“For many years, we have invested in training with external providers however, we have never had any measurable return on investment apart from the hope that this will help improve staff retention rates. Furthermore, the feedback from the staff is that courses are always too generic and often, not in line with Smoothwall’s customers, culture or general practice.
We therefore decided to partner with Commversant in late-2015 and this has proved to be a complete game-changer in how training can be delivered, measured and implemented across the business. Arron and Sarah have really taken the time to get to know our business, our culture and our objectives and therefore have been able to put together tailored training that allows our salespeople to really improve, but in the context of what we actually do at Smoothwall.
On top of this, the way this is delivered looks at training being dispensed over the whole year, rather than in isolation, so salespeople get to know their trainers and can commit to an improvement journey with real measurable outcomes.
We’re really pleased with the results and have built many of the fundamentals of Commversant’s techniques into our individual and team objectives.
It really is a partnership based on strong relationships and understanding of our people and our business and I would recommend them to any organisation, particularly ones who believe in investing in and improving their people.”
Rob Wilkinson – Head of Sales
“British Engineering Services Ltd is a £50m business with a sales team of around 30 people in various roles including direct sales, indirect sales, telesales and account management. We had been forced to make a lot of changes to the personnel in the team over the past year. With a new team in place, it was important to develop some consistency in the way the team were working and to ensure that some fundamental sales and account management techniques were being applied, and therefore decided to employ an external sales training organisation to help us.
We explored several different suppliers, but chose Commversant as they were able to propose a bespoke training package that covered the breadth of our requirements. We also felt confident in Sarah and the team’s ability to run an engaging programme. We ran a series of trainings covering topics such as Strategic Account Management, TeleSales, Consultative Selling and Sales Leadership. The quality of the training was very good with 99% of the participant rating the training overall as being Good/Excellent. Participants were left with personal action plans and pragmatic tools to use in their day jobs.
Overall, we were very pleased with Commversant’s support. They were easy to work with and happy to provide added value input and advice that went beyond their immediate remit. I would certainly recommend them to any Sales Director looking for a great quality training partner.
Great job! Thank you Sarah and Arron.”
Andrew Shaw – Chief Customer Officer
“Commversant brought a breadth of experience in project management to a team who were keen to learn but who had little experience in this arena.
Working in a multi-site, complex environment their key skills were in the delivery of a Change model that positioned L&D within the Change environment, as well as creating a database to track progress against deliverables, ensuring that L&D have a commercial approach to delivery.
Commversant’s consultants supported and coached the team in influencing the business in order to ensure processes were followed. They developed sustainable solutions and left a positive legacy.”
Sharon Adair – Head of People Development
“Commversant has run several tailored training days for Stanley Security’s telemarketing team, discussing the procedures and possible improvements we could make on any future telemarketing campaigns. The training is always focused on our needs based upon discussions with both management and agents, as well as some call listening and roleplays/exercises specific to our kind of prospects.
The training is fast-paced, energetic and includes practical telemarketing skills that our staff have used successfully in their subsequent calling. They have a great training approach which comprises of group work and also personal one-to-one discussions ensuring everybody benefits from the sessions.
At the end of the training they also give professional, structured feedback to both the individual and management from what they have observed throughout the day.
As we become more focussed on internal sales driving the whole team, Commversant’s telemarketing training has become a vital ingredient in winning customers. I would strongly recommend Commversant to any business that wants to get ahead fast in today’s competitive age.”
James Ford – Head of European Product Marketing
“We’ve enjoyed a really productive relationship with the Commversant team over the last few years. Sarah’s courses are always excellent; she takes the time to really understand the business objectives behind the need to train, and then steers the courses to address these.
The feedback on her courses is amazingly high, but more importantly you can almost physically see staff returning from the sessions energised, eager to try new techniques and bringing positivity to their day-to-day business. Sarah is equally competent dealing with differing roles across the business and has helped my exec team as much as our salesforce.
Attention is always maintained during sessions with Sarah’s techniques for ensuring the mind never wanders a mixture of play and personal engagement. She has a great capability to ‘unlock’ issues that are festering or brewing in a way that only a logical, independent, ‘critical friend’ could do; something I strongly feel is healthy for businesses to do and embrace as it makes the training really relevant and in some cases cathartic.
As they got to know our business we’ve been so impressed with Commversant that we asked them to operate in a consultancy role for us by helping to develop and introduce a Performance Management Framework to our business. Again, this was approached with the right level of detail and consideration by Commversant, and the resultant scheme that we have introduced has helped managers and staff alike to focus on our business line-of-sight, personal development and expected behaviours.
I have no hesitation in thoroughly recommending and endorsing the work of Commversant – they have helped move our business forward.”
