“At Rackspace we breed an enthusiastic and excited workforce. We have a slightly unusual approach to recruitment, looking to get to the heart of people’s attitudes, rather than at their qualifications. Pareto Law provided us not only with a consistently high standard of passionate, committed and driven graduates, but also gave them the intensive training necessary to turn them into an effective sales team.”
Clarissa Gent, New Business Sales Manager, Rackspace Managed Hosting
Picture shows Clarissa Gent, winner of the Young Sales Professional of the Year award at the 2006 National Sales Awards
The Company
Founded in 1998, Rackspace specialises in Managed Hosting providing organisations of all sizes with the servers, software, bandwidth and management needed to run a range of hosted applications from Internet to enterprise.
What makes Rackspace unique is its “Fanatical SupportTM” approach which focuses solely on the customer creating a whole new level of customer service. This business model has made Rackspace one of the largest companies in the web hosting market, with more than 550,000 customers currently under management.
The customer base encompasses all sectors and sizes from small businesses to market leaders and FTSE 250 clients, including Renault, Confused.com and Armynet, as well as clients in a variety of verticals including entertainment, healthcare and virtual hosting.
In recognition of outstanding customer service and employee relations, Rackspace won the overall award in the Management Today/Unisys Service Excellence Awards, 2005. Rackspace has been nominated for the customer service excellence awards for four consecutive years, winning their category for the past three years. The Customer Service Excellence Awards were set up to recognise those organisations that excel at serving customers, as well as to provide feedback and share good practices, enabling entrants to improve their performance.
The Business Requirement
Selling such a technical range of products and services is not always easy, so choosing the right sales people that also reflect the “Fanatical SupportTM” approach that makes Rackspace unique, is vital.
In the past Rackspace had always found it difficult to find individuals who had the passion and enthusiasm to sell managed hosting, as well as the basic telephone skills necessary to close the deal.
“Pareto Law’s reputation is testament to the service they provide. Their enthusiastic approach to recruitment was just what we were looking for and they were able to offer us candidates with real passion who get excited about us and what we do.”
Clarissa Gent, New Business Sales Manager, Rackspace Managed Hosting
The Solution
Rackspace met with Pareto Law in 2002 and was immediately impressed with the company’s approach to hiring graduates based on their attitude rather than their experience. Training could then be given to ensure the same level of expertise across the board.
Rackspace was keen to hire individuals that could demonstrate a passion outside of the workplace, in the hope that this enthusiasm could then be transferred into the sales office. From Pareto Law’s range of graduates Rackspace has hired a long course swimming champion, a first rate cornet player and an avid skier who flies to Switzerland at weekends to hit the slopes.
Once the right individuals have been hired, Pareto Law provides the training necessary to develop a successful sales team, from basic sales and account management, to negotiating skills and bespoke development courses.
After receiving the full training provided by Pareto Law, one graduate went on to earn £28,000 in commission in just one month – the most any member of the Rackspace sales team has ever made in the history of the company.
“The training is excellent. As a Pareto graduate myself I have been on the Pareto Law training courses – as has some of our more experienced sales staff. The outcomes are fantastic with graduates quickly moving up into management positions. The Pareto system works exceptionally well, and adapts with us as we grow, and as our requirements change.”
Clarissa Gent, New Business Sales Manager, Rackspace Managed Hosting
The Pareto Law Proposition
Pareto Law was founded on a belief that to achieve excellence you need the best. To achieve this Pareto Law has developed a uniquely rigorous selection method. From thousands of CVs each application is read in detail, before successful candidates are narrowed down and contacted by telephone for a first informal interview.
Successful graduates are invited to attend assessment days where they are interviewed and monitored by a team of experts backed by state-of-the-art psychometric testing. Following a further interview the candidate is briefed and put forward to a suitable prospective employer.
If successful, the graduate is offered a position and commences their new career with five days of intensive training facilitated by Pareto Law. The graduate will then return to Pareto for additional training and development throughout the early stages of their career.
Pareto Training also offers bespoke training to managers and seasoned sales professionals across all sectors with modular training sessions covering areas such as: presentation, negotiation, motivation, account management, cold calling and effective communication.