Customer Service training CDs - your opportunity to get them for free. On the Associated Learning Systems website here you will find the 3 CDs on customer service. To Market have made us a current offer on these CDs. If you buy this 3 pack of CDs here, and then book a place on their forthcoming 2 day customer service masterclass on 31st March and 1st April, you are entitled to all your money back on the CDs. They will credit this against your training invoice. 

The 3 CD customer service set tells you all the easy to apply secrets for ensuring exceptional customer service and keeping your customer satisfied. They set out the 10 key things you need to know to ensure you are offering quality service over the phone.

The customer service training course is being held in Market Harborough and so is most suitable in you’re in Leicester, Northampton, Loughborough, Coalville, Coventry, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough or wider parts of Leicestershire or Northamptonshire.

So have a look around the site, press a few buttons and these CDs could be with you tomorrow, or maybe the next day. Payment is easy and secure through PayPal, you can make payment with your credit card.

It is said that the best way of learning is to teach.

Have you ever found that you understand something, only to try and then explain it yourself, only to discover you’re not clear on it at all ?

Alternatively sometimes you can explain something to someone who then asks you some straightforward questions - which then makes you realise you are not clear on all the details.

This is all part of the learning process. If you really want to understand something, get yourself into a situation where you can explain it to someone else. You will often find that in doing this, you will have learnt more about it along the way. It really does work. To understand you have to teach !

Time management tips, remember there is never enough time, and never will be. There are many top tips about time management which you can pick up from many different people and places, and time management is key to achieving the things we want in life.

Don’t you just hate it when people say “sorry I didn’t do that for you, I didn’t get time.” Sometimes followed by “I’ve just been so busy” or “I don’t know where the time goes - I really don’t ” ?

And it’s rubbish anyway. It simply means that it wasn’t important enough to them. You see time management is partly about motivation. If it’s important you will find time to do it. If someone says they didn’t get time your retort could be “well, if there was a million pounds for you if you’d done it - would you have had the time then ?!” To which the answer is “Ooh yes.” So it’s simply that we choose to do other stuff.

Be realistic, set realistic time frames, and acknowledge the fact that this task may or may not be that important to you, just don’t say to another human being “I didn’t get time !” There will never be enough time - get over it !

Time management is one of the important topics covered in the audio CDs on the Associated Learning Systems website, follow this link http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=24 Buying is easy through PayPal and it will only set you back a few pounds - so click a few buttons and it could be with you by tomorrow.

Here’s something you don’t see every day : some funded marketing training from the Ideal Marketing Company of Market Harborough.

Our friends over at the Ideal Marketing Company are running a programme titled the Marketing Mentor which is aimed at owners and directors of organisations of small to medium sized organisations in the Leicester, Northampton, Market Harborough area. And the great thing is that on account of the government putting grants and funding money into training at the moment they have secured funding which means that you could end up with the training programme fully funded through Train to Gain.

Free marketing training - there won’t be a better offer than that this year will there ?! Whilst you’re welcome to register interest through us here info@associatedlearningsystems.co.uk , you can alternatively contact the Ideal Marketing Company back directly by following this link http://themarketingmentor.co.uk/?page_id=2 but do remember to tell them you saw details here at Associated Learning Systems - it may just get us a coffee !

Telesales training CDs are available for free - well sort of.

The training company To Market runs training courses for telesales and telemarketing teams. We have on offer at Associated Learning Systems a range of telesales and telemarketing related training CDs as part of our audio training programme. These include our best selling line the 3 CDs on telephone selling. We also have a CD on benefits titled “sell the sizzle, not the bacon.” There will be other CDs added soon on upselling, cross selling and switch selling plus highly effective account management.  

You may be thinking the CDs are unlikely to be completely free - well here’s the deal. For every one of the Sales training CDs available on our site that you buy, you can have a complete refund of what you’ve spent against any in-house training you commission To Market to run for you before the 30th September 2009.

Our telesales training products and material here contain advice and tips on sales techniques, including how to open the sales call, identifying needs, spotting buying signals, questioning techniques, probing customer needs, and dealing with objections.

So have a browse around the site, press a few buttons and these CDs could be with you tomorrow, or maybe the next day. Payment is easy and secure through PayPal, you can make payment with your credit card.

One of the best tips I ever heard about problem solving goes as follows - it really is problem solving made easy.

Consider the main thing holding you back at the moment. It could be that your job is unfulfiling, or you need more money or you want some help and advice, or guidance on overcoming an obstacle.

The only materials you need are peace and quiet, a piece of paper and a pencil.

Then all you do is turn the problem for solving into a question. That makes it action orientated. So for instance I need £3,000 saved up for my summer holiday and it’s now February becomes “how do I save £3,000 before my summer holiday in August ?”

