The Institute of Sales Professionals (ISP) is delighted to be working in partnership with Ucas, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, which has launched its own sales and marketing academy and achieved our prestigious Investor in Sales award.
Ucas is an independent charity and though it is funded by application fees and by universities and colleges, it also depends on commercial activities to keep those fees as low as possible.
Business initiatives help the organisation support a huge number of students. Each year, Ucas helps 1.5 million young people and adult students across the UK and internationally with information, advice, and admissions services to move on to the next stage of their education and training.
Brand of discovery
Part of Ucas’s important commercial organisation is a 50-strong sales team. All of them have passed the Institute of Sales Professionals ethics exam and appear on the ISP’s professional register.
The Investor in Sales award is conferred when at least 75% of a sales team successfully completes the exam which tests selling skills, knowledge, professional ethics and decision making. Ucas were keen to make sure their whole team qualified.
To pass, candidates need to achieve a minimum score of 85%. Salespeople must re-take the exam every two years to ensure their skills and knowledge remain current, allowing them to stay on the ISP’s register of competent, ethical salespeople.
Ucas says that as a “brand of discovery” its partnership with the ISP is an important investment in their own staff.
Workplace learning
David Penney, interim chief marketing officer at Ucas, says: “We want our sales team to be the best they can be to support our students, and our important partnership with the Institute of Sales Professionals says very clearly that we are not just managing almost three million student applications each year, we are also encouraging our own staff to develop their personal knowledge and careers through workplace learning.”
“Through our work with the ISP and our academy, our salespeople are developing the skills, knowledge and behaviour to build strong business connections with our clients based on trust, mutual support and success.
“We put students at the heart of everything we do, and this development of our own staff is another way to support the millions of students who turn to us as they plan the next stage of their education and future careers.”
Vital for business success
Patrick Joiner, managing director of the Institute of Sales Professionals, comments: “We are delighted to be working with Ucas because their support for lifelong learning reflects our mission at the ISP to revolutionise the sales profession, focusing on skills, ethics, and continuous professional development.
“Like us, Ucas is also working hard to support the growing development of apprenticeships which are an excellent option for people to earn and learn at the same time.
“A good career in business-to-business selling opens the door to senior roles in different sectors and organisations because accomplished salespeople are vital for successful businesses. The best salespeople acquire excellent business acumen, covering essential talents like emotional intelligence and people skills to a wider commercial understanding of their own and their customers’ operations. Continuous professional development is an important way to support and motivate sales teams and to encourage them to look ahead to the next stage of their professional development.”