ENG332-Peich: Group 3

November 6, 2008

RPS Technology
8000 Regency Parkway,
Suite 570
Cary, NC 27518 USA

Subject:  Progress Report for the Training Program

Dear RPS Technology, LLC:

The training program in the sales department of the company is moving
along nicely and has stayed on task. The group has provided numerous ideas
and innovations towards possible training methods, maximizing unique and
personal advantages, as well as reducing or resolving disadvantages. We
think that the project will reduce future cost to the company due to the
preparation for the job’s requirements and details that need addressing.
In completion of the project, we anticipate to have accommodations to
implement a program that will offer proper training for employees.

Costs

A good training program is essential in order for employees to succeed in
sales.  Not only do you have to have in depth product knowledge, you must
know how to interact with the type of customers your company deals with.
A training program eliminates a lack of knowledge, repetition of errors,
and any uncomfortable feelings employees may have about interaction.
Unfortunately these benefits do not come without quite a hefty price.  In
our estimation (which is a pure estimation) the cost of our training
program per employee will be about $200.00 an hour.  That includes the
cost of printed material, the use of outside agencies, renting off-site training facilities, and the amount of work lost by using current employees to train new employees.  In order to get
an exact cost we must know how many employees need to be trained and how many
instructors are needed.

Costs

A good training program is essential in order for employees to succeed in
sales.  Not only do you have to have in depth product knowledge, you must
know how to interact with the type of customers your company deals with.
A training program eliminates a lack of knowledge, repetition of errors,
and any uncomfortable feelings employees may have about interaction.
Unfortunately these benefits do not come without quite a hefty price.  In
our estimation (which is a pure estimation) the cost of our training
program per employee will be about $200.00 an hour.  That includes the
cost of printed material, the use of outside agencies, renting off-site training facilities, and the amount of work lost by using current employees to train new employees.  In order to get
an exact cost we must know how many employees need to be trained and how many
instructors are needed.

Work Completed

As of October 1st, we have registered all of our sales reps for the online
training program. The month of November should be used to take the 7 courses
provided by the program. We are in the process of coordinating a week long
work-shop that all of our sales reps can attend. This will be an
implementation of all that the courses taught and we will enable the sales
reps to practice what they learned. We are currently looking at January 13th
for a tentative date for the work-shops to start. All sales reps have also
received, on their desk, a copy of the book Selling to Big
Companies by Jill Konrath. This book goes along side the training program and should
be finished before the work shop week.

As of October 1st, we have registered all of our sales reps for the online
training program. The month of November should be used to take the 7 courses
provided by the program. We are in the process of coordinating a week long
work-shop that all of our sales reps can attend. This will be an
implementation of all that the courses taught and we will enable the sales
reps to practice what they learned. We are currently looking at January 13th
for a tentative date for the work-shops to start. All sales reps have also
received, on their desk, a copy of the book Selling to Big
Companies by Jill Konrath. This book goes along side the training program and should
be finished before the work shop week.

Work Schedule

Best Regards,

Jessica Wight
Natalie Whatley
Lara Grant
Randall Berry

Jessica Wight
Natalie Whatley
Lara Grant
Randall Berry

November 9, 2008

RPS Technology

8000 Regency Parkway,

Cary, NC 27518 USA

Subject:  Progress Report for the Training Program

Dear RPS Technology, LLC:

The training program in the sales department of the company is moving along nicely and has stayed on task. The group has provided numerous ideas and innovations towards possible training methods, maximizing unique and personal advantages, as well as reducing or resolving disadvantages. We think that the project will reduce future cost to the company due to the preparation for the job’s requirements and details that need addressing. In completion of the project, we anticipate to have accommodations to implement a program that will offer proper training for employees.

