| Professional Sales Skills: Refining and Extending Technique | |||
| 13 Sep 2010 | WS3038 | £245 | Birmingham City Centre |
| 14 Sep 2010 | WS3040 | £245 | Leeds City Centre |
| 15 Sep 2010 | WS3042 | £259 | London Euston |
| 15 Mar 2011 | WS3468 | £259 | London Euston |
| 16 Mar 2011 | WS3469 | £249 | Leeds City Centre |
| 17 Mar 2011 | WS3470 | £249 | Birmingham City Centre |
| Click on dates above for details & booking | |||
The challenges being outlined by the coalition government are now becoming clear, with the emphasis on relationship with employers becoming even more critical for both funding and placing learners.
“Funding is driven by how well providers respond to the outcomes that employers want....Employers who can afford to contribute to their own skills and training do so.” Skills Funding Agency Chief Executive, Geoff Russell, July 2010
The state of the economy and Government finances can only intensify the pressure on the learning sector to increase employer contributions and grow non-funded business. It is almost certain that most Colleges and Providers will need to ensure that employers and/or learners make a significant contribution to the cost of training.
Indeed, a recent independent review of funding proposed just this, that government funding should be on the basis of matched funding with only contributions in cash qualifying. More information is available in the “Independent Review of Fees and Co-Funding in Further Education in England”
In addition it is likely that most providers will also need to explore new ways to increase the volume of business they get from existing clients, attract new employers and make better progress towards becoming the employers' first choice for all staff and management training.
For this to happen it is imperative that the front-line sales and business development teams are using professional techniques and approaches - techniques and approaches that have been proven to work.
This fast-paced, intensive but fun 1 day workshop is focussed on helping experienced sales and business development personnel operating within the training, education and skills sectors, to become more effective at increasing employer contributions, growing the levels of new/repeat business and meeting the challenges new funding mechanisms may demand.
Coming from a background and a sector where education and training has been “free” and consequently seen, by employers, as offering little real benefit, the sector will have to work hard if is it to take business away from the well-established purely commercial professional training suppliers. Many front-line teams, now tasked with selling learning and securing funding from employers, are poorly equipped for the challenge. Few come from a professional sales background and even fewer have received professional sales training.
Presenting the College/Providers' products and support-solutions in a way that makes them highly desirable to the employer is essential - and this applies equally to funded, part-funded and commercial programmes. Without these skills, business development opportunities will not be maximised.
If your front-line employer-facing teams are to generate the levels of employer contributions, new and repeat business expected of them, they will benefit hugely from being trained.
Many organisations already have business development teams in place - and this workshop is for them. It is designed to help those with experience of selling to employers, to improve their abilities, to get in front of the right people, make effective presentations and be more successful
Programme Aims and Objectives
As a result of participating in the programme participants will:
- Develop their current business development skills
- Improve their ability to generate income from employers
- Learn how to prepare and plan for success
- Understand how differing approaches to sales presentations can improve outcomes
- Develop new techniques to get in front of prospective customers
The workshop contains examples of real-world practice gleaned from a range of industries that have relevance to selling within the learning sector, as well as specific links to the training marketplace.
For Whom
This 1 day workshop is for employer facing staff from WBL providers and WBL Departments within FE Colleges, who are responsibility for employer engagement and delivering fee income and have some professional sales experience and/or training.
It is also suitable for managers wanting to understand the approaches and techniques that their experienced sales and business teams need to adopt if they are going to be successful in growing business levels further and faster.
Many of the techniques and approaches covered also have relevance to those sales and business development teams in other sectors and industries where the softer, but still effective, sales techniques need to be used.
Content
Professional sales planning
- Building knowledge for success as a business development professional
- Business knowledge
- Industry knowledge
- Company knowledge
- Product knowledge
- Selling knowledge
- Develop the attitude to be successful in business development
Professional sales skills
- How to negotiate and create a win win outcome
- Understand the account management skills that grow business with existing customers
- Develop and practise time management techniques required in business development
- Learn the value and rôle of marketing in business prospecting
- How to set targets for appointment setting
- Other sources for appointment setting
Rules of Professional Selling
- Develop the people skills needed to be successful in business development
- Recognise and practise the value of questioning as the key to success
- Learn how and what to listen for
- Learn how to link results/benefits to customer needs
- Develop confidence in discussing price
Using professional Business Development techniques
- Develop personal skills to support the likelihood of a positive outcomes
- Learn what words to use and not to use
- Understand the value of service and long term relationships
- Develop negotiation skills useful in a business development environment
Presenter
The workshop is presented a sales and business development professional who has taken the most effective and customer focussed techniques from the commercial sector development and adapted them to the learning and skills market place in a way that strengthens the, all important, provider/employer relationship and grows business levels too.
Bespoke Programmes for Internal Delivery
Please note: Our professional sales skills programmes are modular in nature and when the programmes are run as internal staff development workshops on clients premises we can adjust conent to meet specific areas of need. For example coverage of an individual element such as "overcoming objections" could be extended to form a full one day workshop.
Related Sales and Business Development for Learning Providers Workshops
- Professional Sales Skills: An Introduction to
- Professional Sales Skills: Effective Appointments and Presentations
- Professional Sales Skills: Overcoming Objections, and Closing Effectively
- Professional Sales Skills: Refining and Extending Technique
- Professional Sales Skills: 2 day Fast Track Programme
- Professional Sales Skills: 3 day programme
- Professional Sales Skills: Understanding The Key Techniques
- Sales Techniques for Non-Sales Teams
- Strategic Overview of the Learning & Skills Sector - 2010
Certificates of Professional Development.
Formal Certificates of Development will be issued, by post, to participants who complete this workshop. These certificates will detail the key learning aims and the face-to-face learning hours undertaken, enabling participants to update their CPD records and logs accordingly. The workshop also allows time, during the day, for participants to reflect on and record their personal learning development and consider how best to apply the knowledge gained on return to work. This element of the programme is designed to maximise the benefits from attending and enable participants to make better review judgments when recording their CPD activities.