I have been traveling round the country with DSGI.
It was their product learning roadshow and Beyond The Box were asked to support them and deliver training on the Get Connected stand.
We introduced colleagues to the benefits of mobile broadband.
It really does make web connection accessible almost anywhere and it’s so simple to connect.
I love the mobile routers available. They mean you can place the router where the best connection is and work in comfort within a radius of its signal.
In addition to product knowledge we focused on how to create customer desires to help them find the correct solution.

Take a look at below Natasha and me in action!

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Last week we welcomed two new members to the DSGI training team.
Most of the time Amarjit and Jay will be working from the Gloucester Product Learning Centre. They will be delivering product courses on Vision, Major Domestic Appliances and Audio.

Take a look at the following pictures where they were ’snapped’ working at the recent DSGI PLC roadshows!!

Amarjit and Jay can be seen here during DSGI PLC roadshows …

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Goals & Targets Settings Training From Christine

I accompanied Christine on a training session last week.  It was a motivating and constructive experience for me as well, as for the trainees. It was delivered at the Oldham Enterprise Factory to the current group of student entrepreneurs. Christine was invited to talk to each group and shared her experiences of starting a business. One of the most interesting parts of the day was when Christine outlined the power of the goal settings and I thought I would share it with you.

The section was titled ‘What do you have to do to make your business a success?’

Quite simply the message was …

‘Know your destination and the plan your route’.

Like the others in the group I was writing down my destination which is my goal appeared very loose. Christine encouraged all of us to add The SMART Formula to our goals.

SMART stands for:

Specific

Measure-able

Achievable

Realistic

Timely

Specific means to be clear about your goal. If it isn`t specific it could take you longer to achieve or at worst you may never achieve it, because it is too ‘woolly and loose’. Specific is the difference between saying, ‘I want to lose weight’ and ‘I will lose a total of 20lbs’.

Measurable means to have something against which you can chart your progress. Beyond The Box is keen on measurements, because if it can be measured it gets done. To add a measurement the phrase could be ‘I will loose a total 20lbs in 3 months. If you know you will be achieving your goal in 3 months time, you can plan your timetable to meet your set date and you can measure your success and achievements against it to ensure you are on the track. If you are not on track, you can make changes to ensure you revert back to it as quickly as you can.

Achievable is an important factor when you are setting goals. If your goal is totally unachievable, you are setting up yourself for failure. Make your goal achievable. I will loose a total of 20lbs per week and I will do this by eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise.

Realistic means just that is it realistic to loose 2lbs per week? Yes, it is. But to loose 14lbs per week is probably unrealistic for most of us!

Timely - is it the right time to put your goal into action? Is everything in your life focused towards supporting your goal. For instance if you are like me, there is little point in starting a healthy eating plan when you are under pressure of work. That would not be timely for me!

I have already started to think about the goals I want to plan and by following this simple formula it makes the journey really exciting.

The secret for me was when Christine asked us to travel forward in time to the date we had set for achieving our goal. It was quite exciting when we were told to imagine that we now had our goal and think about how we felt. What was different now when we owned it and how much were we enjoying it! What an amazing experience!

Such a lovely surprise that one of the ladies attending the course sent this e-mail to Christine the day after attending her course, clearly Nicole was as inspired as me!

Here is Nicole`s e-mail …

Hi

I attended your lesson at the business factory yesterday and I just wanted to let you know how good it was.

I can`t tell you how positive I left afterwards so much so I felt confident enough to go and ask for some work experience at my local florist, something I had been putting off doing because I was too scared and embarrassed (don`t ask why!)

The lady was really nice and has allowed me do 2-3 hours on my day off which I am so happy about.

I also was proactive and set up a facebook page last night, putting my photos up of work I had done and from this (approx 20 mins after I had set it up) I have provisionally got a wedding booked in for November.

So ‘THANK YOU’ for your excellent talk I was elated the whole day.

All the best and success,

Nicole

Here is Christine while she is answering to the inquiries of the trainees during session.

Have you heard of any other ways of achieving your goal??? If you do, please drop me a line about it!

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Beyond The Box is proud to announce that we have our very own YouTube channel! Keep an eye open for plenty of information available to you. Updates can be viewed on the following link. Why not take a look to see our current videos!

http://www.youtube.com/BeyondTheBoxUK

The DSGI training team was on the receiving end of some excellent training from manufacturers during the product knowledge section of their recent induction programme. The team`s first experience of Imaging training was from John Howells from Canon. John encouraged the team to handle the products and then try their hand at using them to fully understand the benefits of the key features. Off the team went armed with camers and enthusiasm to find suitable locations, create action packed story lines and audition for key roles so that they could ’shoot’ what they hoped would be ‘Oscar worthy’ results! It was a great way to familiarise themselves with the product. The team found the cameras easy to use and concluded that the results delivered by Canon cameras could make anyone look like and expert and expert photographer. The results can be seen on the following link.

Check out below for one example of our Canon training course videos, give it a watch and see what you think!

Alex Owena the trainer from Casio introduced the team to some fantastic features which allowed them to tap into their ‘creative genes’. Everyone was amazed at the effects that an affordable camera can deliver. The training really emphasised how easy a memory can be captured and turned into an artistic treasure. The results were a talking point amongst the group for days.

See for yourself on the link below.

We would love to hear your comments!

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It has been quite amazing and rewarding to watch a group of people previously unknown to each other build relationships over a 7 week period. Similarities were drawn to the Big Brother House on many occasions! Without doubt I feel extremely privileged to have watched the journey progress and relationships form and strengthen. With such diversity in the group, age, background, culture, previous experience, hobbies, lifestyle, - to put it simply an extremely colourful tapestry many may have concluded it would take time to form a cohesive group. On the contrary – throughout my lifetime I have never seen a group bond so well. I feel confident that apart from forging strong personal friendships it has also formed a special team culture with values that extend well into one of total support for colleagues. That is so important for any working team especially when they will be working remotely. I thought about Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 Forming Storming Norming Performing team-development model and did some more research on the web about group formation. here is a link to Tuckman’s work http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htmIt makes reference to teams and leadership and though I can see some similarities, this group is very different to anything I have ever witnessed before. Respect for each other was always present and though some individuals clearly fitted into ‘family member’ roles I never experienced any battle for supremacy or ‘pole position’. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any additional information on group formation. Perhaps members of this group can shed light on why it became a strong unit so quickly and maintained its strength with out any signs of cracks over a 7 week period! 

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Beyond The Box, one of the UK’s leading specialist training companies, recently completed a job for The Co-operative Bank where it delivered ‘Coaching for Leaders’ and ‘Train The Trainer’ courses.The two courses were designed for the Co-operative Bank as a direct result of training needs analysis carried out by Christine Knott, director of Beyond The Box. This TNA included research with all levels of staff, looking into personal objectives versus training objectives and also involved Christine sitting in on staff meetings.

The two courses, ‘Coaching for Leaders’ and ‘Train the Trainer’, exceeded the clients expectations and made an immediate impact in terms of motivation levels and sales performance of all staff.

The ‘Coaching for Leaders’ course was born out of the research that demonstrated an overall lack of understanding of key objectives. The course included:

• What makes a good leader?
• The importance of a leader who communicates well
• How to communicate well
• Why it is important to identify what motivates each individual and methods on how to discover it
• How to set goals for their team based on the company, departments and team objectives
• How to manage effective one to one coaching session with staff to lead them to plan to achieve their goals

Beyond The Box suggested that it would be better for in-house staff to deliver the training courses on an on-going ’need’ basis. To enable them to do this Beyond The Box designed and delivered a ‘Train The Trainer’ course. This was particularly important in the call centre arena as there is traditionally a high turnover of staff and there are significant limitations in the time allowed away from the phones for training courses. The package included:

• Training techniques
• How to design and deliver a training programme

During the course the delegates designed the programme that they would be delivering.

Commenting on the feedback, Julie Marsh, Customer Services Manager at the Co-operative Bank, said, “My managers have been enthusing about the Coaching Course and are finding the modules that you delivered particularly beneficial.”

“I must say they were not looking forward to the course, as they had the perception that the usual “off the shelf” material would be delivered in the usual format. However, all of them thoroughly enjoyed the training you delivered, and all have commented on how your personality and the style of your delivery was a real contributing factor to this.”

The delivery of any training course is crucial if you want the information to be remembered and then used on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons why Beyond The Box does not believe in using off the shelf training packages for its clients. “We are a people business and it is about helping people to understand and then utilise their training in an environment where they feel comfortable and can assimilate the information. This cannot be done with flat presentations that provide information in a boring and non-dynamic manner,” comments Christine Knott of Beyond The Box.

