Louise Chandler, a seasoned media marketing professional with twenty years of experience including a decade at the BBC, launched her own communications company following an unexpected redundancy. Despite her natural talent with clients, Louise hadn’t recognised sales as her core strength. She turned to the Berkshire Growth Academy’s Skills Bootcamp to bridge this crucial gap in her business growth strategy, ultimately transforming her entrepreneurial journey and unlocking over £6,500 in new sales within just four months!

What was your background prior to entering the Skills Bootcamp in Sales?

I have worked in the media marketing Industry for over 20 years. It’s fair to say I didn’t always plan to be my own boss and run my own business, but sometimes circumstances end up that way. I was made redundant from the BBC so I ended up setting up my own business.

I worked as a broadcaster for the BBC for 10 years, and have been a producer as well as a presenter, including TV, radio and podcasts. Working with corporate clients, I was in the space of sales, but just didn’t see myself as a salesperson. I had always shied away from sales just because my perception of it is that it’s quite pushy, which put me off, mainly because I’ve come across some terrible sales people! I’ve been told I would make a brilliant salesperson by others, but I just wasn’t sure.

Over 10 years ago I launched my Media communications company that has evolved in terms of my skill set. I was aware that I was getting some bits right with clients but I knew that sales was a key element of my business that I was missing, which is why I came to the course.

What made you choose this specific Skills Bootcamp?

I registered for Berkshire Business and Berkshire Growth Hub newsletters and when I came across the Skills Bootcamp In Sales  I thought it sounded like a really good opportunity. I was really encouraged by the topics that it covered. I was particularly interested in the element of defining sales and the different ways that you can win a sale, close a sale, but also what to do if the sale is being difficult. I quite liked the elements of customer relations and customer service that was involved in it as well and I think other courses I’ve come across didn’t really touch upon it the same way.

Are there any particular highlights from your experience on this Skills Bootcamp?

Meeting other businesses has been really important- the opportunity to hear what other people do, understand their struggles and challenges and their triumphs and learn from each other has been so valuable. We set up a WhatsApp group and we have all shared our details and a spreadsheet of all of our businesses. We’ve already started to talk with a few individuals about people I want to partner up with and collaborate with, so I have meetings in my calendar for January with people from the course to catch up with just because I found them to be brilliant. I’ve really been Inspired by them and would hate to lose contact even if we don’t work together in an official capacity. They are just good people that I’ve really enjoyed working with. That has been another benefit and outcome.

What specific skills have you gained that been the most valuable so far?

The things I thought that were sales tactics and strategy, I have now discovered, were not what it really means to sell. The tools and techniques that Richard gave us have been brilliant in terms of closing a sale, understanding the dynamic between the customer and myself as the consultant and looking at the difficulties of sales and how to overcome that.

There has been a lot to learn, but what has been good is along the way is that there has been a lot of assessments. With the assessment, some of the work is done during the actual sessions and some of it you have to do outside of it, but that’s been quite good to take what you learn and turn it into practical examples that you can then take away with you. The last big assessment that we did was all around sales strategy document. Everything we had learned over the weeks was culminated in this one document that we should be able to use going forward, which is great.

How has the Skills Bootcamp in Sales impacted your sales outcomes?

Hey Media: Creative Marketing Services

Since the Skills Bootcamp in Sales I have seen my sales skilled transformed:

Today I signed a new client for a 4 month project to support business via Network Rail with marketing workshops- giving me access to over 100 business. I’m currently a business advisor in collaboration with Enterprise Nation and Adobe Express – giving me access to 10 new businesses, and Helieny (from the same cohort) and I also launched Hey Media: creative marketing services https://soundbitemedia.co.uk/heymediaiscomingsoon/.

In essence I would say that in the first 4-ish months, my new sales total £6500+ … all thanks to the Skills Bootcamp In Sales!

The Skills Bootcamp really helped me to define what sales is and the types of sales that I can deliver to clients. I felt that I had a few clients but needed to keep finding more. The course really helped me to understand how to keep and maintain the clients I already have and the opportunities to sell to them more of what I do. The training has given me a confidence mindset to have those conversations and to put myself forward more. It gave me the tools and techniques to clearly define where to improve and ways I can prepare for and work through a sales conversation. Ultimately, it’s helped to really shape my business in terms of what services I want to offer.

Have you seen any personal growth? What have you discovered about yourself along the way?

Definitely mindset and confidence because I didn’t really understand sales before and was cautious about how to go about it. The courses made me realised how I can improve selling in terms of the process to get the outcome that you want.
I’m excited about the new year and thanks to the course, I started to populate a CRM system of all the people I want to approach and sell to. I’ve been doing lots of data entry into this system to prepare myself for the year and I think last look at about 60 people that I can speak to who I have a relationship with, who I’ve worked with recently, who are happy, who want to work with me and I just haven’t followed up on it. If it wasn’t for this course, that would be 60 people that I just didn’t recognise that I could sell to- what a loss that would be and I’d be trying to find new people when potentially I have 60 people that I can approach and I have more people to add to this list. I didn’t realise that until I did this course.

What would you say to someone else considering this skills bootcamp?

Be prepared for intense learning but also know how you’re going to use it in future. You are investing 15 weeks of your time so give yourself time and space to learn and absorb would be my best tip and advice really. There is a lot to cover, but do sustain it and make sure that you continue with it because the weeks come by really quickly. I would allocate more time to learning outside of the course because the three or four hours that you’re in the session, you’re learning. You need time to step away and apply it to your business, do the assignment and the assessment. Go back on your notes, read them and apply the knowledge to really absorb the information. You can watch the sessions on demand, which has been really useful.This course is a gift. It’s an intense gift, and it’s hard work, but take what you have learnt and use this gift that you’ve got. It’s like a shiny golden item that I can now use to full capacity as I choose.

To learn more about Berkshire Growth Academy  Click Here.

Skills Bootcamps are free* flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer.