2117 Courses in Nottingham

This course has a simple objective: to help gain appointments with potential clients. In most consultative selling situations clients won't commit to purchases over the telephone. This means setting up a meeting to discuss the options with them face-to-face. But getting 'face time' can be tricky. This practical workshop can help. Participants will acquire essential tools, skills and methods; discuss specific organisational issues; and identify areas for improvement. They will discover how to: * Increase their effectiveness through proper preparation * Construct attention-grabbing opening statements * Help potential clients feel comfortable agreeing to a meeting * Develop tactics for responding to difficult excuses and objections * Stress the benefits of a face-to-face consultation * Develop and enhance their questioning and listening skills * Prevent customers cancelling booked appointments 1 INTRODUCTION TO APPOINTMENT SETTING * Key trends that have changed the way people buy today - and will buy tomorrow * Why many sales people avoid picking up the phone * The difference that makes a difference - what makes a good appointment-maker? 2 BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE TELEPHONE * It all starts with a plan... * Who and what to focus our attention * How much research should we undertake and why? * Setting primary and secondary objectives 3 MAKING YOUR APPROACH * Key considerations * Every call is an opportunity - creating a positive mind-set * Using a structured approach * Using partnership language 4 GAINING AN INSIGHT INTO THE CUSTOMER'S NEEDS * How to quickly 'tune in' to your customers, so that you can serve them more easily * Developing speech patterns that put customers at their ease * Using effective questioning and listening skills * Finding and building pain points 5 DEALING WITH EXCUSES AND OBJECTIONS * Pre-empting potential excuses * Developing techniques for responding to client objections * Keeping the door open for future contact 6 SECURING THE APPOINTMENT * Selling the benefits of a consultancy meeting * Techniques for avoiding cancelled appointments * Gaining commitment 7 ACTION PLANS * Course summary and presentation of action plans

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

This one-day workshop focuses on building a professional presentation from scratch, giving you essential hints and tips on how to utilise the key features of PowerPoint, including speaker notes, inserting charts, diagrams and pictures, and utilising slide transitions and animation. You will also learn about PowerPoint templates and themes to ensure your presentations have the best impact. This course will help participants: * Using Slide Master * Create a presentation using a template * Insert slides and change the layout * Manage slides and control formats * Enhance slides using animation, pictures, charts and graphics * Work with tables, rows, cells and columns * Create and control paragraph lists * Insert titles and labels * Effectively use slide show controls and presenter view * Print slides, handouts and notes 1 INTRODUCTION TO POWERPOINT * Navigating the features * Creating a simple presentation * Inserting new slides and changing layouts * Creating speaker notes 2 USING LAYOUTS IN SLIDE MASTER * Editing templates in slide master * Adding a design theme * Adding transitions, pictures and logos * Using Slide Show View 3 DRAWING SHAPES AND SMARTART * Using Drawing Tool Formats * Creating shapes * Aligning shapes and stacking order * Creating a cycle graphic * Creating an organisation chart 4 ANIMATION * Visually enhancing slides with animation * Using text and object animation * Adding animation to lists * Making animation work for you 5 PRESENTING * Confidently running a presentation * Using presenter view * Using the slide show controls

Meetings are a traditional and essential component of local government. For both elected members and officers, meetings serve as a forum for discussion and agreement, planning and monitoring, communication and leadership, and decision-making. Used appropriately, meetings can challenge, inspire, illuminate and inform. And while they are not the only meetings that elected members will be asked to attend, committee meetings, in particular, are a mainstay of the political management process. Effective chairing is important because it can provide clear leadership and direction, ensure that debates are focused and balanced, enable decisions to be reached and ensure that resources are used to best effect. This two-hour 'masterclass'-style workshop will help elected members to understand their role, offer some approaches and ideas that will help to tackle typical challenges, and help to generally improve their effectiveness as a chair. * To understand the skills and qualities of a good chair * To learn ideas and approaches for chairing a successful meeting that is on time and achieves its outcomes * To understand the protocols and boundaries for appropriate meeting etiquette and the chair's role in managing this effectively * To appreciate how to manage yourself and others appropriately * To take away personal actions to apply to your role 1 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS * Objectives * What's the challenge for you? 2 WE CAN'T GO ON MEETING LIKE THIS * Common meeting challenges for chairs and why they succeed or fail * Consequences and impact for the Council * What's the context? 3 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE CHAIR * Activities and input that explore the role, skills and qualities needed * Role of the chair: what is it and how to do it well 4 CHAIRING FOR SUCCESS - IDEAS AND APPROACHES TO MEET THE CHALLENGES * Managing time and boundaries * Preparation and planning * Creating the right environment * Self-management * Challenging personalities and good meeting behaviour 5 FINAL PLENARY SESSION * What's your plan? Take away actions

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

Happiness? Are you serious? I'm struggling enough as it is! Not a nice feeling is it, when things aren't going well? But you push on regardless. Now you tell me, how's that strategy going? What are the consequences of that? Discover the hard facts about long-term success and resilience. This inspirational but hard-hitting presentation will give you the inside track on motivation, success and, yes, what it's got to do with happiness. No ten-point magazine-checklists to brighten your day, that change nothing. Just the straight physics of happiness.

