Learning & Skills Council

1. Learning & Skills Council

2. Influencing employers

3. Influencing Session aim: Understand how to influence employers in their selection of programme and provider. Learning Objectives Features & Benefits Understanding the benefits of WBL/E2E Educating employers about ‘soft benefits’ Assessing customer priorities in purchasing Influencing customer priorities Competitors, summary & evaluation

4. Influencing Product or service features Facts, Information or Product Facets Take a car as example – features It is silver It has 20v engine It comes with a 6 CD changer It has leather interior It has power steering Features describe a product or service

5. Influencing How can the features help the customer Precise benefit or general benefits Take a car as example – benefits It is silver and so is easy to keep clean It has 20v engine making it powerful so you can pull away It comes with a 6 CD changer saving time and effort It has leather interior so it looks cool and is easy to clean It has power steering so it is manoeuvrable and easy to park Benefits indicate how the product or service provide a solution.

6. Influencing Activity – Your tutor will give you an object. Find out the product’s FEATURES BENEFITS

7. Influencing Benefits come in 2 varieties General Benefits – show how features can help a customer Individual Benefits – show how features can meet a specific need of the customer In low value sales, general benefits are successful In high value sales general benefts are less successful than individual benefits

8. Influencing

9. Influencing Matching the Benefits should be easier if you have listened. That is why you do not introduce your product or service into a conversation until this stage.

10. Influencing This activity is in 2 parts GROUP WORK What are the features & benefits of • Apprenticeships • E2E • ETP/NETP INDIVIDUAL WORK What are the features & benefits of your provider/college?

11. Educating Employers

12. Influencing Group activity Imagine you are business customers. For the following products and services list the 6 Features & Benefits that are important to you when making a decision • A new telephone system • Legal services • A photocopier • Training services

13. Influencing Soft benefit = a technical or hard to measure feature/benefit Hard benefit = a simplistic or easy to measure feature/benefit Give examples

14. Influencing Inexperienced buyers Example 1 – IBM Example 2 – Crusader Carpets

15. Influencing In high value sales, especially complicated services inexperienced buyers are unaware and thus unable to incorporate ‘soft benefits’ into their decision making! They therefore fall back onto features/benefits they do understand – PRICEVOLUMEDELIVERY TIMES

16. Influencing You MUST educate customers on the meaning of soft benefits You must educate them on how to compare and measure soft benefits Example – What is ‘quality’ in training

17. Customer Priorities

18. Influencing • Before introducing our product/service • What does the customer want – hot buttons? • Begin by understanding the parameters • Example – Choosing a vacuum

19. Influencing • Get the customer to rank the parameters Critical Portability Efficiency Reliability Quality Size Peripheral Price

20. Influencing • How close does your solution match these parameters? Critical Henry Strong Quality Portability Size Efficiency Reliability Reliability Quality Price Size Efficiency Price Portability Peripheral Weak

21. Influencing • How do your competitors feature? Critical Strong Henry Hoover Dyson Quality Price Efficiency Portability Size Quality Reliability Efficiency Portability Reliability Portability Reliability Quality Quality Price Reliability Size Efficiency Size Size Price Price Portability Efficiency Peripheral Weak

22. Influencing • Rarely do we meet all of the parameters! • Strategy to create a ‘fit’ between our solution and the customer • Influence the decision making parameters • Help us compete against ‘do nothing’ and our rivals

23. Influencing • Use the needs you have uncovered to establish parameters you can meet • Emphasise the critical parameters you are strong on • Reduce the critical parameters you are weak on • Heightening the peripheral parameters you are strong on

24. Influencing Question • Imagine that your training solution is not strong on some of the employer’s critical DMP. But the solution is strong on some of the employer’s peripheral DMP • How can you improve your chances of ‘fitting’ the customer’s requirements?

25. Influencing Options • Barter = Offering one DMP over another • Probing = Analysing the basis of a DMP and then offering an alternative

26. Influencing Options • Enhancing = ‘Big-up’ one of your strengths • Splitting = Dividing a weakness into sub-areas that become 1 or more strengths

27. Influencing Successful sales people – • Help the customer develop decision making parameters from their ‘needs’ • Uncover the additional DMP • Know how they and their competitors compare to the DMP • INFLUENCE the number and rank of DMP • Then and only then start to match their product/service

28. InfluencingSummary • Understand the F & B of your services • Educate customers to your ‘soft benefits’ • Investigate what is important to customers in their decisions • Influence this • Investigate the competition