The ASPIRE Sales Leadership Academy is a challenging development programme, designed to accelerate the sales leadership capability of your next generation of Sales Leaders, fast-tracking the knowledge and experience only otherwise gained from years working in the role. Graduates of the ASPIRE Sales Leadership Academy are unafraid to set the bar higher. They not only expect more of themselves and others but are equipped with the skills to realise these expectations.

This intensive programme, which typically runs over 9 months (but can be extended to suit the needs of your business), transforms great salespeople into exceptional sales leaders, with the capability to inspire, motivate and maximise the individual and collective potential of a sales team.

ASPIRE is suitable for:

• salespeople who show the potential and aspiration for sales leadership
• those who are new into sales leadership

By moving participants far outside their comfort zones, broadening their perspectives and challenging their assumptions, we build their confidence, resilience and knowledge, provoking new ideas and facilitating enormous personal growth.

The ASPIRE Sales Leadership Academy Programme

The ASPIRE Sales Leadership Academy is a modular programme centred on a framework of 5 core sales leadership capabilities. Participants are required to undertake a large amount of independent, self-directed learning, as well as a number of group-based activities and assignments. Peer learning is strongly encouraged and facilitated. The programme consists of:

• 360 Degree Feedback – ASPIRE starts and finishes with a 360 Degree feedback report. Participants, along with a group of their colleagues, complete a 360 Degree questionnaire, designed to assess their capability against the 5 core sales leadership capabilities that form the framework of the programme. Participants receive a detailed report, highlighting their strengths and areas for development.
• Experiential Leadership Challenge – A 2-day outdoor experiential kickoff to the programme, which challenges participants both physically and mentally, heightening self-awareness as to their own leadership style and learning from that of their peers. Over the course of the 2 days, we switch up their roles, observing how they behave both as the leader and also as a team member. To really test them, we ramp up the pressure, firstly by removing any sense of familiarity; a series of unique and unfamiliar mental and physical challenges forces them to think differently, explore alternative options and work with their team to overcome these challenges. We then turn the handle further, by adding time constraints and an element of competition to proceedings, all whilst observing them in action.
• 5 Written Assignments. Participants must complete independent in-depth research and study on each of the 5 core leadership capabilities to produce five academic-style written assignments over the course of the programme. Each assignment is scored and feedback provided.
• 3 Workshops. These engaging and highly-interactive face-to-face workshops support the learning from the modules, delving deeper into the core leadership capabilities and providing opportunities for participants to share insight and put theory into practice.
• Coaching Support – Each participant benefits from 1-2-1 coaching calls throughout the programme, to support them with their individual development needs.
• Coaching Challenges – Since coaching is the most powerful tool any leader has to accelerate individual performance, the ASPIRE programme includes 5 coaching challenges. These take the participants beyond coaching theory, to application, observing how they as individuals apply coaching to address specific situations.
• Dragon’s Den Report Out – The final element of the ASPIRE Sales Leadership Academy is a Dragon’s Den-style report out session, in which the participants must deliver a presentation to an audience consisting of their fellow ASPIREes and a group of senior leaders from within their organisation. The presentations are followed by the recognition of their achievements and the awarding of certificates.

The group dynamic forms an important element of the APSIRE participants’ journey. To get the most from the programme, they must learn to support one another and to utilise each other’s experience, knowledge and strengths. As such, we recommend the ideal number for each programme is between 9 and 12. If you have fewer than 9 individuals you are looking to undertake the programme, please do contact us, as we may be able to pair you with a smaller group from another organisation. Equally, if the number is larger than 12, we can run multiple programmes.

Whilst demanding, the ASPIRE programme is also incredibly rewarding. Take a look at what some of our ASPIRE graduates have to say: