Sales coaching firm to boost technology sector

Jun 18 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

A FORMER director of the world's largest e-learning company has set up a consultancy in the North East to give technology firms a boost when selling their wares.

Richard Lane, 37, has more than 13 years’ sales and sales management experience – and has spent the past five years as regional sales director and global account director for US-based SkillSoft, which has offices in six countries.

He has now come to Morpeth in Northumberland to set up Engleby Associates, a sales coaching company specialising in the technology sector, to help hi-tech firms increase their sales and become more profitable.

He said: “The North East is a hotbed of innovation with hundreds of software and technology companies, an excellent infrastructure and strong support from Codeworks and Sunderland Software City, so it made perfect sense to focus the business here.

“Technology and software businesses are typically highly gifted when it comes to creating and refining their products, but struggle when it comes to selling them.

“Setting an effective sales strategy, qualifying leads and opportunities, and closing deals aren’t things that come naturally to many.

“Drawing on my experience in software sales and working with businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to blue-chips such as BP, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and Sage, Engleby Associates provides a range of services to develop employees’ sales skills and improve results quickly.”

Engleby will offer a sales process review – or sales ‘health check’ – to identify sales and customer services strengths, weaknesses and opportunities as well as running development workshops to enhance the skills of sales teams. Mr Lane said: “Since a lot of our customers will be SMEs who don’t have space on their payroll for a sales manager, it’s our intention to create a culture of self-reliance, where everyone qualifies opportunities and approaches sales using the same methodology – their own common language.

“In a sense, that creates a problem for us in that they won’t need us so much anymore, but that’s a nice problem to have.”

Engleby Associates has already picked up its first client – County Durham-based The Test Factory, which provides online testing and assessment solutions – and plans to expand its team through both organic growth and the development of a professional network.