Everything that happens before a session here takes about twenty minutes of your time. You send a few lines through the enquiry form, or by email if you prefer. We talk for fifteen minutes. Within one working day you have a written quote, and after that the next thing that happens is the session. There is no training needs analysis, no discovery workshop and nothing for your team to read in advance.
People do ask what the call is for, which is reasonable, since fifteen minutes is not long and the whole session gets built from it. This piece goes through what I ask, what I do with the answers, and the things I leave out.
What the form asks
The form wants your name, your organisation and how to reach you. After that it asks roughly how many people, which session interests you, a date or window, what you would like the session to change, and whether anyone has access needs or adjustments. The last four are optional, and "not sure yet" is one of the answers to the session question, because plenty of people don't know which session they want until we have talked.
Some of that I need before I can quote. The group size tells me which band the price sits in and whether a second facilitator comes. The date lets me check it works, and two to three weeks ahead is comfortable. Access needs and adjustments are asked about as standard so that nobody on your team has to raise it themselves on the day. I will also ask about the room when we speak, though the requirement is small: anywhere with space for the group to stand in a circle, and stackable chairs rather than a boardroom table if you have the choice.
Everything else on the form is there to get the conversation started. The useful part comes out when I can ask the next question.
The question the call is built around
What do you want to be different after the session? Most of the fifteen minutes goes on that.
People usually answer by describing a meeting. Two people do most of the talking. Somebody's idea gets taken apart before they have finished saying it. A handover between two teams keeps going wrong and nobody can say where. A manager has a conversation they have been putting off for a month. I ask what is going wrong in how the team works together, then what you would want to see instead, and the session gets built to close the gap between those two answers.
“I ask what is going wrong in how the team works together, then what you would want to see instead, and the session gets built to close the gap between those two answers.”
The most useful thing you can bring is a particular meeting that went badly. Give me the day, the room and what happened, rather than a value from your framework or a competency. From that I can tell you which of the four habits the session should spend most of its time on, and whether the session you had in mind is the right one.
What I do with the answer
For the Taster, it decides the framing, the debrief and which exercises get more time. For the Half Day and the Programme, it becomes an applied scenario built from your team's own situation, written in your language and using the examples you give me. For the Management Lab, you tell me what your managers are avoiding and I write it up as a scenario with the names and details changed. The group picks one of its own on the day as well.
All of those scenarios are written from what you tell me on the call. If you want them built from your own policies and processes instead, that is a £250 supplement, and it is on the rate card so you can see it before you decide.
What the call is not for
Nobody sells you anything on it. The price is published and you will have seen it before we speak. If a session is not the right thing for your team I will tell you on the call, and the same goes if a cheaper session would do the job.
Live cases stay with HR. If there is a real situation with HR or legal sides to it, I don't advise on it, and no scenario ever names anyone.
Nobody is tested, either. You don't need to know anything about improvisation, and nobody on your side needs to prepare. The person you speak to is the person who turns up to run the session.
What you get afterwards
Within one working day you get a written quote setting out the session, the price, the date and what I have built in from what you told me. Nothing is held until price, date and terms are confirmed, and a 50% deposit holds the date. If the session then doesn't land, tell me within seven days and the fee comes back in full, deposit included.
If you want to read about the five sessions before we speak, they are on the sessions page, but you don't have to have picked one.
Applied Improv Scotland
Communication training for teams across the Central Belt. Sessions from £400, refunded in full if they don't land.
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What buyers mean when they say 'something interactive'
Four different requests hide behind one phrase, and they need four different sessions.
Team building or training: how to tell which one you're buying
Both are worth the money. They do different jobs, and the enquiry form rarely says which one you mean.
Get a price and a date.
Tell me the group size and roughly when. You'll have a written quote back within one working day, and the fee is refunded in full if the session doesn't land.
Ask for a price