In line with the company’s sales strategy, Atos University’s Sales Academy has identified a number of key programs that it is delivering as a priority during the first half of the year and that form part of the company’s sustainable sales training program for the years to come.

"These programs are helping to create the common culture in Sales we require going forward,” explains Erwan Penheleux, who is heading up the program as a ‘top’ leader. “During the second half of the year, we will focus more on training that answers the individual needs of members of the sales community,” he adds.

The five key programs are:

• Sales Induction Program that comprises an introduction to sales effectiveness and Win Workshops. “Training around Win Workshops is all about developing creativity around opportunities in order to build a real value proposal to the client. Win Workshops are key to increasing our win rate,” Erwan says. The company’s goal is to improve its win rate from the current 25 percent to 40 or even 50 percent over the coming years.
• Proactive Sales Mindset that is concerned with teaching how to make the revenue required for growth and to anticipate anything that may prevent that revenue from being realized. “Our work at the Olympic Games is a great example of such a mindset. To successfully deliver the IT for the Olympics, we need to ensure we have not just one back-up plan, but enough to ensure that no matter what happens the event happens on time and runs smoothly,” Erwan notes.
• Global Sourcing (Offshoring) sends the sales force to India to get first-hand experience and knowledge of Atos Origin’s offshoring capabilities. According to Erwan, “meeting the team in India and seeing what they do helps to imbue sales people with the confidence to sell offshoring to the customer and in turn instill confidence with the customer that Atos Origin can deliver on its promises.”
• Sales Leadership Program that is aimed at supporting sales managers in coaching and managing their team in order to meet the company’s sales targets. “By helping managers develop their leadership skills, we are helping them become more confident about setting targets and measuring what is achievable, which in turn will help develop sales and revenue. It also demonstrates the importance the company places on the sales function as making a real and valued contribution,” Erwan enthuses.
• Global Offerings that offers information and training around the global offerings via a new form of webinars called virtual classroom, mixing eLearning and live speakers, and allowing people to attend remotely.

“These five main sales training programs represent 70 percent of our training efforts this year with 1700 individuals benefitting from them. Most will be delivered locally by Atos Origin champions in each country, which is not only cost-effective, but means they can be delivered in local language and provides powerful proof of our ability to develop the right approach and process to training and how it is becoming embedded in our DNA as a company,” Erwan says. And he goes on, “What we are doing today is sustainable for years to come, just as it should be.” 

A matrix has been created that matches roles within sales with Atos University training offerings. “In this way, we are developing training paths for the coming years indicating what programs individuals can take advantage of to develop the skills they require for their assignments,” Erwan states.