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 buy 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.

 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.

Developing in-house training material for customer service and telesales is important for you and your company if you still have restricted training budgets at the moment. The temptation is to cut costs and look for increasing ways of being self-sufficient.

You recognise that training is important – perhaps MORE important than it’s ever been, but you’ve not got money to throw at it. Perhaps you’re reading this looking for some new ideas and new material.

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.

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.

There are many eminent experts who offer a range of advice on time management. And it is something we could all do with help on. There just never seem to be enough hours in the day to do all the things you want to do are there ?

Perhaps what you want as well as the second best tip is the best tip. Both of them are covered on the time management CD which you can find by following this link http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=24. And who knows I may write a blog with the best tip !

Anyway the second best tip is credited to a time and motion consultant who advised Andrew Carnegie a Scot who made his fortune in steel in the U.S. He became the Bill Gates of his time. The tip is this.

Before the start of each work day, write down your 6 main work priorities. Then number them in order that you intend to do them. That becomes your key list for the day. ONLY 6 mind – you can have other jobs written down, but only number the 6 most important. That way it keeps your focus on what is important (because you’ve decided it.) OK so other things will get in the way and emergencies may demand your immediate attention, but then once that’s dealt with – get straight back to the list.

You may feel that you won’t necessarily get through all 6, but if you don’t get through them using this method you wouldn’t have got through them using any other method either ! The best of luck  

One of the questions we are frequently asked is who do we look to – to give us new ideas, and to inspire us. So as a result we’ll include some material in the blog that gives you some of the top people and their work that we have come across.

There will be a book review on the first of each month for the next few months. These are easy to access – just dip your hand in your pocket and for less than £15 generally you can pick up a wealth of information.

Today’s guru tip is the Birmingham based sales trainer and motivational speaker Peter Thomson. http://www.peterthomson.com/ is a link that will take you directly to his site. You can even sign up for his little weekly tips TGI Mondays at www.tgimondays.com.

I have seen him ‘perform’ at a number of different events, and particularly if you’re a business owner or senior manager, you will find his material inspiring ! Our advice check it out !

We are interested in how and when people use their time to learn. Time management is a key challenge facing us all on a daily basis. Ever wondered why some people in business seem to get more out of a day than others ? Take Sir Richard Branson for example or Stelios of Easyjet. They have the same amount of hours in every day as anybody else. However they achieve more because they spend more time on the big things, than on the little things. Our audio CD “So you wanna go places” covers this in detail http://www.associatedlearningsystems.co.uk/product_detail.asp?ProdID=23. Our customers for our range of audio CDs typically tell us they listen to the CDs in the car (often driving to or from work or to meetings.) Alternatively some transfer them from their PC onto MP3 player.

Whatever works best for you, it is important to try and take on board any new information when your mind is most receptive. Early morning before the day is underway is good, as can be the middle of the evening (depending on what else is going on in your life of course !)