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Unintended and Intended Causes and Effects of Training

It is common knowledge that nothing happens without a reason.  There are always causes and conditions and they in turn will produce effects, which will in turn become causes and effects and this goes on.  They called this Dependent Origination , which simply means everything originates from something (read here for the details).   As explained in our previous article on sales, you can use this understanding to boost your effectiveness quickly.   Today I will talk about Training: what causes people to do training and what are the effects of training.  First training is defined as any learning that is more structured, less informal and not unconscious .  So if you unconsciously learn how to cook better or you hear from friends how to do a better Facebook posting, that is not strictly training as it is called Self Learning .  Therefore training is always coming from somewhere outside you , and the driver of training is usually from someone other than yourself.  For example, if

PIC 60% Cash Payout: the Finer Points that Most Don't Know

Everyone knows the PIC ( Productivity and Innovation Credit ) scheme, which started in 2010, will end in 2017.  You can read our 7 blogs on this PIC by searching for 'PIC' at our blog ( Successful Sales Strategies is on 11 Sep 2014)  Today I will talk about 5 finer points of PIC that most people may not take note: PIC Bonus will definitely expire by December 2014 or your financial year end in 2014, WHICHEVER IS EARLIER.  There is no extension to PIC Bonus scheme All PIC Cash Claims must be done using online form and no other manual forms will be accepted from 1 August 2014 onwards. The IRAS site to get the form, plus how to use the form are found here   Equipment List: you need to follow the list of equipment by industry and any equipment not found in the list will need to apply for approval first. Click here for details Training fees: you can only claim PIC for training done for employees. Employees include part and full time employees, local and foreign citiz

Non-Monetary Treasures to Give to Your Staff

Everyone say they work for money, but if you ask them will they work for money if their boss is a jerk, most will say no.  Obviously there are many things worth more than money.  A smart boss will give these to them, simply because they are costless but are perceived as priceless to the receiver. These 7 Invaluable Non-Monetary Treasures include: Recognition for not just achievements but hard work done .  Many bosses only recognize people when they hit the targets, but given the tough business environment that we are in, people will feel de-motivated if they work hard and fail to hit the targets.  That's why a smart boss always recognize people with simple words like, " Thanks for the hard work " coupled with a smile Sense of Belonging .  People want to feel that they belong to something more than just colleagues, their organization must stand for something and they must feel that they belong there and are not just work for money. The most effective way to make peop

The 13 Most Popular Low Cost High Value Things to Give to People

Whether you are in management or sales , one of the most powerful ways to get people to follow you is to give people things that are low cost (or even zero cost) to you but high perceived value to them .  The 13 most popular such things to give to people include: Service, especially service that has a high perceived value.  Like we often give to our selected prospects a free Training Needs Analysis or Business Diagnostic session worth $298.  Do not give free service that you normally charge people, for this will cheapen your image Buy 2 Get 1 Free .  This beats 20% or 30% discount, for there is a high perceived value when people can get more without paying Praise, especially sincere and specific praise from the heart Acknowledgement and Validation , as most people see this as their worth Apology , especially when you may not be in the wrong, but you are the first to apologize.  People do appreciate your humility and seriousness when you apologize Ideas that can help them im

Be a Critical Thinking Manager, not Criticising Manager

From discussions with my clients today, I realized that many managers are not doing critical thinking in their job.  In fact many of them are doing 'Criticizing Thinking', because they think that criticising people is part of their job. Truth be told, being critical and criticising are different things .  You don't criticise just for the sake of criticising .  If a manager is not doing critical thinking, he is not doing the right thinking and will soon be doing 'follower thinking', or commonly called 'Group Think'.  Worse still, the manager is doing this thing called 'not thinking', and he will soon be not a manager. What is Critical Thinking?  Why is critical thinking important?  Critical thinking is about being able to think in ways that can understand events in this world and ultimately lead to problem solving .  It is obvious that a manager's job is to solve problems, and he is not doing critical thinking, how can he solve problems?  

Multiply Your Sales Easily in 7 Ways

The biggest mistake in business must be to think that one plus one is two. Imagine you have 2 salespersons selling $2 million, when you hire a new salesperson, your sales cannot be $3 million, it must be higher or something is wrong.  You must achieve this thing called LEVERAGE, or SYNERGY or ever more with ever less .  Here are 7 reasons why one plus one is never two in sales: Just 1 sales idea implemented will produce  sales far more than the course fee (as we now have PIC 60% subsidy for training) Stimulated Environment , especially when you have a high flying salesperson, your entire sales team will be motivated to achieve more than ever Splash in the Market , when you do aggressive sales and marketing activities, the entire market will wake up to your offer and your sales will just have to go up Referrals from customers , when you get 5 new customers, even if you get one new referred customer from them, your customer base will expand by 20% Teamw

