2114 Courses in Nottingham

Take your sales people from average to high performance. Motivate and develop experienced sales professionals with some new insights and learning. Applying NLP principles, techniques and models, this workshop will introduce the core attitudes and behaviours that differentiate the excellent sales person from the average one. The programme will help participants: * Understand and adopt the mindset and beliefs needed for sales excellence * Build rapport and connect with buyers at a deeper and more personal level * Recognise some of the thinking and language patterns that make each individual unique * Ask powerful questions to further understand the unique world of the individual and how they make decisions * Apply tools and techniques to empathise with clients - seeing things from their perspectives * Tailor their sales approach to the individual buyer's style, and talk in their language * Influence with integrity and sell to organisations and individuals successfully 1 INTRODUCTION * Aims and objectives of the programme * Personal introductions and objectives * Workshop overview 2 AN INTRODUCTION TO NLP AND SALES EXCELLENCE WITH NLP * An overview of NLP and applying it to selling * The pillars of NLP * The NLP model of communication * The difference that makes the difference 3 BUILDING ENHANCED RAPPORT * Defining rapport and why it is important when selling * Going beyond the initial small talk * Building relationships with individual decision-makers * Matching and mirroring * Levels of rapport 4 UNDERSTANDING THE BUYER'S PERSONAL BUYING MAP * How we take in, filter and process information * How we judge others based on our own experiences of the world * The different ways in which we communicate when selling * Recognising and understanding the language and thinking patterns of others * Adapting your sales communication style to different buyers 5 MAKING SENSE OF THE BUYING PROCESS * How we filter information through our senses * Understanding how we see, hear and experience the world * Visual, auditory and kinaesthetic buyers * Listening for key insights * What different buyers want from you to help them to buy * Applying sensory awareness to the sales process 6 SUCCESSFUL SALES MINDSET * The connection between thoughts and actions * The sales beliefs of excellence * Identifying negative thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back * How to change your mindset * Adopting the sales beliefs of excellence 7 POWERFUL QUESTIONS * Reviewing and honing your questioning skills * Understanding the questions that great sales people ask * Avoiding assumptions * Clean language questions * Getting to the bottom of it - precision questions * Turbo-charging how you qualify 8 INFLUENCING WITH INTEGRITY * Understanding empathy * Stepping into the buyer's shoes * Speaking the buyer's language * Tailoring your sales approach to the individual * Match, pace, lead - how to take your buyer with you 9 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER * Personal learning summary and action plans

Project management can seem scary and rather intimidating. The whole aim of this programme is to give people a simple and straightforward way of dealing with projects without having to use complex and confusing systems. This two-day course is designed to introduce the apparently complex world of project management in a simple and practical manner. The programme is for anybody who has to run a project of any nature. It has been attended by people from as diverse fields as events management, fashion, charities, oil companies and so on. The programme is run without using any IT project management systems although an introduction can be given if required. At the end of the programme participants will leave understanding: * What a project is and why projects are so important today * The roles of a project manager * Some key language and concepts * A simple 5-step model for organising projects * How to make sure you understand what your 'client' really wants * A set of three simple tools to plan the project * How to make decisions * What to monitor when the project is running * How to close the project 1 INTRODUCTION * What is the aim of this programme? 2 BACKGROUND THINKING * What is a project? * The project manager's eternal triangle (cost-quality-time) * What are the characteristics of successful projects? * Who are the key characters in a project? * What are the roles of a project manager? 3 THE PROJECT PROCESS * Why have one? 4 PROJECT INITIATION * What is the aim? * Identifying key information * Key skill: mission analysis * Initial risk analysis * Document and sign-off 5 DECISION-MAKING - 'STOP, THINK, ACT!' * The 'Stop, Think, Act!' technique * Recognise the opportunity to make a decision * The 3 Cs - making sure we understand the decisions we have to make * Identifying options * Making your decision * Taking it to action 6 CREATIVITY 7 THE PLANNING STAGE * Identify all discrete tasks * Sequence and dependencies * Time line - critical path * Resources * Project base-line 8 EXECUTION STAGE - DELIVERING THE RESULT * Monitor * Evaluate * Adapt * Control * Review 9 THE PROJECT CLOSE * Review * Documentation * Have we delivered? * What have we learned?