Costs

A good training program is essential in order for employees to succeed in sales.  Not only do you have to have in depth product knowledge, you must know how to interact with the type of customers your company deals with. A training program eliminates a lack of knowledge, repetition of errors, and any uncomfortable feelings employees may have about interaction. Unfortunately these benefits do not come without quite a hefty price.  In our estimation (which is a pure estimation) the cost of our training program per employee will be about $200.00 an hour.  That includes the cost of printed material, the use of outside agencies, renting off-site training facilities, and the amount of work lost by using current employees to train new employees.  In order to get an exact cost we must know how many employees need to be trained and how many instructors are needed. 

Work Completed

As of October 1st, we have registered all of our sales reps for the online training program. The month of November should be used to take the 7 courses provided by the program. We are in the process of coordinating a week long work-shop that all of our sales reps can attend. This will be an implementation of all that the courses taught and we will enable the sales reps to practice what they learned. We are currently looking at January 13^th for a tentative date for the work-shops to start. All sales reps have also received, on their desk, a copy of the book *Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath. This book goes along side the training program and should be finished before the work shop week.

Work Schedule              

We have scheduled the training of the employees to take place from October 1st to January 31st. We expect all employees to have completed the training program, read the Konrath book, and be ready to begin selling at the start of February. We see no difficulty in having the employees fully trained and educated about selling by the scheduled date of January 31st. We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to working along side your sales representatives. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions at (919) 555- 4567. We are here to help.

Best Regards,

Jessica Wight

Natalie Whatley

Lara Grant

Randall Berry

Here it is. I'll also email it. Let me know if I need to fix anything!

November 6, 2008

RPS Technology
8000 Regency Parkway,

Suite 570

Cary, NC 27518 USA

Dear RPS Technology, LLC:

The training program in the sales department of the company is moving along nicely and has stayed on task. The group has provided numerous ideas and innovations towards possible training methods, maximizing unique and personal advantages, as well as reducing or resolving disadvantages. We think that the project will reduce future cost to the company due to the preparation for the job?s requirements and details that need addressing. In completion of the project, we anticipate to have accommodations to implement a program that will offer proper training for employees.

Alright guys....everyone consult page 355 and it will give you an example of what your part is

Lara-intro (1st paragraph) is all you also dont for get to do the (address, date, etc)

Randall- Costs

Nat- Work completed

I'll do the work schedule and salutation

Let me know if you have any questions...everyone get this to me by friday morning at the latest I dont have time to put it together this weekend!!

Jess

Hey guys

We defiantly need to get started on this progress memo....I can only meet weds. night after 6:00, or monday or thurdsay after 9 pm i can do friday afternoon though anytime after 11:30

let me know when you guys are available!
Jessica Wight

Hey guys,

Everything seems like its going great with the proposal...if you need anything else from me or anything else...just let me know.

Jessica

Hey guys,

It's Natalie. That sounds good Randall. Keep up the good work. I'll be out of town this weekend, but just call my cell and I'll try to respond! :)

Thanks,

NW

Alright, Vista acted up today multiple times when I tried to submit the project.  I thought it was my computer so I e-mailed our draft of the project to Mrs. Peich and explained I was having trouble.  The e-mail was sent literally at 5:00 on the dot.  I was really worried that she was going to say if it wasn't submitted through Vista then she wouldn't review it.  But I just talked to her over AIM and she said that Vista was giving her trouble as well until about 9 PM tonight.  She was actually reading our project when I IM'ed her.  She said she would probably e-mail me her comments by about 11 PM.  So we are good to go.  I will forward the e-mail to everyone tomorrow.  Thanks for all the input ladies!

