5 ways to improve your negotiation skills
"Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate,” were the poignant words of former US President John F. Kennedy that are still relevant today. Negotiating is something we all do on a daily basis, whether you’re persuading your family to let you watch your favorite TV show or persuading your boss to give you a pay rise. While some of us shy away from confrontation and others thrive on it, we all want the best deal in life.
Here are five ways to improve your negotiation skills to ensure that you always close the deal:
Be decisive
Knowing exactly what you want is the key to being a good negotiator. You are less likely to be taken seriously if you are unsure and keep changing your mind. We all want to articulate ourselves in the best possible way and don’t want to be left struggling to find the right words. Preparing your arguments beforehand ensures you will say everything you want to and won’t be left dwelling on everything you could have said but didn’t.
Take charge
The key to negotiating is taking charge of the discussion and shaping it to your advantage. If you make the first move, you will have the psychological advantage and won’t be left on the back foot. If you dictate the direction of the discussion, you can play to your strengths. Set the tone you want the discussion to take and essentially you will have the home advantage.
Present yourself confidently
To be a great negotiator, you must have faith in yourself. However, it is essential that your confidence is not misconstrued as arrogance. Use your body language to your advantage and radiate confidence. Using gestures and being more expressive will allow you to show your passion. On the other hand, if you sit hunched over and look defeated, you won’t be painting yourself in a good light. Don’t cross your arms as you can come across as defensive.
Avoid common sales techniques
If you stick to clichés and common sales phrases, it might put the other party off. This can be perceived to be a lack of originality or passion. It is a good idea to make notes to organise your thoughts, but don’t use them as if reading off a script.
Always ensure you sound genuine and remember it is important to listen to what the other party is saying. If they feel they are being ignored, they will start to shut down. An article by The Telegraph states the importance of understanding “what the other party needs, not just what they say they want.” It is essential that you understand how to compromise and don’t ignore the needs of others.
Use evidence
You are much more likely to be persuasive if you use facts and hard evidence. This makes it harder for the other party to disagree, and you will present yourself as more reliable, as someone who in an expert in their profession. Again, while it is important to plan and find facts, avoid reciting them as if reading a script.
To ensure you have top negotiating skills, why not consider attending one of the Negotiating Skills Training courses we offer at Frosch Learning? Get in touch today to find out more.
How sales training identifies skills gaps in your staff
When it comes to growing your business and improving the effectiveness of your sales staff, it’s important to invest in regular training so that skills gaps are identified and addressed. Here we’ve compiled a list of the benefits of professional sales training, highlighting how it can improve your business.
Back to basics
Sales are all about communication, relationship-building, and negotiation so having a good grasp and understanding of what makes a good salesperson is essential to success. Not only will sales training give your staff a chance to take a step back and reevaluate their techniques but it will make sure employees understand the needs of each customer. Taking an employee back to basics not only gives them the opportunity to improve but provides them with the skills to do so.
Tackles bad habits
Even the very best sales staff can quickly slip into bad habits. Professional sales training will encourage an assessment of these habits, provide a solution and introduce new techniques. It will also help employees to understand which techniques work best in the current climate. Techniques need to adapt with time, and a method that once proved successful might no longer be the most effective.
Highlights a range of different techniques
Sales training demonstrates to employees exactly what techniques they can and should be using. This will identify employees who perhaps rely too heavily on one or two techniques and instead introduce them to a range of alternatives. Effective training will allow employees to test these new skills in a risk-free environment, before using them to make sales in the real-world.
Makes sure everyone is working towards the company’s common goal
If you work in a large organisation, it can be easy to focus solely on the objectives of your own team. Successful sales training will demonstrate how each employee is important to the team and allow them to understand how hitting their own targets will benefit the company as a whole. Research has shown that working toward a common goal will ultimately increase overall performance.
Tackles specific techniques
Depending on the nature of your company, certain sales techniques will be preferable, and it’s important that all employees know how to use these effectively. For example, some employees may be good at working individually but struggle when working within a group. Additionally, solo presentations are often a cause for concern. Selling to a whole room is entirely different to selling to an individual, so it’s important that your sales staff know how to adapt their behaviour to suit their audience. Sales training can help employees improve all sales techniques to ensure that they can manage the various responsibilities required of them.
