What an extraordinary place we find ourselves. The speed of change to life and business has been unprecedented and unfortunately this change is only set to continue. Life and work as we know it has been rocked to the very core, giving us little time to plan, strategise and create a comprehensive roadmap for the future.

As with many companies, there are parts of our business that were severely impacted by the swift measures introduced in early March, one such area being our direct sales teams and the clients we service thereby.

We have been extremely fortunate that with the support of our client, Electric Ireland (EI), we have been able to redirect our field sales teams into a thorough training programme, taking this time to focus and re-launch the sales process to ensure that all members of the sales team are upskilled while keeping them engaged and with a clear sense of purpose.

In agreement with Electric Ireland our Learning and Development team acted swiftly to create a bespoke training programme focusing on 5 core areas:
• Sales
• Product and Services
• HR
• Compliance
• Soft Skills

Delivered through Google classroom our L&D trainers are able to create an interactive virtual teaching space using videos, presentations and third-party resources to support the participants and provide additional materials for the course work at hand. Projects and assignments are set, and trainers grade the work, providing guidance and feedback to the participants. Q&A discussions and dial-ins are held in Google Hangout for the team to comment and for the trainers to feedback.

The course also covers topics that they may not have previously had the luxury to explore in detail, things like price analysis and customer segmentation. This deeper understanding of the market and the EI customers will undoubtedly allow the sales team to adjust their pitch to appeal accordingly when we emerge from this.

This form of self-directed learning can also be extremely interesting in understanding the teams’ problem solving techniques and how they go about making decisions, which can highlight opportunities for further training. With a diverse team of 54 participants, it was the trainer’s responsibility to identify the need for independent sessions with individuals, highlighting the importance of diversity in training and how that can be facilitated in a virtual environment.

The feedback from the participants has been incredible, they love the videos and the team feel extremely motivated and enjoy the challenge of being made to think in a new way.

FMI has always been about our people. Their learning and development is symbiotic to our success. Our dedicated L&D team continue to deliver incredible work to ensure that the team are best placed to drive performance, regardless of what new world order we may emerge to.