A Blackburn training company has partnered with a womens group to highlight issues of diversity and inclusivity in sales.

Sales Geek, based in Blackburns Cathedral Square has teamed-up with SWIT (Sales Women in Tech) in a partnership will see SWIT providing 13 videos from their Virtual Coffee Mornings for the Sales Geek Hub app.

The videos feature interviews with influential businesspeople on issues facing women in technology sales.

Sales Geek managing director Richard Few said: The Sales Geek Hub app aims to provide an online community for salespeople, providing video training modules and a forum for salespeople to share best practice and experiences.

We are especially pleased to be launching this guest content in partnership with SWIT which aims to inspire sales professionals and leaders to work towards more diverse and equal workplaces through conversation, education and community.

Co-founded in 2019 by Shauna McDaniel and Roisin Kearney, Dublin-headquartered SWIT is a platform to empower and inspire sales professionals and leaders to work towards a more diverse and equal workplace of the future.

The partnership is the first of its kind for Blackburns Sales Geek, which has achieved global success with its Sales Geek Hub app after making the resource free to use earlier this year.

The app was first launched on a subscription model in March 2020, just as the country went into lockdown, but still proved a success, with many furloughed staff appearing to download the app to use their time for professional development.

However, despite its good uptake figures, the company decided to further the apps reach my making it a free resource in June 2021.

SWIT co-founder Roisin Kearney said: One of the pillars of our community is education, so these interviews with senior leaders, packed with knowledgeable tips, were used as a tool to create content that is succinct and digestible for viewers.

We are so excited about a partnership with Sales Geek because it aligns with our education pillar.

They are on a mission to change the way the world perceives sales and we are on a similar path for women in sales.

For further information, go to https://www.salesgeek.co.uk/hub/.

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Sales Geek partners with women's firm to promote diversity and inclusivity in tech - Lancashire Telegraph

You should read the following discussion in conjunction with the financialstatements and other financial information included elsewhere in this QuarterlyReport on Form 10-Q (this "Report") and with our audited financial statementsand other information presented in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the yearended December 31, 2020. The following discussion may contain forward-lookingstatements that reflect our plans, estimates and beliefs. Words such as"expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate,""continue," "may," "will," "could," "would," or the negative or plural of suchwords and similar expressions or variations of such words are intended toidentify forward-looking statements, but are not the only means of identifyingforward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to anumber of risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that could causeactual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from futureresults expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors thatcould cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to,those discussed below and elsewhere in this Report and in our other SEC filings,including particularly matters set forth under Part I, Item 1A (Risk Factors) ofour Annual Report on Form 10-K. Furthermore, such forward-looking statementsspeak only as of the date of this Quarterly Report. Except as required by law,we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflectevents or circumstances after the date of such statements. For purposes ofManagement's Discussion and Analysis within this Report, all monetary amountsare stated in thousands except for par values and per share amounts, unlessotherwise stated.OverviewWe are a global public safety technology and services company organized in March2016 delivering modern policing solutions to law enforcement and securitypersonnel. We began product sales of our first public safety product, theBolaWrap 100 remote restraint device, in late 2018. In October 2021 we releaseda new generation product, the BolaWrap 150. The BolaWrap 150 is electronicallydeployed and is more robust, smaller, lighter and simpler to deploy than theBolaWrap 100 that is being phased out.The immediate addressable domestic market for our solutions consists ofapproximately 900,000 full-time sworn law enforcement officers at over 15,300federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and over 12 million policeofficers in over 100 countries we are targeting globally. We are also exploringother domestic markets, including military and private security. Ourinternational focus is on countries with the largest police forces. The 100largest international police agencies are estimated to have over 12.1 millionlaw enforcement personnel. According to Statistics MRC, a market researchconsulting firm, we participate in a segment of the non-lethal products globalmarket expected to grow to $11.85 billion by 2023.

We focus our efforts on the following products, services and solutions:

We focus significant resources on research and development innovations and continue to enhance our products and plan to introduce new products. We believe we have established a strong branding and market presence globally and have established significant competitive advantages in our markets.

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Business Outlook and Challenges

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Impact of COVID-19 and Social Unrest on our Business

? Greater funding challenges for our customer base, which may adversely affect

timing of anticipated contracts and new customer sales;

? Disruption to our supply chain caused by distribution and other logistical

issues, which may further delay our ability to deliver product to customers

beyond 2021; and

? Potential decrease in productivity of our employees or those of our customers

? the duration and scope of the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic or

by ongoing social unrest;

? governmental, business and individuals' actions that have been and continue to

be taken in response to these events;

? the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest on economic activity and

? the degree to which our employees or those of our customers or suppliers

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

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Segment and Related Information

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Three Months Ended September 30, 2021 Compared to Three Months Ended September 30, 2020

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Selling, General and Administrative Expense

The largest driver of this increase was related to an increase of $624 in share-based compensation, related to incentives for management and employees.

The increase in SG&A expense was partially offset by a $296 decrease in advertising and promotional product expense resulting from reduced demonstration product costs and a planned shift in production efforts to a new generation product.

Research and Development Expense

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Nine Months Ended September 30, 2021 Compared to Nine Months Ended September 30, 2020

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Selling, General and Administrative Expense

SG&A expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 increased by $8,277 compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2020.

The largest driver of this increase was related to an increase of $2,329 in share-based compensation, of which $1,397 was for director compensation. The remaining $932 was incentive for management and employees.

Research and Development Expense

Liquidity and Capital Resources

During the nine months ended September 30, 2021 we received $13,726 of proceeds from the exercise of previously issued stock purchase warrants and from the exercise of stock options.

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Our future capital requirements, cash flows and results of operations could be affected by, and will depend on, many factors, some of which are currently unknown to us, including, among other things:

? The impact and effects of the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and

other potential pandemics or contagious diseases or fear of such outbreaks;

? Decisions regarding staffing, development, production, marketing and other

? Costs, timing and outcome of planned production and required customer and

? Costs, timing and outcome of any future warranty claims or litigation against

Principal factors that could affect our ability to obtain cash from external sources including from exercise of outstanding warrants and options include:

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have no off-balance sheet arrangements.

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During the nine months ended September 30, 2021, we used $30,014 of cash to purchase short-term investments and we had proceeds from maturities of short-term investments of $25,000. We purchased $25,000 of short-term investments during the nine months ended September 30, 2020.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2021, we received $12,048 from previously issued stock purchase warrants and $1,678 in proceeds from the exercise of previously issued stock options, and repaid $275 in debt relating to the acquisition of NSENA in December 2020.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

We are committed to aggregate lease payments on our facility lease of $24 in 2021 and $58 in 2022.

At September 30, 2021 the Company was committed for approximately $713 for future component deliveries and contract services that are generally subject to modification or rescheduling in the normal course of business.

We do not believe that inflation has had a material impact on our business, revenue or operating results during the periods presented.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

There have been no recent accounting pronouncements or changes in accounting pronouncements during the period ended September 30, 2021, or subsequently thereto, that we believe are of potential significance to our financial statements.

Edgar Online, source Glimpses

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WRAP TECHNOLOGIES, INC. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (form 10-Q) - marketscreener.com

In mid October, the New South Wales governments top bureaucrats urged new Premier Dominic Perrottet to push for an aggressive resumption of immigration levels to spur post-pandemic economic recovery.

Industry seized on this as the answer to skills shortages that have resulted from Australias border closures. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry called for a near doubling of the skilled migration program, to around 200,000 annually over the next five years.

In the same week, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) released a report that showed a 35% increase in the number of Australians enrolled in courses linked to apprenticeships and traineeships, compared to the start of the pandemic. But the news seemed to fly under the radar.

This significant rise in training may not satisfy those who want a quick solution to the skills shortages. But growth in Australias vocational education and training sector is a more sustainable way of filling the gaps.

