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.

Incredible as it may seem on this website, we’re writing about the X Factor. Yes the show on TV. Recently you may have read the piece on this blog about Abraham Lincoln, but this time it’s the same story, but from TV’s show the X Factor.

It shows us persistence and is a tale for modern times. I read recently that the contestant Jade Richards who performed Adele’s Someone like you had auditioned for the show on five separate  occasions. But she’d never quite managed to get through to the next stage. Can’t believe how, but that’s what happened apparently. However 6th time lucky – talent will out more like. She wowed the  judges with her rendition of this song, and the rest, as this old cliche goes is history….

You can catch it here Jade Richards – keep at your dream – don’t quit. Simply click on the link to the left here.

If you saw the show it’s hard to believe that this is true as Jade reduced Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child and Louis Walsh to tears and Gary Barlow said he thought her performance would “change” her life.  It really was an amazing audition.

It just goes to show that even the most brilliantly shining stars sometimes have a tough time making it through challenging times and this is not unlike the struggle that many talented individuals and businesses are goung through at the moment in what are challenging times. 

Work on your talent, hone it, develop it, polish it, refine it. Be the best you can be. Take pride in that and then make sure the world knows about it. Be a master of something, the world pays more for that than a jack of all trades.

http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=SELF DEVELOPMENT is where you’ll find our range of audio products CDs to help you grow that most valuable resource – you.

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!

Success may be about dogged perseverance. It certainly worked for this icon. It is easy to give up when it seems things are stacked against you, or that “it’s just not meant to be.” However this famous icon of the 19th century endured, and kept on enduring. ………… This is Abraham Lincoln’s story.  Consider this alternative CV of the great man ;

• 1816 – His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them (aged 7).
• 1818 – His mother died
• 1831 – His business failed
• 1832 – Defeated in Legislature. Also lost his job. Unsuccessfully tried to get into law school.
• 1833 – Second business failure. He was bankrupted. He’d borrowed the money to set it up from a friend. He spent the next 17 years of his life paying off this debt.
• 1835 – Was engaged to be married, his fiancée died. It was said his heart was broken.
• 1836 – Suffered nervous breakdown (hardly surprising) and was in bed for 6 months.
• 1838 – Defeated for speaker in state legislature
• 1840 – Defeated for Elector
• 1843 – Defeated for Congress
• 1848 – Defeated running for re-election to Congress (having got in, in 1846)
• 1849 – Rejected for job of land officer in his home state
• 1855 – Defeated for Senate
• 1856 – Defeated for Vice President nomination. Got less than 100 votes at party’s national convention.
• 1858 – Defeated for Senate (again)
• 1860 – Elected President of the United States

One of the famous quotes attributed to Abe was “having chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go forward without fear and with manly hearts.”

Slightly strange language by modern standards maybe, but given all the set backs he met in his life, you have to admire his resolve and determination to see his ambition through. A shining example to us all.

If you want to start this journey and develop your own life plan and personal goals, have a look at our self-development CDs.  http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_list.asp?Section=SELF DEVELOPMENT.    At just £34.99 each they could just get you going on the path to achieving your goals. And we hope you don’t have to face anything like the challenges that ol’ Abe had to face!

Good luck!

Free business seminars from your local Business Link. Still – it seems. We’re aware there are many cuts in government spending, but there are still business development opportunities and new ideas to be had for free – paid for by the government.

Certainly here in the Midlands Business Link is continuing to offer the excellent range of Transformational ICT seminars. OK, not the most catchy of titles (what do you expect from marketing in the public sector?!) But the seminars on a whole range of website building, e-mail marketing and other social networking are well worth attending.

You learn about some really interesting stuff, from some good, knowledgeable speakers and of course, you meet other business people facing the same challenges as you.

All in all thoroughly recommended.

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.

Time management and the best tip we’ve ever found. One we love – our second favourite tip is described by Earl Nightingale the late iconic self-development guru. It features a story set almost 100 years ago and just one tip which took 20 minutes work netted it’s creator a small fortune. Perhaps we’ll write about it in a future article.

Time management - read up on Stephen Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people

The work of American psychologist Dr Stephen Covey is worth reading. His book the 7 habits of highly effective people is one of the leading self-development books of its time.

It features an exercise on time management where you put tasks and jobs into 4 quadrants based on the 2 key variables importance and urgency. Q1 is urgent and important, Q2 is important and not urgent, Q3 is urgent and not important and guess what? Q4 is not urgent and not important.

He shows how the secret to good time management is Q2. The things in your life which are important but not urgent deserve your greatest attention. Once they’ve become urgent and moved into Q1, they become stressful and pressurised. And the way to generate more time to spend in Q2 is to steal it from Q3 and Q4.

This is one of the key time management principles covered in our time management training CD. It is available here for just £34.99 and we recommend it – but then we would wouldn’t we?!

Time management - audio learning CD

If you want to find more information about Dr Stephen Covey’s work on time management, we suggest you buy his book, or listen to his audio programme. In the meantime you can read more by following this link to a British website http://www.businessballs.com/timemanagement.htm#urgent_important_grid_time_management. This site is a useful reference site for many kinds of business and self-development ideas.

We’ve recently read the Marketing Launchpad book. It is clearly aimed at small business. And we recommend it. 

The Marketing launchpad - easy to read book for small business

It is based around 6 key principles including how to build your brand, low cost advertising, and the secrets of effective direct mail. It inevitably touches on the benefits of search engine optimisation and how niche marketing is far more lucrative to you than trying to be all things to all people. It is available through Amazon at a discounted price, follow this link 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marketing-Launchpad-Areas-Business-Heights/dp/1906852057/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276605243&sr=8-1 for more details.

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.