Member Article

Apprenticeship experts turn to Mike for New Results

ONE of the region’s largest and most successful apprenticeship providers has turned to a Sunderland-based sales training expert to propel the business forward.

Baltic Training Services, based at Newton Aycliffe, are an innovative apprenticeship provider who work with leading employers in the IT sector across the country. When the expanding company wanted to generate more leads for its field sales team, they chose Mike Lever, from New Results, to coach their office-based sales team.

Mike, a Director at New Results, was the UK’s Sales Trainer of the Year in 2013-14 and has enjoyed working with the Baltic team: “I’ve had a fantastic time working with Baltic; they have bags of energy and a thirst for learning.

“I can’t remember working with a more supportive team – while they have a good level of competitiveness, they still want each other to be successful. They have strong ethics and values and they are passionate about helping apprentices and businesses. They are an absolute pleasure to work with.”

Over the past year, Mike has trained nine business development managers, two team leaders and 25 business developments executives for Baltic.

Sales Manager Sam Gardner is one of those who’ve benefitted from Mike’s sessions.

“Mike’s sales training digs deep into all aspects of selling,” said Sam. “He talks us through from the very first step, from before even making a call, to closing a sale. He spends a lot of time talking about language and attitude – his sessions are fun, and he can be quite stern when he needs to be.”

Sam’s sales team has grown rapidly recently: “There were eight of us a couple of years ago, and there are 20 of us now with plans to grow further,” he explained.

Another Baltic employee to benefit from Mike’s training is Business Development Executive Craig Grimes.

“How we operate now is much better, much more structured. What we try to do is create the apprentice vacancy before the field sales guys contact a company,” said Craig.

Mike has also spent time one-to-one training the teams, spending time listening to them on the phone to clients and then giving feedback.

Both Sam and Craig agreed that Mike’s work had added to the success of the company. “He’s improved what we do and how we do and his work has undoubtedly improved out team performance,” said Sam.

New Results Training has more than 75 years of experience in coaching and training and delivers sales training locally, nationally and internationally. The company is based in the e-volve Business Centre at Rainton Bridge, Houghton.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nevil Tynemouth .