JGA partnered with Britvic Plc and outsourced field sales specialist Elevate to set up a new sales team to launch Britvic's London Essence mixer range.
As Peter Hill, then Head of Britvic Field Sales (Licensed Free Trade) commented, “the foundation [of the programme is] the relationship they [Elevate] have got with JGA. And that is all built on trust. So when we talked to them about the apprenticeship programme, we could just see that the relationships that they had with JGA were very strong. We didn’t need to look anywhere else. We just knew that was the right thing for us.”
The approach which taken by JGA enabled all the apprentices to have the same standard of training in sales. This was critical to Britvic. With strong growth ambitions in a highly competitive market, they needed sales training which enabled trainees to be able not only to close sales, but also to retain and manage relationships with customers. It also began to produce consistent results across the team.
Will, one of the apprentices said, “When I first started, I was a bit like a chicken in the headlights. I didn’t really know where to start, because the whole idea of planning a day around calls and managing my own diary and things like that were completely new to me. So, although I had good customer relationships, it was more the organisational side that I didn’t have.”
He continued, “now, I’ve gained a foundational knowledge of sales across a broad spectrum. So although I’m currently selling within quite a specific segment … those skills … techniques, and behaviours that I’ve learned on the apprenticeship can then be applied to other areas … throughout my career.”
Despite Covid, the sales team have now managed to deliver better results than in the previous year, and staff retention is no longer an issue. As Sue Welch, Senior Account Manager at Elevate said, “[there are no longer] any issues with retention on the field team. [The team] like the product, they believe in what they’re doing – it’s just been amazing…”
Sue continues, “…some of the sales team who had no previous sales experience, became some of the best sales reps that we’ve got. The team are now so confident, they really want to do well, and they are a very happy team.”
The team was shortlisted for the Field Marketing & Brand Experience Magazine – Field Sales Team of the Year (2022).
