Bespoke Sales Recruitment and Training Hybrid Solution for Better Performance

Masterclass, one of Britain’s leading IT training, recruitment and consultancy specialists, announced today that its new comprehensive recruiting and training solution “Masterclass Academy” was engaged by CMS Peripherals, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading IT distributors.

The mission of the newly launched Masterclass Academy is to recruit and train entry-level sales employees up to a client’s specific standard. In this way, therefore reducing time, resources, and the frustrations associated in finding, interviewing and training the right person for a sales position. The Academy’s course content can be moulded to match each client’s specific training need and can be further developed to train and hone skills throughout the clients entire organisation.

Why Do It? CMS Peripherals Ltd. work with a range of the IT Storage industry’s top vendors, including Symantec, Quantum, and Seagate. Masterclass has delivered both recruitment and training services to the IT sales channel for more than 20 years. It is uniquely positioned to combine both business offerings allowing its clients to hire pre-trained individuals into a multitude of business environments.

“CMS Peripherals are looking for dynamic, ambitious and highly motivated individuals, which are hard to find. Searching and identifying these candidates can be both frustrating and unsuccessful,” explains Nurit Ben Josef, Human Resources Manager.

“It takes more than three or four weeks of advertising, CV vetting, response writing, telephone calling and in-person interviewing to reduce a list of more than 800 candidates to a list of qualified and mouldable candidates. Masterclass Academy simplifies the process for us – they deliver the number of trained ‘apprentices’ we need so they can hit the ground running.”

Why Masterclass Academy? CMS Peripherals Ltd. first heard about the new “Academy” offering at a proprietary HR Challenges in IT roundtable. CMS Peripherals Ltd. and Masterclass worked together in the past to create very successful sales training programmes. Therefore, it made sense for them to take advantage of this new time and resource saving service.

Masterclass launched the new business unit with the intention of providing a full turnkey solution for constantly hard to fill vacancies. In recognising a client’s recruitment needs, they also identified that retention and development of successful candidates starts with training. Masterclass can also provide a range of training solutions to each of their existing employees as well.

How Does It Work? Masterclass takes a brief from the client about the kind of employee they need for a specific post. Qualified consultants source CVs from specific candidates via targeted advertisements; they then screen potential candidate’s applications, CVs and qualifications.

The next step involves conducting interviews with each potential candidate. Then, those deemed appropriate are invited to an open forum assessment session. This session involves group exercises that help Masterclass professionals discern who, among the candidates possess the ability to work in a team, present themselves well and close a deal.

The Masterclass Academy team makes recommendations to the client regarding the selection of candidates they believe should be interviewed. Once the interviews take place, the successful candidates are invited to attend a three-day training programme. If successful in this last stage of the selection process, the candidates are offered a position with the client.

The new hires, as part of the Masterclass Academy, are working with CMS Peripheral’s customer base and as part of active account teams to hone their abilities. Initially they begin with telesales and undergo additional sales training, such as field sales skills courses, product training, negotiation skills, account management and business development training.

Why Does It Work? “Our clients want fresh, young, energetic people to join their business and then grow with it over the years. This is extremely important in the very competitive distributor or reseller environment,” points out Bernie Harral, Business Development Director, Masterclass Academy. “They want new employees with no previous sales history or ‘baggage’ so that we can train them and mould them in our client’s image of an model recruit. We also want to make certain that they stay and mature with our clients.”

Stuart Beeby, UK Corporate Sales Manager, CMS Peripherals, adds that: "The Masterclass Academy trainers know us. For that reason, it is natural for them to teach the recruits how to do things in our unique way that reflects our corporate values. The Academy is ideal for situations where a recruitment and employment training hybrid service is needed. It's the way forward for an organisation like ours that is constantly growing."

Next Step Based on the success in the UK, Masterclass Academy is now going to implement a similar service in Ireland, where this expanding technology sector is playing an increasing role in the Irish economy. CMS Peripherals confirms that this is a great opportunity for young would-be professionals to kick-start their career with a solid company in a fast-paced and expanding market.