Sunday, August 23, 2009
5 Management Training Tips
Here are 5 skill areas that Management Training could help you to become a better manager.
1. Conflict Management
Nobody likes conflicts, and conflicts in the workplace can upset the whole team, or department, force people to take sides and even lead to aggressive and physical confrontations.
Knowing how to deal with conflict, such as spotting the signs, and being able to calm down those who are agitated, can help to keep the department running smoothly. Maybe you manage a team that contains some "characters" who don't always get on with the rest of the team, or are confrontational or argumentative, or just not very good with other people. Management Training can help you to resolve conflicts and discover the underlying causes that may be causing the disruption.
2. Negotiation Skills
If you're a manager you may need to negotiate with people of different ages, experience and levels, internally and externally. Having strong negotiation skills will enable you to compromise, and stand firm where necessary. This is essential such as when dealing with staff wanting days off, suppliers wanting to increase prices, or Senior Management wanting your department to be more productive with a smaller budget.
3. Presentation Skills
You may need to present your reports or research to people within your company, or to interested third-parties, or perhaps you present a weekly meeting to your team, or the Board. If your presentations are not up to scratch, you may be doing yourself and even your company a disservice. Management Training can help you to make your presentations better, and more memorable, so that your message can be easily understood by those who need to remember it.
4. Time Management
Time Management is becoming increasingly important. As technology improves, managers and other staff are contactable wherever they are. The fact that you could be managing a team abroad may mean that there are different time zones involved, which could mean that you are available all day every day. If you don't manage your time properly, you won't be able to concentrate on the tasks that require your undivided attention, and won't make use of your team's skills and experience by delegating appropriate tasks.
5. Technical Manager
Some managers are not natural leaders, or those who want to manage, but have become managers because of their technical abilities. This is more prevalent in sectors such as IT, where a member of staff may rise through the ranks thanks to an aptitude for technical knowledge. This sort of manager is managing, but has never had any sort of management training, and may not know how to effectively run a department, or work within a budget. Management Training can help the Technical Manager to learn the managerial side of the job.
Now you know more about the benefits it can bring, isn't it time you arranged for your managers to have the right Management Training for their needs?
See if you could benefit from Management Training and better Time Management with SalesTrainingIntl.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=M_James
Developing a Management Training Mindset
There are many ways to get ahead in business, from employing effective leadership skills to honing PowerPoint presentation methods. According to some of the greatest minds in business, what everyone needs to be more effective in their chosen field is management training. Here are some of the hottest tips to ensure that you get the most out of a management training course.
Go with an open mind. Half the problem when trying to improve efficiency in working practices being stuck in a rut. Habits are hard to break, and for many people, they believe their current working practices are honed to perfection. They do say that you can't each an old dog new tricks, but it has been proven that a manager that can open his or her mind to new concepts and adapt skills can end up being an effective leader within a company.
Speak your mind. As much as it is essential to be open to new ideas, don't be afraid to put your point of view across during management training. If you have has an experience that you feel is relevant to the topic, and you think that either others can learn from it, or the topic could be modified, let the course leader know. Many good mangers take action based on past experience, so if you have something to offer that may help someone else, have the courage to speak up.
Don't be scared of criticism. Adding to ideas posed during management training leaves room for discussion. If you feel that your point of view is being criticised, look at it in a different light. Viewing feedback objectively will allow you to look at the points mentioned constructively, which in turn will help you develop your ideas and become a better manager as a result.
Take the course seriously. All aspects of a management training course are designed to enhance your perception, cooperation and communication skills to become a more effective manager through proper training. What you learn on the course isn't just about what is being taught; it is about developing the correct attitude. Managers are leaders and they need to demonstrate to others the correct way to behave.
At the same time and effective manger needs to be able to understand the needs of the individual as well as the company. Through using the skills learned in management training a person can adapt their previous way of dealing with situations and deliver a working atmosphere that benefits all.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dominic_Donaldson
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sales Management Training - Managing Lead Generation - Sales Prospecting
For salespeople to be effective lead generators, they must have both active and passive marketing programs. Now (1) their marketing program must be their own - not the company's (although the two can be in sync with each other), and (2) they will do both, halfheartedly or not at all unless you the sales manager shows them how and holds them accountable. Accountability means setting goals, actions and measurements. Then, review progress on a regular schedule to give meaningful feedback and motivation to reach agreed-upon metrics.
So here are some sales management training tips for managing an Active Lead Generation Process.
Active marketing is networking (a) up and out within existing accounts, (b) into competitors' and lost accounts, and (c) new markets.
For existing accounts do your sales people have 100% of their existing accounts' business? Do your sales people what it will take to steal accounts from your competitors? Do your sales people have a method to introduce and integrate your products into new markets? Probably not.