This very practical one-day IACCM-approved programme enables participants to manage the process of commercial contracting and contract management effectively and efficiently to ensure value for money, improved service, and appropriate relationships. It covers a wide range of contract types in terms of risk and value. The programme empowers participants with the tools and techniques needed to collaborate with all key stakeholders. By the end of the programme participants will be able to: * Understand the total process of managing contracts * Exploit opportunities to extract even more added value * Develop appropriate relationships with contractors * Understand and use a range of contracting strategies and options * Measure and improve contract performance * Understand the impact of legislation on contract performance 1 WELCOME * Introductions * Aims and objectives * Plan for the day 2 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT * An overview of the contracting process, mapping the 'territory' 3 CONTRACT MANAGERS * Skills * Knowledge * Attributes * Responsibilities 4 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS * Defining successful outcomes * Effective stakeholder engagement * Creating a shared vision of the outcomes 5 PLACING CONTRACTS * How to develop an effective specification and scope of work documents * How to develop a robust contracting strategy * Appropriate types of contract 6 CUSTOMERS AND STAKEHOLDERS * Customer and stakeholder analysis * Managing expectations and the 'shared vision' concept to ensure customer co-operation, satisfaction, and delight 7 WORKING WITH SUPPLIERS * Creating and developing commercial relationships * Types of relationship * How to manage difficult relationships * Contractor motivational issues * How to use incentives 8 NEGOTIATION AND RELATED SKILLS * Introduction to key negotiation skills * Persuading and influencing skills to work with stakeholders to improve outcomes for all 9 DEALING WITH CHANGE * Claims and variations * How to challenge contractor claims and requests for variations by making use of contractual terms * Specifications to prevent false claims 10 PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT * How to measure and improve contractor performance * Developing KPI systems * Using contractual terms and conditions and basic legal principles 11 CONTRACT CLOSE * The importance of effective contract close processes 12 CLOSE * Review of key learning points * Personal action planning

This course is designed specifically to help improve your collection rates. The UK's leading trainer in the subject uses practical examples and case studies to show how to use debt collection techniques that really work. This programme will help participants to: * Understand debtors and communicate with them effectively * Improve their telephone and writing skills * Appreciate the key legal issues * Track down 'gone-aways' * Improve their collection rates 1 GIVING CREDIT AND COLLECTING DEBTS * The benefits when you get it right * The cost of getting it wrong 2 ANALYSING YOURSELF * The importance of making the right 'first impression' * Assessing your own personal communication style and how this affects your results * How do you (or might you) look in the debtor's eyes? What would you like to change? 3 ANALYSING YOUR DEBTORS * Types of debtor * The delaying debtor * The genuine debtor * The cashflow or hardship problem debtor * The ones who never intended to pay * Spot the most common reasons and excuses for non-payment - and learn how to deal with them 4 UNDERSTANDING DEBT RECOVERY AND THE LAW * Data protection issues * County Court suing enforcement methods * Human rights and debt recovery * Retention of title matters 5 TELEPHONE SKILLS FOR DEBT RECOVERY * A 7-point plan which works every time * Learning by example: listening to and analysing some pre-recorded (or live) collection calls * What was done well? * What should have been done differently? * Did the collector recognise opportunities? * Did the collector create opportunities where seemingly none existed? * Did the collector negotiate well or not at all? 6 WRITING SKILLS FOR DEBT RECOVERY * Key phrases to avoid * What to include * A sample letter which gets results in over 90% of cases 7 TRACKING DOWN THE 'GONE AWAYS' * A unique debtor-tracing plan * Why spend money on external tracers when you can find those 'gone away' debtors for yourself? 8 COURSE REVIEW * The traps to avoid * Key personal learning points

