IT pros: better job prospects in 90 days

with expert career coaching, mentorship and skills, personalised for you

TL;DR

Q: What’s more valuable to IT services employers than an IT pro with great tech skills?
A: An IT pro with great tech skills AND customer collaboration, business acumen & solution sales skills.

Why? Because consulting skills are critical for IT services.

Get better job prospects in just 90 days.

Introducing:

ASCENDPRO™ is a unique professional development programme created by Consultant Academy to help IT services pros get better job prospects, pay and security in just 90 days.

How can ASCENDPRO™ help me?

ASCENDPRO™ helps IT pros like you stand out in a crowded jobs market and:

  • IT professionals often find themselves labeled as "great technical resources" which can limit career growth, salary potential, and job opportunities.

  • Adding consulting skills to your tech will give you more career options and will continue to be highly relevant throughout your professional career.

  • IT professionals who possess consulting skills in addition to relevant tech skills will find themselves in high demand, as this combination is highly valued by IT services companies.

  • Although IT services companies highly value consulting skills, they don’t teach them. IT pros are expected to “BYO” skills, or learn them organically. This will take years and cost tens of thousands of dollars in missed potential earnings.

  • Consulting skills comprise customer collaboration, business acumen and sales skills. These are transferrable, across roles, companies and even industries.

How does ASCENDPRO™ work?

ASCENDPRO™ is a professional development programme designed specifically for IT services pros like you, to help you fast-track your career.

The programme follows a structured process running over a twelve week semester, combining in-person coaching sessions with self-paced learning. The coaching sessions prepare you for the self-paced learning and then go deeper with real-world scenarios, discussion and role-play.

All activities happen within a community, so you can connect and collaborate with others on the same journey.

1-1 coaching is available as an add-on, if you need to go deeper, faster, for example to prepare for a new role.

  • Envision your future career

    What role do you want? Who do you want to work for and how much do you want to earn?

    SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) goals form the foundation for your five-step plan.

    Goal-setting comprises online assessments, group coaching and an in person interview with Consultant Academy founder, Doug Baxter.

  • What’s holding you back?

    Are you seen as just a tech resource?

    • Not "client-facing"?

    • No business acumen?

    • No sales experience?

    • Lacking conviction?

    • Lacking self-belief?

    • Invisible?

    Use our self-assessment tools to pinpoint your skill gaps and areas for improvement. Review and tailor in person with your coach, Doug Baxter.

  • Your personalised development plan

    Your path to transformation comprises a personalised development plan, based on your goals. This is supported by a detailed personal behavioural assessment

  • Learn critical consulting skills

    Through a combination of in-person, online coaching sessions plus integrated self-paced learning, you’ll learn critical consulting skills in these areas:

    • Customer Collaboration

    • Business Acumen

    • Solution Sales

  • Transition to a new role

    As you progress through the ASCENDPro™ programme, you’ll also be working on your enhanced employee proposition.

    Guided by your coach, you’ll update your Resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect your skills, capabilities and confidence.

    When this is complete, you’ll practice your personal “elevator pitch”, to describe your high-value proposition for promotion or a new job.

ASCENDPRO™ programme outline:

Who is ASCENDPRO™ designed for?

ASCENDPRO™ is designed for all IT services professionals looking for an accelerated start to a new role or career.

Graduates and new entrants will benefit from a fast-trck to IT professional services that would otherwise take years to achieve.

Engineers and technical roles will benefit by positioning for senior roles with much higher pay and increased job security.

Consultants and Service Delivery Managers will benefit from consolidation and advancement of their customer, business and commercial skills.

IT services leaders will benefit from deeper consulting talent in their teams, contributing to higher revenue per consultant, greater scalability and flexibility.

How does ASCENDPRO™ coaching work?

Coaching is the core of ASCENDPRO™.

Members attend group coaching sessions on alternate weeks to “learn ahead” before undertaking self-paced learning and real-world assignments. For example, learning how to use benefits mapping when collaborating with customers, to prove alignment of solutionns and services with desired business outcomes.

Assignments and progress are reviewed in the next coaching session, with discussion and real-world examples. The cycle continues throughout the 12-week programme, supported by reinforcement and accountability systems.

Coaching adds huge value to professional development by providing an interactive, collaborative learning experience while encouraging engagement and accountability. Members who regularly attend coaching sessions are 10x more likely to complete courses and assignments and achieve their professional goals.

Group & Cohort Coaching

ASCENDPRO™ members* attend online group coaching sessions on alternate weeks to review project work from the previous week and to prepare for the next week. Consultant Academy has found that learners are much more likely to continue with a programme of learning, and show better results, when regular coaching is used to reinforce learning and drive collaboration and accountability.

Personal Coaching

For accelerated progress and deep learning, ASCENDPRO™ members* have the option of further personal coaching sessions based around tailored assignments, scenarios and role-play. This provides the opportunity for deep dives into topics, allowing for customisation and tuning to suit the individual. For example, IT pros looking to move into Principal Consultants or Practice Lead roles will benefit from Personal Coaching.

What consulting skills will I learn with ASCENDPRO™?

Consultants are a critical part of any IT services company. The consultant is the single touchpoint between the customer, sales and delivery. That’s why adding consulting skills to your tech skills makes you so valuable.

But here’s what you need to know: the majority of IT pros, even in senior roles, are self-taught.

