Communication
Disadvantages of Cold Calling
May 8th
There are good ways and there are bad ways to market a product or service. One of the marketing ways that always gets flak is the technique called cold calling. Also called blind calling, cold calling is a technique where a marketer calls up or contacts who is a random person who might want to buy the product or service that the marketer is selling. Cold calling is the same as blind guessing who your next customer will be. Simply put, cold calling is calling a prospective customer even if he or she is not referred to by anyone.
Cold calling is a marketing technique that has received various scrutinies from both marketers and customers alike. Most marketing organizations and experts are even questioning the efficacy of cold calling. It doesn
Training Strategies For The Best Learning Outcomes
Jul 26th
New members of your downline will look to you for training and advice or assistance to help them get established in the business. They will be keen to succeed and highly motivated to learn. Here are some important tips to help you be effective in training your distributors.
The effectiveness of training sessions depends largely on the trainer. A trainer who simply stands in front of the group and delivers information without interacting with the students will not teach as well as someone who gets involved. To become a top notch trainer you will need to:
1. Create Rapport
Before the training session starts, mingle with the participants and get to know them.
By meeting attendees ahead of time and chatting with as many of them as possible, you will have broken the ice before the session begins. This will create an immediate warmth between you and your audience when you begin to train them.
Avoid sensitive topics in this “getting to know you” phase, as you are trying to build rapport, not get into an argument. Stick to topics like good restaurants in the area, or traffic on the way to the venue.
2. Give More Than Expected.
If you deliver only content that is expected, you are really not giving value for money.
Make an effort to provide a more valuable and interesting experience than participants expect. Do extra research or locate additional resources that help people gain more from the experience.
You can share your own, or other people’s stories and perhaps even get the attendees themselves to share personal experiences that are relevant. You will find that you can also learn a lot by involving your audience.
Make the learning as interactive as possible. In other words, get the trainees as involved as possible. The easiest way to get their cooperation is to make the whole process fun. If you create a friendly, safe environment in which people feel comfortable getting involved, you will find people much more willing to interact.
It is also important to keep learning yourself. You can improve your training skills by attending seminars for trainers.
3. Use a Variety of Training Methods
It is important to move between different training techniques in order to keep trainees interested. Standing in front of people and lecturing them with straight information is likely to cause them to lose interest and stop paying attention because it is so boring.
Instead, use a number of training techniques that encourage interaction and move the learning forward quickly. It is important that training has a practical purpose and active learning is the best way to achieve it.
It isn’t hard to make your training sessions interesting. Here are some strategies you can use:
- role play
- group discussion
- case studies
- trainee presentations
- telling stories
- short quizzes
- fun games
Presentation aids such as Power Point presentations, video clips, audio, flip charts, posters and other training props can help convey information and keep the audience’s attention.
Adjust your approach depending on the time of day. For example, during the afternoon when people may begin to get tired, keep them alert with interactive strategies.
4. Use the Right Amount of Variety
The aim of training sessions is to give attendees the ability to actually do what they are being trained to do. This means that it is very important to reinforce learning throughout the session. A good rule of thumb is to provide three different activities for each specific topic so that learning can be reinforced.
One way you can do this is to introduce a case study with a video clip that gives a detailed view of the subject. You can then divide the participants into small groups to discuss the information and come up with some solutions to a problem. Afterwards, the groups can designate someone to present their information to other attendees.
Learning retention is significantly greater when you include group activities and multi-sensory training techniques.
5. Keep Them Interested With Surprises.
There should be no surprises for the trainer of course, because the training session should be very well planned.
However, the participants are another thing altogether. A good trainer plans to surprise the trainees.
You can surprise them by using a range of different and interesting training strategies. Participants may be aware of the course content but find the techniques new and interesting.
You can also use rewards to motivate them. Small rewards like chocolate bars, pens or notebooks can be enough of an incentive to get people involved. When you divide participants into teams during the session, you can award points to teams. This is a great way to get people excited and involved.
6. Train to The Objectives.
It is easy to get off track when you create an interactive learning environment, so it is essential that you have planned the course carefully. What are the learning objectives of the training? What topics must be covered in each session?
It is important to constantly reiterate these objectives during the course so that it stays on track.
It is common for groups to want to spend more time on topics that interest them but if you do that you will find there is insufficient time to cover the other topics in the course.
Next time you need to run a training session, apply these training strategies for the best learning outcomes. Keep in mind the rule of three as you plan and deliver the training: repetition, recall and retention.