Are your sales people too stressed, running on adrenalin, perhaps driving towards burnout, struggling to reach targets? Wouldn't you rather they delivered consistently good performance, sustainable over longer periods of time, with less stress (for both them and you)? This uniquely empowering workshop will help your team develop naturally high levels of focus, energy and motivation. They will attain a sense of grounded euphoria, giving them a very distinct and ethical edge in selling. A one-day programme, it gives salespeople an introduction to the 'Natural Superheroes' concepts and resources, tools and techniques, to help them improve their sales performance - realising greater sales potential, developing deeper and more profitable client relationships, winning more business. Through this experience, sales teams gain: * Information about profiling clients to instantly understand more about their deepest drives and true needs so they can be genuinely met and, where possible, exceeded * Insights into deep, honest and very 'real' reasons for sales procrastination - participants are given specific workable strategies they can easily apply to overcome sales resistance, by tapping their natural motivational styles * An understanding of communicating at the very highest levels with different people so they truly understand your sales message and have a significantly more positive sales experience * A realisation of their very specific natural sales talents as individuals and as a team * A deeper level of experience and understanding of what specifically drives their own behaviour and the behaviour of their clients - these unique insights explain not only how but exactly why people behave the way they do * An experience of what it takes to be unshakeable under pressure and manage the sales processes and relationships to a positive outcome for all * Brand-new insights into working with and handling difficult people across all levels of authority * An understanding of the pitfalls and the psychological traps we set ourselves which cause unnecessary stress, anxiety and frustration on a daily basis and, in turn, limit our sales performance * Access to very simple and practical tools that massively increase self-awareness, engender accountability and responsibility and develop emotional sales mastery 1 INTRODUCING 'NATURAL SUPERHEROES' FOR SALES * What is a 'Natural Superhero'? * Defining emotional intelligence in the context of sales and why it is so important * Knowing yourself - why most people don't know themselves at all and how we can understand exactly what drives our behaviour for the purpose of improving sales performance specifically * Knowing exactly why others, and specifically clients and team members, behave the way they do - understanding the real motives behind people's good and bad behaviour in a sales meeting * Simple steps to freeing yourself of any anxiety, pressure and false sense of limitation when selling * Being yourself in sales - why this is not as easy as it sounds but how you can make it effortless * How to take control of achieving the sales performance you really need and want for yourself and others * Strategies that raise your self-awareness, increase an authentic and sustainable sense of self-confidence, in difficult situations and in moments of crisis 2 UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF, YOUR TEAM MEMBERS AND YOUR CUSTOMERS - USING THE ENNEAGRAM * Introducing the Enneagram and why it is so valuable to sales people and their clients * Exploring the 9 types of motivational drives and why people have different reasons for buying from you * Core types and wings - understanding the influence of other motivations either side of the core Enneagram type * How to confirm the profile of your client - using celebrities from the world of politics, cinema, sports - we explore how to identify each type - what are their core drives, why have they arisen and how can we use these insights to help you in improving your sales performance * The 3 levels of behaviour within your personal profile and that of your clients * Lookalike Enneagram types - mistaken identities - how to avoid these traps when profiling your clients and your team * How to communicate effectively in a sales environment with each of the different Enneagram types - communication strategies for positive impact on morale, performance and, ultimately, sales results * How to interpret and make use of the results of your online personal profile - participants complete an online profile before the event and have the opportunity to analyse their results with a view to improving their sales performance * How sales teams sabotage their own performance and that of other people within the team - and how to stop it * Uncovering your particular edge in a sales role - what unconsciously trips you up as a sales person? * How the Enneagram helps us in sustaining a truly great sales performance over time 3 WHY POSITIVE THINKING ALONE DOESN'T WORK IN SALES * Why 'PMA' does not stand for positive mental attitude when selling - learn its alternative meaning that can serve you even more effectively in a sales role * 3 steps and exercises that naturally increase PMA * The value of making unconscious thinking conscious and how to do this without any pain or discomfort in a sales meeting * Why each Enneagram type has a different experience of PMA in terms of their outward behaviour and how to know when you are maximising your sales performance 4 MEASURING SUCCESS * How to measure the development of your individual profile as a sales person * Development planning and review * Into the future - how to continue your Natural Superhero development