Earlier this year, a NSW and federal government report suggested increased skilled migration would be a big part of Australias future success after a pandemic-induced fall in migration and population growth.

More recently, Infrastructure Australia anticipated skilled job shortages could rise to around 100,000 by 2023. It argued Australians needed an urgent skilled migration program but that some skills shortages were likely to persist in the significant post-COVID infrastructure boost.

A June 2021 ABS survey showed more than a quarter (27%) of Australian businesses were having difficulty finding qualified staff. Among the skilled trades, these were mainly in hospitality, sales, transportation, construction and mining.

But there are many issues with relying on migration to fix these, beyond a decrease in international travel due to COVID.

Demographer Liz Allen has argued the migration effort may be problematic due to more aggressive international competition to attract needed workers, such as in health care, and Australias reduced attractiveness as a destination.

Also, the upcoming longer waiting periods for new Australian migrants to access welfare payments can make similar destinations like Canada and New Zealand more attractive.

Meanwhile, an aggressive migration strategy may not be politically palatable. Research shows only 19% of voters agreed with the governments long-term migration target. The rest supported lower levels, including 28% who wanted nil net migration.

Another argument made by the likes of Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe is that a lower population leads to tightening of labour markets, fewer unemployed and employers improving wages and conditions causing employment participation rates to rise.

So, whats a better way to fill the skills gap?

Apprenticeships and traineeships enable individuals to work and learn on the job while they complete a nationally recognised qualification.

The NCVER report (quarterly, to March 2021) shows 329,585 apprentices and trainees were in training, an annual growth rate of 20.7%.

Commencements in traineeships and apprenticeships increased by 28.5% to 186,745. Of significance are increases such as 45.1% in the 25-44 years group and 58.2% in the over 45 years group. This raises the possibility they are re-training or upskilling, perhaps precipitated by the pandemic.

The growth rate in commencements was approximately the same in trades and non-trades. In trades, technical staff in IT, engineering and science recorded the greatest growth rate. In non-trades, this was for managerial/professional and administrative roles. These are some of the roles identified as being in current shortage or expected to be in strong future demand.

One reason for this increase is that during the pandemic, federal and state governments increased spending in re-skilling initiatives. Government programs included the Boosting Apprenticeships Commencements program (and its expansion) and JobTrainer, which gave 17-24 years looking for work a way to study a course in high-demand sectors for free or by paying a low fee.

Another reason may be that a record number of people meeting the shock of the pandemic have either quit their job or are thinking about doing so in developed economies. More than 19 million US workers have quit their jobs since April 2021.

Recent ABS unemployment data shows fewer Australians are applying for jobs or participating in the workforce. In September 2021, the participation rate fell by 333,000 people and hit a 15-month low, with just 64.5% of people aged 15 and over currently working or actively looking for work.

These data suggest some Australians, whether voluntarily or not, are enrolling in VET courses to retrain themselves for new jobs.

There is growing evidence the increase in apprentices and trainees will help alleviate skills shortages in sectors of the economy flexible enough to take them on and patient enough to see them trained through the system. Traditionally, these are sectors which have been more exposed to market volatility such as mining and construction.

A recent Grattan Institute report suggests most skills shortages in a market economy are likely to be temporary. It argues our flexible labour market and relatively demand-driven higher education and VET sectors should lead to increased supply of most in-demand skills over time.

A federal report estimates that to make up for skills shortages caused by an ageing population, there needs to be an annual migrant inflow of as much as 400,000. This is much higher than what employers are calling for. This means even with migration intakes, there is still a key role for domestic training to make up the projected skills gaps.

But for this to happen, the momentum in skills system innovation recommended in the Joyce Review to ensure the VET sector can keep up with rapidly changing industry needs should be accelerated.

The federal government will need to continue working with states and territories, the training sector and industry on VET reform to ensure it is ready for the technological and demographic changes to work. For example, the fourth industrial revolution is disrupting traditional Australian jobs and workers are growing increasingly worried they will be displaced by technology.

It is unlikely earlier efforts to meet the requirements of these skills (such as by sending employees overseas to train at Industry 4.0 centres of excellence) will be as easy as before. Our research has shown that besides human capital (knowledge that exists in individuals), innovation in Australia is also driven by social capital (knowledge that exists in groups and networks), which is harder to import.

Hence the need for Australia to develop adequate self-reliance in skills that cannot be easily imported.

If the trend of apprenticeship and traineeship commencements continues to rise to where they were about a decade ago, this may help address the skills shortages. This will still be in the medium to long term as it takes time for people to be trained and qualified.

Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University and Janice Jones, Associate Professor, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Local training is the best long-term solution to Australia's skills shortages not increased migration - The Sector

As I start to wind down my 40-plus years of training salespeople, one thing still stands out as I look back at this amazing journey, while having the privilege of working with more than 700,000 people that are in the field of sales.

A properly trained salesperson will never be unemployed.

Yes, this is a profession where you can literally go your entire life never being unemployed or as they say looking for work.

There are always sales jobs available, and ones where you can make a decent amount of money. Sure, it might not be in the industry you were hoping for, but bottom line you are still employed and being compensated, and even paid more for a job well done.

Here are two examples.

I have worked over the years in many different industries. I have had the fortune to form some great relationships with owners in the automotive industry and CEOs of large distributors in the field of technology from business equipment to information technology.

In almost every case, these business executives told me of the issues that they had with their sales force. It didnt matter what the company was or what products or services they sold, but they all had the same dilemma.

As an average, 20% of their salespeople did very well and were self-sufficient without too much administration of strict sales management procedures. The rest were either just average, a bit below average or ready to be let go and soon as they could find someone to replace them.

Lets use the example of a new car dealership. We all know how difficult it can be to buy a new car and the hoops we have to jump through on a substantially large purchase.

In most car dealerships, we see salespeople come and go, and they might go to another car dealership or leave the industry entirely. Either way, ask any owner on how many great salespeople they have had over the years and the answer might surprise you.

I will give you a hint, not too many.

The same goes for with my next example of salespeople working at a technology company selling copiers or related products or software. The great ones are not the norm, but the few.

In both industries, more salespeople can be great if they just had:

The desire

The love of what they were selling

The proper sales training, not just product training

High empathy to help the customer and not just sell them

Great sales managers to guide them properly

The point I am trying to make is fairly basic. If the salesperson upped their own game by learning their profession by either:

Reading books on selling

Taking a sales class or going to a seminar on professional selling

Going online (YouTube, etc) for selling techniques by the worlds best sales trainers

Listening to podcasts by leading authorities

Studying their own industry to become incredibly knowledgeable

By spending time to develop their own set of skills, this will raise their ability to perform at a higher level which means that they can go from average to well above average or even being great at what they do. This way, the world opens up to them and they can look at what they might want to sell rather than staying in the same industry, since they are stuck at being average or below.

Think about it, what company does not want to hire a top performer or a proven great salesperson?

It is easy to never be unemployed as a professional salesperson, especially if you work on the one word, which is professional.

Hal Becker is a nationally known speaker on sales and customer service. He is the author of numerous business books including two national best sellers, Can I Have 5 Minutes Of Your Time? and Lip Service. Hals newest book on sales is titled Ultimate Sales Book. He can be reached at Halbecker.com.

Letters, commentaries and opinions appearing in the Cleveland Jewish News do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Jewish Publication Company, its board, officers or staff.

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Never be unemployed - Cleveland Jewish News

TORRANCE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC) engaged with Action Duct two years ago to help them develop a formal sales training program. Since then, continuous strategic discussions and collaborative efforts between CMTC and Action Duct have led to a series of human resources, sales, business strategy, and digital marketing engagements, resulting in substantial business growth for Action Duct.