Ollie Watson – Business Development Director
“I was looking for bespoke training to build on existing skills of Rockline Industries’ Sales team and after discussing options with Commversant, it was decided to undertake three courses in Pitch Perfect Presentation Skills, Consultative Selling and Profitable Negotiation as part of our on-going personal development programme.
Having assessed Rockline’s key requirements prior to the training sessions, the facilitator offered support and guidance, positively challenging the team to identify our brand before we put the theory in to practice.
Sarah then evaluated, measured and sustained our team’s competencies throughout each of the training sessions, giving us solutions relevant not only to our business but also to the market today. This process ensured that the learning was embedded in a successful and yet defined environment.
The highest praise, we believe is that, having been coached and supported by Commversant, the team had immediate and sustainable skills to roll out and achieve the desired results.
Not only are the team more competent and motivated, I believe this has made us more dynamic in our sales roles and Rockline would have no hesitation in highly recommending Commversant.”
Lorraine Crosby – Sales Director
“Commversant spent time establishing our key requirements and put together an excellent, well-tailored training package. As this was a new team and venture to our core business model, we enlisted the services of Commversant to deliver the initial sales training.
The facilitator; Nathan who delivered the training package was a particular highlight. His delivery was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and engaging, receiving excellent feedback from all involved.
The testament to the training was that the team was able to hit the ground running upon launch and haven’t looked back since, reaching record sales figures in just a matter of months.”
Wendy Capelin – Head of HR and Learning & Development
“I have a sales team who have been together and been successful for a number of years. We have always benefitted from the experience of Commversant Training to support us through our journey of success; they are certainly a big factor.
NLP is something I have read about and considered for the team, I was just concerned about the content in relation to understanding our sales process and business model. So, when Commversant informed me they had developed such a course, it was natural that I would turn to them with the objective not to rest on our laurels, but take my team to the next level.
Having now attended NLP for Business, it was exactly what I wanted and whilst not forgetting all of the processes we already do successfully, this allowed us to stand back and view the way we were doing certain things, allowing us to continue our journey but with a more educated view of the way people buy, how and why.”
Rob Evans – Sales Director
“After our initial meeting with Commversant, it was clear from the outset that they understood our training needs and requirements for our business.
As a leading distributor of bathroom products in the UK, our sales team work in a fast-paced and often pressured environment but only through our service to our customers will we remain in this position.
Commversant were able to assess, on an individual level, the strengths and weaknesses of those taking part in the training, and develop the training session to fully explore the needs of the individuals in order to get the best out of the experience.
Now we have a sales office team who have fully embraced the aims and objectives that were raised over the course of the training and have implemented what they have learnt in their day-to-day roles.
Thank you Commversant!”
Karen Sperrin – Commercial Manager
“Having come highly recommended to us, we engaged the services of Commversant who consulted with us to gain a thorough understanding of our business to create a tailored Consultative Selling Skills programme for our sales team.
Investing in training was something new for CT Glass however; I have to say that the initial feedback from all who attended was extremely positive indeed.
Commissioning Commversant for further programmes in Profitable Negotiation and Strategic Account Development, as well as an extremely successful Customer Experience workshop for our Accounts, Estimation, Production and Transport staff, we have witnessed an almost immediate impact and marked improvement in the way in which we communicate both internally and most importantly, with our valued customers.
With a number of further initiatives planned over the next 12 months, Commversant has undoubtedly contributed towards our sales team’s performance since engagement, resulting in 3 consecutive record years of significant incremental growth.”
Bob Taylor – Managing Director
“I’ve had nothing but brilliant feedback from the team, the training has gone down an absolute storm! Everyone gave a shining review of Dave and most importantly, the content was relevant, up-to-date and can and will be used going forward.
Furthermore, I am confident that the skills and plans the team developed through working with Commversant will drive our business forward and provide both market leading customer experience and professional account management service levels.
It was a pleasure to see the team really buy into the training, they have now been provided with the tools to recognise what our clients both need and want, this will in turn allow Alexir to stand out of the crowd in a competitive market place and focus on what is important to both parties.
Although only our first experience with Commversant, I can safely say it was a great choice.”
Tom Sene – Partnership Sales Director
“Recent changes in our business found myself and my business partner being asked to present to the board level of a large US public multinational. While being very used to giving presentations as part of our sales or customer education process, this new challenge left us in no doubt that there was room for improvement in both the presentation itself and also in our delivery.
With our previous very positive experience with Commversant (delivering a customer care programme) it seemed natural to turn to them to ask for their help in improving our presentation skills.
As we expected, Commversant rapidly understood our aspirations for the course and created a bespoke training plan that still had the flexibility to be fine-tuned to our needs over the course of the two days.
Firstly, the course covered the best methods to create a presentation; not just covering the preparation and content but also the most appropriate style of presentation. Secondly, we looked at our own personal presentation styles that included some enlightening video sessions! Finally, we focused on the phycology of presenting and how to ensure the appropriate message is conveyed.
