Transformational Workshop Topics
Throughout any year we will conduct a range of transformational workshops which address the most common business challenges (and occasionally, we’ll do a workshop dealing with an issue simply because it intrigues us – and is of interest to a sufficient number of business people to justify its existence).
Many of our workshops follow demand created by presentations we have delivered outlining an uncommon way of thinking about common business challenges and include:
- Ethical Selling Skills – Feel-good selling skills that pay for themselves instantly!
- ServiceMaster – Selling skills and systems for the host of reluctant sellers in service industries (eg, vehicle servicing)
- Meeting Halfway – Negotiation like you’ve never seen it before. Faster profits than sales.
- Guerillas in the Marketplace – High impact low-cost cheeky marketing secrets that are fun!
- First Contact – Learning to use rapport skills for faster sales and better relationships.
- Goal Setting for Business – Programming the brain that’s running the business. Deep skills.
- V8 Leadership – The leader’s Job Description reduced to just 8 tasks, each starting with “V”. Spectacular insights.
- Values in Business – Values determine behaviour; behaviour determines results.
- Time & Self Management – Get more done with less stress. Includes 1-year Time Management System.
- Help Me – Delegation is a key part of getting things done by others. Guaranteed to work.
- Solving the People Puzzle – Identify, attract and develop great people for huge results and great fun..
- Fit for Business – Lower stress; increase your health & fitness; get more done with less effort. Body smarts.
- Dashboard Design – understand your business at a single glance, all of the time.
- Building Systems – Known ways of efficiently producing a predictable result. What’s your alternative?
- Customer Care – You’ve found a customer, now what are you doing to keep them?
- Growing Pains – Leadership skills – the No1 blockage to business growth. Learn them all here.
- The Great Escape – Your exit strategy. What’s next after this business?
- Time Please – the ultimate profitability workshop for those selling techician’s time.
- Technically Speaking – speech, communications and relationship skills to equip technicians to speak to mere mortals.
For more detail, please see below:
| Topic | Synopsis |
| Ethical Selling Skills | Selling is an art form.In its highest form, it is the skillful management of an exchange of value that should leave both parties with a desire to repeat the experience. In many businesses the vital task of sales is handled by people who have had no formal professional training in the skill set they require to be effective. Many sellers come from a “wage earner mentality” in which “there is something wrong with taking money off people” – and they sell badly!This workshop reframes the whole idea of selling so that it is accepted by the seller as a positive and uplifting activity through which they can help a large number of people to satisfy their wants in a safe and ethical environment – and through which they can develop relationships that yield repeated sales and satisfaction for all parties.An Ethical Selling Skills Workshop offers a rich and immediate return on investment, because results flow the moment its participants apply their newfound knowledge and skills.Content and duration are tailored to meet client needs. |
| ServiceMaster | Technicians usually make lousy salespeople for no other reason than that they lack the mindset, training and systems to support them in this vital function.ServiceMaster offers participants a clear, positive selling mindset: You are your customer’s technical advisor; your role is to interpret their problems to them in ways that gives them confidence you can help them; your role is not to make decisions for your customer, but it is to make recommendations where these are sought or where you feel they are required.The course also offers a crystal clear “ethical mind map” that supports the most effective selling process ever developed, and the most common feedback offered by course participants is that they now “feel good about selling, and that they are selling more”.Content includes the concepts of:
Content and duration can be tailored to a number of formats, but the ideal is an initial 8-hour workshop delivery followed by 6 months of bi-monthly coaching to a high level of performance. (One group of 14 vehicle service participants recorded an average net profit increase of $60,090 in the year in which they undertook this business improvement strategy in the workshop and coaching format. Testimonials available on request.) |
| Meeting Halfway | Negotiation is “the other half” of business.Business is about buying and selling and while most decision makers can see a clear case for sales training, most neglect the role that negotiation skills play in both buying and selling.An increase in negotiation skills when applied to purchasing the inputs to your business can have a far greater positive impact on your profits than a similar increase in selling ability, for the simple reason that a dollar saved goes straight to the bottom line, while a dollar in sales has to first meet the cost of that sale before the balance adds to profits.A negotiation workshop offers the same rich and immediate return on investment as a sales workshop, though with a potential to increase profits even more!Content and duration are tailored to meet client needs. |
| Guerrillas in the Marketplace | Marketing is “the promise you make to your marketplace”.In the best of all situations, if that promise is accepted someone will buy your product or service without further ado – but it is more likely that effective marketing will result in “an enquiry” which then depends for a sale, upon the selling skills of the person responding.The CEO of PepsiCo is reputed to have once said, “We spend $10 bn a year on marketing and half of it’s wasted – the problem is, we don’t know which half!”For the vast majority of businesses, it is unlikely that they could state with any accuracy how much of their marketing works or does not work.This Guerrilla Marketing Workshop will open your eyes to dozens of new and inexpensive ways in which you can market your business often at a very low or zero cost.It is consistently one of the most popular (and most fun) workshops we conduct. |