Action Duct was founded in 1978 with the purpose of providing duct cleaning and kitchen exhaust cleaning services to restaurants and other businesses. Now, Action Ducts services have expanded from duct cleaning to a full spectrum of offerings, including COVID-19 cleaning and disinfecting, silo cleaning, industrial oven cleaning, Aeroseal duct sealing, pressure and power washing services, and more.

When Action Ducts sales efforts failed to produce the desired revenue and turnover on the sales team began to increase, Action Duct turned to CMTC to help them develop a structured, strategic process and tools to power new-hire and selling success. The approach included recruitment consulting, assessment and selection of a psychometric/personality testing tool to help screen potential employees, and harassment avoidance training for all Action Duct employees. This project led to the hiring of a Service Manager, stronger hiring practices, and a stronger company culture. Once the hiring practices were formalized and new employees started coming onboard, CMTC and Action Duct developed templates and tools for both employee onboarding and sales training which are still used by the company today for new-hires and ongoing instruction.

Action Duct then re-engaged CMTC to help them increase inbound leads to their website. CMTC conducted a digital marketing audit and identified key opportunities to help Action Duct by using a phased approach to increase SEO and Google rankings for Action Ducts site and ultimately optimize their digital marketing efforts. From there, another opportunity was quickly recognized create new content to promote specific services and reformat the website to further increase targeted website traffic and customer acquisition for all Action Duct locations.

Action Ducts Director of Sales & Marketing, Jessica Rivas, recalls when the impact of CMTCs marketing assistance dramatically took flight: From Sunday night to Monday morning, we received 92 leads from our website. We thought it was a mistake, but it wasnt!

As a result of CMTCs assistance, Action Duct estimates a 65% increase in high-quality internet leads. The comprehensive nature of the work CMTC has done with Action Duct has also resulted in an estimated $500,000 increase in sales and $500,000 in retained sales. Action Duct attributes some of their job retention to CMTCs marketing, training, and human resources consulting services, and forecasts job increases over the next several months. Finally, Action Duct estimates cost avoidance and cost savings of $250,000 based on CMTCs contributions.

For more information about CMTCs business services, contact Rachel Miller at rmiller@cmtc.com or 310-984-0096.

About California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC)

Established in 1992, California Manufacturing Technology Consulting (CMTC) is a private non-profit organization that provides technical assistance, workforce development, and consulting services to small and medium-sized manufacturers throughout the state of California. CMTC operates as part of a National Network through a cooperative agreement between the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce for the State of California.

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CMTC Helps Duct Cleaning Company Grow Their Business With HR, Sales, & Marketing Training - Business Wire

Product-based Sales TrainingMarket Size 2021 Industry Share, Strategies, Growth Analysis, Regional Demand, Revenue, Key Players and 2027 Forecast Research Report

In this report a comprehensive analysis of current global Product-based Sales Training market in terms of demand and supply environment is provided, as well as price trend currently and in the next few years. Global leading players are profiled with their revenue, market share, profit margin, major product portfolio and SWOT analysis. From industry perspective this report analyses supply chain, including process chart introduction, upstream key raw material and cost analysis, distributor and downstream buyer analysis. This report also includes global and regional market size and forecast, major product development trend and typical downstream segment scenario, under the context of market drivers and inhibitors analysis.

Request for Sample with Complete TOC and Figures & Graphs @ https://www.crediblemarkets.com/sample-request/product-based-sales-training-market-389238?utm_source=Amruta&utm_medium=SatPR

Top Key Players in this Market

CommLab India Kurlan & Associates Sales Performance International DoubleDigit Sales RAIN Group Mercuri International Sales Readiness Group Cohen Brown Management Group GP Strategies ASLAN Training and Development Richardson Carew International The Brooks Group Janek Performance Group Wilson Learning Miller Heiman Group Sandler Training Altify ValueSelling Associates

By Types

Blended Training Online Training Instructor-Led Training

By Applications

Consumer Goods Automotive BFSI Others

Global Product-based Sales Training Market is further classified on the basis of region as follows:

Direct Purchase this Market Research Report Now @ https://www.crediblemarkets.com/reports/purchase/product-based-sales-training-market-389238?license_type=single_user;utm_source=Amruta&utm_medium=SatPR

Some Point from Table of Content:

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry Expert @ https://www.crediblemarkets.com/enquire-request/product-based-sales-training-market-389238?utm_source=Amruta&utm_medium=SatPR

Important Questions Answered

An Overview of the Impact of COVID-19 on Product-based Sales Training Market:The emergence of COVID-19 has brought the world to a standstill. We understand that this health crisis has brought an unprecedented impact on businesses across industries. However, this too shall pass. Rising support from governments and several companies can help in the fight against this highly contagious disease. There are some industries that are struggling and some are thriving. Overall, almost every sector is anticipated to be impacted by the pandemic. We are taking continuous efforts to help your business sustain and grow during COVID-19 pandemics. Based on our experience and expertise, we will offer you an impact analysis of coronavirus outbreak across industries to help you prepare for the future.

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Product-based Sales Training Market Size, Analytical Overview, Key Players, Regional Demand, Trends and Forecast To 2027 Renewable Energy Zone -...

The ASEM and WhatsApp initiative seeks that micro, small and medium-sized companies in Mexico and Colombia increase their WhatsApp Business skills.

Discover how two entrepreneurs used unconventional business strategies to turn their startup into a multimillion-dollar company.

June 1, 2021 4 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Entrepreneurship is a task that needs planning, effort and constant training. During the lockdown, several businesses had to reinvent themselves and adapt digitally. According to the Radiography of Entrepreneurship in Mexico 2020 , a study published by the Association of Entrepreneurs of Mexico (ASEM), 85% of companies have a digital presence; 36% made the transition during 2020.

Entrepreneurs have had to emigrate, study and adapt, quickly and in some cases hastily, to the possibilities offered by electronic commerce. In this context, WhatsApp Fridays were born, an initiative of the ASEM and WhatsApp with which it is sought that the owners of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MIPyMES) increase their skills in WhatsApp Business, the version of the popular application specially designed for small businesses, totally free.

Based on the results of the Entrepreneurship Radiography in Mexico 2020, we know that WhatsApp is the second most important digital channel for companies to make sales. Likewise, according to official WhatsApp data, in Mexico more than 2 million users see catalogs every month on WhatsApp Business , indicates Jorge Corral, executive director of ASEM .

The aim of this project is for entrepreneurs to receive training in WhatsApp Business tools for doing business online. The workshops are held live and online every Friday from April 30 to June 25. The free sessions have a maximum duration of 45 minutes, plus another 15 to answer questions.

"Through this program, entrepreneurs and MSMEs are developing skills and learning to use WhatsApp Business tools that will help them boost their sales, position their company, optimize their customer service, streamline communication and develop positioning strategies," he details. Jorge Corral.

Throughout its nine workshops, entrepreneurs will learn why WhatsApp Business is an application that can lead them to increase their sales, in addition to learning how to develop an action plan on the platform, how to create a profile and attractive content that calls the customer service, how to take advantage of WhatsApp groups for your business, among other topics. Those who take the full program will have access to a certificate of participation issued by ASEM.

Those interested can register for the live workshops and the repetitions of the first sessions on the page fridaydewhatsapp.com . Registration can be by session or the entire program. The modules are aimed at entrepreneurs, businessmen, communication teams and freelancers.

"Faced with a context where digitization is vital for economic reactivation, through WhatsApp's Friday program, women and men entrepreneurs will find WhatsApp Business a valuable tool to maintain and grow their operation," says the executive director of the ASEM.

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Do you want to increase your sales? Join the 'WhatsApp Fridays' for free - Entrepreneur

With customers returning to bricks-and-mortar stores, and retail trade beginning to return to something resembling a pre-pandemic normal, shop-floor sales people are once again the first touch-point many customers will come in contact with when they want to buy.