How to Hire, Admire, Develop and Retain Talents with Love

You may wonder: I am a professional manager, what has love got to do with my work? As we know, a manager is only good if he can get good people to work for him and get good people to stay .  Often companies are caught in a vicious circle: they need to hire people quickly to replace the loss of good people.  Once people come in, they are given everything (money, power, fame, position, responsibility and stress) except one thing: love .  As a result, good people leave them fast and they are soon caught in busy trend: hiring.   Of course you could say that everyone in your industry is facing the same problem, this country has labour shortage, right?  It is not your fault as your company's salary is already very competitive.  Being a responsible manager, you know you have to do something to stop this.  Now there is a new strategy to do this: using Love.  Because if you don't love them, you'll lose them.  To many people, love is a dirty word.  To us at AsiaTrainers, love

10 Life Lessons from Lucy

Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what you can do with it. Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge We humans are more concerned with having than with being. What we learnt that one plus one equals to two is incorrect I am everywhere We never really die When things move really fast, they are not moving at all Humans only use the most 10% of their brain.  Imagine if they can use 100% of their brain, interesting things will happen Time is the only true unit of measure, it gives proof to the existence of matter.  Without time, we don't exist The best way to do with the knowledge that you accumulate is to pass it on "Lucy" is a movie by Scarlet Johansson. By Andy Ng , more quotes at: One plus one is never two How to use more than 10% of your brain The 7 lessons from 2,600 years ago Believe nothing and yet believe everything Dependent Origination made easy A faster way to problem solving

One Plus One is Never Two

Every child learns from school that 1 + 1 = 2.  This may be simple, but it could also be the biggest lie that adults teach to children. The truth is that 1 + 1 is never equal to 2.  It could be more than 2 or less than 2, but seldom 2. Two obvious reasons: Synergy, or leverage , where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts . If I have one idea and you also share your one idea with me, our ideas are more than two.  This is because we have both stimulated each other and we will have more ideas than we could think of.  That's why like-minded people like to be together, and birds of the same feather would flock together. Dis-synergy, or negative leverage , where the whole is less than the sum of it parts.  This is because the coming of two things will bring issues like compatibility and thus bring down the total value.  If you and me come together we may have less ideas because we need to trash out our issues like personality. In your workplace, how can you ensure tha

How to Use More than 10% of Your Brain

“It is estimated most human beings only use 10 percent of the brain’s capacity,” Morgan Freeman says in 2014's best-selling movie Lucy. “Imagine if we could access 100 percent.  Interesting things begin to happen.” So is it true that humans only use 10% of our brain?   How can we use our brain more without incurring higher stress?  (Stress reduction with mindfulness at here ) Truth be told, unless you have a traumatic brain injury or other neurological disorder, you are already using more than 10% of your brain. Other than your active brain, like the one you're using now to read this blog, you also use other parts of your passive brain to control automatic bodily functions like breathing and balance.  I'm not a scientist, and until now modern science cannot come to any meaningful conclusion about how much of our brain we're using.  One thing for sure: it is less than 100% and more than 0%.  Whatever it is, we can always use more than 10% of our brain

Becoming a Real Manager by Breaking Glass

Give us 4 weeks and we'll turn your managers into better managers at here Although few dare to admit, we know that many managers are not real managers because they lack power. Some are at the mercy of their staff, while others are so dependent on their bosses that they are just figure heads or administrators.   To be a real manager takes 4 things as follows: 1.  Have the Right Skills, Beliefs and Identity of a Manager .  The believe in the impossible and the identity of a can-do and a Solution Provider.  The 6 skills to posses include: Planning, especially budgeting and forecasting Decision-making, especially taking risk People Management, in terms of handling difficult people and get people to work for you Leadership, to be important, not impotent Communication, how to get your message across and influence people Business Strategy and Growing the Business, this must be the most important skill of all 2.   Have the Opportunity to Excel, to Really Make a Difference

How Salespeople Can Be the Solution in 8 Ways

Yes, the  lack of sales  is not caused by the market, your competitors or even your boss.  Salespeople are the problems, and the big problem is that they don't even realize this.  By far the biggest problem is salespeople not realizing that they are the problem and justify their situation as 'everyone is also like that, right' thinking.   There are 8 ways that salespeople make themselves the biggest problem. Know them, eradicate them, and you'll be on the path to greatness in sales... Lack of Selling Skills , especially in doing  sales  follow-up  and overcoming of tough objections ; Never Leverage on the Team , especially the customer's team and your company's support team; No Follow-Through and Follow-up on Leads , leading to no leads and thus no sales; Lack of Lead Generating Activities , resulting in no  prospects  to follow-up on and thus no prospects in sales; Never Listen to the Real Needs of customers ,  thus missing on the big picture and cann

Either You Fire Them Up or You will have to Fire Them

Are you pushing your team hard for results? Is motivation and morale becoming an issue? Make no mistake: higher performance comes not from pushing but PULLING. The truth is that most managers are not trained in the softer side of things: how to get to the heart and soul of each staff so as to get the most out of them. This course is for people who want to take action to get real results. It is NOT for people looking for excuses. There are 11 powerful lessons spread over 7 videos, 3 games and 1 challenging test. Note: We also run this course in-house, subjet to a minimum of 7 persons. Call Andy at 8201-4347 to enquire Power-packed Contents Include: HOW TO BE AN INSPIRING & MOTIVATING MANAGER Date : 25 Feb 2015 Wednesday 9 am to 5 pm Venue : The Plaza 02-346, 7500A Beach Rd (inside Parkroyal Hotel building) Fees : $398 each; $299 each for 2 & above; $199 each for 5 pax & above Test on Are you Inspiring People or Just Perplexing them? What is tr

