Situation

Freshfield Lane Brickworks (Now Michelmersh) are specialists in the manufacture of stock-fired bricks and pavers. The company has over 100 years of experience and supplies over 32 million bricks each year to the construction industry throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan. Frank Hanna is the director of the company.

Alyson Pellowe CIPD established People Vision in 2001. She has developed a continually expanding portfolio of around 140 specialist consultants who design and deliver training across a range of Human Resources skills. Jules MacMillan is a specialist in Performance Coaching, Staff Motivation and Communication Skills training, and Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

Challenge

People Vision were to work on a one to one basis with the Sales Manager in charge of a team of two people.
The Sales Manager had been in the job for one year and had great natural ability but no formal sales or management training.
People Vision were to design and deliver a training programme to improve her existing skills and give her new resources for management.

Action

Jules MacMillan had an initial meeting with Frank Hanna to discuss the achievement aims of the training. The brief was to provide two kinds of training.

 

• Sales Management training to develop impartial analysis and coaching.

• Account Management to effectively meet client demands and expectations.

Jules had a conversation with the Sales Manager to explain the training and to ensure that she understood that the training was an investment in her abilities and to answer her questions.

Jules designed and delivered a day and a half of one to one training with the Sales Manager, to analyse and develop her existing skills and to provide new management capabilities.

Results

The Sales Manager was given an increased awareness of her own skills and the ability to implement new ways of working. By improving her management skills and passing on her knowledge the sales team as a whole has become more effective and versatile with productive communication.

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In order to maximise the benefits of the training Jules put in place strategies for continued improvement. Training in goal-setting for example gave increased focus and motivation to the Sales Manager, providing a continuing return on the investment in training.

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Jules also worked with the Sales Manager on action points, such as recommending more one to one time with the members of her team. This improved her ability to identify and capitalise on their skills, and to enable them to develop by discussing ways to implement their values and motivations.

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Jules also recommended that the Sales Manager make a presentation of the techniques and skills gained from her training to Frank Hanna. 

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The Sales Manager completed feedback forms which enable People Vision to ensure client satisfaction and the continued high quality of their service. The training was scored 9/10 overall and comments included that the training ‘was made fun and informal’ and useful new techniques had been learned.