Selling Skills Training

Six ways to use EQ – or Emotional Intelligence – to win more work

by Gary Williams | Dec 7, 2018 | Blog, How we help clients grow, Selling Skills Training

In this RICS article, Gary Williams of Questas, discusses EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, and how it can help you get the edge over your competitors.

Embrace the human side of business relationships and you will be more confident with clients, more effective with sales and – quite probably – more content in yourself.

Now, more than ever, EQ is an essential ‘tool’ to have in the bag, espeically if you see yourself as an introverted, analytical and detailed person, like many surveyors and engineers.

Let’s look at six ways to demonstrate EQ

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Business development planning

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Business Development for Technical Experts

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Six ways to use EQ – or Emotional Intelligence – to win more work

In this RICS article, Gary Williams of Questas, discusses EQ, or Emotional Intelligence, and how it can help you get the edge over your competitors. Embrace the human side of business relationships and you will be more confident with clients, more effective with sales...

First Impressions Count: Creating a positive impact at a first client meeting.

First impressions Whether your industry is engineering, law, property or the public sector, here are some ways you can prepare and optimise the opportunity at your first business development meeting with new clients. The Dos and Don'ts if you will, of creating the...

Be Brilliant! How to prepare for that effective first meeting

Initial meetings with potential clients or with new people at existing clients are critical opportunities. This applies to every industry whether it be engineering, law, property or commercial. A first meeting can be the difference between years of work and no work at...

Quash imposter syndrome and optimise the business opportunity

Attending a ‘World Leading’ Event can be very daunting. Don’t let being a little fish in a big pond overwhelm you – Gary Williams shares how he addressed his concerns and went prepared to optimise the opportunity. I recently attended #MIPIM2018. It was my first time...

Make your business development planning more successful

Having worked with different professional services clients over the years, I’ve seen many try to transform their approach to sales (or business development, if you prefer), says Annabel Miller. Some of these organisations have put together a formal transformation...

Sales secrets of high growth companies

Gary Williams looks at the impact of investing in sales ability Winning more than your fair share of the ‘pie’ A recent McKinsey article focused on the ‘Sales secrets of high-growth companies’. It wasn’t focused on any particular sector, but when thinking...

Working together for better KAM

This article originally appeared in PM magazine. For further details go to http://www.pmforum.co.uk. Chris Founds and Gary Williams look at harnessing the power of collaboration to achieve successful Key Account Management. Collaboration is a word used more in...

How To Be Brilliant At Winning Bids & Tenders

Competitive bidding is an essential part of everyday business, but it’s often seen as a chore. Sarah Amery shares an effective model that will boost your ability to create successful bids. Sometimes its difficult to know where to start or how to organise content,...

Transforming your sales programme

This article originally appeared in the October 2017 edition of Pi magazine, published by Howden Insurance Brokers Is it time your team changed its approach to sales? Read on to discover some practical advice about transforming your sales programme and making...

Our top ten tips for non-confident networkers

Do you dread the thought of attending an event with the purpose of networking? Annabel Miller shares her top ten networking nuggets. It is fairly daunting: attempting to ingratiate yourself with strangers, make meaningful conversation and hopefully leave with useful...

Sales secrets of high growth companies

by Gary Williams | Feb 6, 2018 | Blog, Sales confidence, Selling Skills Training

Gary Williams looks at the impact of investing in sales ability

Winning more than your fair share of the ‘pie’

A recent McKinsey article focused on the ‘Sales secrets of high-growth companies’. It wasn’t focused on any particular sector, but when thinking about professional services, there are some interesting ideas about how to drive organic growth through the development of people. Having worked with thousands of professionals over many years, we have recognized that you can’t turn an engineer/lawyer/surveyor into a sales-person (or extremely rarely), but you can equip them with the tools, techniques and confidence to make an impact in their markets.

