Easy way to up the sales of your retail stores

You’re an area sales manager. You oversee the sales of the stores in your territory. You’re frustrated and a little scared these days. Your stores aren’t doing as per expectations. And now you secretly wish for some miracles.

Maybe you don't’ need a miracle.

A simple, intelligently crafted sales training programme might do the trick.

And please don’t lean on internal resources to train your sales staff in the stores. Hire specialists.

Give them a brief about your team. Why do you think they’re not able to perform to their potential? And what sort of results you expect out of the program.

The training specialists might have a little chat with your people. Or, they might ask them to fill out some forms to gauge their training requirements.

Finding a good training partner shouldn’t take you long - just make a quick online search for the employability skills training or experiential learning training company in your city. Go through their sites and see which ones make sense. Give them a call to further narrow down on the most appropriate training partners.

I am sure a targeted training would help your staff interact better with the customers and end up making more sales.

Besides training, you should also find some time every now and then to interact with your sales staff - find out what is it that’s bugging them down, what motivates them the most, and who they are outside their jobs. A little word of motivation goes a long way.

Third, you need to monitor your team closely – some team players might not be the right fit for your organisation. Talk to them. And if they don’t show improvement over a period of time, let them go.


Last, but certainly not the least, get only an experienced and professional employability skills training company on board – a new company might not be able to understand the psyche of your people and might not be good with the content delivery as well.

School leadership training programs – because our kids deserve the best

They’re in schools. They’re young and full of imagination. They’re clay and as teachers you can mould them the way you want. And they need to be molded the right way so that they can grow up to be responsible global citizens and can contribute to the socio-economic engine of the great land that is India. As teachers, you’ve to play big.


To give the best to the kids, you need to continue to up your skills as well. You head the school and thus you play a big role in setting the environment for the school. To get better at this job, you can take a school leadership training programme. Educational boards like CBSE have tied up with vocational education and training companies to develop content for such leadership programs so that they can resonate with school heads and teachers like you and prepare you to get better at your job.


A school leadership training programme is often a training program that lasts for a couple of days and introduces the school heads to the concepts of leadership and the latest in school management and people interaction. On the completion, you’ll feel more confident, more motivated, and more resourceful to interact with your staff and kids. And that’s what will add a ton of value to your teachers’ capabilities and leadership qualities, to the kids and how they learn and grow, and eventually how your school ends up performing year after year.


Sounds good? Connect with a leading school leadership or vocational education and training company to understand what more a school leadership training programme involves for the growth of the school heads. We’ve also published a couple of posts in the past on school leadership and children development – you can read them until we come up with more posts. If you’ve something up on your mind about school leadership or training programmes, you can drop us a comment. We’d love to reply!

5 tips for improving your communication skills

You know your job. You meet the deadlines. And you constantly look for new challenges.
But when it comes to putting your message across, you fail miserably. And in your dreams, you wish you’d a genie that could turn around your communication skills and make you a great communicator. The good news is you no longer need a genie to improve your communication skills. Because there’re some easy ways out there that have helped many – and there’s no way they wouldn’t help you.

#Tip1
Take a break – and enroll for an employability training program
Believe me, a well-crafted employability skills training that focuses on soft skills help a ton in improving the confidence and public speaking skills of a person. Go for a one-to-one training. Or, learn in a group training program.

#Tip2
Work on your body language
You say a lot even when you don’t say a word – body language is what I’m talking about here. You can buy a book on body language or watch some videos on YouTube.
And you might learn about body language in an employability skills training program as well. For instance, you should avoid taking phones or looking at them constantly when someone is talking with you. It looks rude. Also, when you’re discussing something with someone in your office or family, try to avoid crossing your arms across your chest. There’s so much more about body language that once you learn will make you a good communicator.

#Tip 3
Listening
Great communicators aren’t those who talk a ton – instead they’re those who listen a lot. Listening, true listening is a tough job, but this is what makes an ordinary conversation a great opportunity to learn about the other person, to send your message across effectively, and to be perceived as a great communicator.

#Tip 4
Tell them a story
We’re wired to fall in love with stories. So try to be a good storyteller. When you’ve a story, people really look forward to listen from you. No, I don’t mean you literally tell them a story of a fairy and a demon. Just structure your speech, sprinkle some questions here and there, and keep your conversation short and sweet.

