INTERVIEW Fiona and Shaun Thomson
He was recommended Sandler by a colleague after voicing frustrations about lack of a system or process in the sales department. Shaun attended a Sandler programme in the US and was hooked. He soon saw the potential for the Sandler Training concept in the UK market. Today, the Sandler UK network is made up of 28 training centres.
F Shaun is clearly in possession of an company Two’s
Fiona Thomson talks to Franchisor News about being one half of Sandler UK’s power couple
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entrepreneurial spirit, but Fiona, as a teacher, was not swayed easily: “I was deputy head of a well-known independent school in Oxford and had no plans to be an entrepreneur, but Shaun persuaded me to visit Baltimore with him using the time from a sabbatical I had been given for years of service. He had to throw in a whale-watching excursion in Hawaii to really persuade me to make the trip! I was impressed by the professionalism and transparency of the US organisation and their refreshingly different approach to sales, management and leadership. As a teacher, this did not seem to be part of my world, but Sandler is about personal development; growing, changing, examining what is important to you and what you want to achieve. I was soon hooked too. “Shaun bought the UK master rights and when I returned to school management I began to apply the principles, with extraordinary results. Six months later, I handed in my notice and joined Shaun. It was, at first, a rollercoaster of ups and downs, but lots of learning, travelling and fun.” Fiona believes that Sandler’s approach is unique in the sector. She explains: “Sandler is completely different to any other training as it does not rely on technique-based skills training. Sandler begins with attitude. Attitude is everything – to learn a new skill, or to improve how you perform and develop an existing skill, requires change. Change is difficult and how you feel about it will determine how you perform.
The training also focuses on behaviour. “This is about what you actually do with the technique, action-based commitment to doing something new or differently. Our approach is based on ongoing incremental training over time; we are not in the one-day, two-day market – because it doesn’t work. People get things intellectually the first time
iona and her husband Shaun introduced the Sandler Training concept to the UK in 2003. Originally a civil engineer, Shaun’s career took him into IT solutions and he started his own company.
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