And after a year of getting used to product pages and delivery windows, the expertise of someone who knows the product and is talking directly to a customer about it has been sorely missed.

But do their skills still stack up?

According to retail training company RedSeed chief executive and co-founder Anya Anderson, most brands tend to focus on one of two training styles for sales staff: and one is far more useful to customers, and provides a better return on investment for businesses looking to improve sales.

These training styles are known as focusing on product knowledge versus skills.

Sometimes when sales people approach customers armed with only product knowledge, they fail to build a rapport or relationship and the sale doesnt go anywhere, Anderson said.

Often a customer can get confused by overly technical information they might not actually know what theyre looking for or what various terminology can mean.

What this can mean is that customers get disconnected from the sales person, can tune out when theyre speaking, or can get overwhelmed and want some time to think a sale or product over.

Alternatively, with skills training, a sales person can build a rapport, find out what the customer needs the item in question for, and potentially find them something more relevant to their needs and in doing so build a level of trust that no amount of technical information can match.

Of course salespeople need to have a foundational level of product knowledge, but with sales training these staff can ultimately leave customers with a much better sales experience.

Plus, most technical information of products is readily available on the internet now, and many customers will already have looked at this information or will have it handy when look at the product in person.

[Understanding] this becomes more important the more expensive a purchase is, Anderson explains.

If someone is buying chewing gum this probably isnt going to be an issue, but if youre buying a $25,000 lounge suite, a car or a computer or something, it becomes really important [for customers to trust that theyre getting the right thing].

The thing that really sells for a customer is a products benefit for them in particular, so a sales person has got to be able to take what they know about a product and match those two or three key things to the customer thats in front of them so they feel its the right solution for them.

In RedSeeds Retail Suite training program, it provides a sales fundamentals course that is geared around getting staff out from behind the counter, engaging with customers, asking them what they want, and building trust and credibility.

Thats the baseline, and then you layer it with more advanced techniques if your customer walks over the threshold of the store, the most important thing is being able to open the conversation, Anderson said.

You cant get to the point of demonstrating product knowledge or closing a sale if you cant open it.

To learn more about retail sales and service training courses, or to request a demo of the RedSeed learning platform and content library, get in touch.

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How to get the most out of your sales people - Inside Retail

TipRanks

Lets talk about defending your portfolio. Its a common impulse for most investors, when the economy starts to turn sour. Were in a growth phase now, with economic activity rebounding strongly from the corona-crisis shutdowns, and with reopening getting into full stride, economists are predicting up to 8% GDP expansion this year. But there are clouds on the horizon. Inflation is rising, and the April jobs report was, simply put, a disaster. The Biden Administration is pushing multi-trillion dollar spending plans that are likely to boost inflation, while the expanded unemployment benefits are giving the unemployment rate an artificial boost. But with all that, the Federal Reserve has signaled that it does not intend to raise interest rates. Writing from investment banking firm Canaccord, analyst Tony Dwyer acknowledges the unsettled market conditions. Although the major market indices remain near record levels, there has been incredible volatility underneath due to confusion around the path of inflation and the Federal Reserve insistence it is transitory. We fully expect the rotational volatility to continue over the coming weeks, with investors debating the outlook for inflation ahead of the newest economic data in early June as the Fed goes into their quiet period ahead of the June 15-16 FOMC meeting, Dwyer noted. All of this adds up to a market environment that lends itself to defensive stock plays, as a hedge against uncertainty. And that, of course, brings us to dividend stocks. These are the classic defensive plays, giving investors a dual path toward returns, from both the share appreciation and the dividend payments. Wall Streets analysts have been doing some of the footwork for us, pinpointing dividend-paying stocks that have kept up high yields, at least 7% to be exact. Opening up the TipRanks database, we examine the details behind two such stocks to find out what else makes them compelling buys. Black Stone Minerals (BSM) Well start with a hydrocarbon exploration and development company, Black Stone Minerals. This company holds rights to more than 20 million acres, spread across 60 productive basins in 40 states. The lions share of the operations are spread from Texas through Alabama, but Black Stone also has rights and hydrocarbon production in Montana and North Dakota, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and the Rocky Mountain states. Black Stone reported its financial results for 1Q21 in early May. The results showed that the company has still not fully bounced back from the COVID pandemic revenues and earnings are both still down year-over-year. On a positive note, revenues have shown three consecutive quarters of sequential increases. The top line came in at $87.1 million, and net income was reported at $16 million. The company reaffirmed its borrowing capability through its revolving credit facility during the quarter, at $400 million. During the quarter, Black Stone entered into several new development agreements, on properties in Texas, and acquired mineral and royalty rights, for $20.7 million in cash and stock, in the northern part of the Midland Basin. Also during the quarter, Black Stone declared a dividend of 17.5 cents per common share. At the current rate, the common stock dividend yields 7.07%, and has an annualized payment of 70 cents per common share. Raymond James analyst John Freeman is impressed with Black Stones Q1 development deals, and writes of the company: BSM had an incredibly strong 1Q where it announced another series of development deals in the Austin Chalk & Shelby Trough as well as its first acquisition since the pandemic. We have already seen phenomenal results in the very early development of the Austin Chalk and expect more meaningful well catalysts in the near term, this time from the Shelby Trough The analyst summed up, "Due to the strong progress, we are raising our production estimate for 2021 to the top of BSM's guide (up 3%), and are now modeling a return to growth in 2022 (up ~4% vs prior model down ~1%). Alongside a soon to be growing production profile, BSM offers an attractive.. distribution yield and a rock-solid balance sheet." Unsurprisingly, Freeman rates the stock as a Strong Buy, and sets a $15 price target suggesting an upside of ~50% for the year ahead. (To watch Freemans track record, click here) Overall, Black Stone has attracted attention from 5 Wall Street analysts, whose reviews break down 2 to 3 Buys versus Holds, and give the stock a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The shares are selling for $9.90; they have $11.40 average price target, indicating room for 15% upside in the next 12 months. (See BSM stock analysis on TipRanks) Blackstone Mortgage Trust (BXMT) If were looking at dividend stocks, well naturally be drawn to real estate investment trusts (REITs). These companies, straddling the line between real estate managers and financial services, are known for their high dividend yields and long-term dividend reliability. Both stem from a regulatory requirement that REITs pay back a certain percentage of earnings directly to shareholders. Dividends are convenient mode for compliance. Blackstone Mortgage focuses on collateral-based senior mortgage loans in the North American, European, and Australian markets. The company has a real estate portfolio exceeding $368 billion in global value, and a total of $649 billion in assets under management. The AUM total includes $196 billion in real estate assets. While BXMTs revenues have been showing sequential declines recently, the Q1 top line still came in at $185.75 million, and EPS, at 54 cents per share, was up dramatically from the 39-cent loss reported in the year-ago quarter. During Q1, Blackstone closed $1.7 billion in new real estate loans, exceeding its total 2020 loan originations. The company also reported $1.1 billion in available liquidity. The sound results supported the dividend payment, of 62 cents per common share. The dividend has been paid out at this rate since 2H15, and the company has kept up reliable payments for the last 8 years. At the current rate, the dividend annualizes to $2.48 per share and gives an impressively high yield of 7.74%. BTIG analyst Tim Hayes takes a bullish stance on Blackstone, noting: The pipeline is robust, and management expects earnings to benefit from continued portfolio growth and higher fee income as originations/repayments normalize. ROEs on new originations are expected to be in line with pre-pandemic levels as lower funding costs offset pressure on asset yields. Credit performance remains strong and continues to trend in the right direction. BXMT recognized 100% interest collection in 1Q21, with 98% of loans performaning [sic] The analyst concluded, "We view shares to be attractively valued, currently trading at a discount to historical multiples and offering a 7.7% dividend yield a ~600-bp spread to the U.S.10-Year Treasury yield vs. the 2-year avg. pre-pandemic spread of ~475 bps." Based on the above, Hayes rates BXMT shares a Buy along with a $35 price target. Based on the current dividend yield and the expected price appreciation, the stock has ~16% potential total return profile. (To watch Hayes track record, click here) Like BSM above, BXMT has 5 analyst reviews, which include 2 to Buy and 3 to Hold, for a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating. (See BXMT stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for dividend stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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To survive and succeed in business, you need to be ready to change. You need to be ready to start evolving your business, and Paul Fettuciaknows the way. Paul, the resident and General Manager of ANS Advanced Network Services, joins our Carrie Charles in this episode to talk about business change and transformations. Paul traces the beginnings of ANS, their pivots to different technologies on the market, and their use of work from home model, even before work from home became a necessity. Paul also shares his leadership philosophy and why he treats everyone in ANS as family.

