- Mevin Anenden, Logicalis
Pre and post sales technical professionals are often the most knowledgeable people in any client conversation. Having a deeper technology understanding than the sales team, and often more deeply than the client, is difficult to acquire.
What to do with that understanding is often less developed. Having the commercial confidence to contextualise expertise in terms that business leaders really care about shapes both customer and career outcomes.
It starts with developing the ability to walk into a new client organisation and understand quickly what drives it commercially, what the decision makers are focused on and how technical solutions connect to business outcomes. This takes a blend of business knowledge, financial literacy, trusted discovery techniques, people acumen and a helpful mindset. Technology decisions are always made in a context beyond technical aspects and the more effectively we see and operate in that wider context, the likelier we’ll achieve good outcomes for all.
Senior client stakeholders are not primarily interested in technology terminology or how it works, they are interested in what it will do for their business and their areas of responsibility.
The technical professional who can speak and operate confidently in an environment where business outcomes matter much more than technical specifications, is the one who becomes indispensable to prospects, clients and colleagues.
You will benefit from this programme if any of the following feel true:
> You want to engage with senior client stakeholders at a commercial and business level rather than purely at a technical level.
> You find it challenging to articulate the business value of technical solutions in terms that resonate with non-technical decision makers.
> You want to understand your clients’ businesses more deeply so that your technical contribution is framed in terms that land commercially.
> You have a sense that your technical credibility is not translating into the commercial influence or career progression you had hoped for.
> You want to move into a more commercial or sales focused role and you are looking for the business foundation to make that credible.
> You find that the commercial elements of client conversations are handled by others while you wait to answer the technical questions.
> You want to be seen as a genuine business partner rather than a technical resource that the sales team brings in to answer specific questions.
A thought provoking experience
A complete self-contained experience designed to be finished in a single sitting or broken into manageable chunks on mobile.
Short Focused Video Lessons
Stories, practical business teaching, immediately applicable techniques, real-world observations and reflective questions. Each video under five minutes, most under two. Around 2.5 hours total. Mobile enabled. Filmed across multiple locations. Each video either teaches, provokes or challenges.
Live Online Forum With Rob
A group session led directly by Rob Evans where you bring your client situations, your business development challenges and your questions about engaging with senior clients commercially. Direct access to someone who has worked operationally inside 150+ businesses worldwide and understands the commercial dynamics from both sides of business relationships with prospects and customers.
Practical Ways Of Thinking
Activity Model Acumen™️ for understanding any client business quickly. Plain language financial literacy. An introduction to PPMCleadership™️ as a lens for understanding the organisations your clients are running. All designed to be simple enough to remember and immediately applicable in client conversations.
A journey, not a typical course.
The content unfolds deliberately. Each stage builds on the last.
Where You Begin
The Business Ecosystem And Commercial Context
A way of thinking about the high level objectives of the businesses you work with. How businesses are funded, structured and organised. The financial metrics that matter to their leaders.
Understanding Any Business Quickly
Activity Model Acumen™️
A practical approach to reading any client or prospect organisation quickly. The seven activity types that shape how different businesses operate, influence what their leaders care about and underpin the ability to ask questions that demonstrate genuine commercial curiosity rather than a scripted discovery process. A shortcut to commercial credibility in any new business context.
The Financial Foundation
The Language Business Leaders Use
A plain language overview of financial statements, how budget approvals work, how investment decisions get made and how business leaders are assessed by the people above them. The goal isn't to make you a finance expert but to make you comfortable enough in dialogue with senior client stakeholders.
The Relationship Approach
Conscious Business Leader Relationship Building
A simple and practical approach to building genuine relationships with senior business leaders over time. Built around positive engagement, genuine commercial curiosity and a partnership mindset that goes beyond the immediate deal. A way of thinking about customer interactions that makes relationships naturally more valuable and more trusted.
The Rest
Stories, Observations & Objective Questions
Much of the programme moves through a series of short focused videos, each one a story with a point, an observation from the real world or a practical technique drawn from more than thirty five years of operational experience across 150+ businesses. Each video ends with one or more questions directed at your specific situation and your relationships with others, internally and externally.
Where You Arrive
Clarity, Challenge & Next Steps
The programme ends with a challenge. What have you concluded? And what are you going to do differently?
A Note On Format
Every video in this programme teaches, provokes or challenges. You can complete the entire programme in a single sitting or in fifteen minute chunks on your phone. When you're done you'll see your role, your organisation, your target businesses and the quality of your engagement with greater clarity..
'This isn't training in a traditional sense. It's a structured journey of practical teaching, objective reflection and immediately applicable thinking.'
Clarity Focus
This programme helps you see clearly where you are alongside the teaching it provides. Most development starts with answers, this starts with questions. It helps you understand your current situation, your capabilities and your commercial contribution. That clarity makes everything land with more specificity and usefulness.
