About Upper Edge Tech
While working his way through graduate school, Chris Wilson — the founder and CEO of Upper Edge Tech — discovered there was a severe need for reliable laptop repair services for individuals and businesses. So, in 2011, with zero background in owning or running a business, he launched Upper Edge Tech, intending to service clients (primarily K-12 schools and educational programs) all over the globe with the highest level of laptop and Chromebook repair service available. Chris and the Upper Edge Tech team are committed to serving teachers and students by keeping them connected to the classroom with properly working computers and technical equipment.
Company Challenges
Over the years, Chris has struggled to hire solid salespeople to help grow Upper Edge Tech’s bottom line. They made many new hires and provided minimal training; unfortunately, turnover was high. He did get lucky when he found an excellent hire with an employee named Jason, but couldn’t replicate that success. Recognizing a consistently flawed recruiting process, he began researching sales consultants and training opportunities to alleviate his issues.
Chris reached out directly to Jorge at Topaz because of their mutual involvement in C12 Forums. They discussed his significant challenges and difficulties and how our training and coaching could help alleviate the stress (and costs) of making bad sales hires. Chris was thrilled with the game plan we put together for him and decided to enroll in both of our primary training programs, Metahire Sales Hiring System and Buyer Facilitator by Topaz sales training.
What was the Topaz Solution?
To start, Jorge recommended that Chris read the book, Getting Naked by Patrick Lencioni, which was written to demonstrate to readers how vulnerability can be incredibly helpful in business, inspiring customer loyalty and trust. The goal of having Chris read this book was to help him understand that there needs to be a structure to his sales process to develop longstanding and healthy customer relationships, which is necessary for his business to thrive.
In addition to the personal sales leadership training and one-on-one coaching sessions Chris went through, we enrolled him and his team in our Buyer Facilitator training program to help guide them through structuring that sales process. Every other week, Jorge hosted a live training session with the entire Upper Edge Tech sales team to address their challenges and role-play through various difficult customer scenarios.
How Our Training Helped
Our training helped Chris identify and hire a new sales manager who was qualified to manage their sales organization and help it thrive. During the first year after training, they have achieved some incredible results.
- 30% year-over-year revenue growth from 2020 to 2021
- Replaced three underperforming sales representatives with three qualified, standard-setting individuals
- Overcame potential revenue loss and a dip in business due to COVID-19 because of more efficient sales processes
- All salespeople have been trained to be buyer facilitators and develop longstanding relationships with customers, driving an improvement in retention
With Metahire and Buyer Facilitator training fully incorporated into Upper Edge Tech’s sales and recruitment culture, the company has set a high standard for the sales team they created and is set for sustained growth for years to come. Their clients are receiving better service than ever before, their sales team is more agile and capable of identifying the right or wrong opportunities, and turnover is dramatically reduced because of consistent hiring practices.
On top of his responsibilities as CEO, Chris feels confident in his ability to act as a sales coach and a resource to his sales team. In one-on-ones, he can bring up issues in the sales process that he identifies on his own and can address with his representative directly. They work through each problem as a unit and always prioritize facilitating a positive buyer experience and relationship while navigating any difficult or challenging scenario.
Sales used to be the bottleneck for Upper Edge Tech’s business, but that’s no longer the case. With Topaz’s training embedded into their sales culture, they can now spend more time and energy on refining different elements of their business. Areas such as operations, where they’ve uncovered a serious backlog of work that needs to be done to fulfill backorders, are now the largest pain point for the organization. Having a sales team with higher standards has presented new opportunities for growth and development for other teams as well, raising the bar for the entire company.
Testimonial
“Personalized. Very impressive. Having Jorge as the facilitator in training was the real value. He allowed us to talk about our pain points, our process, and what we’re doing to address that pain directly. So, I thought the customization was great and made everything very relevant to our business.”
-Chris Wilson – CEO and Founder at Upper Edge Tech