I am so thrilled to have with me one of our valued clients as well as one of our friends, Paul Fettuccia. He is the President and General Manager of Advanced Network Services, better known to all of us in the industry as ANS. Paul, thanks for being with me.

Thank you, Carrie. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak with you and give people some insight into ANS and myself.

Weve known you for quite some time now. You were one of the first people that I met when I came into the industry several years ago. I know Im a baby in the industry compared to everyone else. I know you have had a nice long journey. I want you to talk a little bit about how you got to where you are. What was your motivation for starting ANS?

A little bit about me and my background that got me there and then drove who I am, I am the product of immigrant parents from Italy which gave me an unbelievable work ethic. They work 24/7 and when they werent working, they were working some more. That always made it good for me and showed me their true path. Along the way, as a kid, I played team sports and individual sports that also helped craft some of my backgrounds.

One of my first jobs out of high school as I did take a sabbatical for a couple of years before I went to college is a door-to-door pot and pans sales guy. I honed into some of my customer relationship techniques doing that and getting the door slammed in my face. I went to a community college in electrical engineering and I got a job in the cable TV industry as the cable guy. Where I got some more doors slammed on me as well. I was fortunate enough that the cable company that I worked for paid for me to finish my Bachelors Degree in Electrical and also paid for my Masters Degree in Telecom Network Management from Syracuse University.

From there, I moved on a few years later and met my partner in crime as Ill say in ANS, Advanced Network Services. Weve built a good company based on the family foundation that both he and I experienced as kids. Family is core to our business. We try to give people flexibility in their jobs as much as possible. Weve used the work-from-home model for many years. Well over twenty years, Ive had engineers working remotely. Initially, we had a lot of challenges because the network topology back then wasnt as robust as it is nowadays.

There were challenges but that allowed people, especially on the engineering side to be able to work mornings, evenings or whenever they did their jobs the best and gave them the flexibility to do stuff with their families as needed. Since then, weve also evolved more in allowing to have our project managers to be remote. We do use a regionalized model in our business. That regionalized model in our business allows us to try to get the resources as close to the customers as possible but also utilizing warehouses in those areas and also the flexibility of a work-from-home environment. Thats been good for us.

Can you expand on a little bit more your challenges with the remote workers or your remote PMs as well as your engineers? I know there are other people in the industry that are struggling with that. Do I go remote? Do I not? They have the models that theyve worked for so many years. What have been your challenges? How did you overcome those?

The network in the systems that you have has to be capable of allowing people to work from home and not hinder them in any way. Number one is making sure that you have a solid network. Weve embraced the cloud concept now for many years using AWS and some other cloud-type SaaS software models that allow easy functionality when youre working from home. The largest challenges that have come from trying to get our back-office staff and support working remotely are little things that you dont think about like, How do we process the mail when it comes in?

We still have customers that send manual checks to us. Those kinds of things have caused a little bit of logistical issues but weve worked through it with scheduling people in the office every day and have them being able to rotate through. Weve implemented a new payroll and HR software platform that is going to make it easier from an HR perspective to be remote as well. Well have more of our records online versus having to have filing cabinets filled with reams of paper that were killing trees at that point.

Another component of remote work comes from being able to monitor peoples performances. Its simple from an engineering and project management standpoint to tell whos who in the few. Theyre either getting their work done or not. That shows up maybe not on a daily basis but over the course of a couple of weeks. As you do financials and things of that nature, you can tell if people are on target with their projects and the amount of projects that they may have and theyre managing. Level loading that casework for each individual PM and engineer is a challenge. Wed like to say theyre all the same but theyre not. There are different ones that have different skillsets. Thats a challenge, making sure that they have enough on their plate or they dont have too much on their plate.

The last piece is the logistics. For us, we have multiple warehouses in multiple states. They have to be manned. Weve made it where our deliveries come in and we have people working in there that accept the deliveries and then load the trucks up to get them out to the job site. Unfortunately, you cant make those remote. They put people there to man the warehouses, as well as the people that are working on the job sites. The good news is for us, we do have a fairly large amount of work that is engineering in nature. Not that were known as an engineering company, but we do have close to twenty engineers on staff. That is easy to manage but the logistics are a challenge and the flexibility as well with the field personnel.

A good portion of the work that we do on the network side for Verizon, for example, or some of the other data center companies that we interface with is work thats done at night, typically from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM or 6:00 AM. In some cases, midnight to 5:00 AM. Sometimes on the weekends. That gives us some flexibility with the people if they need to have stuff during the week. Going back to the family concept where we can offer some flexibility. Less so than on the PM, the engineering side and the back office, but we try to accommodate them as well.

Thats helpful because we are running into quite a few candidates with our staffing firm saying, We need a remote job. We have a remote offer over here. We dont want to work in the office anymore. At least we want some flexibility or a hybrid model. We are running into that more and more as companies go back into offices post-COVID if there is such a thing called post-COVID. Thank you for sharing that. Tell me a little bit more about ANS. Services, products, customers, markets and number of employees.

Ill start with the products. We started historically as a staffing company back in the early 90s and also doing PBX work in colleges and hospitals. The enterprise PBX or now soft switch phones is a separate company under the NextRidge umbrella called TAG Solutions. We still do that business. On the ANS side, we evolved from staffing to EF&I for the OtterBox. That was in the mid-90s. After the Telecom Act in 96, all the colocation, and dot-com stuff, we got into the EF&I services primarily for large equipment manufacturers like Lucent, Fujitsu, ADC and Ericsson. Nortel was a big one for us as well.

From there, we evolved into doing work directly for the OtterBox. Back then, we had SNAP, Ameritech, Pac Bell, NYNEX, and Bell Atlantic. As they merged, those names became more consolidated into AT&T and Verizon. Those were the two primary forces we did work for back then on the network side. By network, we did switching, so large-scale 5D switches. A lot of tools, infrastructure, fiber, systems, transport, equipment and a lot of DC power back then. We still have that core business. Were not a cluster vendor for AT&T anymore. I wont go into that as much. We are that for Verizon still and for some private data center companies as well. The DC power, weve continued to do that work and thats quite a bit of our work as well. A lot of large-scale DC power as well as small scale. By small scale, I mean cell site power. By large scale, I talk about multiple 10,000 implants and how theyre all tied together with common infrastructure. Thats the core business.

We then got into the cell tower business years ago. It took us three tries or swings. We never did anything successfully the first time around but we do have that try and try again attitude. The first time we tried the tower business was right at the end of 3G getting implemented and the work drying up for about 1 or 2 years. We tried it again about a year prior to 4G getting launched and that was successful. That is now the offering that we have in our tower work comes in three flavors. We do the classic internal line or what Id like to refer to as technology change out for the carriers directly. Verizon being the largest of our customers but we also do dabble with T-Mobile. We used to do a little Sprint work and we do a little AT&T work. Weve been in and out of the turf model with AT&T over the years as well.