If you are seeking London sales training that is tailored to your business and helps you identify skills gaps in your staff, get in touch with the Frosch Learning team today. They offer professional, affordable and effective sales training courses for those looking to improve the day to day functioning of their business.
The best ways to maintain a good team morale within the workplace
Given the abundant uncertainty that has been swirling in the country's political and economic spheres recently, it shouldn't surprise that employee morale has suffered as a result. smallbusiness.co.uk cites a recent study where 58% of a thousand UK employees reported feeling anxious in the workplace due to such uncertainty.
As a boss, however, there are ways that you can at least help to relieve work-hours trauma, which could otherwise threaten your workers' productivity and, by extension, your company's success.
Here are some of the techniques that we would eagerly suggest:
Encourage your employees to actively commute
The study, which OnePoll conducted on Cyclescheme's behalf, reported that - particularly in Article 50's wake - actively commuting made workers happier.
50% of surveyed cycle commuters reported feeling sufficient mental and physical energy for maintaining happiness and productivity through each workday; the same percentage was 39% for train commuters and 37% with bus commuters. Also, 68% of cyclists claimed that, during the day, their interactions with workmates were positive. 61% of those who travelled by train and 62% of respondents who drove or took the bus to work said the same.
Communicate openly during big changes
Your business could be going through some significant changes that might not always have obvious positive implications for many of your workers. For example, maybe profits haven't been growing as quickly as you had originally anticipated, leading you to make budget cuts. Alternatively, you might have just opted to hold off on a previously ambitious recruitment drive.
During such changes, keep corporate communication channels open. If you don't openly clarify what exactly is happening, this could encourage unhelpful gossip among your employees. They could speculate that the changes are going to be much worse for them than they actually will be.
To prevent this kind of thing happening, you could follow Entrepreneur's advice to host open discussions where questions can be asked. At these discussions, coherently explain upcoming changes and how employees are involved in those changes. Regularly schedule these discussions where leaders and employees across all levels can participate in an open dialogue.
Bring workers together at team-building events
When your workers feel pressure, you can still help instill unity between them by arranging for team-building occasions. Some fun ideas for such occasions include a themed "escape" room in the office and set up an "about me" wall to which workers attach sticky notes detailing personal stories. Subjects for stories could include "my first day", "proudest moment", and "personal hobbies".
Workers could also bond as a result of corporate training. Such training that you could arrange for includes that of stress management in London. At Frosch Learning, we can provide training of that kind and which is specifically aimed at helping people who are adversely affected by stress that is starting to, or likely to, hinder their work.
Developing leaders through leadership training programs
Strong leadership is important in any business, not least in industries like retail, recruitment and sales. Having an effective leadership team will increase productivity and engagement levels of your employees, and help you to retain talented workers. But how do you implement an effective leadership program, and why is it so important to do so?
Which leadership training program should I choose?
Although some businesses have a leadership training program baked into their practice, most companies will rely on a third party to carry out effective training that will deliver the best results. Leadership training programs, like the ones offered here at Frosch Learning, were designed for anyone, at any level, looking to provide leadership and management.
What’s more, there are significant benefits to conducting training in-house, as it’s often cheaper, more focused and allows you to use current examples of your work rather than using case studies and generic leadership and management examples.
The benefits of leadership training programs
Now that we’ve discussed the types of leadership training programs you should consider, let’s delve deeper into some of the benefits of using a program for developing your staff.
Increased productivity
If your company has strong leadership, with a member of staff who has good emotional intelligence, you can be sure that your employees will be more productive. Staff will, most likely, want an approachable and hard-working team member to be managing them, and by equipping your management team with the necessary skills they need will improve communication, and, in turn, increase productivity within your business.
Employee retention
It’s one of the most common phrases in business, but it’s true: employees don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses. An effective leadership training program will give your staff the right skills they need to be able to connect with employees on a one-on-one basis, increasing the relationship between leadership and employee and reducing the possibility of losing strong members of the team because of weak leadership.
Better decision making
Leadership training isn’t only about improving management confidence and skill, but also about making leaders more in sync with the everyday running of your business. Leadership training will allow your management team to become more informed and focused when making business decisions, which will save money and help you get more out of your team.