As usual the course was delivered with exceptionally high quality and just the right amount of humour making the entire two days not only highly educational but highly enjoyable!
There is no doubt that our preparation and construction of presentations is much improved and our delivery on the day much smoother!
There’s also no doubt in my mind that we’ll continue to turn to Commversant for our future training requirements.”
Robert Moore – Business Unit Director
“I engaged Commversant to work with me in developing my aspiring managers into becoming effective leaders of my business. This was to enable them to be more strategic in their thinking and learn advanced people skills with a view of them becoming the next senior management team to take the organisation forward.
Commversant took the time to really understand my business requirements and personal drivers behind the project and then developed a programme to include senior leadership, Performance Management Frameworks and Neuro-Linguistic programming to build the capability required for the step change to begin.
I was very impressed with the way they worked with me and my business to maximise the success of this business initiative and would highly recommend Commversant any organisation wishing to grow its talent at all levels.”
Michael Bischof – Managing Director
“Operating in an industry that seems to only have price as a differentiator, I wanted to change the approach of our wholesale business operating within the UK. This was a complete mind-set change for my business and it was extremely obvious that my team needed support and development to achieve this change.
Having already supported other areas of our business, Commversant Training came highly recommended. It was apparent after meeting Arron and Sarah that Commversant was an obvious choice to help support this mind-set change, spending a huge amount of time understanding our marketplace, our business, where we were operating and the areas for improvement to what ultimately is our goal.
The training that was delivered over a number of months has helped me to deliver my strategy to my team with full understanding of the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’.
I now have a team with the necessary tools and knowledge to get out into the marketplace and win business, whilst moving the focus away from price to added value.
We are ‘bucking the trend’ within the industry, growing our business within a shrinking marketplace and have reached this position quickly, which wouldn’t have been achieved without the support, knowledge, enthusiasm and professionalism from the team at Commversant.”
Mike Rotin – General Manager AGR, UK & Ireland
“We have enjoyed a very harmonious working relationship with Commversant who have been involved in providing sales training to all members of our commercial team.
It remains a pleasure to collaborate with such an outstanding provider of sales critical business training who are always keen to not only understand our specific work-related staff development requirements, but to also create bespoke training schedules, which are totally fit for purpose.
Commversant are highly professional in their approach, completely trustworthy and we have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending them to anyone wishing to provide their employees with a first-class tailor-made sales development learning programme.”
Laurence McDougall – Managing Director
“Partnering with Commversant since 2016, they have delivered training on several occasions to an international audience from Stein IAS, both in the UK and the USA, covering a range of different courses; Consultative Selling, Negotiation, Presentation Skills and most recently, a Global Leadership and Management Training programme.
In my personal experience and based upon the excellent feedback from colleagues internationally, I would not hesitate in making a personal recommendation for both Commversant and in particular, Sarah who we have built a great relationship with and is very well liked and respected here at Stein IAS.
Delegates on all courses have received and subsequently implemented the various skills, attitudes and behaviours learnt from our training thereafter.
Commversant has become our training partner of choice.”
Cal Jackson – Chief Human Resources Officer
“I was tasked to source leadership and management training for the senior leaders. Having reviewed a lot of providers, I opted for Commversant. Arron was a great listener and quickly understood our requirements. A key part of the process when working with a new supplier is building the relationship and Arron was very patient and supportive, especially of time constraints and funding placed on me to deliver the training.
The brief was to break down the existing silos and get our Senior Leadership Team which comprised of 20 senior managers to work together across corporate and clinical settings. I worked with Sarah who again quickly understood the brief. She provided an in-depth proposal of the types of things the SLT would go through, how this related to the Organisation and what I could expect to see as a result of the training. The training commenced and the initial feedback from the SLT was very encouraging. Sarah not only provided the training, but also support to the SLT which really helped them in their learning and how to utilise this in the workplace.
The training was a great success and plans were being made to provide similar training for our middle managers. Sarah designed the training around the Organisational strategic plan and aligned it to the Executive leadership development that was also being undertaken.
I cannot praise Arron and Sarah highly enough for their commitment to me as a HR professional, but also the organisations I have worked for. Arron is extremely thorough when it comes to the preparation work, planning and delivery of the courses. Sarah is extremely professional and super easy to work with. At any given time I have required training or support, Commversant have gone over and above. They do not just come in and provide the training, working with Commversant is about building a lasting relationship. One of Commversant’s great strengths is to understand your Organisation, really get the root problems and provide solutions that are easy to deliver and maintain.
Sarah and Arron work across many disciplines and their ability to listen and translate the Organisation’s requirements is extremely helpful, especially when working in busy, demanding environments. Sarah and Arron really do deliver the results they say they are going to do; nothing is too much trouble for their clients. Their training material is professional, easy to use and acts as a guide after the courses have been delivered. I have had many senior managers who still stay in touch with Sarah to ask for support and guidance and this is 18 months after the course was completed.
