Mitel ransacks rivals for partner staff

Enda Kenneally has said that Mitel's recruitment plans will ensure that the firm meets its growth targets

Mitel is raiding the sales channels of competition in a bid to plug vacancies at its own partners.

The telephony manufacturer has launched the Mitel Sales Academy, which is designed to recruit experienced industry sales staff, train them for two months on Mitel kit and then place them at Mitel resellers.

Trainees will also be handed leads, ensuring that they have live prospects to work with when they arrive at the partner.

Mitel’s UK sales director Enda Kenneally, said the move would ensure Mitel has enough capacity to deliver on its growth expectations for the next two years.

“In the UK, Mitel is number one in SME and number two overall. If you are a good sales guy why would you not want to be selling the market-leading product?

“We will look to attract sales people from outside the Mitel community to increase the Mitel community and help deliver our future growth expectations,” he said.

Ty Gardner, managing director of Mitel partner Comms Solve Technologies, said he would use the academy, but urged the vendor to recruit from outside the industry.

“This is a brilliant idea as we are all looking for great sales people. A lot of the old sales guys are set in their ways, so we would welcome it if Mitel can get in some new blood and get them trained up on an application sale,” he said.

John Massey, managing director of Mitel VAR Actimax, said: “There is a large shortage of sales staff in the channel at the moment, so this is well worth doing.”