Blogs & Articles

Recently in one or our commercial meetings, I was asked by a new starter in our business what the difference was between ‘selling’ and ‘consultative selling’. As I began to explain I could hear myself starting to make this sound all very windswept and interesting but ultimately I realised it was actually getting to be a little confusing for the inductee as I found myself talking about it being a much more deeper and complicated process than merely selling something to someone.

For many years the HR Community has religiously collated learning and development requirements via the organisations' Performance Appraisal process. From this data, a schedule of interventions is normally put in place to satisfy employee needs. Putting necessary compliance requirements to one side, what would happen if we stopped doing them? Some would say not much as they spend too much time chasing managers to complete them on time and when they do receive them the request is simply a course title, no clear development objectives have been agreed and no other learning and development methodologies considered.

eLearning refers to online courses that take around 20 minutes in our course case, which allows flexible learning for those who may be pressed for time within their working day. Our eLearning courses cover over 200 topics allowing you to learn anything you require within a short space of time, while still being accredited for it.

Sometimes it is quite difficult to discern between the two and there are occasions when we can walk away from a sale because we have taken the objection at face value and not sought to dig into whether it is real or not. Usually when it’s not, it is because we have somehow created doubt in the buyers mind and they are nervous about committing. Whilst there are many reasons for this, it can be as simple as we have not explained our proposition clearly enough or perhaps even the pricing structure.

Industry shows and trade exhibitions can be a great way of getting in front of a large number of prospective clients in a short space of time. Whether you are selling B2B or B2C, these events can effectively bring buyers to you. But it’s not simply a case of rocking up on the day with your wares and expecting to meet your annual sales target by the time the event closes. It’s important to properly plan if you are exhibiting at events and in doing so you should consider the following:

The learning and development industry is saturated with different approaches, models, tools, and techniques for leading and inspiring others to achieve great things. However, sometimes, simple things done well and often can help you engage, lead, and empower others to truly gain high levels of performance.

Keep Growing Developing, growing and improving ourselves = healthy interactions What is also important is what you think of other people, especially in your relationships at work. Thinking positively about others and building relationships and trust is important, it makes us feel connected and ourselves. Research shows there is also a clear link between putting you aside, building positive relationships with trust and business performance

The shift towards digital learning is becoming inevitable. The convenience and cost-saving of learning taking place ‘on demand’ at the learners own desk or home is the biggest driver. There is likely an element of online learning already taking place within your organisation – quite possibly done by individuals using their initiative because of the growing wealth of content that exists on the Internet.

How we communicate with others sometimes has a dramatic effect on how we are perceived as a person, generally determining what others think about us within those first impressions. This can have an effect on most things that you do within your workplace, speaking to customers, and colleagues. The way they perceive you can have complete control of how they view you as an individual and what they are willing to do for you in effect.

How many times have you been chairing or attending a meeting to discuss a specific topic / project and attendees start talking at cross purposes and before you know it personal conflict arises and initial objective for the meeting is lost.

The introduction of GROW into coaching conversations has provided a clear, structured process that pretty much anyone can follow with a bit of guidance.

Recent insights and discoveries in neuroscience have shared the importance and given credibility to the role of intuition in leadership, especially when it comes to decision making. What is intuition? It's what results when we piece things together, information, experience etc., to come up with something different or new that a single observation or thought may not have identified.