The podcast is in French, but the transcription for the deaf and hard of hearing provided with the podcast is translated. This allows for reading the content in Dutch and English. Also note that with a Chrome browser extension: "Google Translate", this text can be read in all languages supported by the extension, making this podcast available in your native language.

Episode #001 / Series: The voices of our clients – Valérie Gérard

Call International: 20 years of human, bold and passionate collaboration with PHCom

Leave a voice message for Valérie or Camille!

In this episode, Camille De Meeûs interviews Valérie Gérard, director of Call International, for a deeply human and sincere conversation. For over 20 years, Call International and PHCom have been building a relationship based on listening, trust... and a lot of boldness.

They talk about telephone prospecting, client proximity, embodied values, and also a constantly evolving reality: B2B language training. Through anecdotes and memories, Valérie highlights the importance of relationships, human connection, and commercial agility.

#B2BProspecting #LanguageTraining #EthicalSales #CustomerRelationship #PHCom #CallInternational #B2BPodcast #VoicesOfOurClients

Camille de Meeûs: [00:06:33] And above all, daring—because to dare is to move forward (Valérie Gérard: Exactly). You can really feel the passion, it's such a joy to have a guest like you for this podcast. A quick question: there are many training centres in Belgium (Valérie Gérard: Yes), so competition is quite high, right? How do you stand out?

Valérie Gérard: [00:06:50] That initial support, as I said, is really crucial. We're still working in a handcrafted way—we don’t rely on artificial intelligence to test people, we use human intelligence. Every person starting a training course at Call International gets an online meeting—because we can’t always be physically present in companies—with one of our so-called 'pedago-designers'. These people assess the level, needs, learning profile, and then make a tailored training recommendation. That’s something quite unique. What also sets us apart is our innovative learning methodology, which we teach all our trainers. Trainers are selected because they teach their native or near-native language, confirmed by native speaker trainers. They're trained by us in our learning methods. No one starts with a client without going through our hands to learn and apply our training techniques, including memory retention steps. Natural language learning starts orally—otherwise you pick up bad pronunciation habits—and then we build structure through writing. Finally, everything is re-automated through roleplays, games, and debates at higher levels. That’s the real distinction at Call International. And as I mentioned, we're a centre for both language and communication training. So for advanced learners, we also focus on communication techniques in another language. Take public speaking: it’s hard—I know, I’m doing a podcast now! But delivering a good presentation in a foreign language? That's twice the challenge. Our specialised communication trainers work on both fronts: the language—sentence structures, key expressions—and the delivery—hand gestures, tone of voice, impact, eye contact (Camille de Meeûs: The intention too) The intention, exactly—how do you get across a difficult message? How do you manage possible objections at the end of a presentation? These are all techniques we teach our learners too.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:09:25] When learning a language, some people just seem to pick it up faster. Take me: I’m not at all gifted for it. I’ve got friends who spend three weeks in Italy and suddenly speak it—not fluently, but they can hold everyday conversations. That’s the hard part for me!

Valérie Gérard: [00:09:43] You used the keyword: the ear. Language learning mainly happens through the ear and its ability to distinguish the sounds of the language you're learning. Here's a story I love because it helps demystify language learning struggles: a baby is born with what musicians call absolute pitch—the ear is open to all sounds from all languages. But depending on the language the child is raised in, the ear closes itself to sounds that aren’t meaningful. The narrower the sound range of the mother tongue, the harder it becomes in adolescence or adulthood to learn new languages, because the ear simply loses the sensitivity to pick up those unfamiliar sounds and transmit them properly to the brain. The brain then instructs the speech apparatus to reproduce the sound. Tiny muscles in our middle ear vibrate tiny bones, which send sound to the brain to be decoded. Our brain uses what it knows—native sounds—to reproduce foreign ones. That’s why we get the classic “very nice” French accent in English—apparently charming, but when you’re a CEO…

Camille de Meeûs: [00:11:08] Not really ideal.

