Whitbread's sales training programme brings in over 1,000 new accounts

18th November 2010, 10:25am

A staff training programme has helped Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants “sell its way out of the recession”, bringing in 1,048 new business accounts in a year.

Bath-based MG Training Solutions created and delivered Whitbread's Going for Gold training programme which took place over four months in 2009 at Whitbread venues around the UK.

The group – which includes the Premier Inn brand – invested more than £2 million in the programme, which aimed to improve the skills and understanding of 36 multi-site managers and 1,800 operational managers from Premier Inn.

"A 'fear' of sales existed, as well as a lack of confidence driven by a lack of skill," said John Kerslake, Whitbread's UK director of sales. "This was resulting in a random tactical activity approach with a loss of potential business."

The five-stage training programme involved 'up-skilling' in areas like strategic sales planning, business acumen and sales conversation skills through coaching and role play.

Mark Gallen of MG Training Solutions said: "Going for Gold was a massive programme - over 42,000 training hours. We had to make sure that it was going to be effective. And it was. The programme's effectiveness was measured both in terms of learning outcomes and sales.

"The knowledge that participants gained was increased by 31.5%, compared to the average of just 24% for other classroom-based events, while total sales from brand restaurants rose by 6%. Even more striking is that revenue per room is up 7.9% compared to a drop of 11.1% over the whole sector."

Related Articles:

• 08 Nov 2010 - Multiple win for hotel group Premier Inn at British Travel Awards
• 04 Nov 2010 - Whitbread launches sustainable hotel and low carbon restaurant in West Sussex
• 26 Oct 2010 - Premier Inn secures deal with Soho Estates
• 20 Oct 2010 - Hotel and restaurant group Whitbread experiences 7.8% boost in total sales
• 06 Oct 2010 - Costa Coffee breaks new ground with first ever branded TV ad
• 07 Sep 2010 - Hotel and restaurant group Whitbread sees sales increase by 14%

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