McKinsey surveyed more than a 1000 wide-ranging companies and found that a rigorous focus on sales training is a clear differentiator between the fast and slow-growing companies. “Just under half the fast growers spend significant time and money on sales training, compared to 29 percent of slow growers.” What was really interesting though is that among the high-growers there was a feeling that they still needed to do more in areas such as ‘Understanding customers specific needs’, ‘Pipeline Management’ and ‘Account Planning’.

One of the surveyed organisations tried a new approach to improving sales performance after years of fruitless initiatives: “Instead of focusing solely on what sellers had to do, the program also devoted significant attention to building the talents and capabilities to enable them to do it, making a substantial investment in teaching skills and enforcing their use with specific goals.” The result? A 25% improvement in productivity across all regions within 18 months. More impressive still, the gains stuck, and two years later performance was still improving.

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So what can professional services firms take from this insight?

A significant weapon in a firm’s arsenal when fighting competition is the ability of its people. Not just their technical ability (which is important), but their selling ability as well. It used to be that one or two very well connected, very able ‘Rainmakers’ would create work for their juniors simply by working their network and being in the right place at the right time. Today’s world is different; yes, you still need to be well connected, but no longer can a firm really drive growth by relying on a few people to bring in the work. The successful modern professional is an all-rounder with the following attributes:

Good technical ability, keeping up with advances and changes.
Has a business and personal development plan encompassing objectives for both business targets and personal brand.
Has a strong and growing reputation (either for quality, niche player etc.) both online and offline.
Is a relentless networker who eats and drinks where her clients gather, writes articles for publications her target market reads, speaks at events where her chosen audience attends.
Understands the sales process and invests (or demands their firm invest) in learning skills and techniques for continuous improvement.

“Ultimately, those firms that invest continuously in developing sales and client management skills are those that will win more of the ‘pie’ than their competitors!”

View our Selling Skills Course

Optimise your selling opportunity

Creating a positive impact at that first client meeting.

Effective Business Development Meetings - free training guide from Questas Consulting

Effective Business Development Meetings

Download this guide to maximise your time and effort to win more sales.

Get it now

Six ways to use EQ – or Emotional Intelligence – to win more work

First Impressions Count: Creating a positive impact at a first client meeting.

Be Brilliant! How to prepare for that effective first meeting

Quash imposter syndrome and optimise the business opportunity

Make your business development planning more successful

Sales secrets of high growth companies

Working together for better KAM

How To Be Brilliant At Winning Bids & Tenders

Transforming your sales programme

Our top ten tips for non-confident networkers

Transforming your sales programme

by Peter Rendell | Feb 5, 2018 | Blog, Selling Skills Training

This article originally appeared in the October 2017 edition of Pi magazine, published by Howden Insurance Brokers

Is it time your team changed its approach to sales? Read on to discover some practical advice about transforming your sales programme and making it a resounding success.

Having worked with many professional services clients over the years, several of them have tried to transform their approach to sales (or business development if you prefer). Some of these organisations have put together a formal transformation programme whilst others have simply sought to make a positive shift in their sales efforts.

Whether you are considering wholesale change or a few tweaks to your approach, the following is worth considering.

“This article borrows from research (McKinsey, Hinge Marketing) as well as my own experiences”, says Gillian Sutherland.

First – answer the question “Why are we doing this?”

1. Articulate reason for change.

There must be a compelling reason for change with a clearly articulated “what will happen if we do not make these changes” and why the current status is unacceptable.

2. Design your programme.

Have a clear vision about what the transformed organisation will look like. “In 3 years time we will be working in these sectors, we will have these key clients, we will be known for….” The vision needs to be supported by 12 month objectives; For example, our objectives over the next 12 months are:

To have made our first sale in the Oil & Gas sector
To have doubled the number of business development meetings we are having as a business
To have developed a Key Client programme for our top 10 accounts

Clear KPI’s for all involved.

3. Put together a team to drive the programme

Your team make up will be somewhat dependent on the size of the programme but to make it work you will need senior sponsorship. One of the firms I worked with had the CEO, CFO, Head of BD/Marketing, Head of HR and the four business unit leaders on the team.