Valérie Gérard: [00:11:09] Exactly—not always ideal. What also sets us apart at Call International is that we’re the only training provider in Belgium offering a solution to this. We have access to a one-of-a-kind self-learning platform that can retrain the middle ear’s small muscles, making them flexible again so they can vibrate much faster and pass on high-pitched sounds—like those in Dutch. It’s not about intelligence when a French speaker struggles to learn Dutch—it’s about the ear’s ability to hear and reproduce those high sounds correctly.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:11:58] Honestly, I’m fascinated by what you’re sharing. You can feel that Call International has strong values. Human connection clearly matters a lot to you—you're not all in on digitalisation, unlike what we hear in most companies today. What other values are important to you?

Valérie Gérard: [00:12:15] I would never dismiss digitalisation or AI—it’s a goldmine and helps us a lot. For example, if we’re told: “Here’s a target group in passenger transport, we need a custom training path,” we can prompt ChatGPT: “Help me design a strong course for people in this field, with 30 hours of training.” It gives great starting points. But still, a human trainer leads the sessions. There’s so much emotion in training—especially language learning. You first need to build trust. We’ve got small tools for that. Then a near-emotional bond often forms with the trainer—that’s a huge lever for motivation, learning, and memory. And I don’t think any AI agent will replace that anytime soon.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:13:18] The human factor remains essential—we mustn’t forget it. It needs repeating, restating, underlining.

Valérie Gérard: [00:13:23] And creativity too—how we approach topics. That’s something we really value in our trainers. Their approach matters enormously.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:13:33] Yes. And there's that empathic side (Valérie Gérard: Yes), listening, I mean, I presume that's all super important too. Valérie, let's talk now about the collaboration with PHCom. I believe we've been working together for about twenty years—tell us how it all began, and above all, why did Call International decide to call on PHCom back then?

Valérie Gérard: [00:13:49] Call International reached out to PHCom, I think it was the former director of Call International who met Stéphane at an event—you’d have to ask her the details, I can't remember them anymore—and she introduced him to us. And actually, Stéphane also had this very human, very nice approach to sales, so to speak, or at least to approaching new clients. And Call International simply wanted to develop its client portfolio, and it's true that having time to call people, open doors, arrange meetings, etc., wasn’t something we had back then, and it wasn’t exactly the most fun thing to do either. So personally, I came into this later on, because it was Patrick Wauquier, the founder of Call International, who took the initial meetings. Once a meeting is scheduled, you feel expected. It’s a bit of a different approach to dealing with a prospect when you're expected, rather than knocking on the door and having it closed right away. That's the spirit in which we turned to PHCom, and since the collaboration went really well, it continued. And it’s true that now, for the past few years, we’ve also had to do things a bit differently, approach people in a less direct way or via multiple channels at once, because that’s how life is now—social media, etc. We have to be able to use that.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:15:01] So, how does working with PHCom on a daily basis make Call International more productive?

Valérie Gérard: [00:15:07] Well precisely, there’s the whole phone call side, setting appointments, etc., which is a huge time saver for us. We're very busy on a daily basis; we’re a small team at Call International—seven or eight people on the admin side, not many more—so we’re all juggling multiple tasks. That’s something we can easily delegate. And the fact that we’ve been working with PHCom for so many years means they know us well, they know our clients and prospects well, they know what kind of actions work best, they understand Call’s values, they’ve taken them on board, they've really absorbed them. So when Sophie from PHCom calls on behalf of Call International, it’s just like someone from Call International calling—and that’s great, that kind of relationship is invaluable when it comes to working with PHCom.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:15:53] That’s great because you’re mentioning names from the team, etc. I know Sophie has been working on Call International for a long time. Do you perhaps have a little story or anecdote about your collaboration with PHCom?

Valérie Gérard: [00:16:05] A little story about working with PHCom? I don’t remember the exact names anymore, but I’ve definitely had several stories with different people at PHCom, including one person who handled making the calls, etc., and every year she would book a meeting with the same contact person at a company, pretty much at the same time each year, and she’d say, “Right, this year your coffee meeting with so-and-so at such-and-such company is set for this date.” And I’d go happily, I had a nice time with the person, but nothing ever came from those meetings. So each year I just went for coffee with that person for the fun of hearing her say she had loads of training projects that, in the end, never happened anyway. It’s kind of funny, really.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:16:47] It’s been 20 years—it might well go on for another 20, let’s hope!

Valérie Gérard: [00:16:51] I might not be around by then.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:16:52] What are your expectations at this point in the collaboration? Are there other things you'd maybe like to improve? How do you see the future?

Valérie Gérard: [00:16:59] What I really appreciate is the listening, and also the fact that we’re not stuck in rigid models. Up until March 2020, so five years ago now, Covid, I had meetings lined up by PHCom and was practically on the road all week, or at least three days a week, visiting clients and businesses. I loved that—I really did. I loved discovering what companies did, soaking up the vibe, the culture, seeing how we were received. Was it a rushed chat between meetings, or did they take time? That kind of thing... It allowed me to discover loads of places around Belgium, which was really great. Then March 2020: everything stopped.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:17:37] Everything came to a halt!

Valérie Gérard: [00:17:38] Everything stopped. No room for training in Belgium anymore, no room for language training—we were really sidelined for several months. And I’d always said I’d never do an online meeting, and now I almost never do face-to-face meetings anymore. I really miss it—I keep telling Sophie, “If you can get me an in-person meeting, please do—I’m dreaming of going back into companies, I miss it so much.”

Camille de Meeûs: [00:18:03] Yes, and that’s so much a part of Call International’s values (Valérie Gérard: Yes)—the human connection, that presence, that intention (Valérie Gérard: Exactly) to be with others. So I totally understand.

Valérie Gérard: [00:18:10] Online meetings are fine, they save time, but I feel they cut into the relationship a lot more—the kind of things that nourish the connection and make it possible to chat about “Oh, you came from far? Was there traffic? What’s the weather like today?” It has nothing to do with business, but it helps to build a rapport.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:18:28] It’s what we call an Icebreaker (Valérie Gérard: Exactly). And we use that all the time in prospecting—we take advantage of those moments to get to the heart of the matter. So yes, it’s important (Valérie Gérard: Yes) and it’s definitely getting lost with the digital shift (Valérie Gérard: Yes) and remote interactions.

Valérie Gérard: [00:18:40] If I had one wish, it would be to really go back to seeing people again, spending time with them, and getting an even deeper understanding of their needs.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:18:49] I was going to say—we’ll pass the message on to Sophie then.

Valérie Gérard: [00:18:52] Brilliant. I’ll tell her myself—I see her, because the great thing is that once a month she comes to spend a day at Call in Waterloo, which is great. So even though I’m not getting as many meetings in companies now, I do get to meet with her, so we try to find alternatives.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:19:07] But people’s mindsets have really changed since Covid, even evolved. It’s hard to go back (Valérie Gérard: Yes), isn’t it? People enjoy the comfort of working from home, not having to travel, so I think there’s a whole trend around that and companies need to adapt (Valérie Gérard: Yes). And I can clearly see that it’s a key factor for you.

Valérie Gérard: [00:19:23] Yes, and it varies regionally too—because, for instance, in Brussels, 70% of our classes are still online, but in our Liège centre it’s the opposite, we’re more at 30% online and the rest in person. So companies and mindsets are different. I think the social culture is different, and traffic issues contribute to that too—so we’re dealing with very different challenges and ecosystems.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:19:49] Finally, Valérie, could you give three words that describe your collaboration with PHCom?

Valérie Gérard: [00:19:55] I’d say partnership, because that’s hugely important—it’s really about understanding each other’s needs, expectations and challenges, and I think PHCom really delivers on that. Passion—the passion for what we do, both at PHCom and at Call International—I think that’s extremely important, and it’s one of Call’s core values as well. And I’d say a third value that’s very important to us, that we really care about at Call International, and which I also find at PHCom, is: boldness. The boldness not to close doors, not to get bogged down in well-trodden paths. If something doesn’t work, it’s okay—we’ll have tried. We’ll try something else. Always being willing to question ourselves, to reinvent the way we do things, the way we connect with people. And I think that’s probably what defines us best.

Camille de Meeûs: [00:20:44] Thank you so much Valérie for this interview—it was really great (Valérie Gérard: Thank you) talking with you, and all the best for what’s to come!

Valérie Gérard: [00:20:49] Thank you so much!