Business and Money Tips

With government giving 60% cashback or 400% tax deduction under the PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit), it is a no brainer to send your staff for training.  However, many people are holding back not because they don't see the value in training, but they are afraid that the staff will not apply the learning in the workplace.  In short, they still can't see the tangible benefits of training.  Truth be told, unless you do the right steps, most staff will not apply learning to the workplace .  This is because most people see training as a welfare and not a part and parcel of their work.  In fact many bosses do not even do post-training review, and if there is no such review, why would the staff bother to apply the learning?  The following are the 4 Right Steps to Apply Learning in the Workplace: Before the training , let the staff know that the training is intended to make their life better, not just life at work.  Let them be aware that what they learn will benefit t

Are you a good boss?  Given a chance, would your employees want to work for you?  Most importantly, are you able to make people better than themselves, or make people better for just yourself?   Make no mistake: the best bosses could also be bad bosses at times.  The key to being a good boss is how to Be the best, and learn from the Worst .  Taken from our all-time best-seller new course How to Be a Great Boss and books from Robert I Sutton, there are 5 things that you have to do: Don't Crush the Bird .  Managing people is like holding a bird in your hand.  If you hold it too tightly, you'll kill it. But if you let loose, you'll lose it.  Indeed managers that are too aggressive will damage relationships and managers that are too passive and not assertive enough will get people climb over their heads.  Like salt in a dish, too much will overwhelm the dish; too little is similarly distracting; but just the right amount of salt will leave an unforgettable experience.

Just changed your smartphone and want to quickly transfer all your data like Contacts, Messages, Photos and Music from one phone to another?  Whether you're switching from Samsung to iPhone or from Samsung to iPhone, download this app called "Smart Switch" and you can easily transfer files in just 3 simple steps: Activate Smart Switch app on both devices Select what you want to send from one device to another Send the data and check on the receiving device if everything is in order How about transferring of learning, whether from training courses or from teachings from experienced staff?  Just follow the following 3 simple steps: Make sure both have the same software, which in this case means both must have the same mindset.  Like in our courses How to Be a Better Manager and Sales Power , we told the participants at the beginning of the course that the only mindset to have to ensure you can transfer learning to the workplace is " Just Do It ".  To m

In dealing with difficult people, you wonder if the strategy of service from the heart ever works.   Indeed there are 10 kinds of difficult people and they include: Slumper: Person who doesn't care anything ('bo chap' in Singlish) Dumper: People who offloads tasks and dirty work to you all the time Jumper: One who has no scruples, takes credit for others' work and is a 2-headed snake Grumper: People who complains ALL THE TIME and impossible to please Bumper: People who takes kudos when all goes well but blames mistakes on others Trumper: Always has to have the first and last word and be one step ahead of everyone else Thumper: Bullies and intimidates others and gets his own way by being aggressive Demander: Customer who demands 200% and yesterday's delivery for today's last minute order Smiling Tiger: One who laughs at others and pretends to give you a helping hand, only to stab you from behind Sabo King:

I realized from our How to Be a Better Manager  and Sales Power  courses that most people need a shortcut on the 5 most important concepts at work.  They are now summarized as follows: 1.  Customer Service Customer Service is not about niceties or doing everything to please the customer.  It is also not about over-servicing until the business makes a loss.  Services that are way beyond your core business are not considered customer service but  entertainment service .   Successful companies will tell you that customer service is nothing but  s olving customer's problems and make them feel good  with a profit .   It is about  service from the heart and not serve from head to toe.  2.   Teamwork Many people thought that if the staff get along well with little conflicts, teamwork is good.  Some people even think that if they go for offsite teambuilding training, teamwork will be improved automatically. There are even those who think that as long as there is harmony, teamwork is ex

As we know, a great man is not one that does great things but one that does greatly in what he is supposed to be doing.  We all know what are the right things to do, but due to work pressures and meeting the demands of others, we tend to divert our focus.  If you're reading this newsletter, I hope to inspire you to do the following 6 things so that you can be happier at work: Do the best for the day , and not wait for another day to come.  This means not holding back and give it your all Continuously upgrade your skills, attitudes and knowledge . One good way is to get someone outside (like a Trainer) to challenge your thinking.  For if you change your thinking, your life will change Improve your inter-personal skills .  Know how to empathize with people and not just push your way through. Have high self-awareness and equip yourself with EQ and profiling skills Know how to be tough .  Get driven and be tough to take tough actions.   Know that different situation calls for di

Many companies like the sales trainer to teach them how to look for new prospect s and close every sale .  Sales managers love to equip their sales force with many techniques to overcome sales objections .  Some bosses demand that sales trainers must impart skills that can be applied immediately so as to reap the rewards overnight.  They want their sales team to get motivated and be inspired to take action .  Without any of the above, sales training would become another of those 'ra-ra' type, i.e. all hype and no result.  To us, all sales training would cover all of the above and many more. For the specific 9 things that sales training must cover, please refer to this article  here .  (To avoid wasting money in sales training, read  here ).   (Note: PIC now pays 60% cash for your training in 3 months).  Actually the most important element in Sales Training is not any of the above but one and only one thing - Compel the salespeople to perform .  To do that, the trainer

