One of our Learning Consultants was recently asked the question, “What should I be looking for when choosing a Mentor?” The context to this question was that during an informal career conversation with a member of their HR team, it was suggested that this individual may benefit from a mentoring relationship. Intrigued by the idea, they soon realised that they had almost as many questions as answers, the first of which being…

Performance management in essence “does what it says on the tin”, allowing managers to ensure that employees are performing in a way that contributes effectively to their business objectives; where goals are established and performance is measured against these goals. Performance management, however is often misunderstood, with negative connotations associated with it, a common assumption being that the process is intended to enable employers to “manage” people out of the business. 

In the words of Mick Jagger, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well you just might find you get what you need”. 

So what are the key skills of an effective negotiator and how exactly do you go about trying to get what you need?  Here are a few tips to help you improve your negotiation skills further.

Last month, our blog focussed on Questioning Techniques to help you to identify the needs of your clients.  This month, we are going to look at how you can further improve your selling techniques by selling the Features and Benefits of your Business, making sure that the client gets what they actually need and not what you have assumed they need.

We all know that conflict occurs in all areas of life, when people spend a lot of time with each other, including business environments. Each individual has their own tasks, roles, objectives and priorities, not to mention different personality traits which can often clash or not work as well together as we would like, causing conflict.

This can be one of the most challenging aspects to the role of a manager, but it is important to ensure that conflict resolution is delivered professionally, swiftly and effectively, minimising any negative impact on the relationships involved. 

With 2017 now well and truly upon us (we are finally confident that we know what day of the week it is), many businesses have moved from reflecting on the past year towards planning world domination for the year ahead.

As professional sales people, it’s an important time to really look to understand the needs of your clients, especially those you have been working with for a number of years, as it is easy to become complacent and assume we really understand what our clients are looking for.

Meaningful questions will provoke thought and help to engage your clients in a conversation that is relevant to them and their business.  Here are five questioning techniques to help improve your selling technique and structure these conversations.