| First Contact | It takes just 15 seconds to make a First Impression – and years to change it!Businesses spend millions to generate a contact in the form of a phone call, email, walk in or web click, but they often spend nothing to improve the skills of the staff responding to that contact!Advertising budgets can run to millions, but the training required to take the results of effective advertising through to a profitable sale are often miniscule or zero.The First Contact Workshop provides a very practical down-to-earth approach to develop the ability of staff to establish “instant rapport” and to turn first contacts into enduring relationships; into public relations coups (contacts, clients and suppliers will remark to others about their reception); into pre-sales conditioning (softening up the ground for sales staff); and into direct selling opportunities (who says the receptionist or accountant can’t make a sale?).First Contact is about following through on your marketing to ensure that the client’s first contact experience of your company is even better than the promise you made in your marketing. |
| Goal Setting for Business | Goal Setting is a discipline understood by few, but it is the key to achieving business goals easily and quickly!Goal Setting may be seen by some as a rather esoteric or airy-fairy concept, but it is in fact a simple discipline for directing the larger part of your brain – your subconscious – towards the realization of your goals ( whether personal or business, the principle is the same).In this workshop we teach and drill some simple practical disciplines that have the proven effect of raising your effectiveness and your ability to achieve the goals you set for yourself and your business.We also train you to discern and then engage your team’s individual and collective goals, and a process for using the outcomes of this exercise to synchronize and harmonize their individual efforts into a coherent team effort.Goal setting looks like an investment by you in the personal development of your staff (and it is) but it delivers improved personal and professional performance, increased motivation, better teamwork and tighter discipline – as well hard, bankable results – almost immediately. One day workshop. |
| V8 Leadership | The lack of leadership skills is the single biggest inhibitor to business growth.Michael Gerber (The E-Myth) is fond of saying that, “Most business operators are technicians who have suffered an entrepreneurial seizure” or, in the words of ProfiTune’s CEO, “Many of the businesses we deal with are run by people who became managers by accident because they were good at doing something else and the business grew around them“.The significant result of the truth in these statements is that many bosses don’t know what their “job” is.V8 Leadership addresses that. The 8V’s are:
The 8V’s are not taught at The Harvard School of Business – and it takes a long time to discern them through the dust of battle in the School of Hard Knocks – but they’re there. This is probably one of the most practical and down-to-earth leadership training workshops on offer anywhere, and the return on investment from those who participate and apply the lessons is huge. 2 Day Workshop. |
| Values in Business | Values in Business is, in one sense, a team-building workshop – but it’s much more than that.Values are what emerge from repeating the question, “What is most important to us in the context of our business?” and when understood by all of the members of a team, the answers add immeasurably to the clarity with which situations can be assessed, opportunities can be perceived, and ambiguities can be resolved.A clear understanding of the agreed values of a business equips every team member with a high degree of confidence when faced with the recurrent question of “How should I act in this situation?” It speeds up decision making. It provides a clear and deep channel into which the personal and collective energies of the team can be committed.Half to one-day workshop depending upon team size. |
| Time & Self Management | Time Management is really an exercise in Self-Management, and self-management is the secret to higher productivity, lower stress, higher job satisfaction – and real business progress.Time management incorporates the disciplines of: being clear on your vision for the business; setting near and far goals effectively so that that you are likely to achieve that vision; identifying what has to be done, and in what order – and also what doesnot have to be done; and it includes the discipline of applying a simple but fundamental system for managing tasks.Participants in this workshop acquire a unique, patented and complete time and task management system which supports all of the principles identified and taught in the workshop, and which supports the participant’s application of their learning for a year after the fact (and, yes, refills are available).Available as a half-day or a 1-day Workshop. Content varies with duration. |
| Help Me | The Art of Delegation is an essential leadership skill!It’s the art of getting the results you want, when you want them. Much of the under performance of teams can be laid fairly and squarely on the fact that their leaders delegate poorly.Delegation is not simply asking someone to do something for you – or of resisting the urge to ask because you can do it yourself quicker than you can explain how you want it done! Delegation is a strict discipline that, when observed, ensures that orders and directions to action flow smoothly and without distortion throughout an organization.Professional delegation is also the answer to rapid and sustained productivity increases because it tends to identify non-productive and uncommitted team members quickly and to manage them fairly and effectively.The practice of effective delegation skills is guaranteed to reduce tension, waste, friction and confusion within any organization, and to increase productivity, job satisfaction, clarity, commitment and energy.Do your staff a favor and do this one! Consider putting them through it so they’ll know what you are supposed to be doing when you delegate to them and they can help (and practice the same discipline with their own down-line team).1-Day Workshop. |
