Professional Services Advisor – Part 1- Year 1

• Part 1 Month 1 Services Trust – The foundation need for trusted advisor status is well acknowledged amongst professional services providers. Across international borders we see the concept of trust and the value associated with the profession documented via the aims and objectives of their industry associations. The trust term is a relative one, what does it mean in absolute terms and what are its determinants? Trust is certainly a complex term, due to the myriad of interactions between the two parties to the relationship, professional services providers, and their clients. This module of the curriculum allows participants to gain insights around the key question, do clients believe their professional services provider is their most trusted advisor and what are the determinants of that trust? Various definitions for trust exist, what is the most appropriate for you, and your practice?
• Part 1 Month 2 Effective Communication – Professional services organisations are paid for their insights, so need to communicate very well. The prior module highlighted this need as a significant determinant of trust in the relationship between professional services providers and their clients. To achieve this, participants will learn how to use active listening techniques, adopt behaviours to enhance working relationships and use effective questioning skills. Participants can also expect to identify and develop their own personal communication style. Skills around giving and receiving appropriate feedback will also be explored, as well how to deal with difficult communication situations.
• Part 1 Month 3 Becoming Persuasive – With effective communication as our starting point, this module focuses in on developing the participant’s ability to influence, to persuade. Recent research confirms that the ability to persuade is one of the top five soft skills sought in business along with creativity, collaboration, adaptability, and emotional intelligence. This module will equip the participant with the skills and frameworks necessary to persuade with confidence and accelerate the leadership journey. It offers a practical introduction to persuasion theory and persuasive communication and provides an applied understanding of the psychology of persuasion and the art of rhetoric. This will be achieved by exploring classical and contemporary ideas of persuasion with an emphasis on recent social, and psychological theory and research. Participants will also practise critical skills in analysing, organising, information gathering, goal setting, evaluating, and public speaking.

• Part 1 Month 4 Effective Leadership – This module focuses on the nature and practice of leadership and the development of the leadership capabilities necessary to operate effectively in complex and rapidly changing organisational environments. It deals with a variety of leader behaviours and capabilities reflecting self-leadership, the leadership of others, and leadership within broader organisational and business contexts. Participants can expect to analyse their own leadership skills, develop capabilities for career success and collaborate effectively to critically reflect on and inform leadership practice.
• Part 1 Month 5 People Development – We may only become effective leaders if we can also develop those who work with and for us. Such development is the foundation for building human capital in professional services organisations. It commences at induction and continues to retirement or departure. Across the professional services sector, human resource development is a strategic issue, not just operational and applies to all staff – full-time, part-time, casuals, contractors and temporary. This module provides participants with practical frameworks for developing human resource plans and policies, learning and development strategies, organisational induction plans and orientation, training programs, development and learning and the evaluation of same.
• Part 1 Month 6 Managing Change – This module examines the role of change in the management of professional services organisations. It explores the nature and processes of organisational change and focuses on technological, administrative, and process innovation as well as on contemporary techniques and procedures used to understand, initiate, plan, and implement change. It is shaped by concerns over the need to combine consistent structures for predictable and efficient operations and personnel employment with flexibility and timely adaptability in order to respond to shifts in the environment. Participants develop a practical and effective understanding of the key processes and components in managing change for application within their own organisation.
• Part 1 Month 7 Advisory Services – Whilst at first glance this module might seem self-evident to those already in the professional services sector, it is important to take a first principles look at why you do what you do, or indeed should do. This module reviews and explores the nature and characteristics of the consulting industry, major practice areas in consulting and the value creation activities of consultants. It discusses the main success factors of consulting. It also allows participants to explore methods of consultancy project design and management, and integrative problem-solving applying the principles of design thinking and different performance measures.
• Part 1 Month 8 Market Targeting – A fundamental requirement for professional services success is achieving laser-like clarity around the clients we choose to serve. All too often a firm’s decisions in this area are legacy related (they are our clients because they came with the firm we acquired) or vague rather than explicit. Participants will develop an understanding of what segments actually are, identifying the various segments in their market and ultimately, make explicit, well-reasoned decisions for the segment(s) that should be targeted.
• Part 1 Month 9 Market Positioning – Once decisions have been made around which client segments are to be served, the firm then needs to decide how it will differentiate its offering for each segment and what position it wants to occupy in the minds of its clients. Participants will work to develop a clear, distinctive, and memorable positioning, providing clarity on the reasons why clients choose to do business with them. The key here is to put as much distance between the firm and its competitors as possible.
• Part 1 Month 10 Your Brand – In professional services markets, offering consistent quality and satisfying services are key challenges. These challenges are driven by the intangibility, heterogeneity, variability, and perishability of service offerings. Because of the nature of services, professional services firms must adopt strategies to market their service offerings which are different from tangible goods. There is a growing range of touchpoints, where clients experience service marketing techniques. Therefore, services marketers require a deep understanding of issues such as service design and delivery, service quality measurement and internal marketing. Participants will critically analyse and evaluate their service offerings and service delivery processes with a focus on creating strategic options to improve service quality, satisfaction, firm performance, and brand services competitively.
• Part 1 Month 11 Business Development – Business development, or let’s call it as it is, consultative selling, is often considered an anathema within professional services firms. But it doesn’t have to be, we’re just providing our targeted segments (i.e., those who are likely to value what we have to offer) with the opportunity to benefit from our services. How can that be repugnant? Participants will develop an understanding of the consultative selling process, learn the types of questions to uncover client needs, understand the process to present their services, understand different people’s styles, learn in-depth questioning, using SPIN and differentiate between confirming the business versus doing the deal.
• Part 1 Month 12 Client Management – Strategic client management assists firms develop continuous, positive relationships with clients based on the quality of service offering and value. This module is a logical follow-on from the prior consultative sales program, which focused specifically on developing individual sales skills. Whereas the Strategic Client Management program focuses on the development of effective and formal client plans. Participants will gain an effective understanding of the definition of strategic client management, make distinctions between relationship levels (transactional, strategic and partnership clients), learn and apply the various buyer and influencer roles, and learn the skills to focus on, in approaching clients as problem solvers (reactive) and client developers (proactive). Finally, participants will create strategic client management frameworks to ensure they are working on clients, not just in clients.