Differentiate or Die: The '8 Minus 5' Ways to Differentiate

Tom Peters said, "The surplus economy has too many similar companies employing similar people, coming up with similar ideas, and producing similar products and services at similar quality and similar prices".  Just look at the smartphone market now and you'll know what Peters is talking about.  In fact, knowing this will explain why Samsung's Galaxy phones are not selling well this year (more at here ). If that is the case, how do we differentiate successfully?  From Jack Trout's best-selling book " Differentiate or Die ", there are 7 ways to differentiate unsuccessfully: Creative Advertising is never a differentiating idea . This is because customers want information, not news Quality is rarely a differentiating idea .  These days quality is a given, not a difference. Even if your quality is good, how long can you sustain it in the face of onslaught from hungry competitors who come up with better and more advance features?  A good example is S

Seeing Eye To Eye: Face-to-Face Contacts

Following our "First Impressions Count" article (at here ), here's the 2nd step: Seeing Eye to Eye: Face-to-Face Contacts (note: GST here means Greet Smile Thank You) As we know, customers come into your business because of your products and services, but they will only come back again when they are treated well .  A business that does not have repeat business is not a business, it is only a promotion.  How to get them to come back again?  The secret lies in your face-to-face contacts: how to make every moment extra-ordinary .  The 4 steps are: 1.  Greeting the Customer A quick smile, an interested look, and a friendly greeting are necessary.   When you greet them, say more than hello . Add something to let them know that you are happy they walked into your premise.  Eg, "Good morning, we're glad to see you".   Next, ask or explain how you can provide help and give your name.  Say "My name is Andy, and I'll be happy to help you in any way

7 Negative Techniques that Work

* Registration for Effective Sales Tactics course on 10 Oct 2014 Fri 9 am is now closed *  We know positive techniques work, but sometimes people like to be defiant.  So don't be surprised to know that negative techniques sometimes work better than positive ones!  If you don't believe me, ask yourself this question: do you tend to disagree more than agree with what your salesperson said?  There are 7 popular negative techniques that you too can use today in your sales and marketing: Take Away , that is, show them that they should not buy, because the price is beyond their reach.  Buyers like to show off to you that they can afford, that's why this tactic works! Doubt What They Say .  Since buyers say negative things more than positive things, when you doubt them, double negatives will equal to positive.  Like when they say they cannot afford it, you doubt them, that means you believe that they can afford it.  Scarcity , make things scarce, and people will fight to g

Whatspp Tricks and Abuses to Avoid

(21 Ways to Add Value at here ) They say either you fire them up or you'll have to fire them (article at here ).   Even though Whatsapp is so common today, few people know how to use Whatsapp correctly.  In fact, the following are the 7 most common mistakes people make in Whatsapp.  Know them, avoid them, and you'll be seen as different from the rest: Abuse chatroom .  Some people use the chatroom for very trivial personal things, like their new nail painting.  The point is if less than half of the 30 people in the chatroom is interested in you, you will be seen as egoistic Never identify themselves .  Some people assume that people will key in their phone number inside their address book, so they often did not state their name at the end of the message. The result: people just ignore your message for they don't know you.  Use too many short forms.  Like 'WTF', some may see you as vulgar, when what you meant is simply a congratulatory 'Wow, That's Fa

When External Rewards are Unnecessary

*Read Negative Strategies that Work Better at here * They say either you fire them up or you'll have to fire them (article at here ) Behavioural scientists said that the difference in a person's performance, under different situations, can be as wide as 90%. As much as 80% of that difference can be attributed to the conditions and environment that a person is in. That's why in our management training  (discover 'The 4 Weeks' at here ) we teach people that a manager's job is not to hire the best people available, but to make the best out of the people available . A good manager is one that can turn a mediocre performer into a star performer as long as he can create the conditions and environment for people to perform. The 7 conditions and environment are: 1. Open and Transparent environment , where people can see directly what are the rules of the game and what they can do and cannot do. People will then use their resources to create the best performance p

I Will Survive and 7 Sales Techniques that Work

In our Sales Power and How to Close Every Sale courses, people often asked if there are some techniques that can be applied to all industries, all products and all levels of salespeople.  There are actually 27 common sales techniques, but today let's look at 7 first: Never Sell, but put Service to Others as Your Highest Purpose .  This means taking care of the customer's interest more than your own, like you would rather lose the sale than push the customer to buy something that is not suitable for him. Sales Manager's Close . Here the 'Sales Manager' would help the Sales Executive by highlighting to the customer that the whole process is very simple.  All the customer needs to do is to just sign on the form and everything will be settled Choices of Three , and put the choice you want them to take in the middle.  This is because most people like to take the middle Take the customer's 'No' as 'Need to Know more' and not 'No Opportu