| Solving the People Puzzle | Got a people problem? Really? Were they like that when you hired them?In Jim Collin’s (Good to Great) words, one key ingredient to lasting success in business is, “Getting the right people on the bus; the wrong people off the bus; and the right people in the right seats – then getting out of their way so that they can drive it like mad!”85% of people who report a severe lack of motivation in their job cite frustration with less-than-competent management as the source.Managing people is the second of the 3 primary challenges of all managers (the first is managing yourself – time management; the third is managing resources), and this workshop provides a different paradigm through which to view the people puzzle, and one that suggests some simple and effective answers as to how to better manage them.1-Day Workshop or, if content is tailored to specific issues, a 2-Day Workshop. |
| Fit for Business | You’re only human, remember? If you don’t have a pulse you don’t need a profit.There is not much point being rich and dead, so here’s the clearest picture you will ever gain of how your mind and body can be used to best effect, in a business context.Modern athletes are lauded if they can maintain a high level of performance for 4 to 10 years yet top managers are expected to perform consistently for 40 years or more. What skills were you taught to enable you to meet this daunting goal – and still have a life?This workshop is a truly transformational experience. In the words of its designer, “a wheel alignment across the forehead; a brain adjustment of the deepest order; and great fun!”Skills include techniques to:
This is one workshop you will leave tougher, more resilient and happier than you have been in a long time, because things will look different afterwards! Guaranteed! 1-Day Workshop or 2-Day Retreat.
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| Dashboard Design | Running a business can be a bit like flying a space shuttle, scary and a lot of fun, but flying a space shuttle – or a business – with no instruments, is just plain scary!Sooner or later, every successful business manager develops a set of basic readouts about their business that tells them where they are heading, how fast they are going there, how much is in the tank (the bank) and what’s out there that could cause them to crash.The better the readouts, the better the ride, and the higher the safety factor. Many business operators spend the vast majority of their time working in their business, as opposed to working on it and the consequences of this failure to allocate the time necessary to truly manage functions other than production, are mostly negative, and always limiting to growth, performance and profitability.They are also personally stressful – sooner or later!Graduating from flying your business by the seat of your pants, to designing, building and fine-tuning your dashboard so that you can gain a true and accurate picture of your business at any point in time, is a huge leap – and represents the removal of one of the primary limiters to business growth.And it’s fun being able to fly faster, higher and safer, all at the same time!1-Day Workshop |
| Building Systems | In his first 4 years of manufacture, Henry Ford built just 4 cars, but he wasn’t really trying to build cars – he was developing a system. After a few setbacks and 3 more years he finally built his first vehicle for commercial sale – in 1903. For the next 5 years he refined his systems then, 1908 to 1927 he built a staggering 15,000,000 cars.The systems worked.Systems are the natural result of seeking the best way to do something and them removing all of the impediments to that happening – every time.Businesses that don’t seek to develop systems for all repetitive tasks or scenarios run the risk of reinventing the wheel every time; they run the risk of coping with a growing range of errors; they lack anything that would guide and support new team members to become productive quickly; they are a constant source of stress to their owners or managers; and they remain stunted – if they don’t lose the race altogether to those who do develop systems.And the ultimate blow to businesses which run low on systems comes when you attempt to sell them, and potential buyers quickly see that the business is a “wheel barrow” (ie, if you don’t pick it up and push it every day, it will stop), and they see no value in it.On the other hand, businesses which run on systems enjoy efficiencies that usually increase their profitability, lower stress, and increase their appeal to investors.After this workshop you will be able to easily identify tasks within your business that could easily by managed by systems, and you will understand how to develop and evolve those systems with your team. You will also enjoy a lower level of stress and a higher level of reward from your business, while increasing its value in the eyes of any potential buyer.1-Day Workshop or 2-Day Workshop if developed for a specific business or industry. |