Discover Kevin Sinclair’s system for making profits regardless of whether anyone joins your network marketing business.
A Fun Way to Make Your Department A Team
Jul 24th
Many Los Angeles Companies today seem to be enamored with team building activities, games or tasks designed with the idea that throwing a mismatched group of employees into a situation outside of the normal workplace environment will somehow result in improving their ability to work. A lot of employees moan and grouch about the worthless waste of time that is Los Angeles team building, but despite skeptics and bad attitudes among some staff, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that Los Angeles team building activities do improve productivity and have been a rewarding experience for all sorts of companies.
Whether you’re working in the high-paced bustle of downtown LA or a small office in a suburb you need to be comfortable with your team. Careless comments and mean spirited office banter can lead to mistrust and awkwardness amongst colleagues, which can have a huge impact on the way they work together and collaborate on projects.
Smart employers recognize this and adopt simple Los Angeles team building exercises and events to ensure that co-workers have the not only the skills but the trust and comradery needed to function well in a group dynamic. There are several important factors to note when trying to bring a team closer together. In today’s companies of spread out offices and cubicles you often only bond with the people sitting next to you or in your specific department, leading to the common rifts between accountants and salespersons or customer services and middle management. In team building activities all these people are brought together in an event that requires a balance of skills and teamwork to improve their ability to collaborate.
Establishing joint goals is key to the success of any corporate Los Angeles team building event. It’s important that the team-leader explain to his or her colleagues the purposes of the event so that everyone involved has an understanding of why they are there, and to give a sense of value and importance to the activity, and to stifle complaints and keep people happy. Assigning roles to team-members is, of course, commonplace in an office and by using the same techniques in a team building exercise people can begin to take charge of their roles and improve their quick decision-making and learn responsibility in a non-work environment.
Any good team is a communicative team, colleagues should have the ability to speak-up if something is preventing them from reaching a sales target or goal, it has been well researched and shown that corporate teams work best when they are not afraid to take up an issue and communicate openly with their colleagues or management. Corporate events promote this ability to express needs and wants within the work environment.
Lastly and most crucially for the success of a Los Angeles team building activity, everyone should have fun; a team building event can bring team-members together in a competitive task while also giving the boss a run for his money.
Watson Adventures (http://watsonadventures.com/)helps your Los Angeles Team Building activities be a spectacular success with creative and fun team scavenger hunts. The author Art Gib is a freelance writer.
Access Your Power In Communicating Using Personality Type
Jul 23rd
Communication is central to our life – we communicate with others every day, throughout the day. Understanding, appreciating and accommodating personality differences in communication style can bring major success to our effectiveness as a friend, spouse, employee, supervisor, trainer, leader and team member. People have different preferences in the way they take in and evaluate information and their orientation to the world around them. As we develop our awareness, understanding and appreciation of communication differences, we will reap the benefit in our relationship with others.
Extraverts & Introverts are opposite in how they communicate
Extraverts are energized by lively and enthusiastic discussions, with rapid-paced conversation and often interrupt as they elaborate on and process thoughts. Introverts are energized by quiet conversations with space for reflection and conversation pace is slower, taking time as they build thoughts and ideas internally. Extraverts’ communication approach doesn’t allow time for Introverts to reflect and then give their opinions. Extraverts like to “think out loud” and don’t realize that Introverts feel unable to respond quickly in a conversation, preferring to internalize the information first. Thus, the Extraverts’ reaction sometimes is that the Introvert is not providing input that energizes the Extravert.
How Introverts & Extraverts share information
When Introverts share information, it has been carefully thought through and evaluated. When an Extravert is in the-thinking out loud-mode they may not give the input the full evaluation it merits. Similarly, Introverts may put too much emphasis on what is said by Extraverts, not realizing they are-hearing themselves think-and need to process information this way. This can cause difficulties for both preferences as Extraverts may miss valuable contributions by Introverts, and Introverts may take what Extraverts say too seriously and make decisions based on the input.
Communication differences can create conflict
These communication differences can be especially dangerous in conflict situations, as Extraverts want to handle a situation immediately and Introverts require time to think things through before giving their ideas on possible solutions. Because each preference is requiring something the other type does not prefer, tension can increase. Extraverts can become impatient, wanting to move forward and make a decision not giving time to the Introverts who need to process the information internally and, then, make a decision.
