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Kao: Ironing out the training kinks

Explore how Kao Salon Division harnessed Attensi SKILLS to revolutionize their training, boosting sales and empowering employees.

1.5xhigher sales by users who trained the most
7.4xrepetitions per user in average
94%excited to apply the training to sales opportunities
75%knowledge gap closure

"Attensi for Kao Salon Division, is a revelation."

Grant Cooper kao
Grant CooperSales Capability Manager EMEA | Kao Salon Division

Ironing out the training kinks

Bringing the best of professional salon brands and products to stylists and salons around the world, Kao offers stylists a trusted professional relationship. But how do you deliver consistent, high-quality training that hits the mark and develops capability?

That was the question facing Kao Salon Division. Or it was until they introduced Attensi.

We met with Anders Andreassen (Commercial Lead, EMEA), Julie Winchester (General Manager UK, Ireland, South Africa), Seb Lucas (Key Account Manager), and Grant Cooper (Sales Capability Manager, EMEA) to find out more.

What did training look like before Attensi?

Trying to convey information over to employees all over the world is no small task. The Kao Salon Division was walking towards a large brand launch and decided it was time to try something new.

Where before they’d relied heavily on classroom training, presentations, and role plays, they wanted to bring something engaging, informative, fun, and fast to the teams around the world. Something that would help everyone in the team - from Baby Boomers to Gen Z.

Seb explains how traditional role-plays would end up being challenging because your colleagues ultimately knew the answers. It was difficult to replicate the scenarios you would realistically come across in a sales meeting or with a team from a salon.

And when it came to presentations, while the information was all in there, you were taking so many notes you didn’t always take everything in. And then there were the notes themselves. Seb comments that he and his colleagues had no way of knowing whether they’d taken enough notes or even taken the right ones.

For Grant, he tells us how he had historically been making sales training for salespeople. The training didn’t necessarily encompass the salon-specific knowledge required for Kao Salon Division. He needed a solution that would empower teams worldwide to self-learn skills in both the salon world and the sales world.

What did we take away from this?

We needed to address
the following things:

A digitized training solution that could be scaled up across 14 countries.

Highly engaging, fun training that closes knowledge and skill gaps, full of specific brand and product-specific information.

Training that engages a wide age group and could clearly demonstrate ROI for the organization

Attensi first impressions

For Anders, he wasn’t surprised that gamification was a success within the team. A sentiment shared by Julie. She shares how the team within Kao Salon Division is extremely competitive - both internally, but also with teams from other countries. Seb agrees - telling us that the team definitely enjoys watching as they make their way up the rankings. Who doesn’t love being number 1?

“That’s what's so great about the Attensi app - it creates that engagement and conversation between teams.”

Julie Winchester Kao
Julie WinchesterGeneral Manager UK, Ireland, South Africa

Seb had reservations to begin with. He confesses he was worried the solution might be childish or too easy. But he goes on to tell us that he has since been proven wrong - that the app has been suitably challenging, engaging, and highly useful.

The flexible nature of the app, and the fact you can repeat modules as many times as you like has hugely increased his confidence before meetings. He’s even become one of the most active users on the app.

“Before you go into a sales meeting or a pitch, if you’re struggling with understanding ingredients for example, or overcoming objections, you can go back and focus on specific areas.”

Seb Lucas
Key Account Manager | Kao Salon Division

For Grant and the team, they were excited to see what impact the Attensi had on both sales and revenue, and the employees.

And the results have spoken for themselves. Grant has seen a huge uplift since introducing Attensi.

Anders and Grant share some amazing statistics with us:

The results

1.5xhigher sales by users who trained the most, compared to those who did not complete the training
75%knowledge gap closure, with negotiation and closing being the biggest knowledge gaps closed.
94%were excited to use what they'd learnt when speaking to salon owners and prospects
7.4xrepetitions per user in average
160mof average playing time per person

“The results are over and above what we expected.”

Grant Cooper kao
Grant CooperSales Capability Manager EMEA | Kao

But beyond the statistics, which are always fantastic to see, the team tells us how employees are more confident, more knowledgeable and their passion for what they’re doing is shining through.

In other words, they’re empowered to complete their day-to-day roles.

*Attensi case study conducted in July 2023 found a 1.5% increase in sales revenue across the selected user group. 100% increase in sales stated in this video relates to a subset of salespeople within the broader user group. Please contact us for further information on the impact analysis.

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