ESA has just congratulated its first group of students to successfully complete the inaugural ESA Sales Certificate, and we took some time to speak to Tom Baynton-Williams to get his feedback and views on the course.
- How did the course meet, or exceed, your expectations?
I was very pleased to see that ESA had created a sales course. As someone who has worked in this sector for a number of years, I think it’s well overdue. I thought the course was very good, clearly covering the key areas of sponsorship sales with practical examples of best practice, etc. It was also interesting to hear expert views from Cat and some of the guest presenters on the latest trends. Additionally, the fact that each session was highly interactive meant that it was also good to learn and share experiences with other members of the class, especially as we represented a very broad cross-section of rights holders. The course certainly met all my expectations and I thought it was very useful.
- What elements of the course have you incorporated into your day-to-day work?
Whilst perhaps primarily aimed at people who are newer to the industry than me, it’s always good to ‘brush-up’, and, having worked on the proposition I used as a case study for a while, actually standing back from it to try different approaches has been really beneficial. It has certainly aided the live conversations that I am progressing and allowed me to commence some interesting new discussions too.
- What key advice could you pass onto the next students that go through the ESA Sales Certificate process?
I think the best advice is to try and do as much prep work outside of the sessions as possible e.g. working on the elevator pitch, etc. I would also recommend that people use the sessions with the experts to try and help shape the whole proposition – whilst it can be uncomfortable, I would suggest that the students use the sessions to present to the rest of the group as much as possible and listen to the constructive feedback.
- What was your favourite / most enlightening moment during the learning process?
The whole area of data is a passion for me. It was very interesting to listen to the guest speakers providing their thoughts in this area, especially the legal side of making data available, particularly given the changing European legislation.