Now, the easiest way to get more business is to spread like a virus through all accounts, focusing on eventually getting to the C-level and/or profit center leaders and their immediate staffs. Your goal as a manager is to keep them focused on connecting with more and more people to learn their problems and potential opportunities that relate to your solutions portfolio. Then, with their gleaned knowledge, develop suggestions and strategies that these leaders find helpful. Try not to concentrate at first on the purchase, but rather on learning and then their buy-in to your suggestions. Learning their thinking will show what it will take to get buy-in. With buy-in comes support, and with support comes networking to those with the power to mandate changes, create budgets and to authorize purchases.
If your sales people stick with their one or two main contacts, their ability to discover opportunities and make suggestions that lead to purchases is severely limited. Therefore, you must insist upon an Executive Relationship Chart. The elements of such a tool include:
1. Who are all (up and out) involved people by name and title in that organization?
a. The powerful -- C-Level, Profit Center Leaders and their immediate staffs.
b. The influential, the functional and the impacted.
c. The administrators -- purchasing agents spec writers, engineers, and controllers.
2. Where does your sales person rank on the credibility pyramid for each of these people -- 1-low to 6-a resource/consultant?
3. What actions is each taking to improve his or her position with each decision maker?
4. When will these actions be completed, and
5. How will you know it's complete and how will you measure it?
Obviously, if your salespeople are a 5 to 6 on the credibility pyramid with the powerful, they will have access to new opportunities, which they have helped create. Conversely, if they are stuck with low-level administrators and functional people, they will be just another one of the bunch of competitors.
Your job for helping your people create quality leads is to keep them networking, learning from each individual and offering-up ideas. This process will take time, but once it catches-on, it will produce an ongoing flow of leads from new divisions, for new products, and more and more. This applies to existing and lost customers, competitors' accounts, and new markets as well. My rule is 50% of sales people's prospecting time should be spent on existing accounts, 30% on lost and competitors' accounts where they have contacts, and 20% in those accounts where they have no contacts.
So start creating Executive Relationship Charts for each of your existing accounts and those accounts you would like to penetrate. These charts will yield your networking plans and the actions your people will take to improve their credibility with the powerful and influential. From these actions will emanate the leads that generate sales.
More Management training
Management Training - Revealed - 3 Powerful Methods to Explode Your Management Training
Source: Sean Mize
Even managers need some training from time to time so they can be prepared for challenges that they will face in regards to supervising people and managing projects. Most management training include workshops and courses that teach managers how to be more effective and more efficient in their jobs.
Whether you are an in-house management trainer or an independent trainer, I am pretty sure that you'll benefit from this article. In here, I'll discuss the things that you need to do to make sure that your trainees will get the most out of your programs. Here's what you need to do:
1. Schedule. Managers have duties and responsibilities. So as not to affect their day-to-day activities, pick a schedule that will compliment their work hours. For example, you can conduct trainings every Saturdays. You can give these people 1-3 hours seminars once a week. This is usually enough to teach these people skills and help them become more effective on what they do.
2. Training curriculum. Your management training curriculum must include guidance on how to motivate employees and how to communicate effectively. You must also include seminars on managing business meetings, holding team building activities, problem-solving, handling complaints, enhancing delegation skills, collaboration, and change management. Additional management training courses about emotional intelligence, diversity, and ethics are also necessary.
3. Active listening. As a trainer, it's very important that you listen to your trainees all throughout your program so you'll easily know their learning needs and demands. I recommend that you set up regular one-on-one meetings with them to figure out their areas of opportunities. The more you know about these people, the higher your chances of effectively helping them out.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Management Training Challenges
Does information get lost through too many channels?
Anyone who ever planned a conference must know how challenging it is to pick up a half-planned conference from a colleague or, on the flip side, how distressing it is to hand over an unfinished conference to someone else to complete. The fact is that any conference or business meeting requires a great deal of attention to ensure that the final product runs smoothly without any hiccups.
Now, you have to ask yourself the question: Is it conducive to the success of your conference, management training or meeting to hand information over through more than one channel?
When the client acquires the service of a booking agent to help source a management training centre, the venue representative is often left to liaise with the agent regarding the confirmation, contract and final details of the event. The agent is, therefore, the middleman and both the client and the venue representative heavily rely on the information being passed through that agent. It is a question of efficiency on behalf of the agent, the agent's understanding of the client's objectives and the ability to relate that information to the venue representative.
Purpose built management training centres benefit from the industry specific experience of their staff. The typical Events Manager or Conference Coordinator at a venue would need operational background to qualify for a position in a planning role. When you make a booking directly with the venue, therefore, the information is given to the person who will not only plan the event, but also understand the logistics around the venue and can advise you on the best use of the facilities, ultimately contributing to the success of the event.