There are the new build tower sites and they come in a couple of different flavors whether its a tower itself, a water tank or its a stealth site. Those are new site builds. We also have a struct mod group that does structural modifications on towers. Thats typically welding steel, bolting new steel on, as well as concrete foundation work. Thats our tower business. From there, we launched into the DAS and in-building world where we have got several RF engineers on staff or some young ones that weve created out of various university programs. Myself being from SUNY Binghamton and the DD program. We picked up a couple of SUNY Binghamton guys, which were IBMs training ground, as well as some people from Maryland. Weve got a good core of young engineers and gotten experienced quickly. Thats on the DAS side. From the DAS piece, its evolved into the private LTE services that were offering nowadays in building private networks for various organizations out there on the enterprise side. Focusing on entertainment, hospitals and large logistics. The post office, for example. We do a fair amount of work for the USPS and the federal government.

The last piece of the in-building was Peel-itwhich is our maintenance and monitoring platform. Thats been around for a little bit as a base platform. We are in the final stages of evolving to version four of that. There are two components to Peel-it. One is the base platform that does the monitoring of the various systems and then we have a GUI interface that the customers interface with that allows them to put trouble tickets in and allows us to pull reports. Its that customer/NOC interface into the network. Thats getting rebranded as Peel-it. You should be seeing a bunch of stuff coming out.Peeling a network back. Instead of the banana, we used to use the onion analogy. You peel the onion, get to the layers and get to the real core of it. Thats the same with Peel-it as a product from a maintenance and monitoring perspective. That is a nationwide platform that were using for the post office and then a bunch of Verizon facilities as well.

You talked about regions. We are headquartered in Upstate New York in Albany and were also in New York City. We quite a bit of work down in New York City. We have another facility in Philadelphia. Were also in Columbus, Ohio. We do a lot of work in the Columbus Market, Michigan and Detroit. A little further south as well, West Virginia, Indiana, and then also in Chicago. We have a little bit of an office in Chicago. Years ago in the old American tech days, we spent a lot of time in Chicago. We still do some work for AT&T labs out there as well.

I was born in Chicago. I didnt stay there long. love going back there. I was only there until age two, but I can still say I was born in Chicago.

Its like Upstate New York, not great places to be as you know.

Im getting many different evolutions of your business and innovations as well. Im curious, what has been your growth strategy as to how you have adopted, innovated and created these new products over and over? Youd have so much now. What has been that strategy thats caused that?

A couple of things. First is that Im a person that can visualize stuff and visualize whats out there. Ive always been blessed with that and I dont think thats something that you can learn. I do have that going for me and I have people around me that are like that. Ive been accused once or twice of chasing butterflies. Not everything I see is necessarily successful. We will utilize some tools as well. There are a couple of books that are out there like Business Model Generationwhich uses this thing called the Canvasprocess. It allows you to dial in a product line from a customer perspective, needs perspective and also the value proposition as well as costs, sell points, and partner relationships that you need to launch them. There are so many things that go into launching new products. Thats number one.

The other thing is keeping your ear to the grindstone and doing a lot of research, so Im constantly scrubbing the environment to see whats coming next. Early on when we were a vendor for NYNEX and Bell Atlantic, we started hearing about this file stuff, so we jumped on the outside bandwagon and started doing a lot of the engineering on the files. Same thing with 4G, probably about a year or so prior to 4G getting launched, we started spending a lot of time listening to what the FCC was talking about. Also, what the leaders of these large organizations are talking about. They give you the signals as to where theyre going. You just have to be astute enough to listen to those signals and then try to say, Whats my organization like? What is not a heavy lift for us to bolt on to move down that path?

Being engineering in the construction company, weve always looked at it that the principles of project management can be applied to a lot of different technologies or even construction businesses that are out there. Its all the same, in essence. The specific tasks that you do for deploying that technology or building the bridge or putting in HVAC systems all follow suit. Ive always tried to push us down the path of bolting on things that are similar to what we do so it doesnt put a lot of strain on the organization. Having said that, we are embarking quite a bit in doing research and work on the EV charging stationwhich is something new. Why EV charging stations? How does that fit into telecom? The similarities in that are either one, youre playing with large scale utility organizations. One on the power grid infrastructure side in the case of EV charging but were also playing on that side with small cell technology. As were deploying a lot of small cells, were interfacing a lot more with utility companies because were putting assets on their property. That relationship has evolved.

Our ability several years ago to go out and get a bunch of AC electrical licenses in multiple states and in some states like New York, its more difficult. You cant get a statewide license. Its four states, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California where you have to get licenses per municipality versus places like North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Theyre statewide to take the test once and you got the licenses. Weve got about 8 or 10 under our belt. Were acquiring more as the work evolves in the different markets that we work with to try to get that. Bridging the gap between utility and telecom is a no-brainer.

What pointed that out was going through the Canvas process with the Business Model Generationtool to show, What were doing has cell site power. AC stuff that we typically contracted out a lot and now starting to do more of that in-house. The small cell stuff, which is single-phase low-level power. These charging stations fit right in there as well. Those three things we outlined as things that were easy for us to implement without putting a lot of extra burden on our people that work for ANS. Some of the engineers will probably tell you Im driving them crazy because we are trying to push the envelope a little bit but well see how that goes. Its going to be successful for us.

Youre a visionary. There is a book that I follow. Im glad to know about the Canvas model, but Ive always followed the book Traction. It talks about the visionary. Its funny you say, Ive made some mistakes but I see something and then we execute it. That is something that Im aware of because I do the same thing. The other piece I wanted to mention is this whole idea around electric vehicle charging stations. We have four electric vehicles in our family and constantly, I was getting all of these charges on my credit card. My kids have electric vehicles. I thought, Im going to put one in my house, which I did. Its frustrating because my daughter has to drive. We have to drive twenty minutes and she sits there for 30 to 45 minutes to charge her car.

Its a massive opportunity and something that we all need. Please hurry and put charging stations in Tampa. Even though Im at my house now, its a great opportunity. I love to know that innovation from a true visionary that it lights you up. I can tell youre passionate about it. Id like to get your thoughts on, where are we headed? You do the research and youre at the shows. When we can go, I always see you there and youre soaking up the information. Youre learning and talking to people. Where are we going? Wheres the industry headed? There was the Biden broadband plan, which was $100 billion. There was so much happening in that industry. Give me your thoughts on where we are going.

5G is a good example. Were talking about 5G stuff, but 5G is much different than 4G. 4G was specific. It was the 700-megahertz spectrum that was out there and everybody built primarily to that standard. There were a few deviations with the PCS band and the AWS band all getting lumped into 4G LTE. 5G is different. It sounds like the carriers are scrapping that network. Thats all there and gets integrated into 5G, as well as some of this millimeter wave technology that were talking about with T-Mobile, the 600-meg spectrum. Also, with the options that were put out there with the C-band spectrum and then the CBRS spectrum. There are all these frequencies floating around there.

By the way, lets not forget about the cable companies that are out there that have an enormous amount of spectrum as well that offer 5G. In my mind, the actual network type and the carriers are going to be less significant as far as what the topology is for the network. Its going to boil down to the applications that are on there. We saw it with 4G, Uber and all that evolving applications that were put on the network. Theres going to be so much more that comes over the next few years that we dont even know what it is.

They talk about autonomous vehicles and robots. Now I saw robots delivering your pizza. In California, they have this autonomous vehicle that drives around. It looks like something out of The Jetsons. The only thing thats missing is Rover, the dog. Nowadays, this thing will pull up to your house, you walk out, the door opens and you grab your pizza. In some respects, its bad because were eliminating lower-level jobs but in other respects, its good because its creating better-paying jobs in some cases. I dont think the topology type is going to be as critical as the applications. I do see the melting of infrastructure.