#Tip 5
Tweak your message to your audience
You behave different when you’re in the office and are having a conversation with your colleagues or boss. And then you go home and become a changed person, right? Similarly, you got to change your speech or message depending on whom you’re talking to. This sounds like common sense, but I have met people who really fail to understand the different in their audience and thus they fail miserably as communicators. So next time when you’ve something to say to your boss, go out, sip your tea, and think about what exactly you would say and how.

We’re done for this post. But we’ve a lot more to share with you on Skill development training, employability skills training and management skills. If you too feel you want to be part of this journey, join the tribe.

How to make your people super performers?

“Only the people who take learning, growth and skills development into their hands will be tomorrow’s leaders.”
-    Alli Worthington 


Organisations are now on a different path altogether – they’re creating leaders within and outside. They’ve understood the enormous value that a driven individual can bring to his / her work and to the organisation at large.

Facebook, Google, Tata, Infosys, take any global organisation and you’ll see the immense role that training programs are playing in the success of these organisations. But the training programs that are delivered within the premises of these entities are not the regular programs – they’re different, very different in content and in approach.

Now what you can possibly learn from these companies is their approach towards their human asset and the way they’re emphasizing on their personal and leadership skills. You too can replicate their model – get to know the sheer value that global training solutions add to the growth of an organisation and then get engaged with a leading training outsourcing firm. The good thing is we, in India, have a pretty good number of global training solutions companies that have been around for years and have worked with diverse industries.

Picking a training outsourcing company might be a daunting task at first. But stick around for a little and you’ll eventually figure it out. Follow your guts. Meet several companies working in the training space. See whether they have experience and resources of up skilling your people. And then go with the one that makes perfect sense in your case.

What is equally important is setting the desired outcomes right at the onset of the program. Discuss this in detail with the training company that you pick. The content of the program has to be tailored in accordance with the training needs and interests of the participants. And for this, you might want the training outsourcing company to conduct a thorough needs-diagnostic study so that they know their role very well.

You might be the owner of the business or you might be the HR manager – whoever you are, you understand the kind of efforts that go in the making of a workforce that thrives in this increasingly competitive marketplace. Thoroughly structured global training solutions are the magic wands that you’d need to transform the very way your people think and act at your workplace. Trainings don’t have to be expensive, but they have to be highly targeted and engaging. 


How about finding out more about the impact that global training solutions make to an organisation? We’ll tell you all in our forthcoming articles. So just stay connected.

How can a skilling company benefit you in the planning and execution of a CSR strategy?

Corporate houses in India were always engaged in social welfare. They would build houses, schools, and hospitals for their employees, their families, and even for the surrounding communities.

However, corporate social responsibility in India is now legally dictated – governments lay down policies as to how corporates in different earning ranges should spend on their CSR. Top corporates even go on to hire specialists to help them plan, develop, manage and execute CSR programs.

Skilling has become an important area for those involved in CSR – even the present government has advised corporates to spend a significant portion of their CSR spending on skill development programs. This is where skilling & training companies come in the scene.


Skilling & training companies not only help their clients in the formation of their CSR strategies but also help them execute the same. A company can hire one such skill development service provider and lighten the burden on its resources – it no longer needs to invest enormous amounts of efforts and resources to plan out the CSR activities and get bothered about its execution. A skilling & training company might even locate the youth to be skilled and customize the training to better fit their training needs. The youth then can be placed either within the company that sponsored the training program or in some other company or industry.


Skilling youth is a great step for any company. They not only fulfill their CSR commitments, but also contribute to the economic engine of the country. After all, India is going to need millions of more skilled manpower in the coming years.

For more on corporate social responsibility in India and how you can benefit from the consultancy of a professional skilling & training company, read our other published posts. Also stay connected for our up-and-coming posts.

5 practices of an influential leader

Who doesn’t want to be an influential leader? But, leadership isn’t a quality that you can learn overnight – you got to put in years practicing the art of leadership and continue to refine it till it becomes an inseparable part of your personality. Herein this post, we’ll walk you through 5 practices of world’s top influential leaders – and we hope you learn something valuable here about leadership. 

Exude a positive outlook
We know it’s tough to be positive every day when you go to office and get into situations when you want to shout at the top of your lungs – but this practice of having a positive outlook and disposition towards anything that life throws at you is what differentiates an influential leader from a regular, average leader.

To begin with, you should be excited about going to work every day, even though you’re neck deep in work and have deadlines to meet which seem impossible to meet. Just be excited, greet your colleagues with a smile, and your customers and vendors with a wider smile. Do this for a couple of days – soon you’ll see a nice change in yourself and the way people around you approach and interact with you.

