The Staffordshire and Cheshire arm of a worldwide business has scooped a national award after growing by a staggering 322%
Sandler Training which specialises in sales and leadership training has more than doubled its turnover in the last two years. It’s just been named Trainer of the Year by its national counterparts.
Last year they were named one of the top performing franchises, and their client satisfaction rating is at the same sort of level enjoyed by global brands like Tesla.
Despite the challenges brought by Covid – Sandler Training has gone from strength-to-strength, training 2,000 people from 600 companies over the last 24 months – a record for this regional arm of the company. There clients have also given them a Net Promoter Score that is a staggering 41% higher than the global average received by consultants and trainers.
Before the pandemic – virtually all the courses Sandler Training offered were delivered face to face in their training centre in Fenton or at a client’s premises. The first lockdown of March 2020 meant the business had to pivot quickly to ensure it continued to grow.
The majority of their training which covers all aspects of sales and leadership, prospecting, marketing and customer services is now delivered on-line with most clients preferring that than face to face sessions. The company has invested heavily in live streaming technology, to ensure clients get a great training experience.
Roy Johnson from Biddulph owns the franchise to deliver Sandler Training in Staffordshire, Cheshire and the M6 corridor but if contacted they can deliver on a national and global scale. Roy works with Matthew Dashper-Hughes who joined the company two and a half years ago to help grow the business and deliver the training.
Roy said:
“We are delighted to have scooped this award especially as it is chosen by our peers. It shows that we do what we teach and support the businesses we work with to grow exponentially. It hasn’t always been easy though. As lockdown hit, I remember being at the airport in Florida, waiting for a rescue flight to take us back to the UK thinking that our business was all about face-to-face training and we needed to adapt quickly.
“I phoned Matthew and I’ll never forget what he said and that was that we needed to take our offer on-line to deliver virtual training but make it even better. That’s exactly what we did. I got back and we ordered the kit we needed and redesigned our courses so that they could be delivered virtually. It was tough at first – a lot of clients cancelled work because they were understandably worried about cash flow. We delivered training for free and developed specific training on LinkedIn, because we knew during the various lockdowns that the platform would be relied upon even more to help win new business.”
Matthew added:
“Over time our on-line training has gone from strength to strength. We’ve added to the kit and the technology we’ve bought. Essentially, we now have our own virtual TV studios to help make our training as sophisticated and effective as possible. Word of mouth grew and so did our client base to the point where we’ve more than doubled our turnover and client base which is absolutely fantastic.
“We’re at the point now we may potentially recruit another person to our team. We do still offer face to face training if a client wants that but we’re finding that most clients want the convenience of learning online and it means we can take our training to a much wider audience than we did before,” he said.
Roy added: “We essentially help businesses increase their profitability, close more deals, hang on to profit margins and improve their work life balance. This year we were also named as the top-rated franchise in the UK, which we’re both really proud of.”
Sandler Training was set up by American David Sandler around fifty years ago. Originally operating in just America, the Sandler Selling System was soon adopted and delivered across the world through local training centres. It now delivers around 500,000 hours of training to more than 30,000 people every year. To find out more about Sandler Training please go to: www.m6.sandler.com or contact roy.johnson@sandler.com or mdh@sandler.com.
