From Sales To Training
The conversion rate of the ATLAS International UK Head Office sales teams was noticed by our group head office in Spain and I flew over on several occassions to show them how I had accomplished our results.
At our annual group conferences I was asked to demonstrate the setup and presentation of the ideal exhibition space, which was the bedrock of our sales activities.
At the 2001 conference I was honoured with an award for my 'Outstanding Sales Achievements and Unwavering Dedicated Service’. I later learned that I had been nominated by both my Managing Director and the Group's Directors and Chairman.
Soon after this, the Chairman asked for our help to turn around the struggling agency in Belgium. We identified the root causes and worked out what we thought was the best way to address these issues.
We followed up with several trips to Brussels to train the new sales teams and support the new head of the Belgium agency. After this, they started to hit their targets.
More of the European agencies in the group approached us to train them. Most came to us for training as it was simply not possible for me to leave our own agents and sales teams who required training and hands-on support.
Eventually I found myself travelling most weekends to support agents and agencies to both train and provide management support.
One several occasions I found myself arriving back from a trip to Dubai on a Tuesday, go straight from the airport to the office to catch up on my office sales and admin and fly out on Thursday to Hong Kong to support our agent at another event starting on the Friday.
The destinations would change, but this routine became standard. Sometimes one of the destinations would change in favour of a major UK trade show, but the training and support role for the group's agencies had taken over.
It became normal to spend Wednesday night doing my laundry and re-packing my case for the Thursday flight. 100-hour working weeks were a fond memory. I was living the job almost 24/7.
I had made the transition from Head of UK Sales and Head of Exhibition Sales to add International Head of Training (EMEA) to my portfolio of roles.
When I wasn't training , I was leading sales teams at exhibitions and the office and still exceeding my own agressive sales targets... even with jet lag!
There was nowhere left to progress within the company and I had developed a strong team, with good leadership, capable of undertaking all of the duties required.
The Next Challenge
I had lived and breathed my roles at Atlas for 3 and a half years when I decided that the time had come to take on new challenges.
Three and a half years may not seem like a long time to be in a role, but looking back at what I accomplished in that time, it seems like a lot longer.
When you take into account that most of it was made of 7-day weeks and very long days, often away from home, I am not sure if I could have continued to justify the lack of work-life balance.
The highly visible and proactive way that I worked and interacted with both customers and suppliers led many to the conclusion that I owned the business or at least held the highest level of responsibility.
I would receive letters from customers thanking me and my staff for our excellent work in looking after them, sometimes they would mention my boss as a subordinate.
Many of my communications from suppliers and professional contacts would addressed to the Managing Director, despite the fact that I never presented myself in this role and the MD being well-known within the industry.
When I left, I was the longest serving member of staff (by over a year), with vitually no sick days and almost all of my holiday allowance still to be taken for the year.
My sales teams were well structured, well trained and very capable.
We had sold just over 3,000 properties in that year.
We were also examining the potential and desirability for the company to float on the stock exchange.
From 4 members of staff to hundreds and ready to go public in less than 4 years is something that I am very proud of, but it was time to move on.
We had started to receive customer requests for property in other European countries that Atlas didn't represent at that point.
I made the case for expanding our range of properties to include Cyprus. When the group felt that it wasn't ready to make that move, it left the way free for me to exploit this opportunity, safe in the knowledge that I would not be competing with my former employer.
What Did I learn?
International Training
Agency Collaterol Creation
Customer Administration Training
International Property Sales
International Event
Marketing
International Agency Management
International Event Logistics
Customer Service Training
Customer Service Process Design Training
Customer Service Team Management
Sales Management Training
Sales Operations Training
Advanced Sales Training Methodologies
Sales Training Delivery
Event Design Training
Event Sales Training
Sales Process Training
Consultative Sales Training
Consumer Sales Training
Sales Coaching
Product Training
Leadership Training
Agency Evaluation
KPI Evaluation
Agent Recruitment
P&L Management
Sales Collateral Creation
Event Presentation Skills Taining
Negotiation Skills Training
Objection Handling Training
Agency Development
Advertiser Sourcing
PR
Training Events
Training Methodologies
and Extreme Time Management... obviously