-Randall

RPS Technology
8000 Regency Parkway,

Dear RPS Technology, LLC,

As an employee of RPS Technology I have vested interest in the profitability of our company. I desire for our company to create lasting relationships that would uncover and satisfy the needs of our customers for the long-term and mutual benefit of both parties. As a sales associate, it is my job to prospect for new customers, make sales presentations, demonstrate the use of products, negotiate price and delivery terms, write orders, and overall increase the sales of our customers. To do this effectively, I need to understand how our target market makes purchasing decisions. Additionally, I need to have a greater understanding of product knowledge. For these reasons my English class am proposing that RPS Technology create a sales training program. As stated previously, this would create a better business relationship with the employees at RPS Technology and our current and prospective customers. Moreover, by creating a sales training program or a sales training handbook, the sales associates would become better salespeople. Please see the guidelines below of how we suggest you go about doing this:

Sales Training:

·      Best Practices: 

o     Sales techniques

o     Buying Decision Process

o     Prospecting

o     Adaptive Selling:

§      Social Style Matrix

·      Healthy Communication

o     Conference Calls and Emails

·      Business Ethics in the Work Environment

·      Technical Training:

o     BOC: Mediant Communications

o     Using a CRM

o     Creating Webinars

·      Product Knowledge:

o     Sugar CRM

§      Hosting

§      Customizations

§      Pricing, Requirements, Support, etc.

o     QConnector

§      Pricing, Requirements, Support, etc.

o     Virtualization software

§      LAN, SAN

o     Partner Companies:  

·      General overview of partner companies, length of partnership, main contacts

§      Partner Software

§      LeftHand Networks

§      Mediant Communications

§      Citrix

§      Marathon Technologies

Why did we choose this subject?

We chose this subject based off of a real life experience. One of our team members works for RPS Technology as the sales associate and the account manager. When she joined the company in April she was to be the marketing intern. She was hired by the VP of sales. However, her job description soon changed as her sales supervisor was soon fired. She immediately was asked to take over his sales calls while being thrust into the midst of answering multiple emails asking for price quotes, product descriptions, technical details and more. She felt unprepared and embarrassed at her lack of knowledge! She soon started to make sales calls with no experience and was even asked to lead joint calls with 8 of the company partner contacts. RPS Technology LLC sells technology. The products are more detailed and technological. Since our team member had never been formerly trained she had to continually ask the company engineers for assistance in product understanding. If RPS Technology had a training program, the sales associates would be more prepared to sell products better. A program or handbook would eliminate a lot of wasted time and embarrassment. And finally, a handbook or training program would increase and improve the work environment as well as the sales revenue of the company.

Do you feel there will be sufficient, easily accessible information in the topic?

We believe that there is sufficient information about RPS technology available in order for us to develop a handbook and new employee 

training program. Currently, RPS technology has an informative website where business and product information is easily accessible and 

readily available for our use. The website has four main components that educate the reader about RPS technology, these include: company, 

solutions, support, and partners. The company section includes RPS Technology?s company history which informs us of when and where RPS

was established, what software solutions and services the company offers, and it describes RPS Technology?s main business goals. The solutions 

component discusses customer relationship management (CRM) including hosting and virtualization. The partner section introduces RPS technologys 

four main partners: XenSource, SugarCRM, Intuit, and Peak 10 and gives a description of each. The support section which is for registered users 

which allows you to contact RPS and have questions answered. Not only does the website provide us with up to date research and information about

RPS Technology but one of our group members is an employee at RPS technology and has personally dealt with the effects of not being properly 

trained for the job she is expected to do. With an insider view we are able to recognize exactly what new employees need to know before they can 

perform the required job tasks and therefore we can create a handbook and training program that fits that criterion.

We decided on the idea brought up by Natalie's inspiration about bettering a training program in a business. We agreed that it is very important to 

have an efficient and effective program for training employees for a job to communicate what is expected and the proper action of the job. We also 

decided that narrowing the scope to sales would give us a direction without limiting us to a smaller subject. We believe that this subject will provide 

us with a valid and interesting proposal.

 What was your process?

For our final project, we want to write a researched proposal on how to improve the company's training program. We met in groups, sent e-mails, 

and used vista to iron out our ideas and plans for our project. We agreed on the subject and gave our own interpretation of how we can go from there, 

and we felt confident that we could make this work in our favor.

Why is this subject important to address?

