lack of continuity and consistency. Reaching an agreement on the ‘right way’ of doing things has been a struggle at times.

‘Most jobs - you go to university or you get an apprenticeship. In sales, one day you’re a salesperson. You’re given a list of customers and a car and you go out and see those customers. No one ever really gives you any guidance on that.’ In the past, the Henkel team tried to give their in-person or Teams-based training structure, but every facilitator had their own unique way of delivering the session. Neil describes it ‘like a great song, but sung by 100 different singers - the messaging gets diluted’.

Neil Charlton Head of Sales Process - Professional Hair EMEA
Neil CharltonHead of Sales Process - Professional Hair EMEA

Rather than remaining in the classroom or on passive, lengthy Teams calls, Neil and Barbara wanted a solution that would have that structure and process, but would allow the salespeople to still be themselves and bring their personalities to the role.

First reactions to Attensi

Neil and Barbara understood the need for changing training for a changing sales force.

"Our salespeople are calling out for something where they can learn and be engaged at the same time. They want to learn about the products, but they don’t want to sit in a classroom or on a Teams call for two hours. You can tell they’re distracted, and you think, “Is anybody actually engaged here?"

When they first saw Attensi, the reaction was strong. As non-gamers, both explain how they felt like if they could get on board with it, there was no reason their sales teams (inherently competitive people, many of whom are digital natives) wouldn’t.

Engaging? Check.

As well as being fun to get involved with, Neil and Barbara found that the content surrounding the products was also taken care of, explaining how they immediately felt someone who had no knowledge of the brand would learn a lot very quickly.

Product knowledge? Check.

The third thing that stood out was how easy it would be for teams to repeat the training. They could immediately see how someone would want to go back to modules and try them again to improve their score, because of how relevant the training was to their day-to-day roles.

This was especially the case when it came to practicing real-life sales conversations with the in-platform avatars - something neither Neil or Barbara had seen in digital form before.

Industry relevance? Check.

What did we take away from this?

Attensi supported the Henkel team in three key areas

1. The ability to quickly translate materials into local languages. Attensi AI makes translation so much faster and more efficient, without losing the message.

2. Repetition and consistency. Finally landing on something that provides consistency of approach means people are actually learning things correctly, without losing their individuality.

3. Real-life application. Teams can now engage with avatars as they would with customers, turning previously passive training into a more active and engaging experience.

Are you ready to level up your training?

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