4. Develop skills, process and behaviours

You will need to include training into your programme. Don’t make the mistake that many make and think that a one-off training course will develop sustained behavioural change – it doesn’t! Training works if:

People know why they are doing it
How it will help them do their job better
They are given support following the event
There are follow ups and refreshers

5. Give your best and potential performers access to coaching

This demonstrates a real commitment to improving people through strong, challenging and empathetic coaching. It complements training and allows the recipients to really embed new habits. Coaching should be given to both individuals and teams. High-performing teams whether they are leadership, key client, market/sector teams can take the business to new places and turbo-boost business development.

6. Measure and monitor progress

Track the KPI’s, celebrate success, involve don’t dictate.

7. Behaviour

Lastly, be very clear about the behaviour you expect and do not tolerate poor behaviour regardless of seniority or past performance!

View our Selling Skills Course

Optimise your selling opportunity

Creating a positive impact at that first client meeting.

Effective Business Development Meetings - free training guide from Questas Consulting

Effective Business Development Meetings

Download this guide to maximise your time and effort to win more sales.

Get it now

Six ways to use EQ – or Emotional Intelligence – to win more work

by Gary Williams | 7th December 2018 | Blog, How we help clients grow, Selling Skills Training | 0 Comments

First Impressions Count: Creating a positive impact at a first client meeting.

by Gary Williams | 26th September 2018 | Blog, Business Development | 0 Comments

Be Brilliant! How to prepare for that effective first meeting

by Gary Williams | 19th July 2018 | Blog, Business Development, How we help clients grow | 0 Comments

Quash imposter syndrome and optimise the business opportunity

by Gary Williams | 22nd March 2018 | Blog, Business Development | 0 Comments

Make your business development planning more successful

by Annabel Miller | 7th February 2018 | Blog, Business Development, How we help clients grow | 0 Comments

Sales secrets of high growth companies

by Gary Williams | 6th February 2018 | Blog, Sales confidence, Selling Skills Training | 0 Comments

Working together for better KAM

by Annabel Miller | 6th February 2018 | Blog, Differentiation from competitors, Key Client Management | 0 Comments

How To Be Brilliant At Winning Bids & Tenders

by Gary Williams | 6th February 2018 | Blog, Proposal Writing | 0 Comments

Transforming your sales programme

by Peter Rendell | 5th February 2018 | Blog, Selling Skills Training | 0 Comments

Our top ten tips for non-confident networkers

by Gary Williams | 5th February 2018 | Blog, Marketing, Sales confidence, What We Do | 0 Comments

Selling skills for Consulting Engineers

by Gary Williams | Oct 31, 2017 | Selling Skills Training, What We Do

CONVERT / Selling Skills for Technical People

‘Sales’ can be a dirty word for some of our clients in the professional and engineering sectors, but without the ability to sell we will struggle to be successful.

Consultative Selling Skills for Technical People

Our sales training has been developed over years into an approach designed for both natural and ‘unnatural’ salespeople. Importantly, we help technical people feel comfortable with the idea of selling, which can make a radical change to the dialogue they have with existing and potential clients.

The Consultative Selling Skills for Technical People course will help participants become more effective in professional sales scenarios. Students will practice different tasks to build their skill sets: from listening techniques and questioning skills to handling objections and closing deals.

Who’s it for?

Anyone responsible for building client relationships, uncovering new opportunities and converting them into fee paying work. Ideally suited for:

Consulting Engineers, Planners, Lawyers, Architects, Environmental Consultants, Cost Consultants

Questas works nationally and internationally with a number of small and large engineering consultancies, property firms and other professional service companies working in the built and natural environment. Thus our courses tend to address common experiences from this sector and the sales process often encountered in 2018.

Content overview

Planning business development activity among you and your team
Understanding the client and how they choose who to work with
Exploring the client’s world – developing a differentiator
Getting through the door / Securing the first meeting
Planning, structuring and managing business development meetings
Practicing sales meetings and building relationships – role play (often with actors as clients)
Delivering a compelling pitch

Course format

This is a practical workshop ideally aimed at groups of between 9 – 15 participants. It is usually a full day involving a mixture of theory and exercises designed to develop consultative selling skills and grow confidence. We run this course both in-house and as a public course (see details below for our next London training event). There is an emphasis on skills practice and we will often use actors to play clients in business development meeting simulations.

