You’re dining in a quality restaurant in the middle of Texas. Look around. It could be that everything you’re eating, in fact, everything on the menu — even the condiments and napkins — comes from a single source, Labatt Food Service.

Labatt is a San Antonio-based industry leader in food distribution, one of the fastest growing in the country. It has gone from $8 million in sales in 1981 to a current total of over a half billion dollars. While the sales force has been legendary for the lengths it will go to service customers, the leadership of Labatt felt that the rapidly expanding company needed professional sales training to speak a common sales language, especially among new salespeople.

Psychological Associates’ Dimensional^® Selling Skills^™ seminar was a natural fit, according to Jennifer Oswald, Labatt’s director of HR. She stated that because Labatt is a high-quality, single-source supplier, the selling cycle can be extensive and has to focus on building relationships. “The way the seminar is structured and the Five-Step Format make it a good fit with our philosophy. What really helps us is that it focuses on recognizing needs through questioning.”

Psychological Associates designed a customized 3-day workshop for Labatt that is interactive, allowing participants to develop and practice their influencing skills, including understanding customer needs, presenting benefits effectively, and overcoming objections. All sales managers and approximately 100 salespeople have taken the workshops, which help Labatt’s sales organization speak a common language.