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English Heritage
Sales performance soars
What we did
We developed a sales programme to improve membership recruitment, which resulted in the highest ever 'strike rates' (the proportion of visitors to its historic sites joining as members).
Why we did it
English Heritage exists to protect and promote England's historic environment. It needed to increase its income by generating new members.
The scenario
To meet the growth target, everyone who interacts with visitors to English Heritage sites has to be able to recruit new members with confidence. For many staff, this has meant a re-appraisal of their approach to their job role, including a keener appreciation of the vital role new membership plays in the preservation of English Heritage's historical sites.
The approach
We identified a very strong customer service culture at English Heritage and wanted to leverage this by helping employees and volunteers realise that membership provides real value to visitors.
We designed a programme called 'Just ASK' - a best practice sales process. It is based on success factors identified from experience at best performing sites. Through coaching and sales training, employees and volunteers changed the way they interacted with visitors and were given the tools to build rapport, find out customers' interests, match those interests to the benefits of membership and, of course, ask them to become members.
The results
The success of the 'Just ASK' programme has been clearly demonstrated in strike rates and sales results.
21,585 more members in the first year after introducing 'Just ASK', resulting in a huge annual additional income of £428,000.
Strikes rates continue to increase - a clear measure of improved skill levels among the team.
Staff have a new approach to sales which is continuing to generate higher levels of income.
"The immediate results from the first 'Just ASK' programme were fantastic. We had our highest ever strike rates. However, we noticed that there was a tendency for this increase to be maintained wherever management coaching was good, and to fall away where it wasn't. This has been tackled in a second phase of 'Just ASK' with a greater emphasis on building coaching skills.
"Our expectation now is that the even higher strike rates we are seeing from the second phase will be sustained, and that will ensure we beat our membership growth targets."
Cathy Hawkins, English Heritage's National Sales Development Manager