About Imparta
Imparta helps companies to achieve significant and lasting improvements in sales and marketing effectiveness.
Sales Effectiveness
Rate the sales effectiveness of your own organisation.
Download free audit tool.
Global Sales Study
Is your sales force world class? How do your salespeople compare to other companies in your segment?
Why Imparta
When founder Richard Barkey started Imparta in 1997, the goal was to provide an antidote to an industry that was – and remains – focused on delivering events rather than results.
CNBC Interview
Imparta CEO, Richard Barkey, raises questions all business leaders should ask.
Richard Barkey - CNBC Interview
The following is a transcript of the Richard Barkey (Imparta CEO) interview which was broadcast in August 2006 as part of CNBC Technology Week.
"Imparta helps companies to sell more by improving sales and marketing capability, both at the individual level and for the organisation as a whole. I think what allows us to build those capabilities effectively is firstly, that we’re experts in sales and marketing; secondly, that we really understand what it takes to get adults to change their behaviour and build new skills and thirdly, that we can create integrated programmes that drive those changed approaches deep into the organisation.
"Think back to the last time you did some training – you go along for two or three days, you typically learn a lot and leave with a real intention to put that into action. But you get back to office and the phone rings and the emails start and very quickly it’s all forgotten. When you really learn new skills is typically in the course of doing your job with a really excellent coach or mentor to help you to reflect. It’s the same with a pilot, for example. You wouldn’t expect a pilot to fly a new type of plane after a lecture; you’d want them to go in the simulator first, have some practice, before you’d allow real passengers in the back! It’s the same in business.
"Even good training, on its own, isn’t enough to make a real difference. The research actually shows that several weeks after a normal training programme, only 13% of what was taught has been retained and applied. Where reinforcement has been done properly, that figure often goes above 75%. Generally we find that an integrated approach to performance improvement can have a return on investment of up to 1000%.
"Improving sales and marketing performance is really a change management process, and although it doesn’t need to be over-complicated, the questions you ask of your team should be around whether they’re approaching it in that way. The one thing I can say is if all they’re doing is running some training courses, there’s a huge opportunity being wasted.
"Many companies already have an approach to sales and marketing effectiveness in place, but if you’d like to benchmark your approach against global best practice, then you should be talking to Imparta."
Copyright © Imparta 1997-2010
