BYU Professor Receives Prestigious Stevie Award

Professor Gary Rhoads helped Zions Bank create a business performance training program that won a Gold Stevie Award for being the top sales training practice. PROVO, Utah – Sep 18, 2012 – The best in film vie for the Oscars and the best in television strive for an Emmy. But what do the world's best businesses compete for? The Stevie Awards.

Marriott School of Management professor Gary Rhoads earned a Stevie Award for helping Zions Bank win first place as the top sales training practice. The award was presented to Zions Bank at a ceremony in Las Vegas earlier this year.

The Stevie Awards promote excellence in the workplace, and they are becoming one of the most sought-after business sales and customer service recognitions in the world.

Rob Jeppsen, Marriott School alumnus and Zions Bank VP of commercial loan sales, asked Rhoads to help develop a training program to assist small- to medium-sized businesses succeed in sales.

"The goal is for companies to give their selling strategies a competitive advantage so they can succeed faster," Jeppsen says. "Our program is working across the board, and we wouldn't have been able to succeed without Gary's help."

Rhoads and his former student, Jeppsen, led a team to identify specific elements that can assure a business' success in sales when mastered. The Zions Bank training team teaches the six lessons to business owners and sales leaders and includes principles Rhoads teaches in his BYU classes.

The program has been delivered to nearly 500 businesses throughout Utah and Idaho in the past year and a half. Of those businesses, several have seen a 200 to 300 percent increase in sales, which led to Zions entering the program for a Stevie Award.

"Rarely have I seen a performance series or curriculum have such an impact as this did, but I am pleased to have been a part of it," Rhoads says.

Zions bested more than 200 training regimens in the international competition to make it to the finals. Utah's first bank was chosen over companies including The Brooks Company, iSpeak and Imparta of London.  

"The idea that a bank could help train businesses with sales was a new concept but was accepted by many of Zions' customers," Rhoads says. "It is rewarding to see curriculum developed at BYU produce results."

The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally recognized programs in accounting, business management, public management, information systems and entrepreneurship. The school's mission is to prepare men and women of faith, character and professional ability for positions of leadership throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.