SAMPLE FEATURE ARTICLE FOR COMPANY NEWSLETTER

XYZ’s new sales training facility officially opened its doors with a flurry of balloons, a snip of a gently draped ribbon, and with the resounding applause of more than 100 sales consultant trainees and staff.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony, held on December 6th, was the culmination of the year and a half construction project resulting in XYZ’s brand new, eight-story office building in Center City Philadelphia.

"It’s incredible," exclaims Harris Jones, Vice President and Director of Field Training and Development for XYZ. "It’s a state of the art training facility. We have fantastic space, wonderful lighting, and I couldn’t be happier."

"I’m pleased that our sales consultants will now have a first-rate training facility with an atmosphere that is very conducive to learning," he adds.

The training facility encompasses about two-thirds of the building’s third floor, while the remaining third houses office space for sales training staff and managers. "It’s just a matter of going through these doors, and there we are. Voila! The training rooms," says Jones.

The new building, at Ten Center City Plaza, will especially save time for both staff and the sales consultants. Prior to the grand opening, training classes took place in XYZ’s adjacent office tower at One Town Hall Plaza. Rooms on the third floor conference center had been set up into makeshift classrooms. However, sales training offices were on the 13th floor, and getting back and forth between those floors required switching elevators on the ninth floor.

"I can’t tell you how much time we lost waiting for elevators, and what a hassle it was for people to constantly be shuffling things back and forth between the third floor training rooms and the 13th floor offices," explains Jones. "Now, we’re all together on one floor."

Sales consultants will now be using five spacious, broad-windowed classrooms for their training, with each classroom well stocked with the appropriate visual projectors and monitors needed for instruction. Each classroom can comfortably accommodate 40 to 50 trainees, allowing ample space for XYZ’s occasional expansion mode that includes a training class of up to 250 sales consultants.

"We made do, we did the best we could over at Ten Center City Plaza, but now at One Town Hall Plaza, this isn’t a conference center, this is your sales training center," Jones enthusiastically announced during the brief ceremony -- comments met with applause and appreciation.

But before the sales consultants actually took their places behind the brand new training desks and tables, they all gathered in the facility’s new Sales Training Study for a reception.

"Here I see couches, nice furniture, and nice carpeting," says Sales Consultant Bob Smith, whose territory includes Macon, Georgia. "There’s a very homey feeling so when you’re studying, it will be very relaxed," he adds.

The sales consultants, who were in the first group to use the new classrooms, already had the first three-week phase of their training in the old facility. But before sitting down to their final two-week phase in the new building, they had a chance to tour the spacious classrooms.

"It makes a big difference for us," says Sales Consultant Laura Brown of Los Angeles, California. "It’s wide, the rooms look really nice, and everything is brand new."

"Before we were scattered," says Sales Consultant Jennifer Hall, whose territory includes Southeastern Michigan. "But now, everyone’s going to be in the same room, and I think that helps a lot when you’re trying to get ideas and study with other people."

"Now we have our own little paradise here," she adds.

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