Extraverts in communication
Strengths
Energetic & enthusiastic
Think out loud
Give a lot of information
Network well
Communication Approach
Speak out freely in groups
Think out loud
Like to discuss lots of topics
Interrupt often during discussion
When Communicating with Extraverts
Listen attentively
Be actively responsive
Be energetic & enthusiastic
Support their need to communicate
Introverts in communication
Strengths
Quiet, reflective presence
Respond carefully and thoughtfully
Know a few people well
Listen without interrupting
Communication Approach
Listen more than talk
Talk one on one
Need time to reflect before responding
Process information internally
When Communicating with Introverts
Value their need for privacy
Allow them time to change focus
Ask questions to draw them out
Do not pressure for an instant response
With careful study of the preferences for the Extravert and Introvert, and a little bit of practice, our communicative events can be both positive and productive creating harmony throughout our professional and personal lives.
Pamela Hollister, Author, INTJ, The PEOPLE Process, is author of personality type training products,
The
PEOPLE Process
How to turn a Group into a Team
Jul 23rd
Every Los Angeles office wants the same thing for the individual departments within the office; to transcend the individual competition stage and work as a cohesive team. They want every department to be an energetic group of diverse individuals who are committed to achieving common objectives, who work well together, enjoy doing so and who produce high quality
results.
Of course, when you throw this diverse group of people together how likely is that to happen on its own? Not very. Chances are most, if not every member of your team is a competitive individual who thinks his or her ideas are the best. The ability to prove that they are better at what they do than others is probably what got them the job over several other applicants in the first place.
Critical comments and sarcastic office banter can lead to a lack of confidence in ability and awkwardness between colleagues, which can have a huge impact on the way they work together and collaborate on projects. This is more than destructive for team building, it prevents colleagues from even wanting to work together or cooperate as a team.
After the hiring process is over and the position has been secured, it’s time to work together. The time has passed for competition. It is now time to collaborate and become a stronger, smarter, more efficient team than any individual could be on his or her own, regardless of ability.
Los Angeles team building activities can help accomplish this goal. Although employees often moan and complain about Los Angeles team building activities being a waste of time, studies have shown that they really do increase productivity as well as satisfaction in the work place. They have proven to be a good investment for employers. But Los Angeles team building activities have to be well planned, have definite and clear objectives, and actually be fun in order to be successful.
Spending an entire day in a group with people you’ll never need to interact with again working to accomplish a meaningless task may be an okay way to meet new friends you might otherwise not have known, but is probably not be the best Los Angeles team building activity to help with interdepartmental relationship building.
Taking team members out of their usual work setting and giving them a fun task, such as a creative scavenger hunt or team race, will do more to build friendships, open doors of communication, allow people to step up in leadership roles, and address problems they may foresee in plans to accomplish goals. These types of activities are more appropriate for Los Angeles team building.
There are many resources available to help you plan an unforgettable Los Angeles team building event, and many companies have budgets for such activities. You’ll see that it’s worth the time and money spent to build an enthusiastic committed team when you’re team surpasses your expectations for creativity, problem solving, and cohesive accomplishment.
Watson Adventures offers amazing Los Angeles team building (http://www.watsonadventures.com/los_angeles.html) activities to help your department become a team. The author Art Gibb is a freelance writer.
Secrets to Improving Your Network Marketing Strategy!
Jul 18th
The bottom line in Network Marketing is all about gaining successful outcomes in a network marketing business that you create for yourself. That means working in your own choice of time, space and methods that you feel comfortable with. Most people don’t actually like their day jobs at all, but they do want to earn great incomes if possible, and despite that dislike they have will often stay with that job for years. Having a job you love, and creating that great income too, is entirely possible within the realm of Network Marketing, provided you have a strong network marketing strategy in place. Thoughtful and focused effort!
Average people like you and I are bringing in large incomes through the right network marketing strategy, and are leading their dream lives by working from their home or own office in their own space and time, and spending as much time with their family as they want to. This can be made to happen only through proper network marketing strategy. Thoughtful and focused effort!
In this amazing technological era we now live in, people and events are easily connected through the capabilities of the internet. You can be living in one country and working happily for a company in another, and managing your entire team which may be spread over three continents. The scope of network marketing today is this world-wide global scene! All you need to manage the whole scene is through developing a great network marketing strategy. This strategy needs to fit the needs of your entire global team and product guidelines. Thoughtful and focused effort!
