Move the Deal Episode 13: Plan to do Something Spontaneous with Roche’s Joan Ridgeway

In the latest episode of Move the Deal, host Greg Moore talks with Joan Ridgeway, sales training performance consultant at Roche Diagnostics.

Ridgeway operates out of Roche’s commercial education group, helping sales and marketing in North America. She recently expanded her role as a lead on the training for the Diagnostics Information Solutions framework. Diagnostics Information Solutions provides data-driven information solutions for better patient care and is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem with SaaS solutions.

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Finding and Filling Gaps in Your Sales Force

Being a sales manager is not an easy task. Managers often come to Ridgeway for help on meeting sales goals and coaching individual needs in the sales force. She speaks about her favorite strategy, what she refers to as “plan to do something spontaneous,” which entails looking at where you consistently see gaps or red flags in your strategy and then picking a specific day and time to focus on improving that strategy.

Putting a Spark in Developing Sellers

Ridgeway works with sales managers to make selling tasks fun, by inserting gamification, such as having the team work together to research a buyers’ criteria and determine the top valid business reason. Doing so subtly reinforces their selling methodology during these critical steps. When there’s a focused effort and conversation on selling initiatives, performance improves.

 Understanding the Performance Outcome

Moore and Ridgeway discuss reasons sales leaders need to not just focus on the end result. Being a sales leader means coaching sellers who aren’t strong in areas, helping them see the bigger picture to get to the end result.

What’s Joan’s Move?

In every episode, we ask our guest to offer their best move to move the deal. Ridgeway’s advice? Take it back to the basics of what drives you:

“You need to be agile, innovative and have the drive to do the right thing. If your values align, the company size doesn’t matter, you just need to be able to navigate no matter what it is.”

We’re proud to have Joan as part of our Icons program. Learn more about the Icons here.

Outline of Episode:

[1:00] Ridgeway’s background and role at Roche Diagnostics

[6:08] Filling the gaps in for your sales team

[11:45] Inserting gamification into tasks

[14:00] Understanding the purpose of your sales outcomes

[19:00] Advice for learning professionals moving into a large organization

Learn More and Connect:

Greg Moore LinkedIn

Greg Moore Twitter

Joan Ridgeway LinkedIn

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