In today's competitive business world firms are under unprecedented pressure to deliver value to their shareholders and other key stakeholders. Senior executives in all parts of the organisation are finding that they need some degree of financial know how to cope with the responsibility placed on them as business managers and key decision-makers; monitoring and improving business performance, investing in capital projects, mergers and acquisitions: all require some degree of financial knowledge. The key financial skills are not as difficult to learn as many people believe and in the hands of an experienced senior executive they can provide a formidable competitive advantage. After completing this course delegates will be able to: * Understand fundamental business finance concepts; understand, analyse and interpret financial statements: Profit Statement, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statement * Understand the vital difference between profit and cashflow; identify the key components of working capital and how they can be managed to generate strong cashflow * Evaluate pricing decisions based on an understanding of the nature of business costs and their impact on gross margin and break-even sales; managing pricing, discounts and costs to generate strong business profits; understand how lean manufacturing methods improve profit * Use powerful analytical tools to measure and improve the performance of their own company and assess the effectiveness of their competitors * Apply and interpret techniques for assessing and comparing investment opportunities in capital projects, business acquisitions and other ventures; understand and apply common methods of business valuation * Understand the role of business finance in formulating and implementing competitive business strategy; the role of budgeting as part of the planning process and the various approaches to budgeting and performance measurement 1 BASIC PRINCIPLES * Delivering value to key stakeholders * Accounting concepts, GAAP, IFRS and common terms * Understanding and using the balance sheet * Understanding and using the profit statement * Recognising the vital difference between profit and cashflow * Understanding and using the cashflow statement * What financial statements can and cannot tell us 2 MANAGING AND IMPROVING CASHFLOW * Sources of finance and their advantages and disadvantages * What is working capital and why is it so important? * Managing stocks, debtors and creditors * Understanding how working capital drives business growth * Understanding and avoiding the over-trading trap * Unlocking the funds tied up in fixed assets: asset backed loans and leasing 3 MANAGING AND IMPROVING PROFIT * Understanding how profits generate cashflow * The fundamental nature of costs: fixed and variable business costs * Understanding gross margin and break-even * How common pricing methods affect gross margin and profit * Effective strategies to improve gross margin * Using value chain analysis to reduce costs * Lean manufacturing methods * Understanding Just-in-time, 6 Sigma and Kaizen methods * Improving profit * Effective and defective strategies 4 MEASURING AND MANAGING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE * Measures of financial performance and strength * Investor behaviour: the risk and reward relationship * Return on investment (ROI): the ultimate measure of business performance * How profit margin and net asset turnover drive return on net assets * Why some companies are more profitable that others * Understanding competitive advantage: cost and differentiation advantage * Why great companies fail * What happened to Kodak? * Using a 'Pyramid of Ratios' to improve business performance * Using Critical Success Factors to develop Key Performance Indicators 5 BUDGETING AND FORECASTING METHODS * Using budgets to support strategy * Objectives and methods for effective budgets * Using budgets to monitor and manage business performance * Alternative approaches to budgeting * Developing and implementing Balanced Scorecards * Beyond Budgeting * Forecasting methods and techniques * Identifying key business drivers * Using rolling forecasts and 'what-if' models to aid decision-making

How to protect your cash flow In the current economic climate more and more companies are finding that their customers are taking longer to pay - or are not even paying at all. As cash flow is key to the survival of any business, effective debt collection tactics are vital for all businesses. This workshop concentrates on the telephone skills and techniques you can use to achieve the most positive outcome in any debt collection situation - payment of money owed, as soon as possible, whilst keeping the collection cost as low as possible. The course will help you: * Understand your debtors and communicate with them accordingly * Develop a strategy for more effective debt collection * Make every call count * Handle difficult calls * Reduce the amount of time you need to spend on chasing payment * Increase your collection rates 1 THE DEBT COLLECTION PROCESS * Understanding the reasons behind payment default * Looking at the debt situation from the customer's point of view * Developing a strategy for effective debt collection 2 ADVANCED TELEPHONE COMMUNICATION SKILLS * Techniques for speaking to the person responsible for paying the debt * How to gain the customer's trust when discussing debt * Telephone collection skills best practice * Key phrases that keep the conversation positive and open 3 QUESTIONING AND LISTENING SKILLS FOR GATHERING INFORMATION * Different types of question * Using high-gain questions to uncover key information * Active listening that will help you understand what customers are really saying * Leading with examples and high-impact questions * Summarising and restating 4 OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS AND EXCUSES * Identifying objections * Preparing suitable responses * Probing objections and ways to overcome them 5 GAINING COMMITMENT AND ENDING THE CALL * Learn how to negotiate an agreement to suit both parties * Summarising actions for you and the customer * Ending the call professionally 6 DEALING WITH DIFFICULT AND CHALLENGING SITUATIONS * Understand different personality types * The correct way to respond to an upset customer * Ways to calm angry customers (and handle verbal attacks) 7 ACTION PLANS * Course summary and presentation of action plans

Wouldn't sales be a 'walk in the park' without challenging customers? Why is it that some customers are so difficult to please, so quick to call 'foul' at the slightest blip and so mean with their gratitude after we've bent over backwards to accommodate them? Whether we are looking at prospective or existing customers, there is a toolkit for dealing with the most challenging of them. This course will help participants: * Use broad open questions to give the customer a platform for their opinions or issues * Improve listening skills to really understand what's behind the customer's challenging style * Probe specific phrases to show listening and earn deeper disclosure * Use silence to let challenging customers 'blow off steam' * Understand the negative impact of certain phrases on a challenging customer * Summarise effectively and reassure the customer of our understanding of their needs * Recognise the 'behaviour cycle' and avoid emotional escalation * Understand 'transactional analysis' and how to bring people from 'child' to 'adult' state * Create loyalty in customers who are slow to give trust 1 WHAT MAKES A CUSTOMER 'CHALLENGING'? * Why customers challenge us - understanding their drivers * 'Wearing their shoes' - seeing things from their perspective * Understanding our own personality style * How to flex with a style that is different from our own * Ways to quickly recognise a customer's style * The benefits of flexing with a challenging customer's style 2 PRACTICAL EXERCISE - FORUM THEATRE * Participants take it in turns to deal with the trainer (who plays the role of the challenging customer) * Observers stop the action when they hear or see something they deem wrong * The participant in the seat gets a chance to use a suggested alternative line * The participant who makes the suggestion has the chance to occupy the seat and deliver it themselves * Frequent feedback from the trainer as to how the participant's words are making him feel * Opportunities to rewind the action if an ill-advised line is suggested and delivered * Flipchart for capturing what worked, what didn't work and why * Mehrabian principle - the importance of body language and tone over words used 3 QUESTIONING AND LISTENING SKILLS * How to use open questions to get the customer talking * What questions to avoid and why * The use of pauses and silence to reduce tension and build trust * What listening is and what it isn't * Question funnelling - how to earn deeper disclosure through probing * The power of summary 4 TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS EXPLAINED * What is transactional analysis (TA)? * Exploring the TA states and why people behave in that way under pressure * How to bring challenging customers to 'adult' state to reduce tension * How 'parent' or 'child' behaviours can be inadvertently triggered * Understanding the 'behavioural cycle' and how to break it * Mini-role play 'vignettes' to demonstrate real time impact of ill-chosen words 5 HOW TO BUILD TRUST WITH CHALLENGING CUSTOMERS * Techniques for placating current challenging customers * Methods that the participants have already used effectively - understanding why those methods worked and how other participants can model them * Participants' experiences of trust having been lost - understanding why those experiences had that negative outcome * How to 'go the extra mile' with challenging customers 6 BRINGING A 'REAL' CHALLENGING CUSTOMER TO LIFE * Participants give the trainer a brief profile of a specific challenging customer of theirs * 5-10 minute roleplay in which the trainer brings that individual to life * Observing participants - without interrupting - make notes on what is and isn't working * Trainer stops the action half-way through to give feedback on how he is feeling * Participant goes back into the roleplay having recalibrated their approach based on feedback * Observers give feedback on what did and didn't work * Trainer comes out of character to explain the impact of the participant's words and behaviours 7 WRAP-UP * Key learnings from each participant * Individual action planning - steps that can and will be implemented in the workplace

Most people only use a fraction of Excel's capabilities. This workshop shows what you've been missing! This course will help participants: * Nest formulas * Get the most from pivot tables * Use conditional formatting * Write array formulas * Explore the lookup functions * Calculate by criteria * Use 'goal seek' and 'scenario manager' for what-if analysis * Record macros 1 NESTING FORMULAS * Principles of nesting formulas together * Using IF with AND or OR to answer questions * Nesting an AND function in an IF * Nesting an OR function in an IF 2 ADVANCED PIVOT TABLE REPORTS * Grouping dates, numerical and text items * Running percentage analyse * Running analyses to compare data * Inserting Field calculations * Finishing off with a user-friendly dashboard 3 ADVANCED CONDITIONAL FORMATTING * Colour table rows based on criteria in it * Applying colour to approaching dates * Exploring the different rule types 4 LOOKUP FUNCTIONS * Going beyond the VLOOKUP function * Lookups that retrieve data from left or right * The versatile INDEX and MATCH functions * Retrieving data from columns with duplicates 5 CALCULATE BY CRITERIA * Using SUMIFS to sum by criteria * Finding an average by criteria with AVERAGEIFS * Use SUMPRODUCT to multiply then add different values 6 WHAT-IF ANALYSIS * Use Goal Seek to meet targets * Forecast reports with the Scenario Manager 7 RECORDING MACROS * Macro security * Understanding a Relative References macro * Recording, running and editing macros * Saving files as Macro Enabled Workbooks * Introduction to VBA code * Making macros available across workbooks * Add a macro button to the Quick Access toolbar