This is why training is so important in organizations today.  Employees and managers can benefit substantially from being able to incorporate the knowledge and insight from training programs into their day-to-day activities.

1) Listen:  Make sure when you ask questions you stop and listen to the customers response.  Don’t interrupt them when they are talking.  Remember they are trying to tell you what is wrong.

2) Question:  When you ask questions, it shows you are interested in helping them through their problem.  This helps build trust with the customer helping you not lose the business.  Always ask if there are any other issues they want to talk about or you can assist them with.

3) Think:  Each objection that is raised, is different as is each person.  Think what would the best approach be to handle this objection based on the problem and the customer you are dealing with.  If you handling each objection the same way, you will lose your customer for sure.

4) Handle:  Once you determine which appropriate objection handling technique, apply it but don’t force it.  It has to be a good fit, so watch and listen to how the customer reacts to your suggestions.

5) Check:  Make sure with the customer that you have handled the objection to their satisfaction and they are ready to move forward.  Don’t just assume the problem is fixed, you need to confirm that everything is okay with the customer first before you move on.

These are five basic tips of handling objections.  following these tips will improve customer satisfaction helping make sure a better customer relationship and helping you maintain and even increase your business.

1) To Do List:  Create a To Do List to get things done in a timely manner helping to keep you on task with your job responsibilities.

2) Prioritize Tasks:  Do the more important and even harder tasks first.  Getting through the tougher and more important tasks will make the rest of the tasks seem like a piece of cake. 

3) Delegation:  Don’t be afraid to pass off other tasks to others but make sure you give them full responsibility to show that you trust they can get the job done.

4) Limit Distractions:  Studies show that it can take as much as 5 minutes to regroup your thoughts and get back to work if you’ve been distracted by someone or something.  So, close your office door, put your phone on mute, or move yourself to a quiet conference room where no one will bother you. 

5) Get Rid of Clutter:  Spend 5 minutes at the end of the day to clean and clear your desk of unwanted paper, email, or junk mail.  This will help you stay organized on a daily basis.

6) Watch Others:  If someone does something well, then copy them!  Why reinvent the wheel?  If someone else knows how to get things done quicker and more efficiently, then just do what they do.

7) Work in Comfort:  Make sure your work environment is comfortable for you.  If it’s too hot or cold, bring in a table top fan or blanket.  Decorate your office with family photo’s and/or plants to create a relaxing environment for you to work in.

These are just a few time management techniques to use to help reduce your stress at work and help you stay on task with your job and be a more productive worker.

1) Leadership development needs to be aligned to the overall strategy of an organization.

2) Leadership competencies throughout the organization must reflect the values of the organization.

3) Executives must be involved with the design of the Leadership Development program.

4) Companies should develop their own leaders rather than recruit them.

5) The leadership development process should be linked to the  organization’s succession plan.

6) The leadership Development program should be continuously evaluated just like any other training program.

1) Adults like to self-discover while learning.  It makes them feel more involved in the learning process.

2) Using performance objectives gives adults the opportunity to understand the value of the skills and knowledge they are being taught.  Make sure you apply these objectives to how the learning can take place at their job.

3) Adults like variety in learning, so make sure you have multiple activities to stimulate both the left side and right side of the brain.

4) Having multiple activities is important when training adults as adults surprisingly have short attention spans.  Usually 10 minutes or less is all an adult can handle when it comes to being lectured to so interjecting activities often can increase learning.

5) Adults learn better when you blend your learning styles.  Train using a variety of visual, auditory, tactical, and kinetic learning styles.  This keeps them engaged when you mix up the learning styles.

People generally know what is right.  As a manager your job is to draw the answer out of the individual and not just give them the answer.  It’s okay for you to help lead the employee to the correct answer but letting them figure out the answer themselves will allow for the solution to sink in with greater effect and result.

When training and coaching, if you just tell your employee’s what to do and don’t let them self-discover, you can create a situation where they are less motivated because they are just doing what they are told.  Letting them self discover will motivate the employee more, plus they can’t blame someone else because it was their idea.

Practice, Practice, Practice - Practice your presentation and practice what you want to say.  Part of our fear comes from us thinking we will forget what we want to say.  Practicing helps eliminate that fear.

Scan the audience - Look over the audience when you talk.  Looking at the audience makes them look back and gives you the feeling they are paying attention which will make you feel less nervous.

Talk to the audience, not at them - Don’t just talk to your audience, have a conversation with them.  This makes them more relaxed as well as you and can help the presentation move more smoothly.

Make them laugh - Making your audience laugh can make them more alert and helps them pay more attention to you which in turn makes them more involved in the conversation.

Tell the truth - You can’t possibly have the answer to everything.  If you don’t know, don’t lie.  Admit you don’t know but let them know you will write their question down and get them an answer to it.  Give them a time frame of when you will respond as well.  By admitting this, you relieve the stress of trying to know everything and this will make you more relaxed when presenting.

Work the floor - Don’t stand in one place.  Move around the floor and use hand gestures as well as fluctuation in your voice.  This moving around helps to improve your interaction with the audience making everyone more comfortable.

Do something different - Differentiating yourself from other presenters will help you stand out more and make it more likely that your audience will remember you and enjoy your presentation more.

The beneficiaries to coaching and mentoring programs are:

• The Coach/Mentor
• The Employee
• The Department
• The Organization

Now, lets look at how each of these groups of benefactors actually do benefit from the coaching and mentoring.

Benefits to the Coach/Mentor:

• Job satisfaction
• Further development of own skill level
• Involvement in strategic activity

Benefits to the Employee:

• Increase in skill level
• Access to detailed knowledge
• Individual attention in terms of training and development
• Career path progression

Benefits to the Department:

• Retention of staff
• Retention of key knowledge and skills
• Succession ability within the team
• Motivation of staff

Benefits to the Organization:

• Retention of staff
• Increased skill and knowledge levels
• Succession planning
• Competitive advantage through better people
• Maximum utilization of human resources

With all these people benefiting from coaching and mentoring, it’s hard to understand why most companies fall short when it comes to coaching and mentoring their staff.  This is why Coaching and Mentoring are key subjects for me when training companies.

There are many skills to being a good manager and a lot of these skills can be learned through proper training.  Listed below are a number of things that can help make you a better manager:

• Have confidence in yourself to do a good job but continuing to learn and get trained on new things to help increase you confidence.
• The best managers are the one’s that have great people skills and know how to handle a variety of different personalities.  If you can’t handle people you shouldn’t be a manager.
• A manager should be honest and straight forward.  Then the people who work for you will trust you more.
• Be consistent and do what you say.  This also builds trust and respect from your staff.
• Ask for input from your staff.  This gives them a sense of self-worth and that their opinion matters.  This make them more engaged to want to succeed.
• Be flexible with decisions.  There is typically more than one way to do something correctly. 
• Be willing to try new things.  Other people have great ideas that they may have learned from their past jobs that you may not have thought of.  Be open to these ideas.
• Have a plan of action and a schedule to follow through on those plans.

Review the list above and see where you might need to improve upon.  The effective manager continues to learn and works at getting better.  If you make a mistake, admit it and move on.  Your staff doesn’t expect you to be perfect, so don’t try to.  Good luck!!

Make sure you give the person raising the objection time to complete what they are saying.

2) Paraphrase your understanding of objection

This shows you understand their objection.

3) Acknowledge their point of view

This shows you appreciate their opinion.

4) Answer the objection

Give a response to the objection and restate your appreciation for them raising the objection.

5) Move forward quickly

Don’t dwell on the objection but make sure you satisfy the person with an answer to their objection and then get their permission to move forward.