106 Courses in Bristol

COMMUNICATION SKILLS: IN-HOUSE Master the tools and techniques you need to communicate effectively, confidently and professionally in the workplace, whether writing emails, speaking over the phone (including conference calls) or meeting others face-to-face. Learn how to express yourself even more concisely, precisely and clearly with a keen focus on knowing what you want to achieve, understanding the audience and considering the context. The workshop focuses on the more challenging situations, such as when you need to be assertive, deliver bad news or win others over to your point of view. Delivery: Available as a full-day, half-day, bite-sized programme or webinar. Virtual and in-house delivery options.  * Learn how to select the appropriate communication medium (email, telephone or face-to-face) * Be able to organise and express messages relevant to the audience, objective and context * Know how to communicate more clearly, precisely and concisely in a range of situations * Practise new techniques to enhance your communication in the workplace * Understand how best to ask questions to establish needs and relevant information * Appreciate the impact of assumptions and know how to eradicate them THE COMMUNICATION CYCLE * The message we want to send isn't always what the receiver gets * Understanding the three channels of communication: visual / vocal / verbal * How challenges and misunderstandings can arise: * When the visual disappears (telephone and teleconferencing) * When the vocal disappears (writing) WHICH MEDIUM WHEN? * When is it best to put it in writing? * When should you use the phone? * When is face-to-face the best choice? * Issues to consider when you have difficult messages to deliver, when you want to influence and persuade, or when the situation is getting emotional FOUR STEPS TO COMMUNICATING WELL * Thinking about your objective * Thinking about the recipient * Selecting the content * Making it compelling COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY IN WRITING * The importance of being clear, precise and concise * How to create a logical, coherent flow, make the content accessible and get the tone right - the A to B model * The power of short sentences and simple language * How to write emails that get read and get results * 'Wimp talk' versus 'power talk' - why it's important to avoid softeners and qualifiers * How to write an effective email ADAPTING YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE * A question of style * What's yours? - questionnaire * How to adapt it TELEPHONE AND TELECONFERENCE SKILLS * Using verbal and vocal channels * How to explain things clearly over the telephone ASSUMPTIONS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS * Understanding the dangers * How 'mind-reading', making assumptions and jumping to conclusions can sabotage effective communication * Why you should avoid interrupting people when you think you know what they're going to say * The importance of suspending judgment, being patient and listening carefully * Making the content of your communication explicit rather than implicit PRECISION QUESTIONING * How to eradicate assumptions and avoid misunderstandings * What makes a question powerful? * What questions should you avoid? * The problems with leading questions ACTIVE LISTENING * The power of active listening * How to show active listening COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY FACE-TO-FACE * 1-to-1s and meetings * How to build and maintain rapport * Using body language and eye contact * Communicating confidently and assertively when stating your opinion, making requests or giving feedback DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS * How to communicate well in difficult conversations * Effectively managing your emotional state ACTIONS AND NEXT STEPS * Review * 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

This one-day workshop is designed to give you an awareness of the fundamentals of Microsoft Excel and, in particular, to give you the confidence needed to efficiently create, edit and manage spreadsheets. This course will help participants: * Create tables * Use functions * Manage rows and columns * Write formulas * Manage sheets * Use content formats * Handle larger tables * Create reports and charts 1 CREATING A TABLE * Creating an Excel table from scratch * Wrapping text in cells * Speeding up data entry using AutoFill * Sorting columns 2 INSERTING FUNCTION * Inserting function calculators * Using AutoSum to sum numbers * Statistical calculations AVERAGE, MAX and MIN 3 TABLE ROWS AND COLUMNS * Inserting and deleting rows and columns * Adjusting multiple column widths and row heights * Hiding and unhiding rows and columns 4 FORMULA WRITING * The basics of formula writing * Understanding mathematical symbols * Using multiple mathematical symbols in a formula * When to use brackets * Troubleshooting calculation errors 5 MANAGING SHEETS * Inserting, renaming, moving and deleting sheets * Copying a worksheet to another file * Copying a table to another sheet 6 MANAGING CONTENT FORMATS * Applying data formats * Managing number formats * Controlling formats with the Format Painter 7 MANAGING LARGER TABLES * Applying freeze panes to lock tables when scrolling * Sorting on multiple columns * Using filters to extract table information 8 CREATING AND MODIFYING CHARTS * Creating a pie chart * Creating a column chart * Inserting chart titles and data labels * Controlling chart formatting * Changing chart types 9 PRINTING * Previewing and printing tables and charts * Modifying page orientation * Adjusting print margins * Printing a selection 10 CALCULATING WITH ABSOLUTE REFERENCE * The difference between a relative and absolute formula * Changing a relative formula to an absolute * Using $ signs to lock cells when copying formulas 11 PIVOT TABLES * Create a pivot table report * Insert a pivot chart into a report

