Graduates of the UCD Smurfit Executive Development Professional Diploma in High Performance Sales & Business Development are able to identify potential performance improvements of between 7 per cent and 25 per cent for their organisations and have a pathway to achieving them.
“Past participants have identified performance gains of more than 25 per cent,” says programme director John O’Gorman.” In fact, it is frequently the case that participants start out expecting a sales programme and come to realise that it’s actually a growth strategy programme.”
One thing shared by the participants, who tend to be senior leaders and executives, is high levels of ambition for themselves and their organisations. “But when you peel away that ambition, the confidence in the execution of growth strategies doesn’t match them. The programme equips leaders and senior executives with an in-depth understanding of how to create executable growth strategies and unlock the next level of business performance for their organisations.”
Today’s leaders are working in exceptionally busy environments, he notes. “There is a lot going on in the organisations they are working in. Programme participants typically say there is up to seven transformation initiatives going on in their organisations at any one time, with multiple projects and lots of people involved in each of them. We come from the perspective that a lot is already being achieved.”
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That’s where the 25 per cent plus improvement comes in. Once again, the approach taken is a positive one. “We look at gains,” says O’Gorman. “We don’t look at process losses. There are gains and losses in every initiative. We help participants find the gains to drive growth.”
The programme goes much deeper than simply targeting gains. “There is a lot of talk about unlocking potential but what does unlocking potential mean for the individual participant and their organisation? What does unlocking growth mean for their products and services. What does it mean for the people who are out there in front of buyers? What are the conditions needed to drive growth in the organisation? Do we have the right resources? Are we focused on getting the right results? These are all things leaders need to consider in addition to their day jobs.”
This, in turn, ties back to the high-performance sales element of the programme. “In his book, Aligning Strategy and Sales, Frank Cespedes pointed out that most sales problems are strategy execution problems. The programme looks at strategies that will drive sales growth over several years and how to execute them.”
Participants look at their current strategies, what’s good about them, their component parts, and the growth they have delivered so far. That analysis enables them to look at new strategies which will unlock performance and potential.
An interesting aspect of the programme is the case study element, which is about the participants’ own organisations. “On the first two days, we get the participants to analyse their own companies and identify what elements of their growth strategy can be fine-tuned.”
During this module, participants identify the key factors required to ensure strategy and sales are aligned, look at the issues that affect sales performance and growth strategy execution, identify the factors that limit growth potential and apply new frameworks, models and tools to their organisation’s growth strategy.
The second module, led by Pamela Fay, looks at leadership and coaching for high performance. Participants develop an understanding of leadership, its associated challenges, and a range of tangible leadership practices to influence sales performance. They also acquire a range of practical coaching skills which are increasingly important for a leader’s ability to create the conditions that enable people to thrive and excel.
The next two-day module covers value-based sales and customer success and investigates how firms must develop differentiated products and services based on sound customer insights. Andrew Keating works with the group to look at how to present compelling value propositions that allow companies to demonstrate and document superior value to customers.
Module four on executing high-performance business development operations focuses on the skills and approaches required to acquire customers and retain them. Participants are given new frameworks and tools to visualise buyer and seller engagement and better understand client relationships. Gearoid Hardy covers the key components of trust and emotional intelligence and their role in buyer and seller engagement.
The module on negotiations is delivered by Stephen Boyle. “Stephen is one of the world’s foremost experts on negotiation,” O’Gorman says. This module helps participants acquire value-creating negotiation strategies and practice their application. In addition, they get to consider buyer-seller relationships in terms of how to identify win-win solutions with potential and existing clients and the sales process development areas necessary to improve deal movement and selling skills.
The sixth and final module covers talent management and helps participants gain an understanding of why talent development is critical in their role as a commercial leader. They also learn how to adopt practical approaches to talent identification, development and succession planning, as well as how to foster great collaboration between individuals and teams.
It is not all theory, though. Far from it. “We bring in a range of external contributors throughout,” O’Gorman points out. “These are people who have experience of successful strategy execution and they can bring it back to the basic nuts and bolts. This year we brought in new perspectives from the army, Leinster Rugby and the technology sector.”
He gives one example of where business can learn from elite sport. “One of the things that sport does really well is pre-briefs and post-briefs. Coaches and teams prepare for matches very well but the post-match briefing is probably even more important. When elite sports coaches reflect on the last performance they focus on the things done well and the progress made by the team. Then they look at the things that can be improved. In a lot of businesses progress isn’t properly recognised and this can be demotivating for teams.”
The programme concludes with an opportunity for participants to reflect on what they’ve learned. “The evidence shows that if people reflect on what they learn during the programme they can drive 15 to 20 per cent productivity improvement off the bat.”
The importance of that pause for reflection is highlighted in Carl Honoré’s The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter and Live Better in a world Addicted to Speed, O’Gorman adds. “A lot of leaders have this action, action, action personality profile. They need to learn how to slow down to prepare for action.”
The UCD Smurfit Executive Development Diploma in High Performance Sales & Business Development is delivered by expert faculty who are joined by highly experienced external contributors, but peer learning also plays a significant role, O’Gorman says.
“That’s one of the many aspects of the programme we pride ourselves on. Participants really value the in-person class element. We deliberately have no tables in the room at the start of the programme. That helps people to connect. You don’t build connections across a table. Our participants get to hear each other’s stories and learn from each other. They bring prior knowledge into the room and share that with each other. That’s one of the great strengths of the programme.”
The Professional Diploma in High Performance Sales and Business Development starts again in October 2025. For more information, visit smurfitschool.ie