Software comes in a variety of guises - application software, firmware, middleware, system software. Increasingly, however, it doesn't necessarily present that way, especially as the boundaries between software, data and source code are becoming more and more blurred. And as software becomes more complex and more difficult to disentangle, so it becomes harder to manage and to value. But as it becomes more integral to every aspect of a business, so it is ever more important to keep on top of the technical, legal and commercial issues that arise, issues such as: To address these issues, organisations need a process for evaluating their current situation from all perspectives and for identifying the key actions they need to take to ensure holistic management of their software. This very practical programme will help set your organisation on the right path. Note: this is an indicative agenda, to be used as a starting point for a conversation between client and consultant, depending on the organisation's specific situation and requirements. This programme is designed to give you a deeper understanding of: * The technical, legal and commercial risks associated with software development, procurement, use and commercial exploitation * The most appropriate processes and responsibilities for managing those risks Note: this is an indicative agenda, to be used as a starting point for a conversation between client and consultant, depending on the organisation's specific situation and requirements. 1 SOFTWARE BUSINESS MODEL * What is the software business model? * What options exist? * Has the software business model been thoroughly reviewed to ensure its viability? This means fully understanding the market opportunity, the business environment and customer and end-user expectations. 2 TECHNOLOGY * What are the technologies? * How has the technology selection been validated considering the competitiveness, structure, and potential for future innovation? 3 UI AND UX * What is the UI and UX? How to best articulate this? * Has the user interface and user experience been studied from both a subjective and objective view to give insight into customer behaviour? 4 LEGAL FRAMEWORK / COMMERCIAL ASPECTS * Has the necessary legal framework or commercial aspects that may impact upon use or operation of the software been understood and risks identified and mitigated? 5 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT * What is the software development process? * Are both the business management and development team's processes resilient in order to improve the company's capability and the maturity of the software? 6 SOFTWARE QUALITY * What is quality? * What are the metrics around software quality? What is the maturity level, based around a qualitative and quantitative assessment? 7 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ASSOCIATED * What IP should be considered when it comes to software? * Does the company understand both the intellectual property risks and potential opportunities associated with this software? 8 SECURITY * What does software security mean in this context? * How is it being addressed? 9 AN HOLISTIC APPROACH * Review of roles and responsibilities to ensure appropriate management and protection

This practical, enjoyable day will give you the tools to go and do your job effectively and the opportunity to practise using them in a safe and supportive environment before putting them into practice for real back in the workplace. To inspire, you need to be inspired!Having the right set of skills, tools and techniques helps us to manage in a productive and beneficial way. Above all, the workshop will inspire you with the determination to engage with the people you manage to produce greater levels of achievement. This workshop will enable you to: * Understand what the role of the manager is * Engage and inspire a team to perform * Recognise the range of styles appropriate for different situations and how your communication style impacts * Provide clear direction on your team's purpose, role and responsibilities * Understand how to create a motivating environment for those who report to you * Hold them accountable for delivery * Hold performance conversations * Review and evaluate your learning and have a plan to take back and implement at work 1 BRINGING THE ROLE TO LIFE * Starting the day with sharing your current ideals and approaches using the pre workshop task * Understanding what you bring to your role and your objectives for the day 2 THE ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A MANAGER: AN OVERVIEW * Responsibility and accountability * Producing results * Managing teams * Developing individuals 3 COMMUNICATION EXCELLENCE * The model of a team communicator * What type of communicator are you and what about your team? * Practical interactive group exercise 4 YOUR ROLE AS A TEAM LEADER - SHAPING HOW WE WORK USING THE ORGANISATION'S VALUES * Your role * Your team's role * Enabling your team to deliver in a changing mindset 5 ENGAGING AND MOTIVATING YOUR TEAM * Exercise: using a leadership model to explore how you are enabling your team to engage with current change, what's getting in the way and how you will manage this in your organisational context * Peer and group task and discussion 6 ADDRESSING MOTIVATION AT TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL LEVEL IN TIMES OF CHANGE * Exercises: * Identifying approaches to motivating people at work based on a work based model of motivation: team task * Exploring a behavioural model of motivation: team discussion * Review in plenary 7 HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE * The work cycle model of team performance: * * Agree purpose * Set objectives * Monitor performance * Provide feedback * Compliance vs. commitment * Professional discussion in small groups * Exercise: Practising short conversations using peer coaching support 8 REVIEW OF LEARNING AND ACTION PLANNING * Personal review and action planning * Group review of learning * Evaluation

