Unilever Sri Lanka recently joined hands with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) to launch two tailor-made programmes; ‘Certificate in Sales Management’ and ‘Diploma in Sales Management’, to nurture and develop the knowledge and capabilities of the Unilever sales force, thereby equipping them to embrace challenges and future proof the business.
The programme hopes to upskill the company’s Sales and Merchandising Representatives, and Promoter Cadre employees including Beauty Advisors, Category Assistants, Supervisors and Project Managers, across all channels.
The launch event held at the SLIM Business School - Colombo, saw over 400 third-party Unilever employees being made eligible to follow the academic programmes, enabling them to further their career growth and progression. The event, held in the presence of Unilever and SLIM delegates, was broadcasted live to all SLIM students.
Sharing his thoughts on the inauguration, Bathiya Dayaratne, Customer Development Director of Unilever Sri Lanka, said, “The launch of our two exclusive courses comes at a time when our economy is under severe stress, with companies looking to curtailing their investments on training and development. We, however, firmly believe that investing behind learning and capability is crucial to unleashing the dynamism and true potential of our people to lead and future proof our organisation during these turbulent times.”
Bathiya further added “The course content has also been curated with the greatest attention to detail, to make it compatible with the daily work scope of our outer core employees. As we embark on this journey together with SLIM, we look forward to upskilling our entire sales force to help our company serve our consumers better and win big in this VUCA environment.”
Commenting at the launch event, Nuwan Gamage, SLIM President said, “A skilled sales force is an asset to an organisation, especially for a market leader. SLIM, being the national body for marketing on identifying the need to upskill the sales staff in organisations, introduce tailor-made programmes for this purpose.”
“With the new programme inaugurated, SLIM will groom Unilever’s sales staff to think out-of-the-box. Via a very practical oriented training schedule, they will be endowed with the knowledge and skills to better service the market, achieve greater heights in sales management and add value to the company’s growth and sustainability. As has been the practice this time around too, Unilever has partnered with the right mentoring entity that is SLIM, to fulfil its objectives.” Added Nuwan.
Constantly striving to enhance the sales and marketing competency of its sales force, Unilever’s partnerships with SLIM date back to 2011.
Over the past 84 years, Unilever has been deeply rooted in Sri Lankan society, curating a landscape that preserves and nurtures the true Sri Lankan way of life. Enhancing the livelihoods of the communities it operates in will continue to be at the forefront of this effort as it continues to set industry standards.
SLIM is the apex body for Sri Lankan Marketers. Mandated to uplift the sales and marketing professions in Sri Lanka, its vision is to lead the nation’s efforts towards economic prosperity, with a mission to establish sales and marketing as the driving force to enhance business and national value alike.
*From left to right: Chathura Ganegoda, Head of Customer Development Excellence – Unilever Sri Lanka; Deepal Wickramasinghe, Regional Sales Manager – Unilever Sri Lanka; Dinusha Ekanayake, Head of Modern Trade – Unilever Sri Lanka; Bathiya Dayaratne, Customer Development Director – Unilever Sri Lanka; Nuwan Gamage, President – SLIM; Chinthaka Perera, Vice President Education – SLIM; Sanath Senanayake, CEO/Executive Director – SLIM and Dr. Kapila Fonseka, Head of Education – SLIM, post the signing of the Unilever-SLIM partnership agreement.