Youve got utility guys building private networks. You got Google, Apple, Amazon and all these people building networks that are all relying on each other. The convergence is well underway and thats whats going to happen. For organizations like us, it is challenging because you have to be current with the technology because it is evolving quickly. If you look at it historically, the phone companies typically had a timeframe of about 30 years of taking advantage of whatever technology they deployed. When you look at the old crossbar switches and movement into the digital world in the 90s, they were able to monetize those switches for 30 years.

Thats not the case anymore. It has moved more in alignment with IT thats out there where you have maybe 2 or 3 years at best to be able to take advantage of that technology. In some respects, its good for guys like us because we have a constantly evolving workload but its also bad. I cant stick ten guys on the job site for a month. Ive got to move them around. Thats the model, not only for us internally but also support organizations that we use like Broadstaffthat helps us supplement our people. Those models are changing and we have to be cognizant of the fact that you have to change.

Tell me about the ANS culture. What sets you apart?

The family dynamic and trying to think of it as a family. In all good families, you have sibling rivalries. The brothers and sisters fight from time to time. Sometimes, the parents get involved as well. Us having the mindset that its okay to challenge each other but at the end of the day, when we walk out from behind a closed-door meeting, were all pulling the rope in the same direction. That comes by trying not to have ego involved. Ego is a killer in any organization. Not to say we dont have some ego. We do but we try to check it. Try to have humility and realize that were going to make mistakes. None of us are perfect. I always say we dont all have beards and we dont wear sandals. We are prone to making mistakes. Im okay with making mistakes. If you make them three times, thats not a mistake anymore. Youre just not learning. Its important to allow people to make mistakes.

There was a scene in Top Gun. I love that movie. When Skerritts talking to Tom Cruise and he says, When youre up there, you have to push the envelope but you will make mistakes. When youre down, you have to analyze and evaluate what youve done wrong so that you dont make the mistake the next time. I am in that mindset. I am far from perfect. Ive said that weve launched different things that have worked and some that havent. I kicked myself about some things that we probably pull the plug on too soon and if we cooked it a little longer, it may have been good. Thats number one.

Number two is constant learning. You have to constantly be evolving. It comes at a price. We do try to make investments. I lump them into four buckets where you have blocking and tackling the type of training that you have to do the CompTrain certifications, the OSHA stuff and things of that nature. The second bucket is technical training, whether thats via manufacturers or test equipment. For example, weve got a gentleman thats been an engineer for us and were now shifting him into a DC power engineering role so we send him to power engineering classes up to speed on that.

The third one is sales training. A lot of people like to say, We send salespeople to training. Its more important to send your operations people whether project managers or engineers to sales training. Not for selling but more on how to interact with clients because they are the ones that are interfacing with our customers. Eighty percent of our work comes from existing clients. We want to make sure we take care of them. Number four is management and executive management training that we put people through that are moving up the ranks.

Typically, well put someone in a manager training program and we use MPI, which is something that was homegrown and then spun out. Our ex-CEO runs that organization to his company. Someone that was a lead on a job and now were thinking of moving them to a supervisory role, maybe a year in advance, we try to get them into management training. At least they can learn the lingo that we use because there is different lingo. Definitely, what its like to be a first-time manager or going from being a first-time manager or an executive. Thats important.

You focus on the health of the customer, employee and your financial health. Talk a little bit about that. Something that you had mentioned to me which I thought was fascinating is you watch your Net Promoter Score. What is that and why?

There are three sides to the triangle in our business. The first one is the Net Promoter Score. I dont know if everybodys familiar with it. Weve been using it now for many years. We were fortunate enough that one of our partners was able to go to GEs Think Tank years ago down close to New York City where their training facility was. They were just rolling out Net Promoter Score at the time so we got an insight into it. Some companies do it more often but we choose twice a year. You ask your customer one question. On a scale of 1 to 10, would you recommend us as a vendor to your friend, to a colleague or to your family member? They give you a number. Nine and ten are whats called the promoter. I call them neutral if 7 and 8 is the score. Anything six and below is considered a detractor. What you do is you look at your overall pool of people that you talk to. We do this twice a year. We dont talk to just the person that gives us the PO. We talk to the field techs that were interfacing with, the person thats given us the Pos, any influencers. That could be engineers.

We gauge their temperature via that scoring grade. What you do is you take your overall number and you divide it by your detractors and that gives you a number. Its not a percentage of it but its a score. If you look at overtime, the different companies that are considered best in class, Apple is always at the top of the list. They score in the 70 to 80 range typically. Everybody talks about BMW and how great BMW is. BMW score is in the 20 range. The ones that do worse of all are usually financial and insurance companies. They typically rake in the negative numbers. We do this exercise twice a year for many years now and were typically in that 65 to 75 range which puts us in best in class, so Im excited about that. Thats one of the things Im proud of. Thats the Net Promoter Score.

Another piece of the triangle is our employee surveys that we do. We do all hands-on deck meetings twice a year where we do face-to-face meetings. In 2020, we changed that where we had to do them remotely. We have a survey based on the book, First, Break All the Ruleswhich has been around for many years. Its a twelve-question survey and there are a couple of other organizations that now do that same process and they sell you a program to do it. We just do it in-house manually. You give that to the employees and they grade you one through 1 through 5, 5 being excellent, 1 being your dog meat and 3 being neutral.

What that does is you boil those twelve questions down to four different parameters on the health of the business. We typically are in the 80% to 85% range. To me, the number is less important because there are some variables that give you different scores based on how many people take the test or if theyre new or not. There are a few different variables that can change that. What you can do is you can trendline over a period of time what the fluctuation is. What you dont want to see is significant swings one way or another from this. You want to make sure youre staying consistent. What that will tell you is if you do see a drop in any one category, then we can boil it down further from going from the organization level down to senior management level, to regional level or to the individual supervisor because its grading our performance. We can see if theres a big change, maybe one supervisor is doing something that maybe is causing that and then we can have a conversation with them to make adjustments as needed. Thats important.

The final piece of the triangle is the financials. You have to have all three being healthy to be a good healthy organization. We are adamant about closing our books every month. I dont get too crazy. We know over time that typically the first quarter is soft. Second quarter, we start picking up momentum. Third quarter is usually were drinking from the firehose. Fourth quarter is sometimes, youre drinking from the firehose as well, and sometimes, its business as usual. We can grade that. Weve got a lot of metrics. That helps us manage the business. Were constantly evolving with those metrics as well, trying to dial them in to see growth patterns and what products are doing better than others. Theres a lot of different information you can gather by analyzing that.

What is your strategy for hiring? Are you finding it difficult to find qualified people in 2021 or is it easier than it was in 2020?

No, its not easier. Finding good people is always difficult. You can find people but is it the right people that fit into your organization? My guys and girls will tell you were not the easiest place to work at so it takes the right person that fits into our culture. We work with quite a few different staffing companies. We use Broadstaff for more higher-level people, engineers, and project managers. Weve got a position open for a NOC manager for our Peel-it software. Depending on what the need is, is what organization we work with. Thats number one.

Number two, we tried to do some of that in-house as well. We do have a recruiter in-house and that works closely with engineering. That recruiter typically manages more of the staffing companies than we do in recruiting. We do pump stuff out through our website. We do use LinkedIn. Ive also been working on trying to partner with some colleges and universities. Mostly community colleges to give kids coming out of there that have either an IT or engineering background as well as electrician type background and dovetailing that.