Lane End Conference Centre is a purpose built management training centre ideal for management training and skills training courses in Buckinghamshire. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anitha_Hari |
Sales Management Training - Discover 3 Creative Steps to Impact Your Training For Sales Management
By: Sean Mize
As a sales manager, you've got one of the most important jobs to do. Essentially, you're looking to partner with a lot of people in the community. Taking this approach, make sure you expose your mind to relevant management training courses. This way you can favorably improve your company profits. Continue along in this article to discover 3 creative steps to impact your sales management training.
1. After you've been doing selling for a while, you might get stale. Getting stale can happen when we think in closed minded ways. Or, we feel too comfortable in the current sales cycle routine. This might be a sales death attitude in the making. However, we can take the opposite avenue and eagerly look to keep training ourselves to stay crisp and interesting to our clients. By eagerly keeping current with training, we are better salespeople. Better salespeople make more money. So, there is a lot of benefit to you about doing regular sales training.
2. Keep track of your sales. When you track your sales, you can identify which approaches work best, who sells the most, and other details about your sales process and records. Keep a record journal of the statistics. Using your business sales journal entries, you can quickly see what approaches work most effectively and which ones are clunkers to be deleted.
3. Take time to actually improve sales processes. Monitor sales highs and lows. Write out the reasons for fluctuating sales in your business sales journal. You may see patterns to eliminate or expand depending upon their effects.
Greatest Sales Strategy Ever
As a student of people and ideas I had to admit that what two guys are doing in a Northeast Florida Starbucks is absolutely genius.
The other day as I tried to pay for my green tea at my local Starbucks the cashier said, “Don’t worry about it sir.
Those guys over there are paying for it today.” She then handed me their business card from a stack by the register.
Turns out the guys were wealth management, financial planners who once a week, at different times, will spend a few hours at this Starbucks and buy customers their coffee.
Most people, like me, will walk over and thank the gentlemen and walk away with their business card in our pocket.
I thought about how brilliant this was. People love their Starbucks in the morning. While they are waiting in line they smell that aroma and think, “Yes, there is a God for only God could make something that smells so good.”
For many the Starbucks experience has become a ritual or right of passage that helps them take on the day. It’s become an emotional experience that makes them feel good. It’s become a bond of love.
Imagine yourself at the register, which is very easy for many of us, as you anticipate holding that coffee in your hand, thinking “YES”. Then the cashier tells you it’s FREE. Wow, an unexpected gift. Now instead of feeling good you are feeling great.
You feel so good you don’t mind placing a stranger’s card in your pocket. When you walk over and say thank you to these financial planners they cease to be strangers and become more like acquaintances and neighbors. Then about an hour later when the caffeine really kicks in you’re feeling so great, you think, “Wow, those financial planners are great guys.”
Now instead of acquaintances they have become more like long lost friends. These financial planners brilliantly connected something you love with a service they offer.
Not surprisingly I found out that these men do receive a good number of calls from the Starbucks customers interested in planning for their financial future.
It is said we remember one third of what we read, half of what people tell us and 100 % how feel. Whether we are watching a commercial, listening to a teacher, or talking to a sales person it is how we feel that impacts us the most.
We can’t remember what we ate for lunch a week ago but we can remember where we were on 9-11 when we saw the World Trade towers collapse. We remember how we feel and when it comes time to investing our money, buying a product, purchasing insurance, or choosing a restaurant and we will make choices based on these feelings.
This leads us to the greatest sales strategy ever—but it doesn’t involve coffee. While the Starbucks idea is brilliant it isn’t the best way to build a business.
There is a far more powerful strategy to create an emotional connection and foster and emotional memory. It’s so simple and it doesn’t even cost a dime. It’s to love your customers. Caffeine is temporary but love lasts forever.
Love and business are two words you usually don’t here in the same sentence but when it comes to sales, customers do business with people they like and who love and care about them.
When customers feel like they matter and feel cared for they love back with more loyalty, more business and more referrals.
So if you are in sales, and we all are, I encourage you to make loving and caring about your customers your top priority. You don’t have to buy them coffee to connect your product or service with something they love. You can be the connection. Your love can be the bridge that connects your customer with your product or service.
After all no matter what we are selling, people are always buying our energy and making decisions based on how our energy makes them feel. And while coffee is an energy source that makes people feel good it doesn’t compare to the energy of love.
Look out for your customers interests. Show them you care. Share the love and you’ll be so successful you’ll be able to buy your own Starbucks and give away all the coffee you want.
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Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant and author of the international best seller The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy and The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work, & Training Camp: What the Best do Better than Everyone Else. Visit him at www.JonGordon.com
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