Be assertive 
Assertiveness is the quality of being self-assured and confident without being aggressive – this is one of the skills you get to learn in influential training programs. By being assertive, you can achieve whatever you want out of people you work with, without offending or insulting them. When you are assertive, you share the vision with the people and make them part of the success that you’ve thought about.


Think Logically
Influential leaders are those who take decisions without being biased – when conflict arises, influential leaders listen to all the parties involved and reach the decisions based on facts, without taking any side.

Be involved
Influential leaders do not just delegate work and responsibilities and oversee from sidelines – influential leaders get involved in whatever excites them. They get involved, show results, and thus influence.

Be open minded
This is an important quality of influential leaders – they’re receptive towards ideas and changes. They aren’t rigid in their approach and attentively listen to constructive criticism.

There’s more to influence trainers and training – if you’re someone who wishes to hone his/her leadership qualities, get in touch with a respected sales training consultancy / leadership consultancy company.

In our next posts, we’re planning to write down on sales training, leadership training, and how to select a sales training consultancy. If you’re excited about all this, see us regularly so that you don’t miss out on anything important.

Top 3 benefits of promoting vocational education in Africa

Industries and governments in Africa seem to have woken up to the need of skilled labor – and this is why they’re aggressively promoting vocational education and training among their youth. To speed up the entire process, they’re increasingly joining hands with private companies that offer customized vocational education in Africa.


For long, there wasn’t robust infrastructure in place for the development of vocational education and training – but the landscape is gradually changing and paving way for a skilled Africa.


Herein this blog post, we’ll walk through the top 3 benefits of vocational education – here’re they:


#1 Vocational education makes you job-ready

Formal education that you receive in school, college or university is good – but it doesn’t have much connect with skills that you’d need to get a job. But vocational education in Africa has been designed to prepare youth for their choice of industries. Whether it is retail or automobile, insurance or telecom, you can take up a relevant course and enter the industry of your choice.


#2 Vocational education leads to consistent supply of skilled talent for the industry

Industries cannot survive unless supported by a large base of skilled talent. Businesses of all shapes and sizes in Africa have already begun to feel a shortage of technically oriented youth.

The solution lies in promoting vocational education among youth – parents and teachers have to look beyond formal education and encourage their kids and students to try their hands in vocational trades.


#3 It’s beneficial for the economy at large

The world is going to need a lot of skilled manpower in the coming years. Africa has to have a ready force of talented individuals if it is to compete in the global arena. For this, it needs to heavily invest in its infrastructure and run campaigns to reach out to the youth to convince them for pursuing vocationally oriented courses.

Vocational education in Africa needs to be revamped at a large scale – governments and private companies are doing their bit, but what is needed is a more focused approach and strategy.

The next generation of businesses in Kenya is looking at CSR in a new light (and going much beyond environmental wellness programs)

For decades, businesses in Kenya didn’t worry much about their social responsibility. More or less, they were supposed to align their business practices to protect the environment they were operating in to. Things, however, have begun to change on Kenya’s soil.

Foreseeing the level of economic growth that Kenya is likely to witness in the coming years, the businesses there are rapidly reaching out to the societies they operate in and up skill the youth there.

Businesses and government of Kenya have come to realize the worth that skilled manpower is likely to add to the economy. And therefore, they are increasingly tying up with professional vocational training providers as part of their CSR strategy to up skill the youth and make them employment across industries.

They may decide to train the youth for their own business operations so that they never run out of a pool of talented individuals. In this kind of set up, they often engage with a professional company that has experience in vocational training in Kenya and understands the psyche of the youth, has a network to reach out to the youth in the nearby region, and motivate them to take up a program of their choice.

This set up enables the companies prepare a ready pool of talent for their operations; on the other hand, it enables youth to learn skills that enhance their employability quotient; in many cases, they end up becoming economically independent and supporting their families.

When you look at the larger picture, you see everything adding up to the economy – 1) the industry reaches out to the youth and makes them skilled, 2) the employability of the youth goes up, 3) industries get a consistent supply of skilled manpower, 4) the nation grows economically as well as socially (since increased income of a family improves its access to a better life).

Read our other posts on this blog to get to know what Kenya’s corporates are up to when it comes to their CSR obligations.

