Australian Adventure!

At the start of November specially selected performers headed across the world to Melbourne Australia, to learn about the exciting new sports division, which will be coming to the UK on the 5th of December.

In 2000, sports launched in Australia’s fastest growing city, Melbourne, and like the city, the division is expanding. Following this, in August 2009, after conquering the rest of Australia, it traversed the short distance across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand. Due the success of this expansion into New Zealand, the sports division is set to open with The Coulson Organisation in the UK, who will then take it across the pond to be launched in California.

Whilst in Melbourne, the guys are being coached in business and events by the best leaders Australia has to offer; nevertheless it is one of our own, Nathan Moffat, who is outshining them all by consistently highrolling, with the rest of our guys hot on his heels. However it is not only the guys in the field who are excelling in this new environment, Katie has been learning all the behind the scenes and administration procedures that allows these guys to go out and perform as well as they do. Katie will be coming back two weeks before the other guys and will be charged with getting everything set up to allow the new division to be launched as soon as the others come back in order to hit the target of the 5th of December.

Yet it hasn’t been all work for the guys while over there, on Saturday night, a massive party was held at Baroque Bar, with canapés, drinks and a lot of embarrassing dance moves. Some of the guys are also being given the chance to go on a road trip to Ballarat, a city 65 miles North West of Melbourne, and are extremely excited about it.

Whilst all the guys are loving their time in Melbourne, they cannot wait to get back to the UK and get started pioneering this new division.

VSO Training in Ireland

This month some of our top performers were invited over to Ireland to meet not only the person who began the important task of representing VSO in Ireland, but also their ambassador and Rose of Tralee , Clare Kambamettu! Claire has been heavily involved in promoting and seeing firsthand the importance of this charity. She recently visited Africa to see how much of an affect the fundraising we generate in this country can benefit others. This as you can imagine was not only a hugely humbling experience for our own fundraisers but also deeply rewarding, one of those lucky enough to go on the trip commented, ‘Hearing from someone who has experienced firsthand the help the VSO provide, really brought to light the importance of our own part in the process and made us all proud to be involved, no matter how small our contribution’.

After the inspirational speech by Clare Kambamettu, it was the turn of our top performers to give a presentation on what works for them in the field and what techniques helped them earn a place on the trip. The focus of the presentation was qualifying and dealing with the most common blocks and negatives they encounter, as the majority of the people in the audience were brand new to charities.

As mentioned they got to meet Daryl Burrowes who started to fundraise for VSO in Ireland from within his own office. His vision alone has helped secure thousands of long term donors, through whose help, the VSO will teach and create opportunities for people who are not as fortunate as we are in the UK and Ireland. His enthusiasm and drive for such an influential charity ‘greatly inspired, and give us a renewed energy to take into the field’ (Michael Lennon).

Needless to say all the guys involved felt refreshed in their knowledge of the charity and also motivated to continue with their hard work!

Appco Summer Rally August 2011

This year’s summer rally held in the Excel Arena London was proved to be no disappointment to the Coulson Organisation.

The arena was packed full of the offices from throughout England, Scotland, Wales, Northern and Southern Ireland each office anticipating their own recognition for the years hard work. Our office was no exception, as our guys and girls dressed to impress; we headed to the arena and were greeted by an atmosphere a football ground would be jealous of! As the lights shone and music played everyone got into the spirit singing along and cheering each other as their names and achievements were read out in front of 5,000 people.

Our very own David Carruthers, Elise Ebole, Rebecca Foster, Nathan Moffat and Iain Dodds were privileged to have earned the ‘Sales Achievement Award’ showing their hard work and dedication had certainly paid off. Especially Elise who has been with the company only a few short months!

Next it was the turn of our leaders, who were up for the ‘Leader Achievement Awards’, this was an important award showing that they have the qualities and skills to be an effective leader and role model for our newest members of the team, again we were not disappointed as David Carruthers and Ross Stokoe were lucky to have proved themselves more than worthy of such an award.

As the awards flowed it was time for the ‘Leaders Excellence Award’ in which David Carruthers and Ross Stokoe showed that they have the necessary skills and have worked hard to maintain a standard throughout the year.

And finally the ‘Sales Achievement Award ‘which is to recognise a positive attitude to sales as well as excellent results again our very own David Carruthers walked away with a clean sweep in the awards proving he is definitely one to watch for the future!

Congratulations to everyone who received awards at this year’s rally and here’s to another 6 months of success!!!

New York, New York!

Dave Coulson was privileged to be invited Over to New York by Vice President Michael Scully. The aim of the visit was to not only show how the office there has expanded within the last 9 months but also to discuss a possible move into the Sport Division which we will be pioneering very shortly.

It was to be an eye opening experience with Dave joining in, not only with the morning meetings but also spending time out of the office in the infamous Queens district with some of the their own guys there. When we asked Dave about his experience he simply stated that although he was many miles from home with people from completely different backgrounds he still felt the same enthusiasm and dedication that he would expect from his own team back in Newcastle.

Newsflash!!!!!!! Sports division is coming to Newcastle

The Coulson Organisation received some amazing news this week. We are delighted to announce that we have been specially selected by Appco to pioneer the Sports Division in the UK.

The division is already a huge success in Australia and the Coulson Organisation will see it being rolled out in the UK this September, beginning with our office location here in Newcastle.

