Sales and customer service training on a budget. Many companies are facing challenges at the moment as economic conditions across the world worsen.

There is still the need to develop your staff and teams of course. But there is little money available to pay for it. Sound familiar?

Is this your training budget?

Many companies are in this situation and therefore many managers and company owners want to motivate their teams and help them develop new skills in both customer service and sales, but on limited or non-existent budgets. Many companies are forced to do some form of training, but using in-house staff and materials. However if the training is to be effective it is important to gather new ideas from other sources. Gleaned from the experts. The type of people who’ve been there, bought the t-shirt etc.

We can help, honestly. We provide a range of easily affordable audio CDs packed with top tips, years of experience and plain old good common sense. Our CDs and tips booklets are based around a number of key growth areas ;

• Customer Service
• Telephone sales
• Self-development

With prices starting from £34.99 for one audio CD, and packages of 3 for less than £70, you wouldn’t need many good ideas to make it self-financing would you?

All our products are supplied with a full money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with the product. If you’re in the UK, simply return the  product for a refund of your purchase price. http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/products.asp is the link that will take you straight to our products page. You can buy all our products online, with payment by credit card or directly through PayPal.

Associated Learning Systems is a UK, Midlands based company specialising in products for the development of customer service, telesales and telemarketing skills.

Polari – you probably speak it already but don’t know it. Admittedly this site is all about verbal communication skills and self-development, so writing about a little known form of slang from London in the 1950s and 60s may seem a little tenuous. However I think this form of language has passed into modern English with most of us never being aware of it.

How many times have you used the word balonie for something which is rubbish ? Or bijou in place of the word small? Or even slap for make-up ladies, or ogle for admire boys? All of these terms are Polari.

Polari - humorous dialect fading from use

Polari was a language which grew in theatrical and homosexual circles in London in the 50s and 60s. It is a mix of Romany, itlaian, Yiddish, heatre-speak, naval slang and back slang. It first entered the British consciousness through the BBC’s radio programme ‘Round the Horne’ which starred Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick.

Other well known bits of Polari include ;

• bona nochi = goodnight
• cackle = talk or gossip
• clobber = clothes
• fantabulosa = excellent
• mince = to walk effeminately
• scarper = to run off

I would bet that you’ve used many bits of Polari in your life and yet you may not have heard of it. Well know you know.

For lots more examples of Polari in everyday use follow this link to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari

Some top tips for stand up presentations. Well 9 in fact.

The day has come. You’re due to be making a presentation at work soon, and you’re looking round the internet for some inspiration – yes ?! There are many sources of information, and it time well spent to have a look around and prepare yourself for what you are about to do. Up to a point the more time you spend at the planning stage the better.  

You WILL be successful - good planning is key

Let’s consider 9 top tips for presenting at work.  

Focus on your audience. In other words, think about what they want to hear. Not so much on what you want to say, but on what they want from your presentation. For instance you might have 122 ideas on how you could improve the effectiveness of the work process you’re presenting. However they almost certainly will have lost the will to live before you get to number 47, so decide on 19 innovative or refreshing or key ideas. And just go with that.

Think about who they are and what they want. Are you out to persuade, entertain or inform? Fit your preparation around this.

1. Don’t overrun. Time yourself & add a bit of time on for questions, interruptions etc. Nothing kills a good speech faster than going over your alloted time. And heaven forbid if you start to encroach on their coffee break or toilet break time. Or worse still their time for a ciggy! Practising your presentation a few times in advance and timing it should take care of this.
2. Practice. You do this to make it look as natural and fluent on the day as possible. It will also calm you, knowing and feeling confident with the structure of your presentation. It means you’ve only got the audience to concentrate on, on the day.
3. Use the minimum of notes you feel comfortable with. You want to engage with your audience as much as possible, so by all means take text with you, but you really want to just be prompted by key words or phrases in your presentation. And whatever you do, don’t look down and read passages to your audience. It will make them feel embarrassed for you. This is not good. 
4. Dress to impress but feel comfortable. Your choice of clothing lets the audience know you are taking this seriously. Consider what you are going to wear to project the image you want them to have of you.
5. Think about what you admire or like in a presenter. This is a great guide. I would hope that it includes such chararcteristics as someone who seems natural, smiles a fair bit, and makes strong eye contact with the audience. In addition, someone who uses a bit of humour gets more from the audience. 
6. It is often said that there are 3 stages to a presentation. First tell them what you’re gonna tell them, then tell them, and then finally as you finish tell them what you told them. Even the BBC news is structured like this. First they give you the headlines, then they tell you the stories. Finally they finish with that phrase “now for the main stories again……” If it works for them, it is good enough for you and me!
7. Aim for a powerful start. You want to grab their attention quickly and get them fully engaged. “Ok, in the next session, I’m going to demonstrate how you can tell 40+ things about someone in the first 6 words. Oh and by the way, that is someone you’ve never spoken to before and you can’t even see! 40+ things.” This is the start to one of our training modules.
8. If you’re there as a guest speaker do not sell your business. However do show them what an expert you are and that will do all the selling for you anyway.
9. Use anecdotes or worked examples where you can. It lifts your presentation and makes it easier for your audience to relate to. “So for the average person this would mean an increase of £15 per month” Don’t just talk percentages. Make it real.

There are of course many more top tips than this, but again thinking of you the reader we’re conscious of the fact that you’re busy and don’t want loads of information – just some key things you can use. I wish you well with your forthcoming presentation!

You will find many self-appointed gurus all over the internet offering their wares and their wisdom. And we’re sure that with some time you could consider all of them. Most people who are experts in any area of self-development will probably have something that will benefit you. But how do you choose which ones to listen to? 

Personal development is the key to happiness ?!!

