Features

Published December 2008

The 2008 Learning In Practice Awards

Chief Learning Officer Staff

Continued

In addition to significant cost savings realized, ManTech’s certification courses may bring in revenue for the company, as well.

“It’s not going to happen in 12 to 18 months, but at some point we will become a global rep for PMI, which means we can now offer those courses to the public for revenue,” Hovell said.

“Our plan, as we laid out the business plan in 2006, was in five years to become self-sufficient and not need any corporate overhead funds. So we’re working our way there, and we see that in our very viable future.”

“It’s a twofold blessing,” Malinchak said. “Internally, training and education is not seen as an expense but rather as an investment that has financial impact on the bottom line, the profit margin. Externally, it’s always great to be recognized by your peers. To be recognized in this way shows we’re seen as part of the financial information needed to go forward as we grow the business and think how we’re going to spend overhead dollars in a very positive way.”

– Kellye Whitney

BUSINESS IMPACT AWARD • GOLD • DIVISION 2

Fred DePerez
Senior Sales and Product Training Manager, Chrysler

The American auto industry has been struggling for some time, battling against increasing pressures from global competitors. And with the current economic situation worsening, things are likely to get worse.

Chrysler’s former Senior Sales and Product Training Manager Fred DePerez, who has since moved on to another position in the company, thought training might help the company move past the economic crunch and increase sales consultants performance.

There was only one problem: Sales consultants aren’t Chrysler employees. They work for more than 3,300 independent dealerships. Therefore, there’s no way to mandate training. And that was only the first challenge.

“The second challenge is, we went into skills training, and for a very, very long time, that’s always been the job for the dealership,” DePerez said. “The manufacturers do product training on our products and skills training for their employees. That’s been the mold for a long, long time, but it wasn’t working.

“You don’t get consistency across dealerships in terms of the skills they were giving their sales consultants. It was in our interests to do something to break the mold and assist these independent franchises, our dealerships, to create some value in the learning proposition.”

The objective was to improve sales performance in two stages: applied selling time (“What am I doing when I’m with a customer?”) and unapplied selling time (“What am I doing when I’m not with a customer?”). But DePerez said the environment made it tough to gain funding for the initiative.

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