Value Proposition
Training Guide: The Value proposition of COLES TRAINING
Realizing that any training investment needs to be carefully assessed before commitment, let me highlight some of my credibility to deliver on a selection of courses I offer. In other words why should you select me for your investment in training and development or consultancy? Below you will find a quote and brief paragraph on some of my course selections to substantiate your decision. As always if you want to hear additional value proposition and stories of my experiences, just reach me on the contact form or phone.
I should add that I do not train any subject that I have no practical experience in. All listed subjects have been experienced and trained and I do have training files on each course. Very important: I adjust and adapt fully the content to the client’s needs and specifications. Further, I can adapt these course to various levels required.
(Also see: Services on this site and select – Twenty Reasons to Consider Coles Training.)
Powerful Presentations Skills
“You never get a second chance to create a good first impression”
In my career I have delivered hundreds of presentations in 50 countries. In my sales career I made almost 10,000 sales calls. I enjoy this subject very much as I see improvement in the participant’s ability to present from day one to day two. We use video if possible to measure their progress. Usually the subjects chosen (work or not work related) are very broad and interesting indeed. The ability to present successfully is a career enhancer. I am able to provide valuable stories and examples to enable learning and understanding.
Presentation skills are now a vital part of every executive’s role. He / She have to be familiar with the different kinds of presentations, and must be able to recognise presentation scenarios and opportunities.
Communicating for Success
“The only problem with communication is the illusion it has been accomplished”.
Survey after survey indicate that communication skills are responsible for turning a good manager into an excellent manager. Conversely, lack of communication skills are responsible for lack of progress in a career. I have experienced the benefits of clear and concise communication.
The success of managers depends, primarily, on their ability to communicate to all the people for whom they are responsible. They need to convey what they need and the importance of doing it. Failures in communication are costly. If a manager does not relay the problem to the team, they work in the same mode and inadvertently maintain that problem believing it is the right method of operation. This costs the organisation money and change becomes difficult as it then involves personalities and not systems.
“As Time Goes By” – Time Management
“Time is our most critical resource and we should carefully budget it”
There is so much to be done in our career and to accomplish and get most from it we need to learn time planning early in our career if possible. Better time management can also flow over to our private and leisure time. One of the paradoxes about time is that there never seems to be enough of it! Yet we have the whole of time at our disposal. We have time for anything but not everything! It is not time we are short of it is how we CHOOSE to consume it that needs attention.
This course is designed to help you tighten up in many areas of your own self management. The action steps I have in this course are simple and practical – yet the cumulative effect can be radical. Managing our time is your concern, and it is mine.
Stress Management and Improve Productivity
“Only you control your life”
Stress has been sited has a very large contributor to illness and lack of energy. Our careers can be affected by stress. Learning how to control and work with ‘good stress’ is a strategy. I’ll share more strategy learnt over 35 years of watching good stress management tactics. The ability to manage stress is a factor in your performance. There is stress associated with all jobs. It is a positive factor when it presents challenges to the individual. Stress affects you physically / psychologically / emotionally. It affects your behaviour, your home life and your social life. Stress in home/social life can affect your work performance. The ability to cope with stress is extremely important.
A Driving Sales Force – A Bestseller
“Selling is the process of creating desire in the prospect to own your product and service as the means to satisfy identified needs”
A course I can again closely relate to. From my first training 20 years ago with KLM in Holland I have kept in touch with this subject. In fact, I conducted over 10,000 sales calls in my commercial career. I believe in the WHOLE sales person and take that approach in my courses.
In my years as a District Sales Manager, I was fortunate to reach revenue targets in all the years except one. Even in that year we were close. As a salesman and leading sales team, I have the experience and credibility to train this along with recent research.
Selling is the process of helping someone discover something of value. The ‘salesperson’ of today is required to possess a whole range of skills in order to be effective. More is being asked of less. Good business practice is therefore imperative just to keep up with your competitors. In “A Driving Sales Force: A Bestseller” we examine some ‘basic’ and advanced skills, but as they say common sense is not common practice.
This course is designed with an emphasis on dealing effectively with the customer (client) in order to promote on-going company/customer relationships. It is vitally important that the customer understands that they are important and that we are concerned about doing something to meet their needs and solve their problems. This training program is by design interactive and its content meets the needs of all employees today.
“You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.”