Then of course as soon as you start to answer the question you start to have your answers. It is a great and simple device to stimulate your brain to think. As a solo brainstorming technique it is fantastic. You’ll also find that within 10 minutes or so you’ll have 90% of the answers. So stop there - don’t force yourself to sit there for an hour - it probably won’t contribute much more anyway.

Now is the time to ramp up learning. First customers have the opportunity to shop around, and spend longer over their decisions. So they will deal with people they like, people who are knowledgeable and people who are motivated.  Secondly there are more hours available for many people at the moment - so now is the time to open yourself up to new ideas.

Some great things we’ve come across. Try searching the internet for subjects you want to become  more knowledgeable about. Go to the library or your local bookstore, there is a wealth of both fascinating and mind stretching material that can both stimulate and motivate you. It also helps get you into a more positive frame of mind. This will also help you carry out your job more positively. You win, your organisation wins and your customers win !

Finally the other thing with reading about wisdom is that it is so inexpensive. So invest in yourself, you will almost certainly find that it’s the best thing you could spend your money on !

Clearly self-belief and a whole lot of commitment to their ideas is what entrepreneurs have.

At the weekend I was reading about Michelle Mone the former model turned business woman who runs the Ultimo brand. She is 37, and since 1996 has built up a company now worth £45 million according to the Sunday Times.

And yet, it wasn’t always so. In the Sunday Times piece she said “setting up the business was hard and I had to find a lot of money to get it going. Iwas in debt by about £420,000 when the company finally launched. I had to remortgage the house and also take out a number of business loans. I also had debts with every credit card company known to man.”

So what kept her going ? She had overwhelming faith and conviction in her ideas. Now surely for every Michelle Mone there are 100 people that gamble and lose, but what an inspiring story.

While we don’t have audio CDs available yet on how to build a £45 million company, remember that Mao Tse Tung said “the longest journey begins with a single step” and we can help with that. Click through to see the audio CDs on self development and goal setting at  http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=SELF%20DEVELOPMENT

But what we can learn is that self-belief and commitment is what she, like other entrepreneurs have.

So big Phil has gone ! And Chelsea FC are going to make do with a part-time manager who doesn’t even work in this country the rest of the time. So is that really better than having a World Cup winning manager full-time ?! I don’t see how it can be.

So is Phil a bad manager ? Probably not. Did he lead the team well ? Seems not - judging by the stories of disharmony in the camp. But let’s just consider his management credentials for a moment. He led Brazil to a World Cup win (possibly not the most difficult feat in football admittedly - with so much abundant talent), but you’ve still got to be the ‘chosen one’. He was also the man who regularly put one over on Sven when it mattered - sending us out of 2 key tournaments. So much so, that not so long ago he was supposedly the man for the England job. “If you can’t beat him, let him join.”

So what happened at Chelsea then ? Did all those skills desert him ? And what of his predecessor Avram Grant ? His team finished a close second in the league on the final day (by 2 points) and were just one kick of a ball away from being European Champions. Sounds fairly impressive. But not good enough it seems. “So let’s stir it all up and start again.”  

Perhaps the problem is with the organisation ! Huh - oh no, can’t be ! To produce a winning organisation first you must have stability and continuity. Clearly if someone is a muppet and falls short of the their goals then they have to go but look at your goal setting. Is it realistic ? Is world domination a justifiable aim ? No-one has yet managed that in any field.

Also it is important to recognise that just throwing money at a problem will not solve it. Whether it is Abramovich at Chelsea or the American government in the Middle East, achievement of our goals in life will involve some graft and dedication, and putting our shoulder to the wheel. It may be a slog but it must be done. Just hoping that money will help achieve everything we want doesn’t work.

But yes I’ll leave you to tell that to Mr Abramovich !

Make your goal setting challenging but realistic, and remember to set SMART goals. In these testing times setting personal goals and self-development becomes even more important. There are audio products available on the subject of personal self-development. Click here to follow the link http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=SELF%20DEVELOPMENT

A book I bought for holiday last year, which I thoroughly recommend is Predictable Irrationality by Dan Ariely.

It is not intended as a sales manual, but is more an insight into patterns of human (and therefore by extension customer) behaviour. As the title suggests, it explains that although we as buyers do extraordinary things and apparently act irrationally, much of it in fact is entirely predictable. How much would this benefit you as a sales person do you think ?

One tip I learned is the example of giving people 3 options. Set out 3 options and people will naturally drift towards the middle option. This gives you the opportunity to present the product or service you want them to go for (and which is realistic) as the middle option. Good stuff eh ?!

He also covers an example of comparing 3 items when two of them are similar (a luxury weekend in Paris, a ‘value’ weekend in Paris or a luxury weekend in Rome.) He talks about why a person will be likely to choose one of the Parisien weekends. But I’ll let you discover that one for yourself.

You will be able to buy this at all good bookstores, I got mine at Smiths, you can follow this link http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails-Predictably+Irrational+-9780007256525.html

But happy reading and let’s make 2009 an informed year ! Knowledge is the new power !