This workshop will help you improve the impact, clarity, accuracy and effectiveness of your sales proposals. It takes bid and proposal teams right through the process, from start to finish - from forming the team and gathering the information, through to writing and reviewing the proposal document, and on to presenting it to the client. The learning points shared in the programme come from the trainer's extensive real-world experience with a wide variety of businesses. As a result of attending this programme, participants will be able to: * Write more clearly, more grammatically and more persuasively * Structure their written communications more effectively * Avoid the 'howlers' that can cost you business * Impress your clients * Win more business 1 BID STRATEGY * How to combine your knowledge of the market or customer, your products and services, and your competitors, to create a quality bid * New insights into your comparative advantages and competitive position in the marketplace * Understanding more about how your client views you and other suppliers * A plan of attack to build on your strengths and attack the weaknesses of your competition * Dealing with RFP/ITT situations 2 TEAMWORK * How a bid or proposal team needs to prioritise and manage preparation time * Co-ordinating input from team members * Agreeing responsibilities 3 THE IMPORTANCE AND ROLE OF A WELL-WRITTEN SALES PROPOSAL * Why bother? - the value of the sales proposal to you and to the customer * What the customer wants and needs to make a decision in your favour * Understanding and delivering on customer expectations * Review and discussion of different proposals - with real-life examples 4 THE BEST WAY TO STRUCTURE YOUR SALES PROPOSALS * A section-by-section, page-by-page review of best practice in structuring great sales proposals * How to improve the way you match your proposal to the customer's objectives and requirements * Plan your sales documents systematically - to make them easy to read and more persuasive * How to make your proposal look like the 'least risky' option 5 MAKING YOUR PROPOSAL A COMPELLING AND PERSUASIVE PROPOSITION * Choosing the right words that sell effectively * Selecting the right content and information for your document or proposal * Using an option matrix to summarise complex choices and increase final order value * How to write an executive summary 6 WELL-WRITTEN AND ERROR-FREE * Developing your writing style for maximum impact * Expressing the content (ie, selling points) clearly, concisely and correctly * Proof-reading and editing work effectively, using formal marks and techniques * Improving visual layout, format and appearance * Keeping it customer-focused 7 PRESENTING TO THE CLIENT - OVERVIEW * Presentation options * Understanding the client's objectives - as well as your own * The proposal review meeting - logistics * Managing to the next step * Designing and delivering a compelling presentation * Isolating objections and concerns * Follow-up and follow-through 8 POSITIONING YOUR FINAL PROPOSAL * Finalising your bid - presenting the right 'best few' USPs, features and benefits and making them relevant and real to the customer * Smart ways to position price and be a strong player - without being the cheapest * How to differentiate yourselves by how you present, as well as what you present * How to design and deliver a successful bid presentation 9 BID PRESENTATION PRACTICE SESSION WITH STRUCTURED FEEDBACK * Participants work in small groups or pairs to prepare and later present a sample section from a real life bid or proposal presentation * The trainer will provide assistance and input * During group review and discussions, input from others will be encouraged and many best practice ideas summarised 10 MANAGING THE END GAME * How best to draw-out, understand, isolate and answer customer objections, negotiate points and concerns * How to read the situation to plan the next step * Identifying negotiation tactics - and how to deal with them * Planning for a negotiation and how to get the customer feel they have the 'best deal' 11 WORKSHOP SUMMARY AND CLOSE

ChatGPT, along with other AI tools, aims not to replace the human touch in management, but to enhance it. By addressing repetitive, daily tasks, these tools free up managers to concentrate on core responsibilities like strategic decision-making, team development, and innovation. As we move further into the digital age, integrating tools such as ChatGPT isn't a luxury; it's the future of proactive leadership. In this guide, we'll delve into 10 practical ways through which AI can elevate your efficiency and refine the quality of your work. * Gain familiarity with prominent AI tools in the market * Efficiently compose and respond to emails * Generate concise summaries of complex reports and data. * Obtain quick insights, data, and research across varied topics * Streamline the writing of articles, training notes, and posts * Craft interview tests, form relevant questions, and design checklists for the hiring process 1 STREAMLINING EMAILS An inbox can be a goldmine of information but also a significant time drain for managers. Here's how to optimise it: * Drafting responses: Give the AI a brief, and watch it craft a well-structured response. * Sorting and prioritising: By employing user-defined rules and keywords, ChatGPT can flag important emails, ensuring no vital communication slips through the cracks. 2 EFFICIENT REPORT WRITING Reports, especially routine ones, can be time-intensive. Here's a smarter approach: * Automate content: Supply key data points to the AI, and let it weave them into an insightful report. * Proofreading: Lean on ChatGPT for grammar checks and consistency, ensuring each report remains crisp and error-free. 3 RAPID RESEARCH From competitor insights to market trends, research is a pivotal part of management. * Data synthesis: Feed raw data to the AI and receive succinct summaries in return. * Question-answering: Pose specific questions about a dataset to ChatGPT and extract swift insights without diving deep into the entire content. 4 REINVENTING RECRUITMENT Hiring can be a lengthy process. Here's how to make it more efficient: * Resume screening: Equip the AI to spot keywords and qualifications, ensuring that only the most fitting candidates are shortlisted. * Preliminary interviews: Leverage ChatGPT for the initial rounds of interviews by framing critical questions and evaluating the responses. 5 ENHANCING TRAINING Especially for extensive teams, training can be a monumental task. Here's how ChatGPT can assist: * Customised content: Inform the AI of your training goals, and it will draft tailored content suitable for various roles. * PowerPoint design: Create visually appealing slide presentations on any topic in minimal time.

English Language courses at Bath Academy are suitable for every type of student. Join classes every Monday.

This course provides detailed safeguarding adults & children awareness, including essential knowledge in the recognition and reporting of abuse and neglect, procedures and responsibilities. This is for all workforce involved in Social Care from the health, public, independent, or voluntary sectors. This subject forms standard 10 & 11 in The Care Certificate.

It's a fact of life that costs generally increase and as a result prices must go up too. Implementing an increase without losing customers is challenging. Talking about a price increase with customers never makes for an easy conversation. Your customers will generally decide whether to accept the increase based upon value, as well as the hassle cost of switching and going elsewhere. Even the most experienced salesperson who has implemented price increases before will be fighting back the nerves when faced with the task of 'selling' the increase. In this flexible programme, we will support your internal preparations at whichever stage you and your colleagues are at. From making the decision to increase prices, right through to those on the frontline already dealing with any push-back. This programme will help participants: * Understand the business case for increasing prices * Take steps to research the market * Consider their customers' motivations * Use the six principles of influence * Identify and adapt for different personality styles * Assess their level of trust with customers * Build rapport rapidly with their customers and prospects 1 RAISING PRICES - KEYS TO SUCCESS * Understanding the business case * Researching the market * Assessing the value of your offering 2 UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER BASE * Assessing your key accounts * What is your 'target' customer range? * Creating consistency in pricing approach 3 PLANNING THE INCREASE * Timing your implementation * Communication strategy * Elements of a good price increase letter 4 DEVELOPING INFLUENCING SKILLS * The Trust Equation * The six principles of influence * Discovering your customer's buying decisions 5 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PRICE INCREASES * The part emotion plays * Developing strategies for keeping calm * Handling your customer's responses 6 UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT CUSTOMER STYLES * Discover your own style * Recognising behaviour traits in others * Adapting your approach to their style 7 PREPARING FOR CUSTOMER CONTACT * Preparing for specific customers * Anticipating their response * Dealing with challenging customers 8 FOLLOWING THROUGH * Maintaining a consistent approach * Resisting requests for discounts * Confirming the increase in writing

