Approach

The innovative approach of the European Business to Business Sales Institute project involves:

Trainees get a certificate complying with the European quality standards

• Grenoble Ecole de Management is EQUIS accredited (European Quality Improvement System) from Efmd (European Foundation for management development) and by its American counterpart AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate of School of Business)
• In order to deliver the accreditation, the partners build the quality in their programs at different levels: program design, program content, program delivery, student assessment and program evaluation
• This guarantees the equivalence of the knowledge and competences acquired by the trainees throughout Europe following the delivery of the program by the different partners
• The program is available at different locations in Europe through the network of partner institutions

Transferring and modeling best practices in an international context

Global training contents is developed by mobilising teams of SME sales person and academic institutions experts on a given subject. Based on their practices, they model the training contents by selecting the pedagogical methods that are most suitable for the group. These experts are the “content owners” of the subject in question and responsible for updating the contents and adapting them to local needs. The Institute and its knowledge platform is the adequate frame for hosting the content.

The project’s field of application

Gathering SME from different countries and domain of activities, the project is a practical illustration of a good link between a “trans-European” concepts and “local or national” operational implementation that provides answers adapted to the efficiency challenges of each involved countries.

The selected “blended learning” approach

New technologies are used systematically to maximise the impact of face-to-face meetings and classroom training sessions. We use as much as possible techniques that are at the leading edge for our specific objectives (skills evaluation, short online modules that can be used to revise “fundamentals” as much as required and simulation tools).

A structured and global approach that offers the necessary flexibility to be adapted to local conditions

The pedagogical system provides specific methods for local transfer and adaptation (training of relay trainers). It is essential to remain globally coherent while staying grounded in field realities (apply a priori the 80/20 rule – 80% global content and 20% local content). Cases are developed that allow for the understanding of global vs. local issues.

Measurement and validation tools that can be used to measure the effectiveness of training actions vis-à-vis operational issues and learning quality

We foresee organisational diagnosis tools for measuring sales effectiveness that can be used to identify local issues and provide a relevant solution.