Member Article

On the crest of a winning wave

A Durham director of a small training company has beaten colleagues from some of the biggest organisations in the country to be crowned national Sales Trainer of the Year.

The annual British Excellence in Sales and Marketing awards are run by the Institute of Sales and Marketing and are the industry’s top prizes.

Mike Lever from New Results Training was one of only eight in the UK shortlisted and the only one in the North East. He beat trainers from national and international organisations, such as Sterling Chase and NPower, at the presentation event in London last week.

He said: ’I am still in shock. I can hardly remember getting up out of my seat and collecting the award. To have won in such illustrious company is amazing for a small North East organisation like New Results.

‘It is obviously fantastic for us, but it’s also great to bring the award to the region.’

Mike has only been with New Results for just over a year after taking redundancy from Northern Rock after more than 17 years.

Mike, who lives near Durham, was nominated by one of his clients, Ellwoods Food Group in Washington, Tyne and Wear, who are celebrating 60 years in business.

’I was delighted and very flattered when they said they were nominating me.

‘We take the approach to sales training which means we work with the client to deliver what he wants to do as a business, and our success can be measured in the increase in profit margins – in his case more than 19 percent.’

A spokesman for ISMM said: ’The judges felt that Mike clearly understands the fundamental importance of how thinking like a customer enables sales people to become trusted advisors for their clients. With a strong focus on behavioural change underpinned by knowledge and skills development proves passion and drive was clearly evident.

He has bundles of passion about sales training and totally understands the sales process His preparation is excellent, very thorough and detailed.’

The awards recognise ‘exceptional performance and achievement’. There are fifteen ranging from student of the year to sales team of the year. Mike was presented with his award by Bill Turnbull from the BBC Breakfast Show.

New Results Training are a three man operation in Houghton-le-Spring delivering sales training, coaching, strategy and management development. Mike is a Fellow of the ISMM and next year will become a Companion of the Institute.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Campbell .