This course is designed for those already using Power BI Desktop and are ready to work with more comprehensive elements of analysing and reporting in Power BI. The course maintains a balanced look at data analysis including the Power Query Editor, with a deep dive into writing DAX formulas, and enhanced dashboard visualisations. The aim of this course is to provide a more complete understanding of the whole Power BI analytics process, by working with business examples that will equip you with the necessary skills to output comprehensive reports and explore Power BI's analytical capabilities in more depth. 1 THE QUERY EDITOR * Grouping rows in a table * Split row by delimiter * Add days to determine deadlines * The query editor 2 FUZZY MATCHING JOINS * Matching inconsistencies by percentage * Matching with transformation table 3 THE QUERY EDITOR M FUNCTIONS * Adding custom columns * Creating an IF function * Nested AND logics in an IF function 4 DAX NEW COLUMNS FUNCTIONS * Including TRUE with SWITCH * Using multiple conditions * The FIND DAX function * The IF DAX function * Logical functions IF, AND, OR 5 EDITING DAX MEASURES * Making DAX easier to read * Add comments to a measure * Using quick measures 6 THE ANATOMY OF CALCULATE * Understanding CALCULATE filters * Add context to CALCULATE with FILTER * Using CALCULATE with a threshold 7 THE ALL MEASURE * Anatomy of ALL * Create an ALL measure * Using ALL as a filter * Use ALL for percentages 8 DAX ITERATORS * Anatomy of iterators * A closer look at SUMX * Using RELATED with SUMX * Create a RANKX * RANKX with ALL 9 DATE AND TIME FUNCTIONS * Overview of functions * Create a DATEDIFF function 10 TIME INTELLIGENT MEASURES * Compare historical monthly data * Create a DATEADD measure * Creating cumulative totals * Creating cumulative measures * Visualising cumulative totals 11 VISUALISATIONS IN-DEPTH * Utilising report themes * Applying static filters * Group data using lists * Group numbers using bins * Creating heatmaps * Comparing proportions * View trends with sparklines 12 COMPARING VARIABLES * Visualising trendlines as KPI * Forecasting with trendlines * Creating a scatter plot * Creating dynamic labels * Customised visualisation tooltips * Export reports to SharePoint

If you're looking to move to the next level in your career in sales, then understanding how to maximise your sales results, using a consultative and structured approach, will be key to your success. In order to develop the competitive advantage that enables you to stand out from the crowd, it is important to understand the tools and techniques to take your selling to new heights and build the confidence to apply them in work-based scenarios. We have developed this programme to be practical, fun and interactive. Learners will gain a range of practical skills that they can take back and apply to the workplace straight away, that will have a positive impact on sales and customer satisfaction. This course will help participants: * Develop a structured and client-focused approach to creating high quality sales opportunities and account growth * Learn persuasion and influencing skills to better define needs and develop opportunities * Understand how to have better sales conversations, presentations, and proposals - leading to higher order value and increased sales * Develop advanced sales questioning skills and techniques; understand the importance of listening * Understand how to add value at all stages; plus gaining competitive advantage * Develop proven ways to overcome and reduce price pressure * Know when to use options and upselling when presenting products and solutions * Develop techniques and skills for improved negotiation and closing 1 ADVANCED SELLING - HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SALES RESULTS * Review of pre-course data and questionnaire * The AVC model of increasing your sales results * Creating a sales growth plan to achieve higher sales targets * Mapping the accounts and products for targeted growth 2 THE FOUR CS TO STRUCTURE A SALES CALL * Research before the meeting or call; setting objectives, planning and preparation * How to gain instant rapport and taking control - including online meetings * Qualifying and initial questioning skills * Creating an agenda and first-meeting structure: Four Cs * Planning and practice sessions 3 BUILDING BIGGER AND BETTER SALES OPPORTUNITIES * How to use questions to 'build' more opportunities * Learning and using high-impact and third-level questions * Advanced sales questioning techniques: five questioning techniques * Qualifying and gaining commitment to the next stage * Planning and practice sessions - advanced questioning skills 4 PRESENTATION AND PERSUADING SKILLS BEST PRACTICE * Compelling benefits and reducing perceived risk - key messages to deliver * Helping the customer choose your proposition by using options * Professional and effective presentation skills * Writing compelling sales proposals that improve your conversion rate * Planning and practice session - presenting your solution 5 OVERCOMING CONCERNS AND CLIENT QUESTIONS * Proven techniques for answering client objections and concerns * How to isolate, prioritise and answer objections, including price * Overcoming delay and procrastination * Planning and practice session - answering client concerns 6 GAINING COMMITMENT AND CLOSING THE SALE * Knowing when to close for commitment * How to ask for commitment professionally and effectively * Key negotiation skills around the closing process - getting to 'yes' * Checklist of closing and negotiation skills * Practice session