Tao of Selling Skills

Selling Skills are required for all and every one in their lives. Every individual though not being into sales profession has to sell himself or his thought processes to others for other to believe in him and his capabilities. This applies to husband and wife, partners, child to parent, parent to child, friends to each other, subordinate to boss and vice versa. Hence anyone who wants to be successful in life should know to sell himself very well.

The Yellow Spot designed selling skills training program focuses on this core human need of selling himself to others and hence have designed a in-depth selling skills training program for those who want to enhance their effectiveness in life as well in the profession of sales.

The program focuses on the core questions like:

• What does sales mean?

• Why do we need to sell ourselves? How can we become effective sellers? How do we overcome the fears we have of selling?

• How do we understand the buyer’s needs?

• How do we understand his psyche?

• What are the various techniques we can sell?

• What is the math behind the sales numbers?

• How do we overcome the objections mentally and emotionally?

• How do we respond to these objections?

• How do we handle failure?

• How do we close the sale effectively?

 

Our selling skills program will be delivered considering the above questions and will be a mix of role plays, simulations, assessments, games, small group activities and presentation. Audio visuals will also play a role in helping our visual learners learn these skills effectively. The way we differentiate ourselves is by conducting a thorough needs assessment before the program so that we get an opportunity to customise and cater to the individual needs of our participants.

This initiative makes our sellingskills program unique.

Even at the end of our program we wind up with through action plans which can be reviewed at a later stage.

Our interactions with our participants are highly personalised and this how our programs become more meaningful.

Selling skills training is generally a 2 day program to be able to maintain effectiveness and is conducted in a spacious environment to be able to create and maintain the right environment for the workshop.

Enrol in our 2 day program and become an ace sales professional.

Looking at the Transactional Analysis perspective of Effective Communication Skills Training

As a part of our Effective Communication Skills Training we offer an insight into Transactional Analysis, a very interesting subject I must say! It offers deep insights into the various ways we behave depending on which state we are acting out of at that point of time.

Let me give you a brief about ego states in Transactional Analysis so that you get a taste of an EffectiveCommunication Skills Training.

What do you think the term Transactional Analysis means? Am sure it’s pretty simple to guess considering that the words used spell it out quite well! It means an analysis of transactions. So who are these transactions between? It’s between two individuals and as you go deeper into Transactional Analysis you will realize that it also points towards the transactions that an individual has with him/ herself.

As per the theory, each of us typically operate out of three states throughout our lives. One is the child state, the second is the adult state and the third is the parent state. So how do we behave when we are in any of the three states? Let’s have a look:

Child State: This is the state when you feel like a child, although you may be an adult! Here also there are two types of states that your inner child will typically adapt to. One can be the carefree child or as it’s called, the natural child. This child throws tantrums and freely does what he wants to. On the other hand we have the Adaptive child who is scared and obediently listens to everything that he is told to do. Which state we typically go into depends on what we were as a kid. If we were fun loving and carefree as a child, we will easily enter the natural child state whereas if we were the type to constantly do what we were told by others, we will easily enter into the adaptive child state.

Adult State: This is a state where we are very logical and do not take decisions instinctively or out of emotions. Facts and figures determine our decisions. This is considered to be the best state to be in.

Parent State: This state is also of two types. One type of parent is the dominating parent who constantly instructs everyone around them what to do and is very critical. Shouting and scolding come naturally to this parent. The other type is the nurturing type, who cares for everyone around and is very affectionate and loving.

These are the main three states or as we call it in TransactionalAnalysis terms, ego states. We tend to constantly switch between these states depending upon our past experiences. So if you have been an obedient child and have had a dominating parent, you will mostly tend to switch between these two states. You may also jump to the other states, but these two will be your natural states.

Now what do you think will happen if you naturally go into the critical parent state and interact with your boss or spouse who also tends to operate from the critical parent state? You land up in a never ending argument with both of you being critical of each other and resorting to shouting and screaming to prove your point. If you are in a critical parent state and your mother is in a free child state, you will keep telling your mother what to do and she will not listen!

What do you think will happen if you are in a nurturing parent state and your child is in a free state? On one side it can be an amazing transaction as the parent will care for the child while the child will be its natural happy self. On the other side another combination could be that the parent is too nurturing and limits the freedom of the free child to whom freedom is very important and hence starts feeling frustrated.

My First Encounter With E-Learning Solutions and Custom Application Development

Am sure you must be well versed with the terms E-Learning Solutions and Custom Application Development. I thought I’d tell you about a time when I was not. Well I had used it in my previous organization, but this was my first encounter with it from the creators end.

