Hannah Simons
GWI recently partnered with Furza to deliver a bespoke training course to elevate their sales team performance. We recently caught up with GWIs senior leadership team to see how the sales team are doing since their training.
About GWI
GWI is a global leader in audience insights, empowering organisations to truly understand the people who matter most to their business. Built on data from over 3 billion consumers across more than 50 markets, GWI’s platform transforms complex research into clear, actionable intelligence.
Their mission is to bridge the gap between data and human behaviour, giving brands, agencies and innovators the power to see not just what people do, but why they do it.
Traditionally, GWI delivered its data through its platform, partnering closely with insights, research and media planning teams to enable deep, expert-level advice. As customer needs evolved, GWI expanded its engagement model to include marketing and sales teams, strategists, and senior leaders, all of whom required more intuitive ways to explore and apply data.
To address this demand, GWI introduced new access methods through tools such as Claude and OpenAI, enabling users to interact with data through simple, conversational prompts. This innovation delivers immediate access to GWI’s dataset, covering 3 billion consumers across 55 markets, without the need for extensive analytical expertise.
Challenge
With the expansion of GWIs product portfolio and platform offering, they recognised a need to enhance the skills and performance of their outbound sales team to ensure everyone was aligned and had the appropriate product and market knowledge required to sell effectively. GWI were looking for an external training provider that complimented the internal L&D they already had in place.
"We have seen that this change requires a new skill set and required us to invest in the ongoing enablement and development of our sales development team but also our account executives, account managers and our customer success managers."
Jacqui de Gernier, Chief Revenue Officer, GWI
Elevating GWIs sales performance through bespoke, tailored training
GWI was seeking a training solution that could elevate the performance of a diverse sales team, from early-career professionals to more experienced contributors. Their goal was to equip their team with a stronger outbound sales skill set that would directly support the company’s ambitious growth plans.
"We decided to engage with Furza due to two business priorities. Number one, the investment we make in hiring and developing all of our SDRs is really key to our success as a business. Secondly, like many tech businesses at the moment we have seen amplified importance of the pipeline we generate through our outbound activities. So that’s an area we have focused on with Furza and we have really seen the impact of that with the results we’re driving through outreach in the last couple of months in particular."
Jacqui de Gernier, Chief Revenue Officer
Following an in-depth consultation with GWI’s senior leadership team, Furza designed a fully bespoke two-day training programme tailored specifically to GWI’s objectives and commercial challenges. The programme combined practical sales methodology and actionable exercises to ensure every participant, regardless of role or experience level, could immediately apply their new skills into their day-to-day work.
"The key thing for me was the entirety of the course and how flexible it was. We were able to review the work that was put together initially and work on it together, so it felt more like a partnership. It was more consultative and I think that’s why it landed so well with the team. When the training was delivered, Ahamed did a fantastic job of getting to know the team and really took his time to get to know the individuals. The feedback from the team was fantastic and we’ve definitely seen the increase in confidence in the team. I would 100% recommend Furza."
Joshua Silvera, Senior Global Director of Sales Development
Furza’s Academy Director, Ahamed Al-Khalifa, delivered the training onsite at GWI’s London headquarters to a cohort of 18 sales team members. Over the two days, the group engaged in interactive workshops and scenario-based practice, all designed to sharpen performance and create a unified, high-impact approach to sales across the team. Post training, the senior sales leaders at GWI noticed a massive drive in confidence, day to day and specifically in outbound activity. This resulted in a quicker time to ramp and sales members hitting their targets significantly faster.
"From the start Furza showed us the training would be tailored to not just us and the team, but to what we sell as well. Ahamed did an amazing job at bringing everyone out their comfort zone, without making them feel uncomfortable. It was such a nice environment to learn new concepts and upskill existing ones whilst not making anyone feel singled out or nervous about taking part."
Alfie Miller, SDR Team Lead
If you’d like to find out more about GWI and their services, please visit their website at gwi.com.