Julie Marsh was particularly impressed with the research conducted prior to the development of the training session. “In my experience the research you conducted before the course is a rare thing in your line of work. The majority of other companies, in my opinion, are often too quick to deliver an off the shelf package to suit perhaps 50% of requirements with limited cost and time investment on their part.”

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Avoid introducing technical jargon as much as possible. You want to get support for the product, not provide excuses for not selling it. Also, all questions should be welcomed and not ridiculed. Some questions may appear trivial and foolish at times but our intention is to overcome all hurdles.  

Provide “Hands On” Training - it is important to give an explanation of how the product works, but it is also important for users to actually “touch and feel” the product. They may not come away from the training class as experts, but at least you will have overcome their fears.

Get Management Support - If staff sense the slightest lack of support for a product, they will use it as an excuse not to sell it.

Create excitement to sell the new product - this can be achieved by incentives and bonus schemes. Another option is to train the staff in stages, e.g., taking key “features and benefits” and making them proficient in them. Let the trained staff spread the word to the rest of the employees. This allows the other staff to get an unbiased opinion as it were.

Some general tips you should be aware of as a trainer:

Be organised - prepare a well thought out agenda and stick to it. I used to be a big believer of the tell, tell, tell approach. This is great for presentations but I found that when I was being trained using this approach; it used to go over my head. As my knowledge of being a trainer increased so did my training style. I know use the ask, ask, ask approach. This gets the trainee involvement and helps me identify their learning styles.

Know your audience - understand their intelligence level and interests, and design a training program around them. By working within their limitations you will be able to accomplish more.

Dress and speak appropriately - your appearance and how you present yourself says a lot to the trainees about your product. If you dress and act like a geek, the staff may look at this as another harebrained scheme by the Manufacturer. The appearance and presentation of the trainer reflects the credibility of not only the speaker, but of the brand and product as well.

Stimulate the trainees - keep the training positive and upbeat; inject humor where necessary.  Allow periodic breaks, but keep them short and sweet. Make use of other aids like metaphors and games to embed messages and get the mind working.

Provide training aids - such as handouts, brochures or perhaps a CD/DVD with a copy of the presentation.

Get feedback from the training program - allow the trainees to evaluate the training course. Their feedback will hint as to your success and may point out problem areas that need to be addressed.

In conclusion the trainer’s mission, therefore, is to explain, demonstrate, and convince the trainees how the new products will not only benefit the company, but the customers as well; and communicate it in a way that the trainees will understand. Remember; keep it simple as lots of technical jargon impresses no one.

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Be yourself, be relaxed, and break down the barriers with staff. Display the behaviours that you want your staff to demonstrate, at the same time be adaptable, and show that you can be flexible when needed 

Build trust by being sincere and open with staff. Be firm but fair, treat everyone equally and on merit; always do what you say you will do.  

Always give your people the credit for your successes and take responsibility for your people’s mistakes. 

Treat people how you expect/want to be treated; lead by example, work along side your staff, don’t expect them to do something you wouldn’t do yourself, a good leader wears his authority lightly. 

Be a good listener, really get to know and understand your staff, show that you understand them.

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Sue’s got some tips to help selling in retail stores:

Here are the notes, in case you can’t view the video:

Hi I’m Sue Abbiss from Beyond The Box, I’m the field marketing manager.

Today I’d just like to go through top tips on selling.

1. Make sure you that you approach every customer in store, say good morning, etc.
2. Build rapport, it’s important to ask friendly questions, be open with them.
3. Identify a customers’ needs by asking who, what, where, why, when.
4. You can then match those needs to a product that you think is right for them.
5. Once you’ve done that, overcome any objections and answer any questions that they have.
6. Then ask for the sale. don’t be afraid to ask for the sale.
7. Once you’ve asked for the sale, close the sale.

It’s as simple as that!

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Motivate - understand ‘what make your staff tick’, get to know the person, what drives/motivates them, understand what de-motivates staff (working conditions, unfair treatment, poor policies) so you can avoid these. 

Opportunity - give your staff opportunities for advancement and the chance to develop themselves, as well as develop their role. Set goals and challenging targets to help staff advance 

Team building - arrange regular team meetings, communicate with all staff, keep them informed of any changes, or update 

Involvement - get staff involved; seek their opinions on the ongoing development and progress of their company 

Valued - believe in your people, make sure you let staff know that they are valued; focus on recognising excellent performance, send a letter or email thanking them for a job well done. Remember to send staff a birthday card.  

Empathy - show staff that you care about them and not just the job; take their feeling into consideration, understand that some times out side influence can affect their work.

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