Sales training that pays for itself and boosts turnover

Maxivision, the UK's leading laser eye specialist is gaining remarkable results from the introduction of interactive training for its sales and call centre staff. Individual performances are up, the courses have paid for themselves and there's been a significant impact on the company's bottom line.

The company, which invests in training for its clinical and marketing staff, called in Marc Holland of PTP Training and Marketing Ltd to provide specialist sales courses. Paul Hill, managing director of Maxivision says: "I wanted a training provider who could communicate. Many providers are too academic and not practical enough. In PTP I've found trainers who can communicate in an inspirational manner, translating knowledge into practical skills."

"We engaged PTP to lay on a course for our field sales staff. This was a 'toe in the water' tester to see if Marc could deliver on his promises. It worked exceedingly well. He'd obviously done his homework on our industry and could understand the specifics of issues raised by course delegates. The result was a marked improvement in sales conversions. With this first course I saw that the initial layout on training was easily covered by the increase in sales.

" Maxivision's sixteen call centre staff handle over one thousand sales calls each week. They were next to receive the PTP treatment as Mr Hill explains: "One of the benefits of working with Marc is the 'hands on' nature of his courses. Live calls form an essential element of a number of them. There can be no better way to demonstrate new techniques and methods to staff than doing it 'live' in front of them and then enabling them to do it with the trainer present. In this situation the trainer becomes a personal coach. This approach was adopted with call centre staff who attended a course on 'Dealing with Incoming Calls'. The personal attention Marc paid to each member of staff brought marked improvements. I would quantify these as adding about £200,000 to the company's bottom line. Again, further encouragement, if any was needed, that the training being provided by PTP was making a significant contribution to the company's bottom line."

"A second one day course, 'Dealing with Outbound Calls' was laid on for call centre staff. The features and benefits of 'warm' calling were identified in the morning and in the afternoon staff spent two hours on live calls. I estimate this training day alone paid for itself four times over."

"I am now liaising with PTP on a regular basis. Marc and his team have broad experience, are ideas people and when it comes to training are real innovators."

November 2002