O2 academy connects salesforce with customers: Team now sells on value and satisfaction rather than features or price

Abstract

Purpose

Details how the O2 sales academy has helped to improve the skills of the UK mobile‐telecommunications company's sales force.

Design/methodology/approach

Explains the reasons for the setting up the academy, the form it takes and the results it has achieved.

Findings

Describes the academy's four competence levels and the accreditation levels that correspond with these. Details the improvements, for individuals and the organization as a whole, that the academy has brought.

Practical implications

Reveals that O2's sales people and managers are now better able to engage with customers in a truly consultative way, and that this has had a measurable impact on the company's revenues.

Social implications

Describes how to build a sales organization capable of being seen as a source of value by the customer.

Originality/value

Provides much to interest companies operating in markets where customers have difficulty differentiating between competing products and services and are driven by price.

Citation

(2010), "O2 academy connects salesforce with customers: Team now sells on value and satisfaction rather than features or price", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 5, pp. 22-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670731011060243