As Consalia continues to support increased professionalisation in sales, it has transitioned from a training supplier into a sales business school with multiple programmes for sales professionals at every stage of their career.
Dr Phil Squire, Consalia CEO, comments about the journey and what lies ahead.
“Our vision is to help make sales the world’s most sought-after profession, and everything that we’ve done is geared towards that vision. The sales business school is part of that vision.
“It all started with the journey that I took with my own doctorate. It became very clear, through the voice of the customer interviews that we were doing, that the perception that customers have of salespeople is not where it needs to be. Incidentally, we still continue those voice of the customer interviews today and we’re still finding fairly similar data. We’re not seeing massive shifts in customers’ perceptions.
“Part of it is fuelled by the customers, but when I was doing the doctorate, what was quite interesting was to see some of the arrogance around how academia saw sales. Clearly the importance of the function of sales as a speciality topic was not being recognised and, if anything, was looked down upon.
“Customer perceptions, the academic perspective and, at the time, government perspective on the importance of sales was the kernel that prompted me to say: ‘Right, let’s see if we can do something about it.’”
The power of professional practice
“Now that we are starting to get much higher numbers of graduates going through the programme across some pretty big corporates, we begin to see the power of professional practice: combining an academic approach, which is heavily underpinned by an ethical approach to the way the research is conducted, with innovation that comes out of looking at different practices.
“One issue we have been addressing is how we can make more explicit the learning and the research that people have conducted. The other part goes beyond that to ask how we can actually value the contribution that the student has made. So, is there any way that we can help elevate the brand of the student, because they’re the ones who have done the research? It’s their IP; it’s their copyright in that respect, and some of them are coming up with some really brilliant ideas. Then the third level is: how do you then track the organisational benefit from the high-level students going through a very practical action and research-based group?
“I think from the outset we always had this sense that, whilst this was going to deliver some really interesting innovation in the ways that we go about it, it’s only now that we’ve got hundreds of students. I think we’ve got something like 260 students currently enrolled on all of our academic programmes, which is so different to the tens that we had at the very beginning.
“So, linking this back to our vision, which is how to help make sales the most sought after profession, the growth of the academic side of our business even in these COVID times is 88%, and that tells you that there’s a huge demand from sales professionals who want to get a professional qualification. “This has been hugely helped by the recognition three years ago in the UK that sales was a profession in its own right. So that was a big catalyst to driving this transition from Consalia being a sales performance-improvement company to a sales business school. We have the governmental recognition. We have the academic recognition, and we now have students in corporates fully engaged, loving the value that they’re getting from the programme. This is why we’ve decided to change the positioning of Consalia to recognise that we’re actually a sales business school.”
A new look Consalia
As well as the repositioning of Consalia as a sales business school, the brand has also overgone a full transformation.
The new logo features three overlaid boxes, showcasing the interconnected key areas of focus for Consalia which work together in harmony: The Sales Business School, Consulting Services and the Licensing Programme.
We are multi-faceted as a company and we think outside of the box to constantly progress and evolve. Through the misalignment of the copy and the shapes, we exhibit a dynamic sense of movement within the logo, reflecting how we aren't afraid to think differently; to dare to step outside of the lines and explore new things.
With the new colours, fonts and imagery used throughout the brand, we've developed a foundation of how we will be communicating our personality going forward:
- We are Authentic - We believe in what we're doing and want to help people in a practical and effective way.
- We are Empowering - We're passionate about changing the Sales industry and getting the best out of individuals by giving them the tools to excel.
- We are Curious - We're always learning, improving and collaborating. We know that individual cases vary and we listen and react accordingly.
- We are Quietly Confident - We know what we're talking about. We are the experts in this field.
- With A Little Dash Of Daring - Whilst we take the work seriously, we don't take ourselves too seriously.
We are so excited for this new chapter ahead and continue to strive to help make sales the world's most sought-after profession.
Want to know more about how we can help you? Get in touch with us here.