Let’s go to Market – Marketing
“The Recipe for Success is Customer Focus!”
Good marketers are in close touch with all aspects of their business. Especially sales and the front liner. I have been part of and led many successful marketing efforts and enjoyed them all. Some of what I learnt I will relate to in my workshop.
I provide participants with a range of knowledge and skills required by a marketing team member or a team leader as a foundation for their formal development.
Many ask the question, how do you differentiate between sales and marketing? Marketing is about bringing together the buyer and the product or service. Sales are an integral part of that function and of the overall marketing plan and as such assists in making marketing more effective The sales function is a very important part of the marketing process, and sales skills and techniques will help to generate sales. From a marketing plan you will be able to separate the sales and promotion activities and assess the type and importance of each as a part of your overall marketing strategy.
Powerful Phone Skills
“One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they never have to stop and answer the phone”
The phone is an underestimated tool. I talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the phone. In the wrong hands a disaster and in the trained hands a great tool. Further, when you pick you the phone in your office or business you are putting the customer in your office! Treat the phone with respect and more importantly your customer with respect.
Studies show that customers who enjoy doing business with your organization do so to a great extent because of the way they are treated on the telephone. In many cases, the first contact a customer or potential customer has with your organization is by telephone. Simply stated, in the mind of the caller, your employees are the organization.
This practical seminar will provide participants with the tools they need to leave your customers with a positive image of your company. Participants will understand their importance as a public contact person; learn to work with the customer by using better communication skills; practice techniques for dealing with difficult people; and identify strategies to help build a positive organizational image. The results will be increased client satisfaction, higher employee self-esteem, and greater productivity for your organization. All win!
Complaint Handling – An Opportunity
“Dedicate yourself to building and maintaining high-quality selling relationships
with every prospect and customer”
I was Customer Relations Manager Australia/New Zealand for KLM in Sydney, for a year when I was transferred back to Australia from Holland. It was an interesting position as we were able to turn a complaint into an opportunity. It was about service recovery and solving problems. I learnt that a complaint was valuable information being presented to us and what we did with it was treated seriously and added value.
Managing Performance to Increase Performance
‘Don’t tell me that the man is doing good work, tell me what good work he is doing.’
The team I had with me was the source of tremendous efforts and accomplishments. It was all of us together that made the difference. I learnt how to use the different levels of performance to our advantage and at same time make sure that all are growing and learning. The work must be meaningful. Manage your team smartly and they will work with you smartly.
I introduce you to the tools required as a leader to manage the performance of your team, so that you, your team and your organisation can achieve the goals you establish.
To enable the manager to be more effective in his future role, this module is based on my practical experience, rather than talking theory. You will identify how you can enhance your own leadership style using active communication, motivational and coaching techniques. Therefore, at every opportunity you will be given a chance to apply your learning to the work environment through practical exercises, discussion, debrief and feedback, and finally action plans.
“Moments Of Truth” – Customer Service
“Anytime a customer comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression” – Jan Carlzon
Your customer is your competitors next prospect, they are just waiting for you to fail! Customer Service issues have been part of my career since the beginning and I have learnt much to pass on to the classroom, seminars or event venue. I’ve learnt many strategies that can help organization raise their customer care levels. As well, I can bring to classroom some original theory that may help them deliver higher levels of service.
What makes service truly remarkable? Great service is not an event, it is a process that requires active, willing and competent participation of all employees.
Service must be customer – driven so their satisfaction is the ultimate measure of our success. Customers want to do business with people who make them feel good about themselves and their decisions. How we say good bye is as important as how we say hello. The way we help to solve a dilemma is just as important as its outcome because it will determine the outcome.
Obtaining and then Retaining Customers – A Smart Strategy
“If we don’t take care of our customers, someone else will.”
Good customer service leads to satisfied customers. Striving to keep customers satisfied is extremely important. Some organizations lose seven out of ten customers when an employee demonstrated lack of concern for the customer’s needs. If customers feel they have not been served well, it takes an average of twelve positive interactions to make up for the one negative interaction they experienced. Most customers will not give you that many additional chances, so you must serve them well the first time. I learnt that as a salesman and sales manager.
This course is designed to help your frontline employees improve their Customer Service understanding, which can then be a basis for them to raise their techniques and thereby revenues for your company. The action steps I have in this course are simple and practical – yet the cumulative effect can be radical. Retaining Customers!