| Customer Care Commitment | You have only 20% of the chance of selling something to a stranger when compared with your chance of selling to someone who has bought from you before.Even if your existing customer’s previous experience with you was negative, there is still a higher chance of their buying from you than there is of a stranger buying from you!So, why would you not put in place a system to deliver a commitment of on-going care with your first-time and repeat customers?This workshop looks at how you can maximise the service potential for every one of your customers simply, easily and many times, automatically.Some participants of this workshop have quite literally more than doubled their sales through a simple system to give practice to their customer care commitment. Could you?This workshop is about creating the next sale out of thin air; and the next, and the next through the development of real, honest relationships with your customers. They love it!1-Day Workshop (during which you – and your team – design your own, detailed Customer Care Commitment plan). |
| Growing Pains | Why do most businesses fail to make the leap beyond 5 employees to teams of 20 or 200?The answers are stunningly simple: Leadership, Teamwork, Discipline, Motivation, Systems, Marketing, Sales, Productivity.This workshop is designed for existing teams and deals with each of the issues in turn, with the outcome being a jointly-developed business plan that provides a clear map of the way forward for both management and staff.If your business is growing, and you are experiencing the pains of that change, this workshop can shorten your learning curve and move you into your next stage of development quickly and surely.1-Day or 2-Day Workshop depending upon content and team size. |
| The Great Escape | “You should be running your business as though you are getting ready to sell it.” Michael Gerber, The E-MythIt’s always a good idea to start any undertaking with the end in mind, and that goes doubly for a business, so just what is your exit strategy? And if you were more focused on what your business has to look like when you are ultimately ready to sell it, would you be doing things differently right now?It’s a bit like asking, “Would your home be in better order if you were just about to sell it?” You know it would, and that everything in it that presently needs fixing would be fixed, etc.It’s much the same with a business. If you run it as though you are selling it tomorrow, it will be in much better order than if the sale date is in the dim future.And, if you’re planning to use your business as a key source of funds for either your retirement plan or your transition into your next venture, then you need to keep in mind that your sell price of the business itself – what is often termed goodwill – will be a simple multiple of your average pre-tax profit based on the last 3 to 5 years of trading.If you would like to clarify the end you have in mind for your business and yourself, and then develop some viable plans to make that end result a reality, this workshop will do that. 1 Day Workshop (recommended all shareholders attend) |
| Time Please | If you sell labour by the hour or job, this is for you.This workshop is designed exclusively for those whose service businesses seek to profit from time-based or task-based work (eg, technicians, service personnel, professional service providers).The workshop delivers a time-tested system guaranteed to increase staff productivity (number of hours charges) and profitability (nett income from time-based charges).The Time Please workshop details how to create a self-regulating environment in which “time matters” to technicians and other operatives; in which staff adopt a “boss’s clock” perspective to their time on the job; and in which everyone – staff members, management and customers win!This workshop has huge profit implications for most service-based businesses, and graduates regularly report increasing their profitability by more than 50% within weeks of the workshop.1-Day Workshop for management and staff. |
| Technically Speaking | Designed specifically for technicians who struggle to translate their deep technical knowledge into plain English so that it is digestible by mere mortals.This workshop addresses the three most common communication challenges faced by technicians:
The idea format for deliver of this topic is via a half or one day workshop followed by a series of guided spaced learning sessions during which the participants can develop a high level of performance in essential communications skills. 1-Day Workshop plus option to develop via 12 bi-monthly 1-hour Group Coaching sessions |
Our Approach
Before seeking to transfer new knowledge or skills for a Client, we clarify your “purpose” in terms of your performance goal (your “desired end result”). We then assess the existing level of the knowledge or skill relevant to achieving that goal, and any need to incorporate a paradigm shift or transformation in entrenched thinking about the issue.
Next, we draw on our resources and experience to design the content and mode of delivery so as to achieve your goals. We then train your people to an understanding and basic mastery of the content’s application to their situation.
Tailored Workshops & Presentations
We are experts at customising workshops and other learning events to achieve our clients desired end results rapidly and to a high order.
Save yourself time before contacting us about customised training, by clarifying the following for yourself:
- How do you currently articulate your challenge or issue? (Please use the terms you use in house when discussing either the issue or its consequences.)
- What would be your “Picture of Perfection” at the completion of training?
- What fixes have you tried in the past?
- What is the present cost of the challenge or issue?
- How would you measure results from a training intervention?
Performance Guarantee
For more than 10 years we have assumed all of the risk of ensuring that our clients gain a return on the investment they make in our workshops and other presentations, by offering the following guarantee:
If, at the conclusion of our workshop, our client is not entirely satisfied that we achieved the goal they set with us, we will refund their participation fee in full – and provide entry to another similar workshop of equal length at no charge.
How Do You Arrange for Training?
Please, start by emailing or phoning us, and we’ll manage the process with you from there.
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