If you have worked in a corporate, then you have surely been ‘trained’ a few times – ranging from technical skills on how to use the new email gadget, to people skills like team management and negotiation, and business skills for sales and profitability. If you searched the market for trainers, you will be amazed at how many there are. A simple Google search for ‘corporate training’ gives back 162 million search results. Is that a lot? Well, a search for ‘viagra’ the super popular Internet product gives 42 million search results. The point is – corporate training is a very popular business expense.
Corporates seem to like making training investments, but do they pay-off? In this video prepared by Canada AM, Jim Clemmer explains why corporate training usually doesn’t work because the training is so far removed from the “real” work environment. One of his useful suggestions is about how the effective training is usually the one delivered by senior management – and as you can feel, its also the most difficult to achieve! His website is: www.Clemmer.net
Category Archives: Training
Sales Proposal Template and Checklist
If you are involved in any form of sales, client engagement, pre-sales, or business management, this is a must watch video. It’s one of the best videos on the Internet on how to prepare a good sales proposal. Thanks very much to Bill Dotson for sharing his experience along with numerous real-life examples. This is a very practical video that you can use right after watching it.
Often, there is so much rework at the last stages of proposal development just because some team members involved in the proposal were not aware of the full picture and customer business needs. If you are the manager, you have probably been giving your tips to the team every time you have a proposal.
In fact most companies, and that includes some very large companies, don’t have a clear business proposal checklist. It’s very much left for the sales manager to train his team — again and again. If you have been there, you will know exactly how it is like.
So make a note of this page and use it the next time you are submitting any business proposal. And more importantly — share it with all your team members who are involved in making your business proposal.
Getting Started With Google Docs
Collaborative team effort – is a must to achieve something big — but as anyone who has worked in a team to prepare a proposal or a business plan or any document will know — it’s a big challenge to ensure that people are working on the right versions and tracking who’s changing what. So often, one person in a team is made responsible just for this work – the anchor! But if you want to do it better — Google Docs offers a good system.
The adoption is still very small because most of us in business feel uneasy about putting our “next quarter projections on the Internet”. But if you asked the opinion of a neutral 3rd party software specialist, you will realize Google has built a fair amount of security around the docs. And like is most cases, those of us with the biggest need and smallest budget will get onto this before others who have more disposable capital and effort. But give it a try- we found it good!
What Motivates You to Perform?
Here’s a great presentation by Dr Patrick Dixon for MTN Mobile & Telecom. Dr Dixon is a business thinker and futurist. His Web TV site has more than 10 million unique users. He is Chairman of Global Change Ltd, author of twelve books (455,000 printed in 22 languages) including Futurewise and Building a Better Business, has spoken to audiences in 50 nations, and has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today.
In this video, he speaks about: How to make things happen. Connect with passion. Managing uncertainty with rapid change. Leadership styles. Why people get out of bed in the morning. How to motivate teams at work to do great things. Business management. Secret of leadership and ultimate leadership speech. Business ethics and values in corporations. Secrets of business success and increased productivity. Cutting costs. Increasing output. Adding shareholder value. Sustainable business success. Work life balance and lessons from non profits / volunteering. Why building a better world is such a powerful motivation.
Business School for Kids – guess we can learn too
If you thought business plan discussions with teenagers felt strange, think again. Here’s an amazing video by Lindsey Mills in which you can see how primary school students are being trained in business start-ups, and how they start talking about Seed Capital, Venture Capital Rounds, Debt Capital and Income Statements…things which many of us learned sometime during our first or second job! The Start Em Up Business program gives students an introduction to business. Students learn the basic business concepts through playing fun business games, starting a real business, and making money. It feels like training numerous Tiger Woods for business – very interesting. The potential of something like this is immense because in 5-10 years from now, we could see start-ups from kids. You can learn more here: www.simplyoutrageous.org