Bandalier’s leadership team is focused on sustainable growth. Whether that means building bigger teams or finding new ways to work together, we’re on a quest for constant improvement. As we build bigger teams, we’ve iterated on our training process. Lilia Nunez Guerrero has been a key driver of those changes to our customer success and sales training processes. We recently caught up with her to discuss her experiences with Bandalier!
Beginning with Bandalier: Inside Sales and Program Management
Lilia joined the Bandalier team in February 2021. At the time, she was still in school, wrapping up a degree in Psychology at Berea College. With experience in hospitality and Berea College’s admissions office, Lilia was comfortable answering questions and highlighting the best parts of an experience. Those foundational skills, coupled with her relentless work ethic, helped her find success quickly with our team. As Lilia met with potential clients, her sales aptitude encouraged one client to re-assess their preference for experienced sales reps – which isn’t an easy change to make!
Lilia kept pushing herself after hitting the phones. She got a win on her first-ever cold call and maintained that momentum as she grew comfortable working with her client. Throughout the spring, she consistently exceeded her activity goals and pushed for more wins. Her Program Manager, Alex Boucard, made sure she kept growing. Alex constantly solicited feedback from Lilia and ran new roleplays and training sessions to help hone her skills.
As spring moved to summer, the wins slowed down. Lilia maintained her high activity rates, and her client was happy with her results. But she knew she could do more. Lilia started reaching out to other Bandalier teams, gathering as much feedback as she could from call reviews. She took those techniques back to her outreach and kept hunting for wins.
Around this time, Bandalier was looking for more folks to join our leadership team. When the Junior Program Manager role opened up, Lilia only applied after some encouragement:
“I didn’t even intend to apply – it had only been a few months since I started. But Alex encouraged me to do it.”
Working alongside Matt Krajnyk, Lilia quickly grew into the Program Manager role. But as 2021 wound down, she was ready to look for new opportunities.
“Program management wasn’t for me, and I was pretty candid about that. I talked to Courtney about it a bit, and then when Jeremy visited Kentucky, we talked about it more thoroughly. That’s when we discussed the Learning and Development role for the first time.”
Building with Bandalier: Sales Training, Learning, and Development
In early 2022, Lilia became one of our first Sales Trainers. In the past, our Program Managers trained every member of their team from the ground up. Our training process is intensive, and as Bandalier grew, that process became less efficient. With the advent of our Learning and Development team, we increased training time for our outsourced customer success and inside sales representatives. Working alongside Daniel Pressman, our Senior Director of People Operations, Lilia has developed an incredible wealth of resources to support our newest team members.
“I came in without experience, like most of our team members. So I asked myself what else would have helped me succeed, and how I could adapt Bandalier University for different learners. Kaitlyn and I went through training together, and we learned at way different paces, and in way different styles. From that, I asked myself – what did I need to learn, and how can I change my presentation style to suit different types of learners?”
Over the past year, Lilia’s helped improve our training process by leaps and bounds. Our team members still learn essential sales skills during their Bandalier University boot camp, but the information is delivered in ways that suit each person’s learning style. The “ecosystem of training” that Alex Acosta described in his interview is only possible thanks to Lilia’s hard work and constant collaboration with Daniel. It can be hard to quantify all of the improvements Lilia has helped us make – so we asked about her favorite projects instead:
“The first thing that comes to mind is my list of topics for our Workshop Wednesdays – I have recordings of past trainings saved, and lists of upcoming topics. I think we have about 20 ready to use, and we keep adding more to the list.
I think what’s been most impactful are the scenarios I prepared for training role-plays. In the past, trainers would have to come up with the scenario and pain points on the spot. Now, there’s a consistent list to refer to. That means that roleplay performance is easier to assess, and it saves time – people can just check the list and pick a scenario.”
Now, Lilia’s our Senior Manager of Learning and Development. But what’s next for her?
“I’m gunning for Pressman’s role,” she says with a laugh.
“I want to expand the Learning and Development Department, to offer more extensive courses. Over time, I’d like to develop a more concrete development structure to offer to our current team members and ongoing development opportunities for Bandalier alumni. Outside of Bandalier, I have a huge call for service. I want to give back to the Hispanic community and use my bilingual skills to do so.”
We’re excited to see Lilia keep growing with our Learning and Development team! You can connect with her on LinkedIn – or keep an eye on our blog for more updates.
