Pressman PR

A sales training system which has revolutionised business performance has extended its reach in the East Midlands thanks to a Nottingham businessman.

Experienced local company director Graham Podmore, who has a 25 year proven track record of developing business and sales teams, has acquired a regional franchise of sales and sales management training giant Sandler.

He is continuing Sandler’s award winning methods in the East Midlands beginning with a series of free seminars for local business-owners and directors.

Growing a business has never been easy and in the current economic climate the challenge of increasing sales is greater than it’s been for decades. But Mr Podmore believes that the Sandler system and his wide ranging business experience means he can add value to any enterprise that is open to improving their skills and ambitious to grow their business.

Mr Podmore, who lives near Southwell, said: “I talk to many business owners and some are content to batten down the hatches and do nothing until the economy picks up. I say to them, ‘Lets hope it picks up quickly then, but are your competitors taking the same view?’

“Other business owners I speak with are thinking much more proactively and want to actively take share from their competitors by being better and smarter in tough times. They are the people who stand to benefit the most from investing in Sandler training at this time.”

Mr Podmore was attracted to the Sandler model because of its reputation as a world leader in sales & management training. The company was founded in the 1970s by American David Sandler who had developed his own unique system for sales training.

Sandler is now recognised as a worldwide market leader in sales and management training and the company operates worldwide through 220 training centres across the globe delivering sales training in a dozen languages.

The company’s unique approach incorporates training in sales behaviour, attitude and technique rather than just offering selling tactics. They only allow highly experienced sales and management professionals to represent them and insist that all their franchisees have excellent track records in business rather than being simply trainers.

It was the company’s market leading position which first attracted Mr Podmore. He researched Sandler and was so impressed with what he found that he ended up visiting the firm’s head office in Baltimore, Maryland and then buying a franchise in the East Midlands.

Now he is offering the model which has revolutionised thousands of businesses worldwide to East Midlands companies beginning with a series of free seminars.

Mr Podmore said: “It is exciting to be able to offer this great opportunity to businesses in the East Midlands. In a recession it is more important than ever to have a well motivated, efficient sales force that is firing on all cylinders and moving your business forward for you. Sandler can help East Midlands companies to achieve that.”

Mr Podmore, a Nottingham University engineering graduate, began his sales career in 1986 when he joined food packaging coding and marking technology specialist Prestek as employee number three.

He built the sales and distribution team there and helped grow the company into over 20 overseas territories. Prestek were named Nottinghamshire Company of the Year twice and by the time they were bought by American rival Markem in 1996 more than 60 percent of the business turnover came from exports markets and it enjoyed UK market leadership with it’s products.

Mr Podmore’s next move was to start his own company with a small team of partners. Zipher operated in the same industry but utilised new technology to bring improved products to market.

Mr Podmore and his fellow directors sold the company in 2004 for a significant sum to US based conglomerate Danaher. He worked for the new parent company for four years following their acquisition of Zipher but after running his own company he decided corporate life was not for him.

He said: “When you’ve worked for yourself and run your own business it’s hard to lose that level of independence and control. I decided to start looking for other opportunities and that was when I discovered Sandler.

“I found the Sandler Selling System® resonated with my own views about the selling process. It felt comfortable and a good fit for me but it also showed me many explanations and solutions for the problems I had struggled with for many years, first as a sales person and then as a Sales Manager and Director. I am really excited about having the opportunity to share that with ambitious businesses so that they can not only have the benefit of my experience, but also a short cut on the learning curve that I was on for 25 years.

“Whether you are a frontline sales person or the owner or partner in a business or professional practice, you will be engaged in selling your products or your company. Yet most people who find themselves in a selling role have no formal training, system or process to follow - they operate on gut instinct. That’s ok if their instincts are good but what if they are not, and how do they train others they might recruit? How do they teach their team to acquire that same gut instinct and how can they manage and coach their people properly?

“Without a system it’s impossible to do. But by using Sandler’s proven system with its fantastic track record it is entirely possible to systematically replicate sales success. Sandler can also help those who are responsible for business development, but who don’t see themselves as sales people or are uncomfortable with that label – partners in professions such as lawyers, accountants, architects or financial advisors – because it is a system which trains people to help customers discover their need for products and services in a non-pressurised, collaborative and questioning style.”

“It takes a lot of pain out of the process of growing a sales force that delivers and of growing a successful company.”

Sandler Training’s next free taster seminar takes place at Ruddington Grange Golf Club on 30 April followed by a second one on 15 May. To book a place please call 0845 4238395 or email graham.podmore@sandler.com You can also find out more by visiting www.emids.sandler.com.

ENDS

Further information is available from Steve McComish at Pressman PR Ltd.

Tel: 0115 9648214

E: steve@pressmanpr.co.uk

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