Finding good salespeople is hard but finding young and hungry talent is an even tougher task, which is why The Curious Lounge has launched a Sales Bootcamp to equip the next generation of salespeople with the skills needed to gain a top-class job and a route to a better life.

The four-week rolling course was launched in July by owners of the Reading-based co-working space, Louize Clarke and her partner Matt Bovey, with the aim of equipping people under the age of 30 with the confidence and skills to thrive.

The course, based in the town’s Pinnacle building, is part funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the European Social Fund with plans for the scheme to eventually be supported by commercial partners looking to hire young sales talent which has fallen through the cracks of the traditional educational system.

The current sales training pathway for youngsters is limited with many apprenticeships tied to exam results. However, Louize believes employers are missing out.

She said: “A normal application process will involve an interview or assessment which can last up to a day. Anyone, however, can perform for a day.

“We have our students for four weeks, get to know them, see them when they are having good and bad days and see how they develop. We then have a proper assessment so we are, in effect, de-risking the hire for companies that employ them at the end of their course.”

The Sales Bootcamp builds on The Curious Lounge’s Digital Gum programme which has trained more than 160 people in digital skills, across all age groups, who have felt digitally excluded, are at the start of their career journeys or have career gaps.

Storytelling, digital lead generation, team building, empathy and, crucially, confidence are all part of the training mix with Louize and the team having a novel approach to building confidence.

She explains: “One of the tasks that we ask students to perform is to go out to Reading train station, next to our offices, and get them to gather information from 10 strangers.

“Seeing people’s confidence grow is massive for us, as is seeing people who have really worked hard, put their all into it and then land a job at the end of it.”

Louize and Matt, who both honed their sales skills in the telecoms industry, say the selling landscape has changed beyond recognition in the past decade with data and digital marketing driving the shift.

She said: “Sales people need to have empathy with their customers and they need to understand sales storytelling. It is completely different now compared to the past where people would just pick up the phone and start bashing.

“We do a lot around team building as companies now say they don’t just want someone who stands on someone else’s head to get to the top – they want a salesperson to perform as part of a team.”