Market Background and Operations

Globalisation and technological change mean that entrepreneurs and small and medium

sized businesses need the tools and resources to build on their in-house capabilities so that

they can respond quickly to changing economic circumstances, if they are to prosper and

maximise their potential. Since 1997, the Government has undertaken a series of reforms to

devolve business support and funding powers to regional and local authorities to assist start

up, small and medium sized companies to achieve this.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (‘BERR’) working in

partnership with the Regional Development Agencies (‘RDAs’) and other regional bodies

aims to raise national and regional economic performance by working to promote regional

regeneration, investment, skills, training, employment, efficiency and competitiveness.

Nurturing entrepreneurs and providing resources to high growth businesses is a key part of

the strategy.

Winning Pitch works with a number of national and local funding bodies and funding

streams, which seek to drive economic regeneration by supporting entrepreneurial

communities.

The work undertaken involves helping them to develop their strategy for a particular support

programme, as well as the delivery of those support programmes. Examples include:

• Winning Pitch’s contract with Blackpool Council under the Local Enterprise Growth

Initiative programme.

• European Regional Development Fund, funding which has been used to support

Winning Pitch programmes in Manchester and Oldham.

• The Winning Pitch projects with the University of Manchester Incubation Company in

the Bio-Tec community and Creative Lancashire are Regional Development Authority

funded.

• The recently won framework contracts with Welsh Assembly and Scottish Enterprise,

which will lead to the opening of Winning Business Academies™ in Cardiff and

Glasgow in the next six months.

In addition to funding via public sector initiatives, Winning Pitch provides its services directly

to commercial organisations and is seeking to build a balanced portfolio of public and private

sector clients across each of its three business units.

Initially, the professional and financial services market provides important opportunities for

future growth and exploitation. The success within a major High Street bank in the last

twelve months will provide a launch pad for developing a broader base of clients in the

private sector. Winning Pitch’s key competitive advantage in this arena is based on three

prominent strands:

• Proprietary personal development tools based on Winning Pitch’s research into

entrepreneurial sales excellence.

• An innovative sales coaching format that combines traditional one-to-one

consultancy blended with supporting video services delivered through WPTV.

• Client verification that the approach delivers breakthrough sales performance –

measurable return on investment.

Winning Pitch intends to develop a “Sales Academy” offering, which services the needs of

both the financial and professional services sector. This will in due course be extended into

other areas of the private sector.