Vocational training companies and their mission for a ‘Skilled Africa’

Africa contributes significantly to the growth of world economy. Be it agriculture, IT, or industrial growth, Africa has shown to the world that it has the potential to be a world leader. But at home, it has a series of challenges that it needs to tackle really fast. One such challenge is its lack of skilled workforce, especially in these times when the world is moving toward building industries that need skilled labour in massive quantities.

• The government is doing commendable job!

Vocational education scenario has changed a lot in all these years in African countries. Be it South Africa or Kenya, the governments are increasingly setting up institutions to help the youth easily access vocational education.

The government has also brought about significant improvements in its policy frameworks, with a whole new emphasis on promoting vocation education in Africa.

• The vocational education companies are a key player

The leading vocational education & training companies reach out to the youth and enable them to kick start their careers in their favourite fields. Whether they want to pursue careers in jewellery, or automotive, or insurance or BPO, the intelligently developed vocational education in Africa equip the participants with the skills that would help them get a job in their preferred industries.

• The good thing is people have begun to look at vocational education in a new light

The youth as well as their parents are increasingly seeing vocational education in Africa as a lucrative career choice, where they can enhance their employability quotient in a short period of time.

The winds of change has begun to blow across African countries; what is needed now to keep this momentum up and make the employers understand the value that a skilled labor brings to their business and the kind of rewards and recognition that they deserve.

Not sure how to improve the productivity level of your sales force? Well, we can help

You have tried it all, but the sales team just doesn’t seem to give its best. And now you have no idea about how to pump them up and make them believe they can go much beyond their set targets. Here’s the thing that would help you for sure:

Get into their shoes!

Many a times, we are just not able to figure out the reason that is holding them from giving their best performance.  It could be a personal thing or an issue at work place; try to get into their minds and once you spot the reason, face it head-on.

One of the best ways to understand what bothers them is frequent one-to-one communication. One more thing – there would be days when no matter how hard they try they would not be able to bring in significant sales, be kind to them on those days.

Motivate them – do it the first thing in the morning

A little word of appreciation goes a long way. Similarly, rebuking them for their poor performance the minute they come to office ruins their whole day. So be mindful of the timing. Even if you want to discuss something tough with a salesperson, make sure you select an ideal time and setting.

Good training programs transform sales personnel from inside out

We’re not talking about the regular in-house programs wherein you or some other senior member of the organisation comes in and tells them the secrets of selling. We’re talking about professional companies that offer end-to-end corporate training programs such as corporate sales and distribution management and behavioural or communication skill programs.

High end corporate training programs in Mumbai or other metro cities are held only after taking into account the training needs of the participants. Once the needs of the participants are diagnosed, the trainers customize their programs and make them highly relevant for their audience. Speak to a few corporate training companies and see what they have to offer. Ideally, you should get a company on board which understands the ins and outs of your business and has conducted similar programs in the past.

As sales manager, you also need to upgrade your people and leadership skills. The skills would help you communicate your concerns in a much better way and thus, lead your you’re your team more effectively. 

4 steps to a more productive sales force

Build a confident sales force
Confidence shows up in the very way your sales force approaches customers and handles their queries and complaints. And this confidence stems from good dressing style, personal hygiene, deep knowledge about the product, and willingness to go the extra mile for the customers.

Be with them through thick and thin
You lead the team and your job is to get the most out of them. It’s okay. But keep reminding yourself that you are dealing with human beings and not machines. There would be days when a sales person would not be able to sell a single product despite all his or her efforts; those would be the days when he or she would need your support the most. So be there for your team and they will never let you down.

Training is the key to success in sales
A well-structured training program can make all the difference to your team’s sales performance. Arrange behavioural, product, and sales and distribution management training programs for your team. Training does not cost much both time and money wise, but it yields great results.

Take the tough decision
See in the end, it’s all business. Each one of you has to justify your existence. So if a member is not showing improvement despite all required support, you need to speak and tell him or her possible repercussions if he or she does not show results in a given time frame.

There’s more to building a more productive team. We’ll share all that in our coming posts. You can also check out our published posts to know more about sales & distribution management and skill development training programs.

Here’s what customer service training programs do for businesses

Organizations with a large customer base can get a world of benefits from customized and end-to-end customer service training programs. Whether they are branded retail stores or call centres or banking institutions, tailored customer service training programs are designed to help their people get equipped with the best practices, strategies and techniques for an improved customer experience.

Today’s evolved customer service training programs or customer relationship management programs are meant for all, whether they are new recruits or seasoned professionals. Through customized programs, businesses can ensure common minimum standards of service at their retail stores, or call centres, and thus can impact their key performance indicators in a pretty positive manner.