When managers have too many decisions to make, it can have a serious impact on the speed and efficiency of the organisation. When those decisions are commercial ones, the results can wreak havoc with the bottom line. Often the problem arises when those below them or in operational areas of the organisation aren't equipped or allowed to make a decision for themselves. Issues get passed back up and that wastes time. This programme provides a solution, giving your entire team the skills to: And most importantly, they'll be able to do this in line with the broader aims and commercial objectives of the business. By the end of the programme participants will be able to: * Fully appreciate the importance of effective decision-making in business * Use the five-step 'Stop, Think, Act!' decision-making process * Stop leaping to conclusions * Really understand the situations and decisions they are dealing with * Identify good options * Evaluate those options * Make decisions and then put them into action * Apply these tools and techniques to all their decisions in future 1 UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS WE WORK IN * What are the critical factors in our business? * What is the SWOT analysis for our business? 2 UNDERSTANDING WHAT DECISION-MAKING IS 3 BACKGROUND * Culture of 'having to be doing' * To change things we have to think about it! * We are paid to make decisions! 4 RECOGNISE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DECISION 5 THE 'STOP, THINK, ACT!' TECHNIQUE 6 STOP! * Recognise the opportunity to make a decision * Don't leap to conclusions * Get ready to think * Initial questions: * Is this my decision? (Do I have the authority?) * Who is this going to affect? (Do they need to be included?) * When do I need to make the decision? (What's the timeline?) 7 THINK! * The 3 Cs - making sure we understand the decisions we have to make * What is the context of this decision? * What is the overall situation? * Why is this decision important? * What do we need to achieve? * What will success look like? * Do I have clarity about the decision I need to make? * Can I write it down? * Can I express it clearly in two sentences? * What are the criteria? * What are the critical commercial factors that we will use to select our options? * What will we use to measure the business success? 8 ACT! * Identifying options * What data do I need to collect? * Issues with today's overload * Identifying what will help you * Select options * How many options? * Must match your criteria * Must achieve success * 'Decision compass' exercise * Analyse options * Tabular method * Risk analysis (likelihood v effect) * Head, heart and gut (is there any organisational history/bias that we are up against?) * Making your decision * Taking it to action * First actions * Planning how to make it happen

The aim of this course is to expose the commercial context within which technical work is carried out. It is to allow technical staff to understand how they fit into a larger picture, why they may be asked to undertake tasks that may not appear to be technical and the impact their interactions have within the commercial context. The scope of the programme includes: The course emphasises the collaborative nature of delivery and the need to offer value to customers. The principal training objectives for this programme are to help participants: * Understand why technical roles are broader than we might assume * Appreciate the importance of, and the need to support, sales * Value the idea of 'Good Enough' * Recognise what can affect profitability * Realise the future needs protecting 1 INTRODUCTION * (Course sponsor) * Why this programme has been developed * Review of participants' needs and objectives 2 THAT'S NOT MY JOB! * How we see our own role in work * How other people see our role * Stakeholders: who are they and why do they matter? * The organisational backdrop * What is my role really? 3 SALES AND MARKETING * Where does the money come from? * Where do we find customers? * The sales process * One-off sales versus repeat business * Customer/supplier relationships * What something costs versus what the customer will pay * The value chain 4 ESTIMATING * Purpose of estimates * The problem with precision * Five estimating techniques 5 CHANGE CONTROL * Can you just do this for me? * When being helpful leads to bankruptcy * How to deal with change requests 6 RISK MANAGEMENT * Risk in projects * Risk in operations * Categories of risk 7 THE VALUE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY * Issues with sharing information * Commercial in confidence * Non-disclosure agreements 8 COURSE REVIEW AND ACTION PLANNING * (Course sponsor present) * Identify actions to be implemented individually * What actions should be implemented to improve working with non-technical people? * Conclusion