Outcomes

The course is designed to resonate with technically minded, natural and ‘unnatural’ salespeople and will develop skills and build sales confidence. Having completed the session, our feedback tells us that participants have more face-to-face business development discussions and those conversations are more effective leading to a greater number of opportunities and improved win-rates. This course imparts tools and resources that results in greater productivity and better sales performance.

Contact us

For more information about our sales training courses please email hello@questas.co.uk or click the button below to learn more.

Questas is based in London, and travels internationally to deliver training.

Excel at sales meetings

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“I found the day to be really useful, informative and well delivered. In particular, a realisation that there’s a little of ‘Tigger’ in all of us and that listening really is a true art.” Senior Associate, Expedition Engineering

“The sales meeting structure model is excellent.” Director, Building Services Co.

From our blog

Four easy ways to manage nerves before a presentation

Trainer, Annabel Miller, looks into why we get nervous and how we can manage nerves so that it doesn’t hinder our performance.

Who’s it for?

The Presentation Skills course is fo anyone with a remit to present internally and/or externally. Our courses are designed for firms who operate in the professional and engineering sectors and so may use examples or common practices from these industries.

Content overview

Who are your audience, what are their expectations
How to engage your audience
Making it memorable – key messages, unique elements
Presentation format and structure
Speaking with confidence, controlling your nerves
Body language, gestures, vocal tone and pitch

Course format

This is a highly practical one-day workshop. Candidates will present to a group at least twice in the day and be filmed.

Outcomes

Following this training, participants will present with greater confidence and professionalism. They will learn to plan and structure presentations and emphasise key messages while keeping an audience engaged positively.

“It was great to see everyone engaged all the way through and I noted the calibration to our needs during the day.” Director, RPS

“Great day! Really fun and innovative way to beat the fear of presenting to an audience.” Tim Howlings, Brasier Freeth

Free consultation

Have questions for us? Get your team started today and gain a new competitive advantage.

Business development training

by Gary Williams | Oct 31, 2017 | Business Development, Selling Skills Training, What We Do

CREATE / Reputation

According to research, your reputation – and that of your organisation – is the most important factor for clients when choosing who to consider for projects.

Fundamentals of Business Development Planning

Our Fundamentals of Business Development Planning training course aims to give professionals understanding and skills to plan and execute their strategic sales activity much more effectively. Invest in learning how to create a high value reputation for your organisation and take your sales to the next level.

Who’s it for?

This course focuses on creating successful business development plans. It will be highly valuable to anyone who has face-to-face time with clients, and those who have a remit to explore opportunities and find work from both new and existing clients will benefit significantly from this professional development. It would also be a useful reminder for those with more experience who may not have had any formal training – or at least not for a long time!

Questas works with a number of professional and engineering services firms who work in the built and natural environment. We provide unqiue training perspectives that will particularly help those who consider themselves technical professionals and not natural sales people.

Content overview

Learning how clients buy
Developing a deep understanding of client needs
Preparing for and structuring business development discussions
Differentiating your offer
Introduction to client management

Course format

A half-day (or full day) aimed at an ideal group size of 12. We use practical exercises to bring the theory to life and always seek to contextualise and apply the learning to the world of our delegates.

Questas is based in London, and travels internationally to deliver training.

Outcomes

Learn how to maximize the limited time and resource you have to dedicate to business development and client management activity. Understand the principles clients use to select chosen providers and develop a set of tools to help explore the client’s world. Ultimately you will increase confidence and apply tried and tested strategies and tactics to help you unlock more opportunities and win more – and better – work.

Contact us

Email hello@questas.co.uk or click the button below to get in touch. If desired we can help you design and/or organise your own training courses tailored to your team.

“This course really simplifies the whole approach to business development, I am now very clear what I need to do.”

Engineer, WSP