FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 23 May 2008

Sold Out Trainers delivers experiential training to Pearson Education sales team selling into South Africa’s harshest and most remote areas

Sold Out Trainers, a leading UK company in the creation of training programmes that fit the prevailing cultures and specific requirements of corporate and international companies, has developed and is delivering an innovative experiential training programme for Pearson Education of South Africa which involves training native South African’s in the process of selling educational books into schools that are located both in remote rural areas and in some of the country’s most troubled townships.

For six years, Sold Out Trainers has been delivering experiential training to Pearson Education in both the UK and other countries around the world. Specially trained actors briefed in the culture and business workings of Pearson Education immerse delegates in scenarios that are developed to bring to life the issues they will face in their day-to-day business. Through such methods, delegates are able to discover for themselves what works and does not work and so exhibit a much deeper and more natural level of skill which they are then able to apply to their role more quickly and effectively than traditional training.

When Pearson Education gave itself the challenge of bringing all South African schools into the 21^st century it decided to train native South African’s in how to sell its educational materials and manage their own sales teams. Many schools are located either in remote areas or in troubled townships, such as Cape Flats. Often more than a quarter of the pupils are orphans with aids. Based on previous successful experiential training programmes, Pearson Education turned to Sold Out Trainers to help them achieve this.

Sold Out Trainers developed a unique experiential training programme for both the sales team and their managers, all of whom are native South Africans and new to these roles. Scenarios were developed that accurately reflected the challenges they would face and importantly addressed the consensus style of management and conflict resolution that best suited the culture.

Debra Stevens, a director of Sold Out Trainers and course facilitator, assembled and thoroughly briefed a team of specially trained and highly skilled actors, and together they travelled out to South Africa to deliver the programme.

The results achieved so far from the programme have been significant. Managers have been persuaded that a supportive style is more effective in creating positive outcomes than the South African traditional style of shout and demand. They now take a collaborative approach and seek to find consensus. Through Sold Out Trainers, Pearson are now teaching their people communications skills in a way that facilitates the best possible outcomes for and from individuals.

The sales people are now confident and well trained. Previously they struggled to ask for orders from those they perceived as figures in authority, but now they talk with them on a peer-to-peer level and have gained their respect as customers. Presentations are dynamic and positive and the sales people are able to deliver the key benefits concisely and fluently, despite the fact they are selling in English, which for most is their second language.

Jane Bursey, Managing Director Schools SA at Pearson Education, was enthusiastic about how Sold Out Trainers had really brought out the best in their new sales team: “We were aware of the tremendous work Sold Out Trainers had done in other parts of the world on our company’s behalf and we were enthusiastic about their participation in South Africa. Our objective was to use education to radically improve the lives of the poor inhabitants through enhancing their job and therefore their life prospects. We knew this would challenge Sold Out Trainers, but also that it suited their approach, which we believed would have the best possible chance of delivering the results we were looking for. Since first meeting them some six years ago, Sold Out Trainers have become an important part of our team and they have now made another really positive contribution to the work we do by extending their training methods to our offices in South Africa.”