Deloitte

A 6-week Business Development Skills Programme for 80 Directors during Lockdown

Virtual delivery was excellent and even preferable.

Director, Financial Advisory

97% of delegates said that the programme improved their performance in business development by an average of 48% in one month.

‘MAKE THE RAIN’ VIRTUAL LEARNING PROGRAMME

An outcome-focussed, live, virtual programme for senior professionals that transforms skills and behaviours, inspires action and increases sales.

Facilitators rated at 96%

Fabulous course with lots of energy from the facilitators. Material is excellent and I've come away feeling more confident about pitching and selling.

Brilliant course and facilitator!

All facilitators were highly experienced and brought lots of energy to the sessions.

the brief

Immediately post-lockdown to deliver a flexible, comprehensive, virtual, bespoke business development programme to a large group of directors from five different business areas, within a key strategic service line.

We had been discussing the programme pre-lockdown. Immediately after there was a need for more creative client contact and a mindset shift. In addition, online delivery offered far greater flexibility to deliver to a busy, disparate group and costs were significantly reduced. We essentially were able to develop more delegates with more touch points for less money: a compelling value proposition.

When choosing a virtual platform for delivery, it became evident to us that the ease with which Zoom can be used, together with key features such as break-out rooms, make it very effective for delivering live learning.

However, no matter how user-friendly the technology, the energy and expertise of our facilitators was critical to successful delivery, as were the new online content and materials we developed.

Interaction between participants is very effective over Zoom - it made it work really well.

Great content and outstanding facilitators are a pre-requisite.

The virtual environment was better than expected. The breakout facility worked particularly well.

Really enjoyed the event - very informative material, and structure of the day worked really well.

Zoom formula with break out rooms is more efficient than face time

THE BESPOKE SOLUTION

Flexible & Fast Paced:

Delegates were working from home and fully engaged in leading high value complex projects.

The learning required full concentration in the room, but we designed the delivery of the programme to enable delegates to flexibly manage learning with both client work and jet-washing the patio or finding the cat. How did this work? The learning experience blended:

Pre- Questionnaire: ensured our expert facilitators knew the delegates before they entered the zoom-room. Who they were, what they did and crucially what they wanted to achieve.

Masterclasses: intense half-days for up to 20, with structured breaks/time-outs

Deep-Dive Workshops: 45 minutes for up to 6; small group workshops immediately after masterclasses allow interrogation of the material to greater depth. Choice of timeslots from which to self-select.

121 Mentoring: 30-minute sessions: confidential expert feedback and immediate action steps to improve skills and behaviours.

Check-In Workshops: 90 minutes for up to 6, to measure progress, motivate and ensure continuing skills development.

Great at leading us through the material at a fast pace, whilst giving everyone a chance to contribute.

Material is excellent as it brings together lots of things we know/have heard about and helps develop a coherent/ clear approach to a successful BD meeting.

Fast paced but at the right speed. Lots of great stories to bring the material to life.

Very valuable in (i) giving time and space to think about a core part of the job, (ii) the chance to meet and discuss with new peers (iii) high quality materials which will be helpful in future.

Comprehensive Content & Resources

The programme took the delegates on a learning journey from the virtual cocktail bar to the online boardroom.

High quality e-books downloaded to tablets allowed delegates easy navigation through the programme, the KWCWONDERWALL gave a spontaneous “flipchart” experience and the use of flipcharts by facilitators kept everyone “in the room”.

In the longer term, in the months after the programme, the blogs and articles will provide a rich source of further learning.

From attitude and approach to bespoke benefits and relevant features. Through sharpening your value proposition and advancing the client meeting. To how to take action at every stage, including the close, this was a comprehensive route through the KWC business development process.

There were lots of useful quick take-aways to put into active use.

It offered a roadmap to structure the areas to work on.

Lively, orderly, structured reminder of how to improve verbal pitches.

Very engaging and informative.

Material is clear, easy to digest and extremely powerful.

Lots of great stuff which I will look to apply going forward.

the outcome

The Aim was to at least enhance - and at times transform - skills and behaviours to grow and extend existing client business, connect with contacts and win new clients.

Over the duration of the programme, 97% of the 80 delegates reported that their business development performance had increased by an average of 48%. This was demonstrated by live examples of successes, including:

We won 2 new deals during and just after the course - where I have tested some of my newly learnt skills. Very relevant.

100% response to request for meetings so far.

Being confident to engage with a client during a group workshop session to create an opportunity for discussion which he contacted me about after.

Confidence to get on with reaching out to BD targets and not procrastinating.

I have already fixed 3 buddy sessions, created a contacts list, been a bit bolder in my client conversations on telephones to move out of 'chat cycle' towards commitment/buy closure.

programme feedback

Great to do over Zoom as breakout rooms were spontaneous - no time wasted moving and arranging.

I need to change focus from relationship-building into selling and now have a framework for doing that.

Deploying the thinking will sharpen my edge in moving from relationship to sale.

Currently doing a lot of pitching so will be good to test in a live environment.

All of the material and tips are so valuable for my day to day work.

It should improve my client conversations, pitching and BD planning.

Given me the boost to kick start my BD initiatives.

Enjoyed the programme. Virtual format worked well.

Fast paced and interactive with lots of really helpful tools that can be implemented.

Good and relevant for the current situation.

Enjoyable and thought-provoking with a focus on actions to take away.