Nokia training partner helps UK retail partner champion the Nokia 5800
O2 has long been known as one of the world’s leading network operators and handset vendors, with a strong lifestyle element attached to the brand. As technology has changed the world around us and integrated with day-to-day life more seamlessly, O2 has undertaken a change in strategy and direction, moving into what they term “The Connected World”.
Nokia training partner helps UK retail partner champion the Nokia 5800
Every handset launch from a manufacturer brings new challenges to retail sales staff. New features, services and designs, some of which are specifically targeted at a particular demographic are becoming increasingly commonplace and a good understanding of how they work, and what benefits they offer customers is vital.
Phones 4 U were looking to champion handset sales for the Nokia 5800 handset, in particular the ‘Comes with Music’ variant. The retailer wanted to ensure its sales representatives were best qualified to sell the new product and to fully equip sales teams with all relevant information relating to the handset, music downloads and the overall customer offer.
As part of its ongoing relationship with Nokia, Verridian was brought in to deliver six days of training across two weeks to cover all Phones 4 U retail staff across the UK. The project ran in May 2009
Verridian’s team of trainers worked collaboratively with Nokia and Phones 4 U ensuring that both the retailer and the manufacturer could provide the best possible all round solution for the end customer. One of the biggest challenges the team faced was how best to portray the fact that ‘Comes with Music’ is free as value added service but only to those signing up to a contract.
Sales staff were trained in how to demonstrate the ‘Comes with Music’ service to the customers – how to search for music and how to download it to handsets. They also needed to know the best way to explain the real value of what the music service offered to customers. This was particularly pertinent with many consumers already using other music download platforms so part of the training covered dealing with potential customer objections.
Verridian a huge amount of mobile industry experience and knowledge and were able to train staff to successfully demonstrate tangible benefits of the music service when compared with other services. Handset sales not just about handsets anymore and retail mobile sales staff now need to be experts in the applications and software available to customers as well.
Julia Marney, Training manager at Verridian comments, “This was an interesting project for the Verridian team. The general theme was about re-educating, and opening peoples mind to new options, overcoming objections to the Nokia Comes with Music application and proving that it is a great viable alternative to other download options and that you can have everything free! Customers are suspicious of free and our job was to give sales staff the necessary tools to allay any suspicion in customers eyes.”