Embedding the ValueSelling Framework®: The journey of Chambers and Partners
Embracing an effective sales methodology saw annual sales grow 20% during Chambers’ partnership with Inflexion.
Chambers and Partners has been on a journey that illustrates the positive impact the ValueSelling Framework® can have. The legal rankings specialist had a phenomenal brand but a thin sales team when Inflexion invested in 2018. Within a few years of Inflexion’s investment, the sales team swelled to over 70 FTEs driving annual sales growth of 20% during Inflexion’s holding period. Key to the success was creating and executing a repeatable and scalable sales methodology.
“The ValueSelling Framework® is very simple to follow and the right choice for Chambers,” enthuses Felipe Poveda, CCO. His decade-plus career in sales taught him the importance of successful training with discipline on implementation. He felt Chambers needed a common language and consistency in ongoing development and coaching to become a more mature sales organisation. They added an average of 15-20 new reps each year with a ramp-up time of 4-5 weeks to become fully productive.
To succeed, Chambers needed to embrace certain aspects:
- Strategic change programme, with continuous learning and reinforcement ongoing to this day.
- Training programme itself, which includes training certifications upon ‘graduation’ to ensure consistency and standards. Using role play and video recordings effective at reinforcing messages
- Ongoing development through regular team feedback and 1-2-1 coaching
Felipe admits that the ‘implementation’ part can be a challenge, and his team stays on track through repetition and age-old form filling. “We’ve got to a stage where our common language has permeated every area of our organisation from commercial onwards. The discovery questions helped reps to get comfortable with asking relevant questions, creating consistency on how Chambers speaks to customers. It’s driving performance. ValueSelling is what the team breathes at Chambers; it becomes muscle memory,” Felipe enthuses.
Top tips for an effective sales enablement programme
- First is to work out which sales methodology is appropriate for your business – one that addresses the way your customers procure, how your product is being sold. Constant re-iteration and improvement is key to success.
- Treat sales enablement as a strategic change programme, with a focus on adoption and embedding new behaviour by setting regular cadence and expectations.
- Invest in your first-line sales managers and leaders in coaching and hiring skills. This is often a missed cohort for development, despite having a disproportionate influence on the success of your go-to-market execution.
- Engage the entire sales team in the journey, addressing resistance and ensuring buy-in.
“It was the first time we attempted to change the process and while no one outright said no, the top-performing reps actually resisted the most. The old system was working for them and making others better makes the erstwhile top performers less outstanding. So it’s very important to convince people – everybody – that the journey is the right one,” stresses Felipe.
Inflexion led the buyout of Chambers and Partners in 2018 before selling its investment to Abry Partners in 2023 in a sale that valued Chambers at over £400 million. Inflexion subsequently made a minority investment into Chambers to support the business’s continued growth.
This article is the second part of a two-part series, find the first part here.
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