Nurture future talent
Leadership training was designed to help you develop and nurture your top talent, and help you create future leaders of your business. It’s all too common to see leadership roles go to a company’s more dominant characters, rather than those who deserve the role and will do the very best for the business. Targeted training schemes will help you to develop your most important employees and equip them with the skills they need to rise to the challenge.
At Frosch Learning, we offer in-house leadership training programs that concentrate on developing the key skills that create results. Get in touch today to find out more.
Benefits of learning negotiation skills
Negotiation will be something that you’re familiar with because it happens every day. Whether you’re at home, at work or even out and about, it’s likely that you’ll encounter some form of negotiation. At work, you negotiate with your employees over salaries or holiday schedules then when you get home, you negotiate with your partner over who has control of the remote. Sound familiar? This skill is an important one to have, for a number of reasons, and particularly within the workplace if you’re trying to make your way up the ladder to be an effective leader.
Help to create win-win situations
Negotiating isn’t just about beating your opponent in a discussion. On the contrary, an effective negotiator will know how to create a win-win situation whereby all parties involved will be happy with the outcome. This skill is invaluable if you want to be able to successfully hold discussions in a workplace that has certain frictions, whether that is between certain staff members or larger departments. Knowing that you have achieved an outcome that is suited to everyone will make the whole discussion worth it.
Build respect with your colleagues/employees
If you want to be a successful leader, you need to gain the respect of your colleagues, your employees and even your clients. Showing that you have essential negotiation skills will leave a lasting impression and have the ability to affect future negotiations in the workplace. It can often be difficult to negotiate without coming across as intimidating but remember that it is far better to come across this way in the short term than be seen as someone who may be easily swayed. Learning how to balance your negotiating skills with the correct manner can be tough which is why there are certain courses out there specifically for learning negotiation skills.
Improves your confidence
As a leader, confidence is key. If you’ve walked into an important negotiation before you’ll know how vital it is to keep your cool and maintain an air of confidence throughout. Instead of worrying whether or not you’ll be outperformed by the opposition, you can walk into a meeting full of knowledge and full of confidence about how you’re going to tackle the situation in the most effective way possible. In fact, the ability to confidently state your case, and to counteract the other party, has been proven to result in better deals.
Makes you more efficient
Why spend hours arguing over something that could be solved in no time at all? With good negotiation skills, you can quickly and efficiently solve a disagreement in the workplace with a lot less effort than an argument would require. Find solutions to tough problems, reach an agreement and continue to move forward in your business without damaging relationships. A good negotiator will find it easier to achieve important goals for their department, their organisation and themselves.
With in-house training from Frosch Learning, you can pick up the skills you need to succeed in your business.
How to Maximise your ROI on sales training
An effective sales training programme can transform your business and help you overcome obstacles that get in the way of customer retention and growth. But implementing a plan that works can be challenging; it’s easy to throw away money on training that doesn’t work.
One of the best ways to improve your training is to track your return on investment (ROI) and keep employees in the loop on their development. Here’s how to do exactly that.
Identify skills gaps
One of the biggest challenges a business owner can face is to identify the skills gaps that their employees have. This is why the most successful sales training programmes are those which can do this for you. The needs and learning styles of your sales employees will be found through a skills evaluation form, a competency evaluation or interview, through self-evaluation or by simply observing their skill set as they work.
Set goals
There's little point in investing in a training programme if you don't know what you want to achieve, so set realistic, measurable goals that you can use both before and after training. These objectives or goals should be incredibly specific; for example, Employee A should increase their sales figures by ten percent over the next six months. Unless your goals are timely and achievable, you won't be able to evaluate the results and determine your return on investment, and your employees won't be as motivated to make their training and development programme a success.
Customise your training
A generic training programme will, most likely, offer some benefits to your business, but a customised plan that's tailored to your employees and their skill gaps will be most effective. Tailored training that's delivered in-house, like the solutions offered here at Frosch Learning, will allow your sales team to walk away with relevant knowledge and skills that they can put to use in their own everyday sales activities.
Reinforce the training
The hard work of a training programme doesn’t stop when you leave the training room – you need to ensure that the knowledge and techniques discussed are reinforced as part of your everyday working practices so that employees improve. Because managers often have very little time, following up and reinforcing training is often overlooked or done very quickly, but a slow and steady approach is often the most effective.
