Commercial Development Programme

The Training Gateway's flagship programme, covering a range of business development training from commercialisation to networking. This programme is recogonised as contributing to AURILs CPD framework and is endorsed by the Institute of Knowledge Transfer.

Course Overview
Workshop 1: Strategic Relationship Management: Key Clients and Client Relationship
This workshop will help you develop the knowledge and skills to implement a more structured approach to identifying and developing those clients which are of increasing importance to your institution. It will also introduce you to the use of a Client Relationship Management (CRM) Toolkit of resources which will help you map how effective your current approach to CRM and how to enhance your existing approach.
Objectives

To understand the core principles of client relationship management.
To relate the principles to the HE context.
To discuss how to develop a strategy for CRM in an HE context.
How to develop and build client teams and client development plans?
What is the role of internal and external customer/client surveys and how can they be used to help build the case for an even more pro-active approach to CRM?
How do you undertake a client/stakeholder review meeting?
To consider the change management challenges associated with introducing a more proactive approach to CRM.

Workshop 2: Developing your Networking & Business Development Skills
To further enhance skills in business networking and in relation to business development and selling skills.
Objectives

To develop increased confidence in situations requiring proactive networking skills.
To consider some of the more strategic issues associated with selecting suitable business prospects.
To understand the key stages in a business development meeting.
To gain confidence in dealing with situations which might arise in business development meetings, and ultimately.
To gain an enhanced understanding of how to influence buyers of CPD services.

Workshop 3: Developing your Negotiating Skills
To further refine and hone your skills when negotiating with clients and prospects in a commercial context.
Objectives

To understand the nature of the negotiating process.
To be more confident in dealing with commercial negotiations.
To be more effective in dealing with clients who seek to gain a negotiating edge.
To recognise the stages and most common ploys used during negotiations.
To be more effective at reading the signals sent during negotiations.

Workshop 4: Financial Business Management : Developing a CPD and Consultancy Business Plan
This module is designed to build skills appropriate to managing a commercial ‘for profit’ CPD unit. To explore it’s financial and other business dynamics, participants use a computer model to plan and run a CPD business. The costing and pricing of services is also examined.
Objectives

To build skills in Business Planning.
To build understanding of the financial dynamics of a business unit.
To build understanding of costing and pricing.
To build understanding of commercial standards of service delivery.

Cost
Modules can be taken as stand alone courses at the prices indicated below. A special discount is offered to attend all four courses for just £995. Please note there are a maximum of 12 places available for this course. (All prices are exclusive of VAT).
Workshop 1 - £250
Workshop 2 - £295
Workshop 3 - £295
Workshop 4 - £295

Timings
The training begins at 09.15 and finishes by 17.00. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.

Trainer Biographies

Tom Kennie
Tom Kennie is a director of the Ranmore Consulting Group (www.ranmore.co.uk). He works with a range of knowledge based organisations primarily in the professional service sector (e.g. firms of chartered surveyors, lawyers and software companies) and also in the higher education sector. For the past 8 years been co-director of the national Top Management Programme for Higher Education). In addition he has experience of working with over 50 higher education institutions and research based organizations on leadership and management development programmes.

Prior to moving into consultancy 12 year ago he spent 6 years as Director of Human Resources for DTZ, an international firm of property advisors and 2 years managing training and development activities for Balfour Beatty an international engineering company. He has also been a full-time academic spending 8 years as Head of Surveying in the Dept. of Civil Engineering at the University of Surrey and 4 years at the University of Technology in Kingston, Jamaica. In his earlier career he worked as a chartered surveyor in the construction and offshore oil and gas sectors.

Chris Ward
Chris Ward is a founding director of the Ranmore Consulting Group (www.ranmore.co.uk). He works with a range of knowledge based organisations, both in the professional services sector and in higher education. His recent client list includes large law firms, large chartered surveyor practices and a large software consultancy as well as a number of universities.

Chris also participates in the national Top Management Programme for Higher Education (TMP) run by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.

His work ranges from:
The design and delivery of tailored leadership and management development programmes.
The design and running of sessions for management teams, using financial modelling techniques to review the key performance dimensions within their business.
The design and running of sessions in other management skills.
Consultancy in financial and business modelling.

To facilitate strategic and financial understanding within the higher education sector, Chris has designed and built the HESIM computer-based model of a university, a model of a school/faculty and a model for simulating commercial/entrepreneurial activity. These are designed to be bespoke to specific institutions.
Chris has a degree in Social Studies from the University of East Anglia, and an MBA from Cranfield Business School. He is a member of the CIM and the CIPM. He has held senior management positions within large plcs and a large firm of chartered accountants.