Tasks That Challenge Us

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This interesting article from NBC News identifies how we sometimes have to tackle tasks that can feel uncomfortable because of our personality type. For introverts it may entail requiring more confidence or social skills and on the flip side – for extroverts a detail-oriented task can appear quite daunting.

Each personality type has strengths and weaknesses and, in any role, it is advantageous to know what our own behavioural type is so that it can be adapted in certain situations.

Extended DISC Behavioural Assessments provide insights for managers to understand their employees, where their strengths are and what areas are in need of development. For the employee it enables them to understand their own natural style and to know when more effort is required to adjust their natural style.

Click here for more information on DISC Profiling or contact us to discuss how DISC can help your organisation.

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/here-s-how-tackle-those-dreaded-tasks-go-against-your-ncna975766

 

NZ Certificate in Sales Training

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ProFormance are pleased to announce the dates for their 2019 NZQA Level 3 Sales program, designed specifically for the print, paper, sign and packaging industries and is supported and subsidised by PrintNZ and Competenz. Now into our 5th year, we have received great feedback and many success stories from the participants and their managers.

“I just cannot thank you enough for showing me such a powerful tool in my toolbox – our company has already benefited in many ways (including 2 new multi-national companies) purely based on what you have shown me”

Participants learn best practice sales skills over the course of 12 months and are supported to use them in their everyday roles through assessments, observations, coaching and team support. This means that they do develop new sales skills SO you and they will see results from this, which is encouraging and motivating.

Download our detailed brochure outlining the 2019 dates and the qualification content.

Register now to secure your place on the 2019 course.

Look Within for Better Team Performance

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When teams are under-performing or hitting challenges, it is easy for team members to point the finger at others. But in high performing teams, we find people start with themselves and their personal accountability – they are more self aware about how they come across and the effect their behaviour has on other people. This interesting article lays out 3 aspects of this emotional intelligence. Using a consultant to facilitate a team building session, or using DISC profiling to better understand yourself and others, can all contribute to higher team performance.https://hbr.org/2019/01/to-improve-your-team-first-work-on-yourself

A Perfect Ten

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A great finish to 2018 with the participants of our final workshop of the year scoring Becky Carr 10/10 in their evaluation of her as a trainer. This in-house  “Sales Conversations” workshop tailored specifically for our client, was aimed at Key Account Managers and all of them felt they got something useful out of it.

Value Add Options for Employers

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Motivating and retaining talented employees within your organisation can be challenging if the financial remuneration isn’t meeting their expectations. When a pay increase is not on the table, there are other incentives that could be presented as a “value-add” to their pay packet. In research conducted by Seek during 2018, employees considered “Paid Training/Professional Development” as being 3rd most important in their top 5 non-financial incentives.

 

Using Sales Data to Increase Sales Performance

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An interesting article from HBR about the value of using sales data to increase sales performance. Whilst sales skills are critical, we know having a clear sales process for your business, tracking the numbers and holding people accountable to this, ultimately achieves the best results. Establishing some form of sales analytics is the key. It doesn’t have to be overly onerous – rather something that fits the size and culture of your business and often utilizing tools that you have already, but in a more effective manner. For instance: CRM and leadership. Read the full article here:

https://hbr.org/sponsored/2018/10/power-sales-performance-by-harnessing-analytics

Trade – Don’t Donate!

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In order to motivate someone to the outcome you want, it is important to aim for a win/win outcome. If both parties feel like they have won, then the negotiation was successful.  Negotiation skills are vital to any sales persons toolbox, here we share our top ten principles of negotiation:

1. Sell first, negotiate later
2. Plan and use high quality questions
3. Know their decision criteria i.e. what is in their shopping basket
4. Identify and value your variables, i.e. what is in your shopping basket
5. Know your upper and lower limits
6. Be non-committal in the early stages
7. Take time and buy time
8. Let the other side go first
9. Trade – do not donate
10. Never negotiate out of concerns or objections

If your sales team or individual sales people need some development in their negotiation abilities, talk to us about our bespoke sales training workshops and/or sales coaching.

“I have retained the particular job from the competitor as I negotiated on ‘our benefits and value’ over the price. I cannot thank you enough for showing me such a powerful tool in my toolbox.”

What Leaders Know but are yet to Embrace

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“The Excellence Dividend” is an interesting new book from well known author and leadership guru Tom Peters. In a recent interview with with Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, Peters bullishly claims that nothing has changed in leadership in 50 years. A bold statement. On reading his points though I must say I agree with much of what he says.

Peters finds it “maddening that all too often a business strategy is inspiring, but the execution mania is largely AWOL”.  He believes “managers fail to capitalize on immediate excellence – how we connect, listen, inspire, and admit mistakes on a human level to employees or customers”. He believes the most critical thing is to develop “an effective people-truly-first, innovate-or-die, excellence-or-bust corporate culture”. When consulting, it is inspiring to see those businesses with great corporate culture and how much more their people are engaged and achieving.

In the area of customers, he states “excellent customer experiences rely entirely on excellent employee experiences because it’s the employee who makes or breaks the customer connection”. This means leaders must see extreme value in them and pour into their career growth and development. “Training is any firm’s single most important capital investment“, adds Peters. Of course I couldn’t agree more with that statement.

If we value our people – staff and customers – listen to what they need and want, our people and our businesses will grow.

Read the full interview with Tom Peters here

Can Computers Really Do the Job of Sales People?

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This interesting article highlights the fact that people are more willing to buy online these days and are doing so for higher dollar value items than before. This, combined with the high costs of running a sales team, can mean some businesses are seriously questioning the number of sales people that they need.

“Particularly at risk are salespeople who essentially are order-takers, dropping by companies once a week to see how many industrial fasteners a manufacturer needs. Big distributors are putting their field salespeople on only the top 10 per cent of their customers, who account for 70 per cent or more of their sales and need the most attention”, said Jonathan Bein of Boulder, Colorado-based Real Results Marketing.

Sales people need to make themselves indispensable by adding value to sales relationships, offering services and solutions that an online purchasing systems can’t.

Check out this story from the NZ Herald …
http://nzh.tw/12120241

STEM Education vs Creative Thinking

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In a recent article published by the Australian Financial Review, Sandy Plunkett challenges the Australian Federal Education Minister’s focus on the critical importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in driving future economy.

Whilst these valuable skills have their place, organisations such as Google are rethinking their recruitment strategies as a result of  internal research projects.  One study showed that the most important qualities of their high performing teams were in fact “soft” skills, which include communication, empathy, creative and strategic thinking. They also found that the “best new ideas came from B teams – employees who don’t always have to be the smartest in the room”

Many businesses within New Zealand are looking for future leaders within their employees and it is not just the technical skills they possess that will get them ahead. There is significant demand for training and development programs that will enable team members to develop their “soft” skills, through workshops and one-on-one coaching.

Talk to us about how DISC profiling, Communication and “High Performing Team” workshops or coaching can assist your staff and business to grow.