Make sure that your sales team consistently reinforces the techniques and knowledge that they have learned as part of their work by coaching, tracking and ongoing training. By doing so, you'll make individual team members accountable for their development, which will not only increase engagement and motivation but allow you to manage the entire team at once and still get on with your everyday duties away from managing employee training.
Frosch Learning’s sales training programmes were designed to help you get more out of your sales team. Find out more or get in touch with a member of the team.
Tips on measuring sales training effectiveness
When you invest in a training programme for your employees, you want to know that you're getting the best value for money and that the training will deliver the results you need to drive your business in the right direction. Below, we've rounded up some top tips for measuring the effectiveness of your sales training.
Compare sales data
Perhaps the most obvious way to monitor the effectiveness of your sales training is to compare sales figures from before and after the training took place. Of course, you should compare the data over a set period, account for seasonality and special offers, and be sure to iron out any anomalies to find the most accurate results.
If for example, you find that your sales staff were significantly more productive and scored more sales in the weeks following your sales training, then it’s clear that the training had a positive impact on the sales team.
Monitoring the progress of the sales team for an extended period is most effective, however, as motivation levels can dwindle in the months following the training unless the knowledge from the sales training is reinforced and made part of the company culture. For this reason, in-house sales training is usually a more effective method, as employees will be able to practice their new skills immediately with real customers, rather than following notes from a generic sales training presentation.
Monitor engagement levels from employees
While the primary aim of sales training usually relates to improving the bottom line of your business and making your employees better at selling, engagement and job satisfaction are just as important. Sales teams have a high employee turnover, so to save money, you need to make sure that your employees are as happy as possible.
Investing in a training programme not only gives your employees more confidence in their abilities, but it shows that you recognise them as a valuable member of the team and want to help them progress and become better professionals.
You can monitor engagement levels from your employees by checking their productivity, absenteeism, and general office atmosphere. From this, you’ll be able to see how engaged and motivated your team is to learn and develop as professionals.
Surveys and exams
Another interesting way to monitor the effectiveness of your training is to conduct surveys to ask whether your staff learned something new at their training. The more enthusiastic your sales team are about the training, the more you should consider an investment.
Here at Frosch Learning, we’re sales training effectiveness specialists. Get in touch today to find out more about how our training programmes can transform your bottom line.
Why choosing the right sales management course matters
Choosing the right sales management course is crucial to meeting the needs of your customers, business and colleagues, helping to keep you on the right track, maximise sales and develop your business.
Keeping your customers happy
First and foremost when choosing a management course, look at the needs of your customers (after all your business is nothing without them) and evaluate any feedback you‘ve received from them. Ask yourself, what your business does well or not; and use this to inform your choice of training.
Meeting your team’s needs
Also, take a look at your team; consider what they do well and where there is room for improvement. Conduct a gap analysis and see what skills are weak or missing and use this intelligence to steer your choice of management course.
Your business’s development
Choosing the right sales management course is crucial to the ongoing success and development of your business. It might be that your firm is growing in size and needs more managers on board to steer it in the right direction and ensure consistent levels of quality and service. Alternatively, it might be that your firm is branching off into new areas of business and needs training that will help you to meet the new challenges you face. Whatever the circumstances your firm finds itself in, it’s crucial to find the right training provider for you to meet your challenges and obligations.
Flexible, professional training providers
Vital to finding valuable sales management training is to find an experienced training provider with the skills and resources to tailor their training courses to meet your needs. As no two organisations are the same and businesses so often face challenges unique to them, choosing a one-package-suits-all provider, is not likely to meet your needs. You want to look out for training providers that are prepared to research your needs beforehand and deliver bespoke in-house training for you that will meet those challenges. That way you’ll get the greatest value from your sales management training.
Measure your return on investment
In addition, you want to be sure that the results of that training are measurable so that you can demonstrate the value added to your company. At Frosch Learning, we deliver more than training, providing assistance in applying that training in the workplace and measuring the results too, so you can see what difference it’s made and you can demonstrate the return on investment.
Experience that matches your goals
When finding the right training provider for your firm; be sure to take a close look at their credentials, experience and client list. Look for those who’ve worked with your competitors, market leaders and with a proven track record in your sector, to ensure you receive training that is relevant and useful.
To find the right management course for your sales team, contact Frosch Learning today, our experienced consultants can provide guidance on the right training course for your business. Call us now on 020 3859 0707 to discuss training tailored to meet your business needs.
