Welcome to the excellerator

This is the first issue of our new regular newsletter. We would really appreciate your feedback and thoughts for future items. If you have any questions or ideas relating to developing the people in your organisation, please send them in for our upcoming reader's letters column.

Developing your sales skills

Chris Walker and Peter Freeth were at the September meeting of JEMI (Joint Equipment and Materials Initiative) which is an association representing the interests of manufacturers and suppliers in the semiconductor industry.

Many of the delegates spoke about the problems of promoting technical people into sales and management roles, because companies traditionally do not put as much effort into developing excellent personal skills as they do for technical and task management skills.

Is this something you recognise in your business? If so, we'd love to hear from you as this issue will be incorporated into the new edition of Change Magic.

Ascent expands

The 2006 season for Ascent ended with fantastic weather in North Wales. Our plans now are to move into Spain, Italy and Ireland as we introduce our new licensing program over the winter.

We will be licensing Ascent both to independent consultants and to HR or L&D professionals in companies who want to run their own in house experiential team development events using the proven Ascent format.

NLP Coaching Practitioner finally arrives!

We have developed a Coaching module for Salad Training’s NLP Practitioner course, so you can combine NLP certification with an excellent foundation in coaching skills. The Practitioner course starts on October 20th with the coaching module held in March 2007.

NLP Introduction for Trainers

Training Foundation will be running a NLP Introduction for Trainers in their new 2007 course schedule, based on the NLP Practitioner Foundation module that we run at Warwickshire College.

Congratulations to two of our team this month:

Tracey West has had a little boy - Samuel David, born on September 7th weighing 9lb 9oz.

Simon Davies has had a little boy (actually I think his wife did all the hard work) - Jack, born on September 20th weighing 8lb 2oz.

People often say to us, "I didn't know you did that!" so here's a quick update on a current project that might interest you.

Networking Skills

We're working with one of the world's largest and most diverse management and construction companies to help them develop business-winning networking skills.

Many service businesses rely on networking rather than direct sales as the primary means of winning new business. The problem is that whilst people go to networking events, they don't meet more than 2 or 3 new people, mainly because they don't like to mingle.

The networking skills workshop has them going to more events and coming back with 20 to 30 new contacts instead of 2 or 3.

One of the delegates said:

"In very few examples of training have I been able to see the fruits of the labour appear so quickly. At the recent Sheffield “Last Friday Club”, I was a whirling dervish and was exhilarated as opposed to nervous in my attempts to network the whole room.

In an hour and a half, I managed 10 people and have subsequently got a contact with Yorkshire Forward which has a possible Project Management opportunity on a Carbon Zero House build project. An opportunity I wouldn’t have known about prior to your course."

Insurance – training with NLP

We delivered a series of NLP workshops to a major UK Insurance provider and the result was a measurable increase in the effectiveness of their internal training.

One of their Business Trainers said, "I have been doing some coaching on the sales floor and it has really had an impact with state changing and visualisation techniques."

Overall, the training has had a real and measurable impact on sales results as well as revitalising and energising the training delivered by the Business Trainers, improving training attendance and the transfer of learning back to the workplace.

Consultancy – presenting to win business

KKP is one of the UK’s leading management consultancy practices specialising in sport, leisure, culture, regeneration and land-use planning. Much of KKP’s business comes through public sector tendering, and the bid presentation is a vital element in KKP’s ability to secure new business, being the main opportunity for KKP’s consultants to differentiate themselves from their competitors and it is therefore vital that they perform consistently at their best.

Nick Rimmer, Managing Consultant, says, "It got us to think more about the message we’re trying to get across and how we convey that message. It’s important to present in a style that’s right for you, so that you are comfortable with that message and the audience feels comfortable working with us."

All of the images that you can see on the excellerate website have a special message.

You need a compass to stay on the right path, to know you're heading in the right direction. Without a compass, you can only rely on local clues for direction and they may mislead you. A compass guides you, even when you don't have any local clues and you can't see where you're going.

What is your compass? What is it that keeps you going in the right direction, that warns you when you stray off the path?

excellerate - www.excellerate.org

The excellerate blog - www.excellerate.org/blog

Ascent - www.ascent-experience.com

From the book 'Disorder in the Court':

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?

WITNESS: No, I just lie there.

-----

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?

WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"

ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?

WITNESS: My name is Susan.

-----

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?

WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.

ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?

WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him!