Many are American of course, so it is great to find some great ideas that will benefit British people and British organisations right here in Britain. The work of Peter Thomson is something we think you should check out.

His work provides ideal content for those of you running businesses or interested in personal growth and development. We’ve attended seminars and sessions run by Peter and can highly recommend him. He is down to earth and friendly and yet you can tell he’s well rehearsed. What else could be more important in a trainer or speaker?! click on www.peterthomson.com/ to find out more about Peter’s work.

His area of specialism is around helping organisations develop better selling. He refers to himself as the UK’s leading strategist on business and personal growth. But have a look, have a listen and tell us what you think.

Customer Service training is undoubtedly very important to all organisations – all the more so currently. Globally people have less available to spend on the products and services they need. With the rise of the internet, you can get almost anything from anywhere. Research shows that 80% of buying decisions are based on the service.

Improving customer service will put you ahead of the competition

The customer service module takes around 3 hours on a standard 2 day To Market customer service and telephone communications training course. Here we’ve had it distilled down into around 45 minutes of the key extracts and tips. Some of the top customer service tips here have been collected from the customer service personnel (agents) who have attended the courses. And they are the professionals of course – so they should know.

In this customer service audio CD you will hear why exceptional customer service matters to the progress of any organisation, the 4 point customer development mantra – the 4 key fundamental cornerstones why in the long run professional customer service is a MUST HAVE. Andrew Seaward will guide you through some commercial realities to customer service. Then he finishes with the 15 key points which make up effective customer service – and give your customers the service they deserve. And that’s without having to go the extra mile.   Click here   http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=27 to find out more about the CD and with a couple of clicks it is easy to buy through PayPal or by using your credit card.

Account management on the telephone is becoming increasingly important. Selling costs are going up and in many markets there are fewer customers. Consequently it is important to focus your time on where you are likely to get the best return.

Telephone account management - growing business area

As one of our latest batch of audio products, we have a CD that guides you through all the things you need to know to add more customers and clients and equally importantly – keep the ones you’ve currently got.  How often do sales business models focus and reward exclusively new business accounts. You can find the audio training CD by following this link http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=32

It guides you through understanding what the function of account management is, how to do the key parts of the job effectively, and how you are the single biggest factor in determining outcomes !

Interestingly, 5 out of the last 7 people who have bought this audio CD, also bought the audio CD on time management too. Running your customer portfolio is partly about being well organised yourself of course too. Find more details here http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=24 All CDs are currently £34.99 + VAT and payment is easy through PayPal. You can use your credit card too.

It’s how you say it that’s important. Are you aware that something like 80% of the impact of a message is conveyed in how you say it ?  Sure the actual words are important, but actually as humans we are all perceptive around people’s vocal tone, their energy level and their level of enthusiasm.

Vocal tone is important in your interaction with customers

The minute you walk into a shop and the person says “good morning” you know instantly whether they mean it or not !

One of our newly released audio CD titles covers the training topics of Expression, Energy and Emphasis. You can find it here http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=30.

It guides you through understanding that you can tell 40+ things about a total stranger who you can’t even see from as little as 6 words. The CD explains all of this and relates moods to colours !

We’ve also added a currency coverter to the site recently so that our customers from the United States can order easily, and know the exact price at the point of order.

Customer Service training with free training CDs to revisit the message. We’ve teamed up with the customer service training company To Market who are running a 2 day customer service training course next month in South Leicestershire on Tuesday 11th & Wednesday 12th May 2010.

For any one who books on the course we will supply the set of 3 customer service training CDs for no charge – absolutely free. Follow the link   http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=17   to see the triple pack. Individually these 3 CDs are £34.99 each, and even with the bundle pack this means you save £70.

You can view more about this customer service training programme at the To Market blog   http://www.tomarket.co.uk/blog/   where it tells you a little more about what it covers.

Customer Service training - Leicester & Northampton

But mention this article and after you’ve attended the course, they will give you the 3 CDs to help revisit the training messages about exceptional customer service as many times as you want. These 3 CDs cover the 10 major issues your customers are looking for when dealing with you. Understand the 10 key factors and you’ll be delivering the type of customer service your customers deserve and you’ll know how to exceed their expectations.

To find out more call To Market on 01858 461148.

 Training audio CDs for United States despatch.

Unsurprisingly most of our enquiries, orders and websites come from the English speaking world. The United States is our second biggest market. As a result and in order to make it easier for our American customers to work out the prices in dollars you will see we’ve added a click through currency converter against each of the products here.

Training CDs - ready to ship to United States

So if you’re in California,Wisconsin, New York state, Florida, Ohio, Washington, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, or Canada or any of the 50 U.S. states and you’re after some best practice advice from the U.K. on customer service, telesales or general telephone communication skills, try us out. A few clicks and the products are on their way to you.

Fish! is a great training video, and one of the best we’ve seen in recent years.

It is a great training DVD or video and it is expensive. This is the bad news, but it is worth it, especially if your organisation is paying, and or you are able to get a fair bit of use out of it – such as using it in training programmes with many people.

Fish! dvd - the top selling training video of all time

You can watch a short clip of it around 2 minutes or so at Video Arts by following this link http://www.videoarts.co.uk/Title.aspx/FISH/FISH/FISH/

It is about the 4 key principles of good customer interaction. The 4 principles covered in the 17 minute video or DVD are

1. Play
2. Make their day
3. Be there
4. Choose your attitude

It is general good business sense and so is highly suited to customer service, telesales, customer service, contact centre, call centre, internal sales or in fact anyone who deals with customers.

Fish! is a highly recommended training product. We can also help you track it down at the best price (UK only). e-mail us info@associatedlearningsystems.co.uk for more help.