One fine evening my boss asked me to accompany him to our E-Learning partners’ office. I was yet to meet them and my boss felt the time had come to introduce me to them. He had praised the owner so much that I was really excited to go and meet him as well as see what he does. The organization was one of the leaders in the industry and they were at the top when it came to quality. They had grown from a one member team to a sixty plus member team and were yet able to maintain their quality standards as well as professionalism. The team was young and bubbly and I was eager to meet them.

As we entered the office we were taken through a huge room. It was filled with youngsters, some busy in their computers whilst others were chatting and having fun. If you ask me it seemed more like a computer lab in a college rather than the main workspace of an organization! I could undoubtedly see now why my boss had told me that they had a young and vibrant team.

We then went into another room where we had a tall person with a broad smile waiting for us. We shook hands and had a seat. He was the owner of the organization and a very warm one I must say!

He started telling us about what kind of E-Learning Solutions their organization offered. It was interesting to hear the various types of solutions they had and how they could be blended with the solutions that we could offer our clients. He also explained the various types of Custom Application Development that they were now offering their clients and how these could really make work a lot simpler.

Next came the part that I guess somewhere inside I had been waiting for, a demonstration. The owner himself was very excited to show us a game that he had created recently for a client. He had created it based on a board game called ‘The Game of Life.’ The concept was basically picked up from there and the options that came up in the game were based on the product that the client needed it for. It was basically going to be used for a product related training and was being done in this format as the client had tried classroom training for the same in the past but was now looking for something different and unique to offer to his employees.

The game would take the participant or should I say player in this case through major milestones that they would face or would have already faced in their lifetime. For example, deciding which college to go to, getting married, saving up for their children, etc. To cross a particular stage, the player would need to answer some questions, which would help him understand the use of the product at that stage of life. This made it very easy for the player to understand what a customer in that stage of life would be going through, making it easy for them to offer the kind of product they would need accordingly. They also needed to know the products very well to answer such questions. The game thus gave them a good understanding of the various types of customers as well as the features of the various types of products in a format that was enjoyable for the player. Now that’s what I call a win-win solution!

Any Other Type of Management Skills Training, You Can Bank on Us

Management Skills Training is a very broad term and can include various different types of trainings. While it may also include the technical skills required to get a job done as well as the soft skills required doing the job well, Management Skills Training basically points towards training used to manage people well. In other words, training that teaches us how to handle our teams well.

Today let’s have a look at one particular aspect of this type of training called Managerial Communication Skills. We all know what Communication Skills training consists of, but what is ManagerialCommunication Skills training made up of? Simply put, it pertains to that part of communication which helps us in managing our teams better.

Let’s go a little deeper into understanding what this really means.

What is communication? It’s a transfer of information from point A to point B. considering A to be a Manager and B to be his / her subordinate or vice-a-versa we get a Managerial Communication situation. So what’s so special about this situation? Why should it be handled differently and why is it given so much importance?

Am sure you all would have heard of the term “Employees don’t leave Organizations, they leave their Bosses.” Sounds familiar? A very true statement I must say and a very common situation in today’s times. So if an employee does not get along with his manager what does he do to solve the situation? He simply leaves the organization and lands up with another manager with whom the entire story repeats!

So what can we do so that the employee and his boss get along with each other and does not have to leave the organisation? Improve the communication between them. Of course that may not be the only solution to improve their relationship but it is definitely a major one!

How are we going to go about doing this? By making both of them more aware about each other’s needs.

One way to understand one another better is by getting an insight into each other’s personality. More often than not, differences in personalities are at the heart of day to day conflicts and an understanding into these increases tolerance towards each other. It helps us in understanding why the other person behaves in the way they do and what we can do to “get through to them” and communicate with them in a manner that they can understand and accept well.

A lot of onus also goes on how to give and receive feedback. This once again is based on personality styles. Some of us love being praised in front of others while some of us would prefer to receive a pat on our backs in private. Even more, there are some of us who enjoy the physical pat whilst others are more than happy with just a verbal one. This was as far as positive feedback is concerned, what about negative feedback? Remember, that negative feedback is always given in private, whether to an introvert or an extrovert. Nobody likes to be belittled In front of others as it gives a serious blow to the ego, something few can take.

Another aspect is openness in communication. We all tend to have set ways of doing things. We are wired in different ways and unfortunately tend to stick to our wiring, forgetting that others are wired differently and hence their ways of thinking and doing are different. What seems right for us may not seem right for them. However we forget this and tend to put up a fight when asked to budge from them. 

Train the Trainer in You

Ever attended a Train theTrainer session before? They really teach you some great things as far as Training Delivery, Content Development and Evaluation go. Some of the things that they cover are:

 

1. They typically start off with the Training Need Analysis, the part that can make or break your session. They show you some tools that you can use to ensure that your TNA is done properly so that you do not land up in a situation where you are delivering something and your participants actually want or need something else!

2. How to design content based on instructional design methodologies. So they teach you what activities you can start your session with, what needs to be kept in mind while designing an ice-breaker, how to structure the flow of your session, how to create a design document, how to use various methods of instruction to cater to various learner types and keep them involved and participating, how to write learning goals, etc.

3. Delivery is also based on instructional design methodologies to ensure that you get across to the participants in an easier and more effective manner. So they start off with the things you need to keep in mind while opening and conducting the session which includes how you should walk and how you should talk! Body language and voice are looked into at length to add to your presentation skills. You are also taught ways of increasing participation and motivation as well as how to deal with difficult participants.

4. Evaluation forms a very important part of the entire training cycle. Based on desired level of the Kirkpatrick’s model, the effect of the training is measured to see whether it was really able to fulfill what it was intended to. Evaluation can be at various levels and various tools are used to measure the same depending on the requirement of the client. The primary level of evaluation which is typically done at the end of a session is for measuring the reaction of the participants to the session. It may include points on which the trainer, facility, topics and session on the whole are rated. Other levels of evaluation may include the change in the participants after the session on the basis of knowledge, skills, attitude or behavior; the impact that the session has had on business outcomes and the return on investment of the session.

So when are you attending your next session, the Train the Trainer session?

Selling Skills Training For Your Sales Team

Selling Skills Training has become a must for all sales employees. Competition is growing faster than ever and being one up on your competitor is becoming more and more important. Companies are constantly engaged in improving the quality of their products; however they tend to miss out on who is selling their product and how he’s doing it!

Yes, the sales executive is just as important as the product, if not more! No brownie points for guessing why! That’s why Selling Skills Training is becoming a necessity nowadays.

 

So let’s have a look at what’s covered in such a session:

1. We first have a look at the internal factors, the internal state of the executive. We can’t afford to have an executive who is scared to speak to the customer or gets dejected when a large number of customers refuse to buy his products. So we help the employee get confident. We also help him to have a positive attitude so that he can accept failure and yet go for the next call with the same enthusiasm and motivation as he had gone for the first one!

2. Now let’s move to the outer characteristics of the executive. We now look at his communication and his etiquette. He needs to have basic listening and questioning skills in place so that he can understand the needs of the customer and give them what they want. Apart from that he should be able to build a rapport with the customer, a connect without which any sale can be difficult! Being assertive is also something he needs to learn as getting bulldozed by customers is really not great! We also focus on grooming to create a good first impression, apart from business etiquette.

3. Now that we have helped the executive feel good and look good, we move over to actual selling tactics which in my opinion is a trivial aspect! Once you have the internal aspect in place, the other two just help in sharpening your saw! So how do we sharpen the saw, by focusing on things like negotiation and successful ways of doing it, understanding various customer types to understand how to effortlessly get through to them and how best to deal with their objections, ways of finding new customers and what to do to build long term relationships with the ones you have found and of course how to open and close the sales call, an area which confuses many a salesman!

Is Leadership Training What You Are Looking For?

Leadership Training is one of the most required yet most ignored arenas in current day training. Why, because leaders unfortunately feel that they know it all and don’t feel the need to be trained. Many of them have risen from the ranks and have gathered a lot of experience over the years. However they tend to forget that learning is a continuous process and that learning something new is what will keep them ahead. The day they feel they know it all will be the day they put an end to their learning which will also mark an end to their growth.

 

So what new can a leader really learn? Well apart from honing his technical skills there is always scope to learn more about yourself and the way you interact with people. After all, you can’t run an organisation without people and if you are unable to handle your people well you really won’t be able to go far no matter how technically sound you are!

 

Let’s look at a facet of Leadership Training which is something that really interests everyone, a thing we all want yet think that it’s only for those who are born with the silver spoon. Let’s talk about Charisma, a coveted yet misunderstood word.

Most people think that charisma is something a leader just has and it’s not something that can be cultivated. Well if you have that thought then there goes your learning and there goes your chance to become a charismatic person!

 

So what is charisma? Am sure you’ll agree that it’s that invisible quality that a person tends to have that attracts people to him or her. Well you are quite right. Can we learn how to be charismatic? The answer is yes. It’s not something that you have to be born with, you can develop it on the way if you’re ready to put in the effort. How? By being yourself. Yes, that’s all it takes! You just have to be comfortable in your skin and you will radiate that energy of comfort which will make others feel comfortable in your presence. So what does that boil down too? It means that all you have to do is learn tricks to feel more comfortable with yourself and tricks to tackle your discomfort. Easy isn’t it? So now you know the secret to turning on the charisma and are most welcome to let us know when you would want us to help you with it. 

Beyond the Run of the Mill Corporate Training Companies in Mumbai

Training is slowly but steadily finding its way into Indian Corporate Houses. Corporates are realizing its importance and our opening up to the world of training. Although there is still a lot of resistance to training in the smaller cities, there has been a steady spurt in the number of CorporateTraining Companies in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities.