Those who know history know that Genghis Khan, the leader of the Mongolian empire 800 years ago, ruled the largest empire the world has ever known. His Mongolian Empire was 4 times the size of Alexander and twice the size of Roman Empire.  It comprises the entire East Asia except Japan, Central Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe. Today the USA called itself a superpower, yet it cannot even handle one country called Iraq.  People wondered how did the Mongolians, without a superior culture and technology, and with so little population (200,000) managed to do it? What did Genghis did?  What do his achievements reveal about the nature of his leadership and management?  What traits made him so effective?  Most importantly, can we learn something from him and apply to our modern management? Of course given the unique nature of Genghis's time his circumstances and personality, it would be ridiculous for us to follow exactly what he did.  But according to historian John Man, we c

How many times have you selected the cheapest vendor only to discover later that you have just paid top dollar?   Over the years the relationship between supplier and customer has focused hard on many of the wrong things. Price alone is almost always the most important factor in selecting any supplier.   Yet we know that price can only account for out-of-pocket costs actually paid out to suppliers.  Other factors that are overlooked are more important in determining the overall cost of purchasing and its ultimate value to your organization .  The overlooked but important factors include Cost of Value-Added services (like customization and design), rework, returns, inspection, administration and inconvenience cost.  More important, these costs exclude the opportunity costs of not doing business with suppliers who can provide significant benefits , which include: Joint Strategic Planning and Product Design Coordinated marketing Joint Customer Research Cross Selling Paperwo

As a trainer with over 18 years of training experience (including part time 4 years), I find that many clients like to ask trainers to teach them things that they themselves can do.  Like in sales training, they like the trainer to teach them how to present their product's features and sell like them. Some even asked us to teach them the exact script on how to respond to a customer's enquiry.  There are some that like the trainer to be like one of them, fully absorbed into their company's culture and way of doing things.  One of them told me, "You have to do things like what we do here". Make no mistake: your external trainer is not your employee, nor is he your company's mouth piece. Most importantly, the reason for getting an external trainer is to get new perspectiv e, different ways to look at things.  If you get an external trainer to do what you yourself can do, why waste the time and money and why not just do it yourself? To me, the only value an

Note: List of courses is now at here The common problem faced by learners all over the world is not how much they learn but how much learning they retain.  For we know that if your retention is low, your application of the learning will also be low . That means lower training effectiveness.   Here are the top 5 ways that we use to massively increase the retention of learning for our clients: (for the top 7 things that training must cover , read this ) Review and reflection once every half or one hour .  The review and reflection can be in the form of Question and Answer, Case Study and Sharing of Learning IAP - Immediate Action Plan , how can you not remember when you put your learning into action immediately? Funny Video Clips .  A picture speaks a thousand words, and a moving picture speaks a million words.  This is especially so when the video clip is funny and exaggerating, and such ridiculous associations will definitely lock into people's minds Discussions and Shari

Many training courses tout themselves as having the latest ideas, strategies and thinking that will put you ahead of your peers.  Some of them are conducted by gurus who claimed to be able to 'give us 8 hours and we'll change you'.  Sounds pretty impressive!  We know that having more knowledge will not make you more successful.  Because if this is so, why are the professors not among the top earners in our society?  In fact talking to people from all walks of life reveal that we're living in an over-information age: people are now being immobilized with too much information.   It is apparent that what move people is not more information but inspiration.  Inspiration is getting people to do what they want to do because they want to do it .  When you are inspired to do things, you do it even when there is no reward and no punishment for not doing it.  That is true inspiration. Do not confuse inspiration with creativity and innovation, for inspiration is just havi

We know words and phrases are magical in that they have the power to change minds.  If you use the right words and phrases, sales would come.  If you use the wrong one, sales would go away.   If you are selling to people holding management positions, you need to use words and phrases that reflect what they want: certainty, little risk and most importantly, reliable results .  Understand that management people are not entrepreneurs, they are not risk takers and their primary responsibility to their boss (the entrepreneur) is to protect and grow the investment.   Never use words and phrases that will frighten these managers, like "Rapid growth", "Double your return", "Massive profits", "Take more risks" and "Dare to be different".  The following 22 words and phrases are most suitable: Minimize your risk Going one step at a time Protect what you've built Go straight down the middle Spread the risk Cementing your career fu

In a sense we're all selling the invisible: we're selling something that people cannot really touch and feel, and people don't need what we are selling. Even if you're selling a physical product you're still selling the invisible because it's the trust and reliability that people ar buying.   In short, we're all selling ice to the Eskimos! First of all, understand what is 'Selling Ice to the Eskimos' and how does it differ from Selling in Difficult Situations?  Selling ice to the Eskimos is even more tougher than selling to different people because there is simply no need or want for your product! To Sell Ice to the Eskimos, we first need to define our Customer correctly; with proper definition, you can then Create a Need that this customer never known before. After that, you need to Make your client a Hero and with that, they will be so happy to buy what you're selling. To sell ice to the Eskimos requires us to do a business and no

Note: The next Successful Selling Strategies is on 4 July 2014 Friday 9 am to 12.30 pm. Details of course is at here The opposite of Effortless Sales is Stressful Sales.  Author of 'The Power of Now' Eckart Tolle says, " Stress is caused by being 'here' but wanting to be 'there', or being in the present but wanting to be in the future .  It is a split that tears you apart inside.  Indeed many salespeople are doing stressful sales, for when they are in front of a prospect, their mind is never with the prospect.  Instead their minds are thinking about how to close the prospect, how to make him say yes quickly, how to not mention any weakness the product has, and how to make time for the next appointment.  Stressful Salespeople often end up not achieving any sales at all, but they are very busy making proposals.  We called such salespeople Quotespeople.  There are 5 ways you can use WIN - W hat's I mportant N ow - in your sales: Always listen  to