In order for a company to be remotely successful it has to run like a well-oiled machine; all of the pieces intricately performing different tasks but 

working towards the same goal.  With a new and improved sales training program in place at RPS Technologies there will be no more situations like 

that of Natalie?s.  Every sales person will have a good idea of what and how to perform on the job.  The goal of the sales training program we want 

to install is not to have the sales team act monotonous or unoriginal.  It is to have them all use a similar technique while using their own personalities 

and judgment with the company?s goals in mind.

 How will you be able to apply lessons we?re learning this semester to the subject?

Not only can we write a proposal to RPS technologies with what we have learned so far this semester, we can actually use what we have learned and 

put some of it in the training program itself.  The underlying theme this semester has been communication in the workplace.  Employees communicate 

daily in order to complete their jobs.  We could suggest that in the training program they have instant messenger software, an e-mail hotline, or a blog 

set up so that employees can communicate with each other to ask questions about tasks or any other problems they may have to reduce confusion and 

increase efficiency and productivity.

Lara-How did you make your decisions?

    We decided on the idea brought up by Natalie's inspiration about bettering a training program in a business. We agreed that it is very important to have an efficient and effective program for training employees for a job to communicate what is expected and the proper action of the job. We also decided that narrowing the scope to sales would give us a direction without limiting us to a smaller subject. We believe that this subject will provide us with a valid and interesting proposal.

Lara-What was your process?

Do you feel there will be sufficient, easily accessible information in the topic?

We believe that there is sufficient information about RPS technology available in order for us to develop a handbook and new employee training program. Currently, RPS technology has an informative website where business and product information is easily accessible and readily available for our use. The website has four main components that educate the reader about RPS technology, these include: company, solutions, support, and partners. The company section includes RPS Technology?s company history which informs us of when and where RPS was established, what software solutions and services the company offers, and it describes RPS Technology?s main business goals. The solutions component discusses customer relationship management (CRM) including hosting and virtualization. The partner section introduces RPS technology?s four main partners: XenSource, SugarCRM, Intuit, and Peak 10 and gives a description of each. The support section which is for registered users which allows you to contact RPS and have questions answered. Not only does the website provide us with up to date research and information about RPS Technology but one of our group members is an employee at RPS technology and has personally dealt with the effects of not being properly trained for the job she is expected to do. With an insider view we are able to recognize exactly what new employees need to know before they can perform the required job tasks and therefore we can create a handbook and training program that fits that criterion.         

Project Checkpoint Dates

The time schedule for this project will be as follows:

 ***DURING OUR MEETING ON MONDAY WE CAN DISCUSS WHEN EVERYONE CAN MEET AND WE WILL DECIDE EXACT DAYS!!****

Do you feel there will be sufficient, easily accessible information in the topic?

We believe that there is sufficient information about RPS technology available in order for us to develop a handbook and new employee training program. Currently, RPS technology has an informative website where business and product information is easily accessible and readily available for our use. The website has four main components that educate the reader about RPS technology, these include: company, solutions, support, and partners. The company section includes RPS Technology?s company history which informs us of when and where RPS was established, what software solutions and services the company offers, and it describes RPS Technology?s main business goals. The solutions component discusses customer relationship management (CRM) including hosting and virtualization. The partner section introduces RPS technology?s four main partners: XenSource, SugarCRM, Intuit, and Peak 10 and gives a description of each. The support section which is for registered users which allows you to contact RPS and have questions answered. Not only does the website provide us with up to date research and information about RPS Technology but one of our group members is an employee at RPS technology and has personally dealt with the effects of not being properly trained for the job she is expected to do. With an insider view we are able to recognize exactly what new employees need to know before they can perform the required job tasks and therefore we can create a handbook and training program that fits that criterion.         

Project Checkpoint Dates

The time schedule for this project will be as follows:

 ****DURING OUR MEETING ON MONDAY WE CAN DECIDE EXACLTY WHICH DATES ALL OF US CAN MEET****

Again....ill give my information

jcwight@ncsu.edu

704 577 8492