Increasingly aware of the difficulties faced by businesses in today’s economic climate the NVQ 2 Sales course, fully funded by the LSC (Learning & Skills Council) will cover the essential elements of selling products and services. As time is crucial to many businesses the course will run for 4 – 6 months to meet the needs of individual learners.

Thirteen people from nine businesses have already signed up for the course and learners met each other at the first workshop yesterday.

Shelley Askwith from Touchstone Leads (cold calling experts) in Shildon and Fred Traice (Sole proprietor) of Traice Marketing in Newton Aycliffe both agreed that the event was very helpful and networking with people from other businesses gave them an overview of how others were dealing with the downturn in the economy.

Course tutor Geoff Barrass said “Today was a getting to know each other session, share experiences and gain an overview of the selling process and practices. We also discussed that to sell successfully, businesses must focus on quality, benefits and value to customers”.

Co-ordinator of the initiative, John Jenkins at Bishop Auckland College, Business Training Services said, “Bishop Auckland College is proud to be working with SASDA to develop a course which meets the number one need of businesses of any size – trying to increase sales and make more money. Initial feedback from this course has been excellent and Bishop Auckland College is delighted that all businesses could share ‘best practice’ ideas to further enhance the growth of local employees and businesses.”

For further information on the course please contact Ann Boyd (SASDA) on 01325 310730 or John Jenkins (BTS) on 01325 379600

Website: www.sasda.info