Training is key for Imperial Tobacco - Imperial Tobacco becomes partner of the ISPY Academy

Imperial Tobacco has always been upfront with its belief that sales staff training is fundamental to its Global Duty Free strategy, on the ground, at sea and in the air. Reiterating this point, Imperial Tobacco is pleased to announce that it is now an Educational Partner of the International Sales Professionals of the Year (ISPY) Academy.

The idea behind the ISPY Academy is to provide an online Social Learning experience (sales, customer service, category, brand & product knowledge) for Duty Free sales staff.

Going live on October 1st, this digital tool will record, recognise and reward learner activities and achievements, as well as effort, knowledge and skills. With new content launched on a monthly basis, the ISPY Academy empowers Sales Professionals and Brand Ambassadors to improve their awareness, understanding, knowledge and skills.

Judith Plueschau, Field Force Excellence Executive, Imperial Tobacco, comments "Motivated and passionate Sales Professionals/ Brand Ambassadors are key to providing excellent customer service. We are very excited to collaborate and support the ISPY Academy; it will allow us to train our Duty Free sales force and therefore help us to further drive excellence around the globe.”

“This new ISPY Academy is going to send us in the right direction when it comes to sales staff training. Being able to offer training programmes that suit the specific needs of our Brand Ambassadors and give them the opportunity to ‘manage’ the pace of their own learning. This is revolutionary.”

The ISPY Academy will focus solely on Duty Free sales staff as they are the contact to the traveller. Identifying future targets and knowledge gaps. It will also allow interaction between Duty Free sales staff and encourage sharing of knowledge (post comments, photos, videos etc)

Christine Martin, ISPY Founder, comments, "To have a vision is one thing, to have a vision which is shared by others, empowers you to achieve great things. The launch of the much awaited ISPY Academy would not have been possible without the support Imperial Tobacco and other companies. We are very proud of the ‘Social Learning’ training content and we can promise that our Sales Professionals and Brand Ambassadors will not have experienced anything like it before.".