Selling education for social good
Hackney Learning Trust Success Story
Summary
Hackney Learning Trust (HLT) is part of Hackney Council’s Children, Adults and Community Health (CA&CH) Directorate and is responsible for a wide range of services:
- children’s centres
- early years education
- schools and
- adult education
HLT is responsible for overseeing educational improvements in the borough, but also works with schools and other educational institutions across the UK.
The Trust was originally established in 2002 as the first private, not-for-profit company in the UK to take over and transform a council’s entire education function. In 2012 The Learning Trust was returned back to Hackney Council but with a significant earned income target — almost £10M a year.
This success story explains how =mc consulting helped them achieve that target.
the =mc team provided us with a comprehensive commercial awareness package from A to Z consultancy, trainings and excellent follow up support.
The Challenge
In order to meet the ambitious £10M a year target the Trust had not only to retain its existing schools and education contracts but also win high value new business from inside and outside the borough.
They needed a strategy to do that. Not only that, the service delivery staff were mostly professional educators or other experts in their field. Many didn’t see it as appropriate to ‘sell’ their services and even those who don’t have the knowledge or skills to do so. Service delivery staff – or at least some of them – needed to have the skillsets and mindsets to win and then retain business. They wanted help and support to do this.
How we helped
=mc consulting team undertook three processes in parallel to meet the demanding timetable:
- One was to create a loyalty card in the café that would drive business to the shop with the promise of a free gift that was waiting to be collected
- We suggested staff should normally present this card with the café receipt, and say to visitors that they should be sure to collect their modest free gift
- In the shop we arranged for offerings to be re-clustered under headings such as ‘a favourite gift’, ‘by local craftspeople’, and ‘perfect for birthdays’
- These nudge and priming prompts were presented on handwritten-style cards to reinforce the idea that an authority figure in the museum had endorsed them
- The electronic signage in the shop made it clear that any purchase profits went towards protecting precious assets in the museum or making them accessible.
The Impact
The traded services management team at HLT developed the strategy with the =mc team. This has since been implemented with impressive results — achieving and exceeding those ambitious income targets. Staff were impressed and encouraged by the thoroughness of the training programme design, materials which gave the team the confidence and competence to build successful and rewarding business relationships with customers.
HLT is now a model for many authorities throughout the UK — frequently cited in best practice case studies.
Free guide
If you’d like to know more about the business model vanvas and value proposition development you might be interested in this helpful step-by-step guide to using these frameworks here.
Next Steps?
Don’t miss out on the latest thinking.
Keen to receive the latest insights on fundraising, strategy, commercial awareness and decision science? Join the =mc consulting ideas forum and we’ll deliver leading edge advice and info on limited access events to your inbox.
Clare Segal, Director
The =mcconsulting family of websites
Our preferred training partner