Here’s what a customer service training program comprises:

• Under the program, the trainers provide on-the-job training and audit of the stores, leading to improved customer experience and repeat business
• Trainers also conduct monthly knowledge tests to ensure customers are provided with correct information about products and/or services
• Store managers and staff are equipped to better manage new product launches

Customer service training programs are value for money programs and are designed to impact your business outcomes. But the business must ensure that its people are regularly trained on the required skill sets; one time training may not do much to up-skill your people.

What to do when learning & skill development solutions become obsolete and do not help you with your primary objectives?

Smart companies understand the growth that comes with training solutions. But, they are also smart enough to judge whether the solutions are helping them achieve their primary goals – their desired business outcomes, bottom line, KPIs to name a few. So, what options do they have at their disposal, if the training solutions, say sales and distribution management training solutions, do not impact their business outcomes?

Big and smart companies do not mind spending a great deal of their resources on looking out for a corporate training partner and arranging different training programmes for their people, but they want results. So, what’s the best way out when you’re not seeing results or improved performance among your people?

The very first step should be to “Speak to the training provider, communicate (once again) as to what you want out of the programs like sales and distribution management training, and develop a time frame in which you expect to see the results.” 

If the first step doesn’t help, you can take the other route that is to speak to some other training solutions providers. But this time you should be a little more careful in the selection of a training company. Ideally, you should hire a company that has been in the training industry for a good number of years, and understands your business the way you do. Whether you want the training providers to conduct a series of sales and distribution management training or some other skill development training programs, you must ensure that you’re hiring a company which is professional in its approach and knows what it is talking about.

To be on a safer side, we’d suggest you to visit the website of the training company so that you can understand whether the company is an ideal fit for your training needs. Once you feel the training company is offering what you need for your people, the next step could be to speak with someone from the company’s end. This telephonic/mail conversation should ideally pave way for an official meeting, wherein you’d be in a better position to decide whether you should partner with the training company.

There are more ways to react to solutions that do not help you improve your key business indicators; we’ll cover them in our future posts. So stay with us.

Discover how a proven training program can give your team the tools to be on the top of their game

The performance of your sales team is far from satisfying. You have done all you could have done, but things are just not looking promising.

How about the best sales, communication, and relationship program that your team has ever received? How about a program that is motivating, entertaining, and educational while also delivers results to help you improve your company’s bottom line?

We present to you a new world of corporate training programs that are amazingly simple and professional, yet highly inspiring, engaging and filled with solid content.

The smart breed of companies are increasingly exposing their sales teams (and other staff members) to these corporate sales training programs, and seeing a transformation in the very way their employees approach clients and close the deals. You too should not leave behind.

Look for new age sales training consultancy companies using Google or your business network, and see which ones provide customized corporate sales training programs. Select the training partner whose customized content is more likely to blend well with your company specific content. A standard training program often begins with a needs diagnostic study that helps the training provider discover areas for improvement which then helps the company come up with a unique training program for the attendees.

 Sales training programs, delivered by industry experts, help the sales people become more confident about reaching out to clients, handling customers’ queries better, and ending-up with more deals and more future business. Just make sure they receive these programs quite frequently as one-time trainings aren’t very effective, at least when it comes to long term benefits.

How to negotiate better? It is easier than you think

Negotiations are part of work life. It’s something you just cannot escape from. Whether you are dealing with employees or vendors, you are essentially negotiating and have to ensure that you get the biggest pie; however, at the same time you also have to ensure that you do not compromise on ethics and relationship with the other person. A negotiation skills training program is, thus, highly rewarding for those who deal with people day in and day out. Sales people are obviously the first to come to the mind.

A new age negotiation skills training program is ideal for professionals of all levels who want to gain negotiation skills for use in their careers. Such a program will help the attendees understand their personal negotiation styles, when to walk away from a deal, importance of relationships in negotiations, dealing with emotional and irrational situations, transforming competition into cooperation and a lot more.

If you too feel you often lose your ground while negotiating, a negotiation skills training program is possibly the best solution to take up. Companies that want to achieve more out of their marketing and sales people should also consider training programs such as negotiation skills training. The good thing is there are so many training companies out there which specialize in experimental learning training, negotiation skills training, and many other corporate training companies. You just have to see which training company makes more sense to your specific company objectives. Last, but not the least, you have to put in efforts to ensure that you put the learning (from the training) into practice (at the workplace).