Julie Allen, HR Director of Vantis plc, a top 20 and growing full service group of accountants, business and tax advisers says

"Focusing on communication and personal impact, including questioning and listening skills, has been extremely important in achieving our corporate objectives. Because personal skills are not prioritised as people study for their technical qualifications these have not traditionally been addressed until later on. This can become a big issue as growing a business depends on quality interactions with clients. This is why, in 2002, just after we went public, we developed a training and development initiative with Rapporta to focus on improving these types of personal skills among our staff.

"The results were impressive. Those who participated in the training and consistently used the tools and techniques reported feeling more confident in client meetings, presenting, handling objections and price negotiations. It helped new business development as a result. More recently, we have developed a new programme [with Rapporta] to support our managers in everything from motivating their staff through to client portfolio building skills. These are all highly dependent on having good communication skills overall."

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