Keells Food Products upskills the sales professionals via the Sales Warriors training programme of SLIM

Keells Food Products (KFP) recently entered into an agreement with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), the national body for marketing, signing an MoU for an exclusive training programme to enhance the skills of KFP sales professionals. The tailor-made package named as ‘Sales Warriors Programme’ is intended to upskill KFP sales staff towards exceptional performance.

“A skilled sales force is an asset to an organization - especially for a market leader. SLIM, being the national body for marketing, has mastered the art of identifying the need to upskill the sales and marketing staff of organizations and has introduced tailor-made programmes. With the Sales Warriors programme, SLIM will groom KFP sales staff to think out of the box and to be vibrant. Via a very practical oriented training schedule, they will be endowed with the knowledge and skills of achieving greater heights in sales, sales management and means to add value to the company’s revenue growth and sustainability”, said SLIM President Nuwan Gamage.

CEO and Executive Director of SLIM Sanath Senanayake said this cutting-edge curriculum for KFP was made after mapping SLIM resources to initialize the programme to contribute beyond expectation. ‘The corporate sector has now become the ambassador of SLIM upon identifying the value of training programmes and courses. With this endorsement, our relationships have grown fast and SLIM is now championing customized programmes for companies. This particular programme will bestow knowledge on KFP sales managers on how to train and monitor the sales team to ensure they follow proper procedures and meet the sales goals and also ways of adapting marketing tactics to build healthier relationships with customers,” he added.

Founded in 1982 to produce and distribute processed meats and crumbed products is a subsidiary of John Keells Holdings PLC, Keells is one of the first companies conferred with SLS for quality of product and process.

Speaking at the inauguration, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KFP, Viranga Wickramaratne said the company believes a holistic approach towards investment in the knowledge of its employees will add value to the company’s ambitions in the long term. “Keells has kept abreast of the industry through strategic investments in state-of-the-art food processing technology, quality control systems and an aggressive Research and Development orientation. This time around we decided to invest in our human resources - especially in the sales force”, said Wickramaratne.

“In these challenging times, companies should be rest assured their sales forces are capable of keeping abreast of the industry and competitors to have an edge in the marketplace. Hence building professionals has become a must. We have selected the cream of our sales force who have leadership attributes for the ‘Sales Warriors Programme’. Building leaders within the organization and providing them with the necessary knowledge and skills will create a win-win situation between the company and the employees. Tailor-made programmes done by SLIM over the years for companies have paid dividends. With this in mind, Keells selected SLIM to conduct this programme with a view to upskilling our sales force to become a force to reckon with,” he stated in conclusion.

Head of Human resources (HR) for the JKH Foods Sector, Nisansala Paranayapa said, “Investing in employees is a must for a reputed company since they are the most important asset in a company. Keells presently enjoys the market leader position in the sector. Yet, currently, we cater to a marketplace which is volatile due to various socio-economic factors in the macro environment. We believe constant skills development of our sales force is the need of the hour and thus have invested in the ‘Sales Warriors Programme’ which is a customized programme to upskill the KFP sales force. SLIM being the driving force of the marketing fraternity in Sri Lanka conducts customised professional programmes for the corporate sector which are endorsed by the latter. We are confident joining hands with SLIM will enhance the skills of our sales force and enable them to think out-of-the-box and proactively.”

Head of Sales and Marketing of KFP, Nigel Adams shed light on the importance of bestowing knowledge in sales and marketing on employees to add value to the overall operations of a company and to build lasting relationships with customers. “SLIM programme is customized for KFP sales staff and it was designed to skill up the sales force to provide customers with exceptional service. We are in the process of grooming a professional sales team and the feedback from loyal customers has been very positive. The SLIM program will endow our sales team with finer points in sales and marketing bringing the best out of them”, he said.