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Scottish sales academy to be created |
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Monday, 25 June 2007 |
The Scottish Chambers of Commerce is planning to launch a sales academy because Scotland’s existing sales and marketing skills are not good enough in the face of global competition.
It has not yet been decided whether the academy, a collaboration with Microsoft, will have a physical or a virtual presence, as the details are still in negotiation, but it is thought that face-to-face tuition will definitely form part of the plan.
Graham Bell from the Scottish Chambers said that it was perhaps Scots’ self-deprecating nature that was part of the reason he was “not convinced that Scots business people are nearly as good at selling as they could be”.
"If anything is absolutely crucial to businesses succeeding, it is sales."
"When people go to business on their own account – and 80 per cent of people want to, although far fewer choose to because of the risk – you need to have about 28 different skills."
Although Microsoft technology will form part of the academy partnership, Bell emphasised that much of it would be about teaching people he critical basic skills of sales.
"There are a number of basic skills you need: listening, language and body language, finding out about a client, closing a deal."
The CBI welcomed the news of the initiative. Assistant director David Lonsdale
said that while Scots have a proud and distinguished record over many years in business and innovation, "simply having an excellent product or service isn’t enough in today’s increasingly tough and competitive global environment".
"Our own Regional Economic Trends survey, published earlier this month, found that sales and marketing are the top skills in demand from Scots employers across all sectors. As such, any initiative which seeks to improve the sales and marketing training offered
in Scotland ought to be welcomed."
One person has commented on this article. 1. Director
Dave McConachie, Unregistered Hello
Very interested in this article and would like to discuss this with either Chamber or CBI as we have been talking about this for years and have already set up our own business to provide sales support, mentoring and development to help companies grow.
Contact details available from
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Last Updated ( Monday, 25 June 2007 )
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