Parlant Technology, Provo, UT
Company: Parlant Technology, Provo, UT
Company Description: A 25 year industry leader in communication solutions for cities and school districts across the United States. Parlant works or has had a positive impact with teams ranging from some of the largest districts in the nation down to groups of a few hundred students. Our technology empowers parents and students to be better informed and higher performers.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Online Sales Team of the Year
Nomination Title: the wonderful world of webinars
Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July 2012 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes: TEXT REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION
In late 2012 ParentLink decided to deviate from it's history of only employing traveling sales teams and create an Inside Sales and Service division that would work entirely online. The change involved a mass effort to retrain existing personnel. No longer would people use projectors and handouts but now they were taught to master webinars and online slideshows. The results have been amazing!
Sales growth for the company- specifically in the mobile app space- has increased substantially. Market share has increased dramatically and market presence or name recognition has gone through the roof. In addition to partnering up with new clients ParentLink has been able to expand their team creating jobs and employing many new people in the Mountain West portion of the country.
The team has spent time and resources to create outstanding digital marketing material (which can be seen as attachments) which has helped change the way potential customers view the company.
In 2012 the majority of all presentations company wide were conducted online. The average sales rep conducts numerous presentations every week. In the past twelve months the online sales team has resulted in ParentLink's ability to partner with more school districts and towns (branded district apps) than any other competitor in the space-- by almost double!
With great growth often comes headaches and pain. In addition to creating jobs and changing the way the company advertises, educates and sales ParentLink has had to update many internal resources. New customer tracking and sales management tools have been deployed. Investments in communication tools and software have been made. It seems as though every few months the team has had to learn a new and more efficient way to sale and serve partners in an online world.... and the team has been exceptional during this entire process. The online sales team has enjoyed a less than 10% voluntary turnover rate- which for a new division and call center type setting is amazing! The team has qualified for a number of industry awards as well as internal prizes.
By creating and growing an online sales team ParentLink has been able to expand its customer focus from only the largest school districts in the country to include any school district in the country and potentially world. This has allowed the team to positively impact parents, students and educators in a way that have never been done before. It is said around the office frequently and I echo the sentiment- it's a great day to be in online sales!
Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:
Tim Watson was tasked with building an online sales team from scratch. He came to ParentLink with over a dozen years of experience working with telephone and online sales organizations ranging in size from a handful of team members to over 3,000. He has an MBA and has studied at the feet of some of some of Stanford's finest.
Outside of his professional life Tim is a proud parent to five children and an active member of his community volunteering to coach soccer, baseball and downhill skiing. When he is not working with his office team or community youth Tim makes time to compete in Triathlons and qualified for the 2013 USAT national Championships. In short, Tim is a competitor- and a great one!