I forgot to mention that we also created an AC electrical apprentice program that mirrors the program that the IBEW, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and thats a program where we have an instructor and then we have a bunch of online tools that allow people that are in the program. Its a robust program. Its a four-year gig. Its a once-a-week class they have to do remotely. There are modules that theyre responsible to do homework on and get graded and testing. Thatll get them to the position where with the schooling and with the hands-on stuff that were giving them, it will allow them to go out and get an electrical license as a journeyman and hopefully, as a master electrician. As our needs evolve on the electrical side, were finding it difficult to find electricians. Our background in DC has created a lot of people that can easily migrate into the AC world and do both which is unique because most organizations arent like that. Youre either an AC contractor and you do AC work and UPS, big builds, service or you do DC. The two usually dont mix. That may be a strategy for success in the future as well.

The other strategy that you use is contract-to-hire or temp-to-perm where you bring people on a contract basis and then you convert them to a full-time role. What is your motivation behind that? Why does that work for you?

People always look great on paper and a lot of people are good at interviewing. Its difficult to get to whats a person like when theyre working. The temp-to-perm works great in that respect. In that, we can find candidates and bring them in. Usually, you can tell the first week, everybodys always great. The second week, you start getting a little, Maybe not so great. By the month, you know if theyre good or not. Usually, by the second month for sure, you know how a person is going to be. It may cost us more upfront doing that model. In a lot of cases, it helps us not make bad hires. I read somewhere that if the person is a $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 a year person and its a bad hire, it probably cost you about $200,000. It makes sense for me to spend $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 working with someone like you to try to find the right candidate. Some people may say, Youre throwing money away. I dont see it that way. What you do is unique. We build stuff. Were not great at finding people. You have to stay in your swim lanes.

Stay in your lane and stay where youre good. We love telecom, tech, people, and thats where were good. Thats our specialty. Paul, ever since Ive met you, had every interaction with you, spoken to you, as well as recruiting for you and the people that weve placed with you that work in ANS. Theyre happy and they talk about the culture and the leadership there, I believe that you are one of the greatest leaders in telecom. What are your leadership principles? What guides you?

We always had our core values. When COVID hit, I started hearing some CEOs talk about stuff and they start to resonate. One was keeping everybody safe and the other one was creating and preserving jobs. The third one is constantly investing in your people and the fourth one was taking care of our customers. Those are our four guiding principles. If you boil it down, what makes you successful? A lot of it is about loyalty and Im not talking about loyalty from a blind perspective and you follow everything I do or everything I say. Thats not the case. We all have to be loyal to each other as an organization. Were loyal to ANS, not to an individual. Thats a big part of our culture. The family dynamic is another one and having that flexibility. Not beating people up when they make mistakes and you learn from them is important. That constant education and it doesnt have to be formal education. At the end of the day, you have to be learning something new to be relevant, and then also having a purpose in life is important. There are some other goofy ones, too, that I can throw in there.

Tell us the goofy ones.

With the family thing, a lot of the people that are in our organization, we all have kids so we embrace that. We talk about our kids. A lot of companies pooh-pooh that kind of stuff. I dont think thats the case. We should embrace that more. We dont have a problem with the kids that may need a job in the summer. If they work out, they can become a full-time employee. The other thing I noticed is we have people that come from a couple of different backgrounds. We do have a fair amount of people that work for us that are immigrants out in the field. I will throw myself in that category as well. That brings the hardworking aspect of a lot of people that are similar in my background.

We also have a lot of guys that come out of agriculture and farming which is interesting as well because like immigrants, the guys or girls that are working on a farm are typically getting up when the suns coming up and work until the sun goes down. Those are two unique things that I dont think weve ever formalized but are true. Another goofy one, a lot of us have dogs. I dont know what that means. Does it mean were empathetic to animals? If you look at our organization, I dont know what the number is, but I guarantee at least 80% of us are dog owners.

What about cats? Does anybody own cats?

There are cats, too. A lot of us have cats and dogs. I used to have a turtle. Its something else that is a goofy fact of people. The other thing is, too, we do quite a few personal get-togethers, whether its Christmas parties in the past or the semiannual meetings that we do with the people where we always break bread as part of that. Also, going out to the job site and visiting people. Because of COVID, thats put a little damper on that so weve tried whats called After-Dark at ANS. That sounds a little risqu. Weve done a couple of team-building exercises. One was based on space travel. Weve done some bingo nights and we have a poker league. We had a lot of fun with the NCAA basketball thing where we threw in a $100 gift card. I potted up $100, too, for anybody that won. I almost was there and won it. USC killed me that one basket and if they would have won, I would have won but they didnt win so I didnt win. Its fun things like that.

How many employees do you have in total?

Were about 150 and typically, we move up to around 200-ish. Ive tried to get us to the 50/50 model of 50% in-house and 50% contracted or subcontracted. Were all around that. Some years, its 60/40. Some years, its 50/50. Some years, its 70/30. Thats the benchmark I try to get. Potentially, we would have around 300 people working for us in the busy time of the season, whether its actual subcontractors or staffed personnel as well as our own.

What is next for ANS? Whats your vision for the future?

Ive talked a lot about it. Its that melting of the utility work and pushing the electrical piece more than we have in the past. Youre going to see over the next years that ANS developing that AC electrical contracting model in support of, in a lot of cases, the work we do in the telecom space as well as the EV charging stations. Were bullish on whats going to happen over the next several years with the infrastructure, bills that are coming out and some of the money thats getting put out there from the government standpoint.

You have to look at history to know what the future is going to be like. After World War II, there was a huge emphasis in the US on building our roads, bridges, infrastructure out and the utility grid. Thats getting older and there needs to be a new emphasis on doing that. Some people would say were trying to take advantage of the situation. I like to say that were trying to create jobs for people that are meaningful so that they can have a good family life. At the end of the day, we all have the same thing in common. We want to have our family, we want to spend as much time with our family and make sure theyre taken care of and the job is just an end to that mean. Our focus on seeing those two melt together is great for us and thats where were going to push towards.

Im sure theres a lot of people reading who are wondering, Where to go to learn more about ANS jobs? Also, possibly that want to hire you as a vendor.

The best way is to go to our website http://www.ANSCorporate.com. We do have job postings there. We have a bot on there that you can talk to that will get you to the right person in HR or in sales. That is what were pushing everybody towards. Some of you know us and you can contact us. You can contact Carrie as well and her team. She will funnel the info to us and were okay with paying you to do that.

Youve been wonderful, Paul. You all at ANS have been wonderful to work with. We are honored and we appreciate that. Most of all, I want to thank you for being on the show because getting a birds eye view or a peek into your amazing company and also who you are, team and culture has been a benefit for everyone to learn more about whats possible for the future. Thank you for being on the show, Paul.

Thank you, Carrie. Im grateful for the time to spend with you and talk about this stuff. Anytime in the future, I have the gift of God. I can talk about other stuff, too.

Well do it again. I know Ill see you soon at some event somewhere once we open up again. Thanks, Paul. I appreciate it. Take care.

Prior to his current role, Paul was appointed Vice President and General Manager in 2002 wherein he established relationships with Verizon Wireless and Verizon (landline) as well as AT&T as a turf vendor. He also spearheaded the companys expansion into Tower Services and Power Services. Paul joined ANS in 1999 as Director of Engineering, leading the implementation of the TL9000 Quality Systems and the redefinition of Project Management Systems while also serving as the principle Sales Engineer.

His earlier career included extended tenures as Engineering Manager for Intermedia (now part of Verizon) and Senior Technical Positions at Time Warner Cable where he worked on the original beta test of TWCs RoadRunner service.

Paul received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the Watson School of Engineering at Binghamton University and his Masters Degree in Telecommunications Network Management from Syracuse University. He currently serves on the Board of the New York State Wireless Association.

Paul is a resident of Rensselaer County, NY, an avid golfer and boater and the proud father of two boys. When time permits, you might find Paul enjoying his homemade red wine and a fine home cooked Italian meal with friends and family.

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Bringing Transformation And Evolution To Business With Paul Fettucia - RCR Wireless News