High quality specifications are of paramount importance in achieving the right technical performance and value for money. This long-established training programme has been developed to help those involved in producing specifications to create high quality documents in an organised and effective way. It provides a sound foundation for those new to the topic whilst at the same time offering new insights to those with more experience. The programme emphasises the need for a clear definition of requirements combined with the ability to communicate those requirements effectively to third parties. A structured method of preparing specifications is provided, and a range of practical techniques is presented, to enable participants to put the principles into practice. The commercial and contractual role of specifications is also addressed. The objectives of the workshop are to: * Provide a clear understanding of the role and purpose of specifications * Present a framework for organising and producing specifications * Define the key steps involved in creating effective specifications * Demonstrate methods for assisting in defining requirements * Provide tools and techniques for scoping and structuring specifications * Show the role of specifications in managing variations and changes to scope * Present methods to assist the writing and editing of specifications * Review how specifications should be issued and controlled DAY ONE 1 INTRODUCTION * Review of course objectives * Review of participants' needs and objectives 2 CREATING EFFECTIVE SPECIFICATIONS * The role of specifications in communicating requirements * The costs, benefits and qualities of effective specifications * Understanding the differences between verbal and written communication * The five key steps of 'POWER' writing: prepare-organise-write-edit-release * Exercise: qualities of an effective specification 3 STEP 1: PREPARING TO WRITE - DEFINING READERSHIP AND PURPOSE; THE SPECIFICATION AND THE CONTRACT * Designing the specifications required; applying BS 7373 * Defining the purpose, readership and title of each document * Effective procedures for writing, issuing and controlling specifications * The roles and responsibilities of the key players * Understanding contracts; the contractual role of the specification * Integrating and balancing the technical and commercial requirements * Writing specifications to achieve the appropriate contract risk strategy * Deciding how to specify: when to use functional and technical specifications * The role of specifications in managing variations and changes to scope 4 CASE STUDY 1 * Teams review a typical project scenario and identify the implications for the specification * Feedback and discussion 5 STEP 2: ORGANISING THE SPECIFICATION CONTENT * Defining the need and establishing user requirements * Deciding what issues the specification should cover * Scoping techniques: scope maps, check lists, structured brainstorming * Clarifying priorities: separating needs and desires * Dealing with requirements that are difficult to quantify * Useful techniques: cost benefit analysis, QFD, Pareto analysis 6 CASE STUDY 2 * Teams apply the scoping techniques to develop the outline contents for a specification * Feedback and discussion DAY TWO 7 STEP 2: ORGANISING THE SPECIFICATION CONTENT (CONT) * Deciding what goes where; typical contents and layout for a specification * The three main segments: introductory, key and supporting * Creating and using model forms: the sections and sub-sections * Detailed contents of each sub-section * Tools and techniques for outlining and structuring specifications 8 CASE STUDY 3 * Teams develop the detailed specification contents using a model form * Feedback and discussion 9 STEP 3: WRITING THE SPECIFICATION * The challenges of written communication * Identifying and understanding the readers needs * Choosing and using the right words; dealing with jargon * Problem words; will, shall, must, etc; building a glossary * Using sentence structure and punctuation to best effect * Understanding the impact of style, format and appearance * Avoiding common causes of ambiguity * Being concise and ensuring clarity * Choosing and using graphics to best effect * Exercises and examples 10 STEP 4: EDITING THE SPECIFICATION * Why editing is difficult; how to develop a personal editing strategy * Key areas to review: structure, content, accuracy, clarity, style and grammar * Editing tools and techniques 11 STEP 5: RELEASING AND CONTROLLING THE SPECIFICATION * Key requirements for document issue and control * Final formatting and publication issues; document approval * Requirements management: managing revisions and changes 12 COURSE REVIEW AND ACTION PLANNING * What actions should be implemented to improve specifications? * Conclusion