So the skills you’ll learn with ASCENDPRO™ will give you a competitive advantage when you’re seeking promotion, or looking for a new role. Even against much more experienced candidates.

Because you’ll have had the benefit of a comprehensive, repeatable framework based on decades of expertise. You’ll know not just the what and the how, but the “why”.

Learn hard skills with ASCENDPRO™

Being a great consultant means balancing customer satisfaction with the interests of your employer:

  • Unhappy customer = bad business.

  • Happy customer but no profit = bad business.

This requires mastery of customer collaboration, business acumen and solution sales skills.

Sometimes, these are referred to as “soft skills” but these are tangible, practical and highly transferrable, between roles, companies and even industries.

Customer Collaboration

  • Understanding the customer’s business context

  • Collaborate with customers to build trust and credibility

  • Use influence and persuasion to win business

Business Acumen

  • Speaking the customer’s language (value, outcomes, risk) fluently

  • Position your company’s unique proposition

  • Understand your company’s key metrics, drivers and priorities

Solution Sales

  • Scope and estimate work accurately and consistently

  • Produce compelling proposals to win business

  • Write bullet-proof statements of work to drive delivery

How can I be sure I’ll get the results I need with ASCENDPRO™ ?

Measurable Behavioural Change

Courses on their own aren’t enough. Without reinforcement and accountability, information is quickly forgotten.

ASCENDPRO™ uses a four-stage framework to drive measurable behavioural change, aligned with the improvements you’re seeking.

All activities are driven through the Community mobile app, so you have easy access to the notifications, learning material and feedback with your coach and community.

1. IDENTIFY GOALS

Identify measurable areas of improvement. For example, demonstrating alignment of solution with customer outcomes.

2. REINFORCE LEARNING

Post-course, content is “dripped” back to you with specific questions to test and reinforce what you’ve learned.

3. BE ACCOUNTABLE

Live coaching sessions focused on learning goals will reinforce learning & accountability.

4. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

You’ll continue to receive dripped content and accountability questions throughout the programme.

What are the benefits of the ASCENDPRO™ community?

The ASCENDPRO™ community provides an interactive, collaborative learning experience while encouraging engagement and accountability.

The community is the starting point for all activities, including courses, events, assessments and coaching. So members have a single place to go for everything, available on desktop and mobile.

Being able to connect with others on the same journey, share information and celebrate achievements means you always have a place for advice and other points of view.

What does ASCENDPRO™ cost?

ASCENDPRO™ costs $497 per month. To put that in perspective, what would a promotion or new job mean financially? You can reasonably expect a 10x (or greater) return and that’s the equation you need to keep in mind; you’re investing in your professional career for the long term.

There’s no mininum term, but the entire programme will take twelve weeks to complete, following a fixed schedule. Programmes start monthly and are limited to a maximum of eight members. Get in touch below for dates and availability. Payment can be made with credit card via Stripe.

☑️Community Access

☑️Consulting Skills Navigator course

☑️Customer Collaboration course

☑️Writing Winning Bids course

☑️Bullet-proof Statements Of Work course

☑️Group coaching (2hrs alternate weeks)

☑️Online Skills Assessment

☑️Certification & Digital Badge

☑️Online AI assistant

For accelerated results, the programme can also include additional personal 1-1 coaching. Let’s discuss your goals and needs to decide if that’s appropriate for you.

Why Consultant Academy?

  • “The response from the team was phenomenal”

    Daniel, Technical Director

  • "Great thought leader and mentor, who can guide and motivate“

    Janniek, Practice Manager

  • "Exceptional skills and expertise in writing Proposals and Statements of Work”

    Nisha, Practice Lead

  • “Insightful and challenging”

    Kevin, Service Delivery Manager

  • “Extremely good at forging relationships”

    Mark, Project Manager

About Consultant Academy

Doug Baxter, Founder, Consultant Academy

  • Extensive consulting & pre-sales experience

  • Capgemini, Empired, Dimension Data (NTT), Oakton Consulting

  • Hundreds of successful proposals & SOWs

  • Many $m of business won

  • Former PRINCE2 Certified Practitioner

  • Former Microsoft Certified Trainer

About me

I've worked in top-tier IT services (SI) organisations as consultant and presales specialist and care deeply about personal development and continual improvement.

I've seen many people struggle to get the promotion and recognition they deserve.

And I’ve seen people promoted and struggling. I'd say it took about 10 years for me to become fully effective and I'm still learning.

I've made the mistakes so you don't have to.

Leverage my experience and let's work together to transform your IT services career.

Companies I’ve worked with:

Why not ask your boss?

All IT services companies need these skills - they are fundamental to professional services.

So why not ask your employer to support you in the programme? You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Here’s an example email to get you started.

Remember, take control of your IT services career - nobody else will.

Hey boss,

I've been here for a few years now and I'm keen to accelerate my career.

I know that senior roles need consulting and pre-sales skills, so I've been looking at the ASCENDPRO™ programme from Consultant Academy.

It seems to offer a comprehensive, affordable path to where I want to be and aligns with our business objectives.

This would be way faster, easier and cheaper than spending years organically learning this stuff and would allow me to bring greater value to the company.

Here’s the link: www.consultant.academy

What do you think? Will the company support me in this?

Cheers,

Every journey starts with that first step.

Take it now and learn how you can get better job prospects, pay and job security in just 90 days:

Enquiry