What you could be risking if you fail to invest in sales training
Professional sales training is a quality investment for your business as it will increase confidence in your employees, boost sales and gain customers. When it comes to sales, there are a number of different ways your employees can be trained no matter where the focus of your business lies. Initially, it may seem like a huge expense but, over time, your business, your employees, and your customers will all reap the benefits of effective sales training. Here are some things you could be risking if you fail to invest in sales training for your team.
Low team morale
If your sales team cannot sell effectively, then they will struggle to maintain a sense of team morale in the workplace. Low morale can cause many problems for your business because if employees are not happy, it will affect their performance at work and lower productivity will cost your business money. What’s more, if employees feel that they are not being recognised for their efforts this may lead them to quit.
Losing customers
The main focus of your business should always be your customers. After all, it is your customers who drive your company forward with their sales. Investing in sales training will teach your sales staff how to communicate more effectively with the people who are important to your business. A training course will also help your sales consultants work on important skills. These include skills such as communication, problem-solving, focus and time management and are techniques that allow for a better relationship between your staff and their customer.
The potential of your employees
It may be your belief that training is only necessary for new employees or those that need some assistance, but this isn’t the case. While you may believe that your employees are good, there is always potential for them to be even better and sales training will give them examples of how they can improve. With training, new employees can get to grips with how to use your computer systems and long-term members of the team can learn how to further build their confidence when selling.
A lack of ideas
Professional sales training will act as a doorway into a brainstorm of ideas that will be relevant to the improvement of the company. These new ideas will drive sales, service, and delivery and increase confidence in both you and your employees. If a new idea is implemented and provides positive results, this will show in both the short and long term.
An apathy toward learned skills
It’s likely that the staff that you currently have on your sales team will have picked up a certain amount of skills during their time in their role. However, if they’re unable to expand and strengthen these skills any further, they may become apathetic toward the knowledge they already have and thus fail to achieve the standards that you have set.
Unleash the potential of your sales team by investing in professional sales training with Frosch Learning. With a proven track record of delivering results to all types of businesses, we provide staff with essential selling skills whether for retail or exhibition selling.
5 ways you can be a better leader within your company or organisation
Certain studies have identified a good leader as someone who has qualities that include assertiveness, adaptability, intelligence and conscientiousness. However, a leader that is seen as transformational will always be the best. These are leaders that are described as positive, enthusiastic and genuine and are concerned about helping the whole team achieve its goals. So, how can you be a better leader in your organisation?
Understand your leadership style
There are a number of different ways that you can approach a leadership role. By assessing your skills and understanding your style, you will be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses before you start to improve. You can be more proactive and effective as a leader if you know how to counteract your weaknesses with your strengths.
Communicate effectively
In the workplace, being able to listen and communicate effectively with your colleagues and employees is a vital asset. Take time to provide one-on-one engagement, and you’ll be considered a leader that is sincere. By maintaining an open line of communication with your employees, they are more likely to approach you if they have a problem with their work. This way, you’ll be able to work together to overcome it rather than see your workforce decline.
Encourage and motivate
Transformational leadership is defined by intellectual stimulation. Encourage and motivate employees to express their creativity by offering new challenges and support to achieve their goals. Be a democratic leader by letting the members of your team know that their input is important, something that has been proven to lead to greater commitment and more creativity. This also goes hand in hand with offering effective rewards and recognition for the work that your employees have completed. It has been proven that this keeps employees happy and, at the end of the day, happy employees make for a more productive workplace.
Know the importance of introspection
As a leader, you’ll regularly analyse the behaviour of others, but it is also important to analyse yourself. Regular introspection will allow you to identify the skills you believe you need to improve as well as teaching you how to be centred, energised and balanced. After all, these are the things will make for a better leader.
Don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes
This may seem unusual, but making mistakes is a vital part of being a better leader. Not only do they give you an insight on how to avoid similar problems in the future but they allow you to show your employees that, after all, you’re only human. By being transparent with yourself and admitting your mistakes, you will earn respect in the workplace and build a culture of trust. Doing this will also make you stand out as a role model and, by exemplifying the behaviours you wish to see in your business, your employees will follow suit.
Invest in professional leadership and management training with Frosch Learning. This course will teach you essential skills such as how to manage objectives, motivate individuals, work with other departments and undertake your role effectively.