I would wholeheartedly recommend Commversant for any training and development requirements, they are very professional, and an asset to any Organisational development strategy.”
Lisa Wallis (FCIPD) – Director of HR & OD
“Commversant’s preparation for the course and pre-calls were excellent in understanding our aspirations, the individual training needs and the context of our business. By understanding that context and our requirements the course was tailored to our specific objectives.
The improvement in our staff’s conversion rates, rapport building and closing since the course has been tremendous. We were also very happy with the post-course call / de-brief which helped us to have a greater insight into individual training requirements moving forwards.
We cannot recommend Commversant highly enough.”
Matt Franks – Managing Director
“Having experienced sales training delivered by some of the most renowned global providers on both sides of the pond, we chose to fly Commversant out to Miami to facilitate a week-long development programme tailored to complement and align our team’s skills and behaviours with our unique value proposition and go-to-market strategy.
The initial feedback from the course was exceptional, as has been the post-training support in ensuring that the learning outcomes are not only sustainable, but also, deliver tangible results.
World class operators, highly recommended.”
Richard Tester – Vice President
“We used Commversant for a Strategic Account Development session in our Global Sales Meeting in the summer. We have a sales team from a variety of different backgrounds with a varying level of skill and experience.
With a team originating from the UK, Italy, Germany, Poland, Puerto Rico, Canada and the US, I was initially concerned if the trainer (Dave) was going to be able to strike a meaningful chord with all of them. In the past we have found that the trainers from US/Canada are a bit ‘cheesy’ for the UK team, and that trainers from the UK are a bit ‘mild’ for the US team.
Our sales team are technical and relatively sophisticated. We have long sales cycles and have to engage a number of high-level stakeholders at the customer’s site (and often a number of third parties) to secure the project.
I can confirm that Dave not only managed to make the content meaningful to all levels of experience, but also to all nationalities in attendance. We have never had such great feedback for a sales trainer, he was found to be easy to connect with, have relevant experience and examples, and good energy. Even the most sceptical and experienced members of our team were pleasantly surprised, and most described Dave’s experience and relevance as excellent, and found him to be very engaging – especially the US team.”
Isobel Wales – Director of Operations
“I think the programme has been very useful and will definitely help us all to improve results; communication styles, IMPACT, objection handling.
Excellent – Gamechanger!”
Serge Inowlocki – Head of Sales Development & Martech, EMEA
“I was introduced to Commversant having previously used a range of fragmented training providers, they outlined their approach and ability to offer training ranging from holistic and fully bespoke through to more standardised deliveries and all stages in between. In the time since our first engagement, we have had the opportunity to benefit from a variety of these approaches.
During an initial consultation Commversant took the time to fully understand our requirements and get to grips with the nature of our people and their various development requirements, only then recommending appropriate content and consulting on the optimum way for it to be delivered. Once agreed, each course has benefitted from their approach of comprehensive pre-course participant validation along with clear and detailed joining instructions. The courses themselves have been extremely well run and agreed objectives have been attained each time.
As a technology company our strategies and associated people development requirements are prone to change as we react to a fast-paced and everchanging business environment. Whether that be down to our own innovation, disruptions in the market or growth of our team, Commversant are on hand to offer professional advice with a personal touch. They are training providers with a wide reach and access to a variety of high-quality courses and practitioners. Crucially, they also know business, which allows them to marry appropriate content and delivery to my needs, including – where required – aspects specifically tailored to our business and teams.
From our initial engagement, bibliotheca has now undertaken a number of programs facilitated by Commversant. In each instance the feedback from our teams has been exceptional and whilst staff have reported thoroughly enjoying the courses, it’s been especially refreshing for management to see first-hand, the principles and practices garnered from the training being actioned on daily basis as part of our customer interactions.
It’s been my pleasure to recommend Arron and the team to personal contacts in other industries.”
Chris Millican – Commercial Manager, UK & Ireland
“I have used Commversant on numerous occasions over the last 10 years and they have always delivered an outstanding service. Sarah and Arron have an excellent range of training consultants and provide a truly bespoke service to every client’s exacting needs. They have a keen eye for detail and spend valuable time upfront understanding the detailed requirements and matching these to the most appropriate consultant.
They have provided courses to me for varying groups of delegates; those who are new to sales, those who aren’t sales professionals but are a key stakeholder in the sales process and those people who have been in sales their entire life and think they have learnt all they need to know! The feedback from delegates has always been excellent and the lift in performance thereafter has been evident.
I would highly recommend Commversant to any business. They are a brilliant partner and become almost an extension of your business; always available to pick up the phone and provide invaluable advice.”
Graham Kavanagh – Chief Product Officer