Most network marketing companies and their distributors teach and support their people well. This has become easier than ever before through the use of the Internet. As a new era network marketer, one must fully employ the potential that technology offers, by achieving more in less time and by communicating to the downline more efficiently. In this way you can take your network marketing strategy to greater heights, and far greater success levels.
Network marketing has become all the more efficient these days with companies dealing more and more in products and services that the average people use. Simply by making a strong downline of success-hungry people, you can relax and see your global network marketing business developing. All you need to put in is, a sharp network marketing strategy. Yes, you need to develop a strategy which fills those needs spoken about above, and to stay completely focused on achieving them!
What some network marketing companies say about getting rich quickly isn’t all hype and rubbish. It’s entirely possible to start earning serious money in a short period of time. These days, distributors don’t have to dedicate much time to a single sale, but can be much more efficient if focused on developing a strong downline through using tactics and strategies which are based on integrity and smart systems. Test and measure; test and measure; and then test and measure again!
Without any doubt, you will have to work hard at getting established, and in getting used to developing posistive habits which work for you and your team. At least at the start, just as in any other business, you will need to put that extra effort into getting off the ground by developing a sound Network Marketing Strategy, and sticking with it as you develop its effectiveness through the process of testing and measuring results as you go.
Adam Price is a business networking specialist, focussing on helping business owners to exponentially grow their companies. Adam is also the co-founder of Synergy Biz Net. To learn more visit: http://www.SynergyBizNet.com
Working with Effective Online Business Network Hubs to Grow Your Business!
Jul 16th
Finding an “effective” online business network strategy that you can fully trust and rely on to bring you real, profitable leads and business referrals is rather hard to come by online.
While there are many free network hubs online that you can easily join, you have to first look at their effectiveness. Some of the things I believe they need to be effective are:
1. An easy way to spread your business and brand throughout the network via an intuitive interface that pushes your business and what you do, out through the network automatically.
2. Extremely good training as part of the service, so you know without a shadow of a doubt that the steps you follow are going to be successful for you, because their built on proven strategies from real experts in business who have “done it” before.
3. A way to connect with other members in “real life” if you wish, you see there’s a tonne of online business network hubs about, but hardly any have a local chapter, or member you can connect with live. And live one-on-one connection is the key to bringing in business for your company or business.
4. Engulfing of all other online business network hubs, business networks, and marketing methods, so that it compliments the other businesses, rather than is seen as a competitor and when you apply for membership, you’re restricted in your access due to membership in other business networks.
5. Access to referral partners, that are highly qualified in their chosen area, who have been accepted as members because of their expertise, not just because their out there trying to flog their services / products to everyone. This is extremely important when running a “high quality” online business network operation, as trust and effectiveness is the key.
So as you can see, some of the most important feedback I’ve had from people in certain online business networks and local hubs is that the members are being “sold to” too much and feeling pressured by their clubs, or their club has too many “restrictions” or “rigid rules”, and finally that they simply aren’t getting the results from their investment. Which of course means they aren’t making and investment in their business but rather, discovering their network membership is a “liability” instead.
I don’t want this for you and your business, but just saying it isn’t enough. You need to fully research and explore your network hub before joining, read testimonials of real results, if they can’t give you any, think long and hard before you invest any money.
The same goes for so called free online business network hubs, if their free, but you get no results, it’s a liability in eating up your time and effort in building your business network. And because there’s already so many other activities all competing for your time, you only want to invest your time into the ones that return you the best value.
I hope this helps you to “open your eyes” so that you can grow your business and learn the art of attraction marketing online.
Adam Price is a professional online business networker and author around effective referral networking & attraction marketing. Learn how tap into the powerful online world of networking by visiting: http://www.Law-Of-Attraction-And-Success.com/BusinessNetwork.html
How to Win at Leading Change
Jul 15th
What happens when you want to introduce change in your business? Let’s look at a typical example.
In many companies, a big change is discussed in meetings and memos for weeks or months by the top team. They eventually reach a decision, prepare a presentation and call all the staff to a big meeting.
Well, the change is announced, with an impressive array of PowerPoint slides, and the employees are encouraged to go away and ‘be more productive’, or ’sell more products’ or ‘implement the new marketing strategy’ or whatever.
Admit it, it can be frustrating when the staff, looking none too impressed, file out of the room whispering ‘here we go again’ or ‘what a waste of time’. And then come the deputations of angry staff who spend a huge amount of your precious time attacking the new plan.