Dave Coulson will be taking 3 members of the coulson team along with one of the Administrators to Melbourne in Australia for three weeks to train and be coached in this exciting new division.

The new division will be running alongside our existing campaigns meaning we will need to at least double the size of our team over the next few months. It is safe to say that the Coulson Organisation is going from strength to strength in 2011. We can hardly contain our excitement!

Liam Jones a leader at the Coulson Organisation said of the news "When me and the rest of the team found out that the Coulson Organisation would be pioneering the new sports division in the UK the office nearly errupted. A new product, a new challenge and lots of opportunity! It is fantastic news and the fact we have been given the opportunity to do this shows that all of our hard work has paid off and has been recognised. I am determined to be massively involved in the new division when it launches in September"

Crew Leaders Meeting

Throughout the year there are constantly members of the team excelling within the office. Due to his constant high standards and dedication our very own Ross was specially invited to the Crew Leaders event of the year at Appco headquarters in London.

He spent a day with other successful crew leaders from the company learning more about their own methods and also hearing from some of the prominent members of the Organisation. It also showed how far he has come since joining our company.

He learned some of the most important things about continuing his development such as ‘Time Management’ from Vice President Paul Birkett, ‘Building a team and atmosphere’ from Vice President Simon Murphy and ‘Planning ahead’ from Appco Managing Director Mike Blaine. Ross took away some invaluable advice from these visionary leaders in the company and is already beginning to implement the new ideas within his own team and continue his own journey.

Ross said of the experience-“ It’s the best meeting I have ever been to because it was most relevant to myself. Recently I have been to owners meetings and obviously several Rising Stars but since joining Coulson in 2009, this has been the most helpful. I am going to use it to change a lot of things in my Team and have plenty of new contacts I can use to network!”

Future Owners and Rising Stars- Newcastle

This weekend saw the First Coulson Organisation Rising Star and Future Owners meetings of 2011.

The day kicked off with the Owners, Assistant Owners, Administrators and Team Leaders getting together for the Future Owners Meeting. These are held at least every three months and are interactive workshops which allow the team to share any new ideas and ensure the continuation of high standards across the entire board from customer service and acquisition right through to paperwork standards and team coaching. The outcome of the meeting will mean lots of new procedures being put in place over the next few weeks which will greatly benefit all of our team and our clients.

After lunch the exciting Rising Stars meeting began. Key Players from the Organisation ran various topics, and we were also very lucky to have two special guest speakers from some our sister companies in attendance, sharing some of their personal experiences and top tips throughout the afternoon.

As the day drew to a close, the only thing left to do was announce the eagerly anticipated Rising star Award Winners for the Quarter........

A massive well done and congratulations go to Sean Kennedy and James Chudleigh who thoroughly deserve their awards, which recognise all of their hard work and dedication over the past few months and are definitely ones to watch for the future!

Appco Industry Awards

The Coulson Organisation travelled to the Appco Industry awards ceremony in Birmingham this week.

The prestigious event is all about recognising the achievements of individuals throughout the year and rewarding them for their hard work and fantastic results.The Coulson Organisation, were not to be disappointedwith members of the team picking up countless awards in the Sales achievement, Sales excellence, Leadership achievement and Leadership excellence award categories watched by over 600 attendees.

David Coulson was awarded a certificate of appreciation for his regular contributions to the Deak Kum Pa orphanage in Laos, a fantastic project which is providing orphans with food, better living conditions and the chance to obtain an education.

Dave Carruthers was also recognised for his well deserved promotion to Assistant Ownership.

Not only was the day about the awards, we were also treated to special guest speakers from some of the clients we have represented over the past 12 months describing the huge impact our work has had on them. We also heard from some of our charitable beneficiaries with some moving words on how our work has touched their lives.

Also a massive Well done and congratulations to all of the Coulson Organisation team who in 2010 raised over £1.7 million for the charitable clients we represent!

Coulson Award Winners 2011

Sales Achievement- Alex Treddenick, Chris Blakeley,

Dave Carruthers, George Smith, Iain Dodds, Joe Parker, Martin Phillips, Ricky Gosling, Scott Tarry

Sales Excellence- Alex Treddenick, Iain Dodds

Leader Achievement- Dave Carruthers, Ross Stokoe

Leader Excellence- Dave Carruthers

To see more pictures from the day and other events go to our gallery page

Get Qualified Success

Back in August 2010, the Coulson Organisation launched the Get Qualified Scheme, a chance for members of the Coulson team to obtain nationally recognised qualifications, completing NVQ’s whilst working in their normal daily roles.

We initially trialled the scheme with Five FR’s and we are delighted to announce that Allison, Ross, Iain, Debbie and Dave have now completed the program and been awarded with their NVQ certificates.

Well done everyone!

We are beginning the next set of enrolments in the coming weeks so if you are interested, or, for more information please see our Get Qualified page and Allison’s Testimonial

Quality training session

A training session was held at the Newcastle office for Owners, Team Leaders and Administrators to ensure the high standards which we pride ourselves on were being maintained throughout our expansion to ensure we are continuously providing the high quality to our clients, which we are renowned for.

The day included many topics, covering customer acquisition, the monitoring of attrition rates, customer service and generally ensuring the continuation of high standards across the board.

An interactive workshop was also held throughout the day to enable everyone to get involved and participate fully.

Everyone walked away having learnt something new that would benefit them in their daily routine.

Well done and keep up the good work!