 

Corporate Training has had somewhat an egg and chicken type of story which is why it has had such a slow start. Organisations have started realizing that it is important, however many of them reluctant to invest in it due to the immediate investment are involved in it. They fail to understand that their investment in the present can actually reap huge benefits and profits for the company in the future.

So why is Corporate Training so important?

1. It is important at the Organisation level as it results in increased productivity of employees. Employee integrity and loyalty towards the organization also increases which leads to a decrease in attrition levels. It also gives rise to happier customers, thereby increasing business and repeat business for the organization many fold.

2. Corporate Training can make a lot of difference at the Team level also. Teams are made up of individuals with different personalities and values. These may clash resulting in the team working as a group of individual members focused on fulfilling their personal goals rather than team or organizational goals. Training can help team members be more aware of their differences and change their perceptions towards each other so that they make use of these differences in a constructive manner rather than letting them create drifts amongst them.

 

3. Training can create huge differences at the individual level. It can be used to change the perceptions of individuals towards their work as well as life on the whole. This improves their attitude, resilience and emotional intelligence. This helps individuals in improving their inner world, which in turn improves the way they are able to handle their outer world. Training can also be used to teach various skills. These may be used to improve existing skills or can be used to teach individuals new skills that they may either require for a change in role or due to change in technology being used by the department or organization.

 

We, at The Yellow Spot can help you create a difference in your organization, the teams that make up your organization and the individuals that make up the teams and the organization. We are one of the leading Corporate Training Companies in Mumbai and who have a presence across the country.

Growing Seriousness in Soft Skills Training in India

The number of organizations investing in Soft Skills Training in India is growing in leaps and bounds. Previously thought to be a fancy add on, organizations are now realizing that Soft Skills Training goes hand in hand with technical training. An individual may be experienced in hard skills, but if his soft skills are not in place then he will not be able to go very far. In fact it has been found out that those people who have exceptional hard skills but lack soft skills often find it difficult to climb up the corporate ladder. They have their subject matter in place but are at a loss when it comes to dealing with people. Soft Skills teaches individuals how to harmoniously transact with people around them and makes them better team players.

 

Soft Skills Training can be of various types:

1. Self – Most people are not in touch with themselves. They may have many emotions and fears that have built up over the years which have gone unaddressed or they may have chosen to escape from them as facing them may be too painful. Training can help them get in touch with these in a safe environment so that they let go of such unwanted emotions and can improve their self image as well as how they deal with others. This can in turn lead to a more positive attitude and increased level of motivation. Various psychological tools like Neuro Linguistic Programming, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy and Mindfulness Meditation as well as other Cognitive Behavioural Theories may be used to achieve the same.

2. Skills – A large number of intra and interpersonal skills like Communication Skills, Business Etiquette, Team Building, Goal Setting, Time Management, Stress Management, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Delegation and other Managerial and Leadership Skills can be taught to individuals. These skills when mastered will not only help the person manage himself better, but will also help him handle others better. Not only will he be able to succeed in climbing up the corporate ladder, but will also be able to take his team members higher, contributing to the overall organizational success.

 

Owing to the change that has been observed in people by focusing on their ‘softer’ aspects, Soft Skills Training in India is constantly on the rise not only in the Corporate World but also in Small and Medium Sized Companies which are now becoming more open to investing in such training.

Selling skills to Increase the Number of Prospects

Selling skills is one of the major qualities which are required in a sales person. The company depends on a sales person to gain more prospects which helps in the development of the company. So in order to learn the right ways to sell and practice the methods there are several institutions offering selling skills training to candidates who want to take up their career seriously. Selling includes a number of practices which are a vital step to increase the number of leads. 

Questioning

Most sales person fail to execute a project effectively because of their poor questioning skills. Few such worthless questions are, “Are you interested in saving money?” and “What is your budget?” Clients will definitely feel pained with such useless and non-valuable questions and finally end up wasting their precious time. A true salesman knows to ask questions of higher value like, “What are the goals that you are striving to attain this year?” and “What are the issues that is costing you low revenue and lessening the number of customers?” You can find a major difference between these questions and the one who asks similar questions like the latter is a professionally skilled sales person.

 

Presentation

A good presentation should be focused on the content and your verbal appearance. You should know the actual timing and delivery of the content and speak it at a standard pace. Your body language and gestures also matters a lot while you give the presentation. The training on selling abilities will also conduct a session on improving your presentation skills.

 

Communication and relationship building

To gain a lead for a long term business you need to attain rapport building and communication skills while you sell. You can establish this skill by delineating the goal of your sales term and verifying the allotted time.

Selling is a complex business in today’s world, so you need to execute it very smartly.