In some ways the obvious, angry and aggressive attacks are the easiest to handle. One manager told us: “You just have to take it on the chin, stay firm, keep the testosterone levels high and keep on like a broken record.” I’m not sure I agree, but it is a common strategy.
The less obvious, underground attacks are more difficult to deal with. What’s being said round the water cooler? Who is using the informal networks and the company corridors to build roadblocks for your strategy?
And if you think you haven’t got informal resistance – you’re wrong. You just haven’t found it yet.
If there’s a lot of resistance to change, you may feel tempted to force the change through. You may say ‘What the company needs is immediate action’, and you may believe that allowing people to debate the issue is a waste of time.
Resist that temptation. Without persuading enough people in the organization that there is a need for change, the change process will fail.
And most change efforts fail. There’s research to suggest four in every five change efforts fail.
So you’ve got to get people on-side. And a bit of political forethought on your part can avoid a failure. So let’s take a step back.
We know that people like to be given a say in big changes. Of course, you may have the responsibility to make and take the big decisions. You’re the boss after all.
But your people need time to understand the original problem. And they need time to accept the solution you’ve come up with. Debating that change and being heard is an essential part of that process.
They also need time because maybe the idea you’ve come up with can be modified or improved.
And if you’re the strong manager we think you are, maybe you’ll have the courage to accept someone else’s idea, if it’s better than yours.
So have the courage to open up even the biggest debates. You will win greater success, faster. Trust the process.
And remember that resistance is useful. It tells you that the change process has begun.
If you want the leadership success you deserve, get the leadership training you deserve. Download more free articles and leadership training videos from Steven Sonsino, an international business school professor and author of the Amazon bestseller “The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders”
Get more FREE videos and articles right now: http://www.deathofleadership.com
How Cutting Back Communication Can Save You Time and Money – Part I
Jul 15th
How do YOU communicate with your people? If you need to let your staff know something – the latest pay offer, when the office party is, that their department is being restructured – how do you do it?
If yours is a fair-sized business, chances are that you leave it to the HR department to fire off a memo or an email. And often, that’s just fine. You don’t need a leadership training course on how to organize a party.
But you’re missing opportunities to influence and inspire your staff if you leave ALL your communication to word-processed notes and email messages.
And you’re opening the door to misunderstanding and resistance if the really big changes are not communicated in a very particular way.
Let’s take a step back for a minute. If your day consists of meetings, more meetings, phone conversations, business lunches, staff negotiations, media interviews and board discussions, then you’re doing nothing but talking and listening all day.
Now, yes it’s a cliche, but knowing how to communicate effectively IS the most important task of a successful leader. For a successful leader, talk IS action.
But many managers get communication wrong. For instance, most leaders believe their main role in communicating is to make decisions for everyone else, and then tell everyone about the decisions.
Sorry, but this is a myth. Not only that, it doesn’t work. (How many times have you told everyone what needs to be done in a meeting or an email only to have nothing happen?)
The second myth is that you have to decide EVERYTHING. Managers who believe this create a rod for their own backs.
Why is that? Well, if you decide everything, then no one will ever take any initiative or show the slightest ounce of energy to do anything without your rubber stamping everything. Even the tiniest project will grind to a halt unless you have the final word.
But your time is far more precious than this. You should use your time more wisely than in rubber stamping it.
So how do you know when a decision absolutely has to be made? Well, let me tell you.
The most effective way to find out if there is a real decision to be made is to start a debate. By debating the issue with your peers, your staff and other stakeholders, you can decide whether a particular change is necessary or not.
Now, to start the debate you need to ask your people what they think is going on in a particular situation. And then you can test their answers against your own opinions.
This process helps you significantly in gathering as much intelligence as possible. And it makes it more likely that you will make the right decision for the company. But it also helps all those involved in the change.
Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, explains this well: “Through the process of presenting their own opinions, the participants will refine their own arguments and facts so that they are in much clearer focus. Gradually all parties can cut through the murkiness that surrounds their arguments, clearly understand the issues and each other’s point of view.”
So the successful leader is courageous and encourages widespread debate – even from people who disagree, as well as from supporters. And this helps you make the best decision for the organization.
Not only that, but it will help all those affected by that decision – they will know that they played a part in making the decision.
If you want the leadership success you deserve, get the leadership training you deserve. Download more free articles and leadership training videos from Steven Sonsino, an international business school professor and author of the Amazon bestseller “The Seven Failings of Really Useless Leaders”.
Get more FREE videos and articles right now: http://www.deathofleadership.com.
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