About ESI Certification

Certification Milestones

• Micro Credential in Entrepreneurial Sales: requires the completion of any two of the available eight units
• Certificate in Entrepreneurial Sales: requires the completion of any four of the available eight units
• Professional Certificate in Entrepreneurial Sales: requires the completion of any six of the available units
• Professional Diploma in Entrepreneurial Sales: requires the completion of all eight of the available eight units.

The Professional Diploma has been credit rated by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) at 20 academic credits on the Scottish Credit & Qualifications Framework (SCQF) at Level 8. It is issued by ESI (www.esinstitute.com). The credit points show how much learning is involved in achieving a qualification and this credit rating equates to over 200 notional hours of learning.

Learning includes core online instruction materials; an experimental mode where learners can reflect and test the concepts they have learned in their own working context; and a wide range of devices and exercises to drive real time on-the-job application of what they have learned. Learning is assessed and behavioural change is recorded via a number of artefacts.

Artefacts are submitted by participants for each unit, and these are assessed by ESI. The artefacts include:

• Portfolios of Work in response to learning activities and work-based exercises.
• Business Impact Statements which are guided reflections on the results generated by the real-world application of what they have learned.

ESI’s assessment rubric has been approved by its accreditation partner, GCU, and is subject to an annual audit performed by GCU.

Unit Descriptors

Following are the eight units and the learning outcomes of each.

Fundamentals

• Identify what you need to focus on in order to achieve improved sales results.
• Recognise the entrepreneurial environment factors that will impact your sales performance.

Business Issue

• Evaluate and validate your understanding of why a (your) business exists.
• Translate information you’re exposed to as a salesperson all day into credible market intelligence for your business.
• Be aware of what it means to have personal credibility as a salesperson (and why it matters).
• Collaborate with your business to achieve better sales results, for yourself and for your business.

Customer

• Evaluate the degree to which you understand the prospect’s buying cycle -when and whether they are likely to do a deal with you.
• Appreciate that there are seen and unseen motivations & related risks to a deal closing -individual motivations as well as institution motivations.
• Ask better questions to help your prospects clearly articulate and explain their business issue, context and deal expectations.

Transparency

• Test and validate your understanding of the likelihood, quantum and timing of a deal.
• Appreciate that alignment between you and the prospect about the likelihood, quantum and timing of a deal is built on transparency at any given moment.
• Drive collaboration and partnership with the prospect and likely multiple stakeholders and recognise that this takes time and effort.

Efficiency

• Appreciate the much-overlooked importance of time to closing a sale.
• Manage the impact different aspects of time have on the timing of a sale.
• Spend the right amount of time to achieve the required result -replicating the most direct route to a sale.

Results

• Understand that high-performance selling means that every sales activity has an expected result.
• Implement a results-focused approach to achieving sales goals.
• Deliver other valuable, or non-financial, deliverables to the business in the course of doing your work.

Attitude

• Have an honest and delusion-free relationship with yourself.
• Be persistent, overcome adversity, stay motivated and resilient -because delivering high performance in Entrepreneurial Sales is hard.

High Performance

• Be professional and responsive to the B2B sales environment where businesses are selling to businesses.
• Invest time and effort in constantly developing and honing a range of skills and talents necessary for Entrepreneurial Sales.
• Respond to the fact that a business that has aspirations to grow must constantly learn and respond to the market reality. As must you.