North East Contact Centre Awards

http://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.pwww.necontactcentreawards.co.uk/

Last week, we were delighted to discover that our amazing Sales coaches were shortlisted as finalists in the People Development Hero category and regardless of the outcome, I wanted to share why I think they are special.

The Sales Coaches are a small but perfectly formed team of two. (Tabby Woodhouse and Anila Clarke), who are responsible for the coaching and development of just under 200 frontline sales advisors in the New Customer Acquisition Channel of Sage.....no mean feat! In addition to operational coaching support, they have also stepped up and supported Learning and Development activities such as delivering new hire induction, or creating content for sales and product knowledge sessions to ensure the sales force are equipped to meet their goals. This involves them being accountable for the people management, acting as role models, and ensuring the on boarding experience of new Sage colleagues is a positive one which delivers high levels of engagement. We expect a lot of them!

In my career, I have not met many people as motivated and committed as Tabby and Anila are. They took part in the recruitment and assessments for our Apprentice programme, and then supported the design and implementation of the training programme for the team of 40 Apprentices in their first 3 months in the business. Part of this was looking at the sales methodology that Sage had in place for existing sales staff and changing the structure so that it would be fitting for those with no knowledge of Sage.

They approach everything with a high level of professionalism but also with a brilliant sense of fun. They are now well known across Sage for their exercise in ensuring everyone understands how to signpost with customers. They start a conversation, and then without warning ask the agents to get up and follow them around the building. Confusion ensues, and then they explain the purpose. The group never forget to signpost with their customers after that!

We all wish them the best of luck for the awards evening in February which Anila cannot attend as she will be enjoying an all expenses holiday to Mexico as part of our global Platinum Elite programme. She was awarded her place after being nominated by her colleagues for being a Sales Enabler, and the reasons given were agreed to be so outstanding she was chosen from thousands of colleagues. That just speaks volumes about the impact this team have. A massive well done from me and all of the team, and good to luck to all of the other finalists especially those from Sage.