Training and mentoring

According to the analysis, for Eric Burden and Terry Garcia, the training priorities must concentrate on:

• closing and completing deals
• researching and getting information about prospective and existing customers

Objectives of the Training and Mentoring Program

The objectives of training will focus on the training needs analysis to determine what knowledge must be acquired by sales force after completing the necessary training.  

Managers, by the end of the “Developing training and mentoring effectively” training must have complete knowledge about training techniques and ability to mentor effectively sales team and new hires. The training and mentoring program is very important and must be achieved by managers as soon as possible to implement their proficiency so that the transition will be smooth and seamless.

By the end of the Developing Customer Relationship Training, Mark Pierce and Dennis White will:

• Establish and maintain customer relationships. Ability to respond to general inquiries or complaints from customers, to define problems, follow-up and solve problems to ensure customer satisfaction.

• Understand the value of long-term customer relationship

By the end of the Solution-based selling and compliance issues training Mark Pierce and Dennis White will:

• Read manual prepared by Compliance team to learn about compliance issues and technical specifics concerning environmental regulations and sanitation standards.
• Develop customized packages of cleaning solutions and systems in order to meet customer’s increasing need in solution-based selling.

By the end of the Outside Sales Training, Eric Burden and Terry Garcia will:

• Excel selling and demonstrating products and services
• Learn the better selling techniques in a more aggressive way to close and complete deals
• Invest in getting information for new and existing customers

Performance Standards

Standards are the minimum observable and acceptable standards that trainees must meet for the new performance to be adequate.

Delivery Methods

The training methods must meet our training budget and sales representative’s availability to attend the training programs. The training is costly and time-consuming for our sales department. However, I would like all sales force to have necessary knowledge in new products and services and ability to understand importance of teamwork and customer relationship. Following training methods will be used in order to achieve our training and mentoring goals.

• One-on-one training for managers

This training method will allow managers to get necessary knowledge about training and mentoring in a comfortable environment with hands-on practices and interaction with the instructor. This is costly, however, necessary method of delivery for managers who will be excellent trainers and mentors for new hires.  

• Virtual Classroom e-learning

This method will allow our outside sales representatives to have a live instructor through Internet with hands-on practices. It is convenient for sales force not to travel and learn from their computer screen by interacting with live instructor and learning in an active way. This method will increase flexibility in scheduling and reduce training cost at 30%.

• Cross-training

My new sales team has very diverse skills set. Mark Pierce and Dennis White are aggressive salespeople who prefer closing the deals more than taking care of the customer. Eric Burden and Terry Garcia are sales force from EnviroTech who believe in long-term customer relationship and working as a team. I believe that cross-training between two groups will benefit everyone from building a team to applying different work behaviors. The knowledge and experience gained all along is most valuable asset for the team and I would like you to share your knowledge with each other in order to build a strong and unbeatable team.

Content for Training and Mentoring

Developing training and mentoring effectively Management training course content:

Training and mentoring is not all about quality of training, but the employee’s involvement and motivation to participate. This course will include methods:

• how to create a friendly and interesting environment using games and videos,
• how to choose materials to use for training programs,
• how to evaluate training after and during training process,
• how to use feedback in order to improve training effectiveness.  

Developing Customer Relationship Training course content:

To sell successfully, we need to understand customers and their needs; how they think, what they truly want and choose the right approach to develop effectively the long-lasting customer relationship. This course will help employees to expand and perform interpersonal skills needed to win increased sales, especially from their more demanding or new customers. They will understand the importance of building strong sales relationships relies on a proper customer care, appropriate behavior and understanding about business.

Outside Sales Training course content:

In today’s increasingly competitive world of business, this training will provide skills needed to sell in an effective and aggressive manner. This training assesses the progress in selling techniques and provides sales representatives opportunities for business improvement. During this training course salespeople will use video plays to observe closely the interpersonal behaviors needed for completely effective sales performance. It will also engage employees to create a business development plan to increase sales in industrial cleaning and sanitation industry. Another opportunity is to learn about in getting information for new and existing customers using technology and available software.

Solution-based selling and compliance issues training course content:

Our customers are no longer interested in products, but solutions that will simplify their cleaning issues with today’s arising environmental safety requirements. This solution-based selling and compliance training will educate our sales reps how to establish distinguished and clear business value with customers by providing solutions to their needs. Our future is in solving problems and creating solutions to industrial cleaning and sanitation issues where compliance and safety issues are major concern. This training will provide a detailed and comprehensive knowledge about emerging issues in sanitation, environmental regulation of cleaning and cleaning systems, and OSHA standards. They will have understanding about legal, environmental, safety, ethical and regulatory issues that affect sanitation and cleaning in various industries. The training will teach about developing customized packages of cleaning solutions and systems.

Time-frame

The training programs will be effective by November 1, 2008 and will continue until February 1, 2009. Ensure to be ready for exciting new training opportunities.

Evaluation Methods

Effective training outcome will demonstrate in changed behavior. Training that creates tangible, measurable results starts by changing behavior, which eventually changes attitudes and develops new skills. Training evaluation must have before training assessment and after training assessment in order to measure results. In order to ensure that training is going well on-going assessment will apply to observe how the training goes. If the results are good, training must continue, however, if the results are not satisfied training must change direction and methods to assure effective training.

Feedback

To ensure the effectiveness of training process and for future training improvement, the feedback will be used after each training courses. The feedback could be online form if assisted E-learning training or in paper forms if attended classroom training. The importance is to measure what was done correctly, and what could be avoided in the future training courses.

Alternate avenues for those who need further development

The training and mentoring programs will be most important part of our transition period. In addition to the above-mentioned training programs, I would like to present New Employee Orientation Program to welcome EnviroTech employees to join InterClean. HR personnel and department managers will be in charge planning and providing the continuous NEO program during 30 days of the employment. Please ensure to participate to Effective Teamwork training which will help for smoother integration and interaction of the new team building process. We all have to make effort in achieving our training goals within appropriate time-framing in order to enhance our job and team performance. If you believe that you need more training in certain areas please see your manager for further investigation.

References

University of Phoenix (Ed). (2008). InterClean – EnviroTech Merger Scenario.  Retrieved October 19, 2008, from University of Phoenix, HRM – 531 Resource Page.

        https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/classroom/ic/classroom.aspx

University of Phoenix (Ed). (2008). Interclean, Inc, Employee Profile. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from University of Phoenix, HRM – 531 Resource Page.

        https://mycampus.phoenix.edu/classroom/ic/classroom.aspx

University of Phoenix. Ebook Collection: Chapters 8 & 16 – Cascio, W. (2006),

Managing Human Resources. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from University of Phoenix, HRM-531 Resource Page.

        https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary/content/eReader