Member Article

Region rallies round call for sales skills survey

A new research project has been launched to identify the lack of professional sales skills which is allegedly harming business growth in the North East. One NorthEast, the Learning & Skills Council, Northern Rock, Canon and the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) have provided £30,000 and the back-office resources needed to manage the research project.

A total of 1,215 businesses of all shapes, sizes and sectors from across the region will be canvassed on the issues they face in recruiting and developing the right sales staff. Newcastle-based research company ERS will carry out the study which will encompass the perception of sales as a career, what training is available and already being delivered and how to maximise the performance of sales teams. The research will take place in January and February with the results due for publication at the end of March.

Nigel Wilson, business development manager at Canon, said: “The initial response to an appeal for firms to feed back their skills concerns showed quite clearly that businesses in all sectors place the importance of quality sales skills at the top of their agenda. “The research due to be carried out by ERS will add meat to that anecdotal evidence and build a much clearer picture of how the North East addresses sales skills issues and how we can improve on the existing situation. “By March, we hope to have a clear action plan that will enable us to deliver a high quality sales force of sufficient numbers to enable our region to reach its full potential.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .