Henrico-based Dancing Elephants trains salespeople

Donna Rominiecki didn't see herself in a sales and marketing role until she completed a series of sales training classes offered by Dancing Elephants Achievement Group.

Rominiecki and her husband, Ron, own a license to operate Vmeals.com, a corporate catering service, for Richmond and Hampton Roads.

Dancing Elephants worked with Vmeals' corporate office in Charlottesville to customize a training program for licensed marketing representatives.

"I use the information I gathered through the program on a daily basis," Rominiecki said. "It made all the difference in the world in my bottom line. I continue to achieve great sales success because of what I learned."

Laura Posey and Will Turner started Dancing Elephants in March 2001.

The Henrico County-based company helps small-business owners and corporations increase their sales by implementing ethical sales training programs. It also sells a variety of online products such as books, CDs and do-it-yourself training courses.

"We create sales processes and teach people how to sell ethically," said Posey, the company's vice president.

Before starting Dancing Elephants, Posey worked as a regional sales manager for Nationwide Insurance and owned her own insurance agency, The Posey Agency in Chesterfield County.

Turner, the company president, had worked as director of marketing and sales for Wynne Residential Corporate Housing in Richmond.

"My job was to grow their operations and hire, train and manage the sales force," he said. "I loved that aspect of my job. I realized I could do what I had a passion for full time by working with small-business owners and salespeople, helping them become more successful in their businesses."

The two, who had known each other for several years, decided to form Dancing Elephants. Turner came to their first brainstorming session with a business proposal and a company name.

"As far as the name, I wanted something different," he said. "Dancing Elephants just popped into my head. I wanted to make sure when we worked with clients they would get results and feel the impact, so I thought that if you are in a room full of dancing elephants, you would feel the vibration and the impact."

Six months after the company was formed, Dancing Elephants had a minor setback. The company had lined up several contracts for business when the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place. Several customers canceled their contracts.

"We had to learn how to do things smarter and differently," Turner said.

Revenue at Dancing Elephants has increased on average about 60 percent each year since the company was founded.

"We spoke at a lot of events and we started monthly seminars geared toward increasing sales," Turner said. "They quickly became sold-out events for us."

They also relied on a unique marketing tool - a guarantee that their clients would increase sales by 20 percent.

"Our average client increases sales by 56 percent in one year," Turner said. "Everything we do is geared toward getting that long-term result."

Brian Curran, president of Chem-Dry of Richmond, which is based in Goochland County, believes that the Dancing Elephants class he took in 2006 gave him structure and direction.

"It teaches you about defining your clients and really catering to them, being a specialist instead of a generalist," he said.

Curran refers to Posey as his mentor.

"She's a fascinating instructor," he said. "As a speaker, she has you on the edge of your seat."

This year, Posey and Turner spun off the Elephant University. Now a separate company, Elephant University provides local courses and workshops for small-business owners, individuals and independent contractors.

"We are actively growing that side of the business through licensing," Posey said. "We have a licensee in North Carolina and one in Richmond."

Allan Young, CEO of ShelfGenie Franchise Systems, works with Dancing Elephants to upgrade the sales training program for the entire ShelfGenie franchise. The Atlanta-based company, which provides glide-out shelving, has more than 80 franchise and corporate locations in the United States as well as a manufacturing plant in Hanover County.

"Dancing Elephants' philosophy is similar to ours," he said. "It's not a hard-sell approach where you convince people to buy. Instead you listen to what people need and design a solution around those needs. The training has helped our sales."