Real Approaches From Real Operational Experience
Every technique in this programme is drawn from direct experience and observation across 150+ businesses worldwide. Activity Model Acumen™️ and PPMCleadership™️ are not borrowed models given new names. They are original and developed from identifying the recurrent ingredients in successful individuals and teams and observing where people often come unstuck.
Designed To Be Genuinely Enjoyable
Short sharp videos filmed across multiple locations. Personal stories, practical techniques and reflective questions throughout. Around 2.5 hours total. Mobile enabled and consumable in fifteen minute chunks. The more enjoyable the experience the more likely it is to positively change how you actually lead.
Direct Access To Rob
Every programme includes a live online forum with Rob Evans directly. A live group conversation where you bring your questions and challenges to someone who has been in the room with many businesses worldwide and will engage with your specific reality rather than a generic answer.
- Chris Griffiths, Travel A La Carte
- Mark Graham, The Counselling Foundation
Real World Operational Focus
Rob Evans has spent more than 35 years working operationally inside 150+ businesses. He’s worked extensively with pre and post sales technical professionals and understands the commercial dynamics of client relationships from both sides.
Based on 35+ years working inside 150+ businesses worldwide, its not theory. It's what Rob observed working and where he saw people come unstuck.
- Yvonne Chin Irving, CET
- Extract From Corporate Stock Exchange Announcement
- Mark Graham, The Counselling Foundation
For technical professionals who want their expertise to create genuine business impact
> Pre and post sales technical professionals who want to engage with senior stakeholders at a commercial and business level.
> Technical specialists who want to communicate their work in terms that land with non technical decision makers.
> Any technical professional whose career progression has plateaued despite strong technical capability and who wants to develop the commercial confidence that will open up the next chapter.
> Technical professionals considering a move into a more commercial or sales focused role who want the business foundation to make that credible.
> Leaders of pre and post sales technical teams who are thinking about developing their colleagues.
You'll find our work guiding you to comprehensively examine how you think about your role, how you equip yourself, how you approach your work with prospects and customers, how you operate internally, how you communicate and how you adapt. Our material is designed to facilitate your considered and candid reflection. We share the lessons of our experiences and reflections illustrated with personal stories, examples and other relevant commentaries. We help you relate this material to your situation through our use of carefully crafted questions. Our goals are to provoke thought, to help you analyse your situation, to help you find ways to enhance your commercial and operational contributions and to equip you with tools and methodologies you can apply throughout your career.
You proceed at the pace that suits you best. Within the material many questions are posed for reflection relating to how you approach your career, work and professional development. You take whatever time you wish to devote to reflection on each question as your value comes from utilising the programme as best suits you.
We want you to succeed and success comes from action. All of the material is immediately available on purchase and remains accessible to you for 30 days. We encourage you to commit to moving ahead with your programme as soon as practicable after you've made the decision to participate. Your value from the programme will come from the steps that you take arising from the thoughts that emerge and decisions you make as you engage with the programme. The sooner you engage the sooner you will realise the benefits for you.
Yes. Every month we hold a live, invite only, one hour, online Q&A forum to provide you with the opportunity to raise any questions you have on the material. You will be invited to three monthly sessions scheduled following purchase. We will send you the invitations via the email address that you supply on purchasing your programme. We vary the times and days of the week on which forums are held to allow you the maximum opportunity to attend at least one of the three sessions to which you will be invited.
Yes. Our programme is business focused and every organisation is in business. Business principles apply whether you work for a 'for profit' organisation, a public sector body or a 'not for profit'. Each has investors, customers, employees, suppliers and other partners and stakeholders. Each organisation has to deliver some blend of experiences and solutions to its customers and in so doing it is seeking to deliver a return to its funding providers, a return that could be in a financial form or in the fulfilment of obligations.
We have developed the tools and methodologies we share based on the lessons of our own operational experiences. We have intentionally developed them to be straightforward and memorable for your day to day use. The tools we share include Activity Model Acumen™️, B2BcxoSelling™️, PPMCLeadership™️ and a range of other practical operational aide memoires. All are designed to be simple enough to remember and are immediately applicable in your role.
Everything included. We find participants who engage quickly get the most from the programme and the forum access is structured to support this.
Around 2.5 hours of short focused video lessons
Mobile enabled, watch in chunks of 15 minutes
Practical business teaching and immediately applicable techniques
PPMCleadership™️, Activity Model Acumen™️
A practical conscious approach to business leader relationship building
Reflective questions throughout to personalise the learning to your specific situation
Action oriented - 30 days to complete videos before forum
Live online forum session led directly by Rob Evans
Direct answers to your specific business development situations and questions
If you are looking to develop a team, a dedicated group forum session with Rob Evans can be added for no extra charge for cohorts of five or more