Project 12: Sales course for Outlet Development Manager: closing report

A ten-week course on selling for our Outlet Development Manager Yazeed Peters, intended primarily to boost sales from outlets to bulk-printing customers, resulting in revenue for Paperight in rights and service fees.

General report-back

The course has helped Yazeed define his role in Paperight more clearly. Yazeed was averse to being branded as a salesperson due to the stigma attached to salespeople. Through the course he has improved his goal-setting and confidence in fulfilling a sales role.

Objectives achieved/not achieved

Planned: “We hope that the course will enable Yazeed to find and close valuable deals between outlets and their customers that will boost Paperight’s revenue and create the success stories we need in order to encourage other outlets to register and do similar deals … revenue will increase, and outlets will be able to see the impact that Paperight can have on a business that embraces and promotes print-on-demand.”

We believe this has been achieved. The clearest evidence is that Yazeed’s sales work has kept us on track with our revenue targets.

Measures of success

Planned: “Yazeed must complete the course and all knowledge review and feedback sheets. This will help determine whether he feels he is internalising the training material.”

Yazeed: “The course materials are aligned with my own values and therefore easy to internalise.”

Planned: “Yazeed will report back to the team, and write up his reports, on what he’s learning and how it’s impacting his work with outlets and their customers.”

This is being done on an ongoing basis as Yazeed briefs and trains colleagues on aspects of pitching and sales, and briefs us on the status of pending deals.

Before: “We expect:  To see more deals like the Pelikan Park deal being created and closed.”

After: Achieved: We have been successfully involved in four similar deals since then.

Before: “To see a deal a month as early as one month into his course. ”

After: On average we have seen a deal per month with us reaching our overall targets successfully, considering that targets increase by 50% per month.

Before: “We’ve love to see more than that.”

After: We have not yet seen more, but this work has led to us formalising our efforts to seek sponsorships as a core part of our business, and to trying to recruit a dedicated sales manager to grow this side of the business.

Budget

Original budget: R19380.00

Actual spend: R13369.62

Returned to pool: R6010.38

Outputs and deliverables

Planned: “Direct tangible outputs will include the goal-setting and other plans that Yazeed creates for his position. Indirect outputs, we hope, will include sales that come as a result of his doing the course.”

Actual outputs: Yazeed’s goals have become more sales-orientated, and the course has helped him to focus on reaching sales targets and improved his ability to set priorities effectively.

Learnings

The course was a valuable investment for Paperight as it allowed us to boost our abilities in sales. The important nature of sales for our start-up makes the amount spent on the course worthwhile. In future we would continue to weigh up the potential benefits versus the cost of such training courses. It is important that we do not send staff for training courses which do not add direct benefit to Paperight.

Exit/Sustainability/Viability

This course was a one-off investment in team capabilities that will contribute to our ability to become self-sustaining.

Conclusion

We’re very happy that we sent Yazeed on the course, the benefits are clear and the organisation is certainly better off as a result.

Next steps

We will consider sending team members on similar courses in future, though none are planned at this stage.