Supervisory Skills – The Whole Manager
“Management is a key factor in both a firm’s success or failure.”
This workshop will provide participants with a range of knowledge and skills required by a supervisor and act as a solid foundation for their formal development. A thinking, proactive manager will not wait for a directive from above. Instead he or she will begin immediately to make a concerted effort to develop solid management skills.
The need to develop those skills must start with ourselves. If we are to be leaders then we must be effective in certain aspects of leadership. They are: Planning, Organising, Motivating, and Goal Setting.
A manager’s effectiveness is measured largely by the achievements of the work team. In turn, the work team’s performance depends on how well the supervisor understands and puts into practice the skills of good team leadership. I’ll bring latest thinking to the classroom discussions.
Coaching Skills that Make a Difference
“You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.”
I’ve been a coach in work situations and in leisure sport. I like to use various analogy in my work and can draw parallels that help trainees understand and capture concepts. In my Peak Performance courses are many. Communicating with your teams and colleagues is a pre-requisite of coaching skills.
Leadership Skills- the Leaders Journey (also see Shackleton Leadership seminars)
“The ability to take individuals and teams forward by showing confidence in their ability, so that they give of their best to achieve a desired result”
Truly effective leadership doesn’t mean following a universal set of guidelines. Instead, it is grounded in a high degree of self-awareness and the ability to leverage these personal strengths that set each individual apart. But, in today’s demanding marketplace, no one can do the job alone. Leaders also need to surround themselves with teams that complement their talents. One thing is for sure; leadership is a complex issue when exercised by the individual. It is a combination of organising and motivating, setting goals and controlling through effective communication, while giving people confidence in what they are doing. The confidence given by the manager to his team develops through giving value to their jobs, them as an individual, and to them as a team.
Team Building as Together Each Achieves More
“The team is capable of more output as a cohesive whole, than the sum of their individual efforts would have produced.”
TEAM = Together Each Achieve More. A team is “a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goal, and approach for which they hold themselves accountable.”
Using the talent in your team is vital ingredient towards success. I talk about great teams and have stories of effective team leaders. I also use multi-media in this course as well. I’ve led teams and enjoyed many worthwhile team experiences. I will include the Belbin technique and the Group to Team transition theory.
Strategic Thinking and Planning – The Competitive Advantage
“The great businesses of tomorrow will grow exactly the way great businesses have always been built: by doing marvelous things that meet the needs, wants, and desires of customers”
This module will equip the learner, and also enhance established strengths, with a range of knowledge and skills that are fundamental to positively contributing to improving their planning skills, understanding planning strategy, and thereby their impact on their team and the business in a broad context.
Planning skills, like many skills, seems simple in theory but is, in reality, quite involved. It can be learned by training, practice, experience, and by studying. He / she have to be familiar with the different kinds of tactics, and must be able to recognise situations and opportunities to take advantage of the newly gained information from this course. This course will help lead the participants in that direction and contribute to behavioural change, attitude and work style.
Problem Solving / Decision Making – To ADD Value
“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them”
During my organizational years I’ve learnt problem solving skills enable you to get what you want; therefore, the key to success for both individuals and organizations. This course will equip delegates with the latest problem solving tools and techniques so that they can overcome the operational problems they face on a day to day basis. This course is designed to help you tighten up in many areas of your own problem solving. The action steps in this course are simple and practical – yet the cumulative effect can be radical. You will be able to re-activate your natural and most effective problem solving mechanism and use it the way you were meant to, without hesitation, easily, and ultimately without thinking.
Creative Thinking – The Differentiator
“CREATIVITY + INNOVATION = Differentiation”
This course will equip the learner, with a range of knowledge and skills that are fundamental to positively contributing to an effective business with creativity and innovativeness. We will take a systematic approach that will allow delegates to generate innovative ideas which can be turned into useful products, services and processes. The aim is to leave the seminar with skills that you have practiced and can apply immediately on return to your workplace.
To continuously improve the process by which you run your business, you need the ability to look at things differently, develop new concepts and generate fresh ideas. You also need an organization that is receptive to change. You need creativity.
Motivational Skills That Make a Difference
“Trust them and they will be true to you, treat them greatly and they will show themselves great”.
Leadership is a combination of organising and motivating. It involves planning, organising, setting goals and controlling, whilst giving people confidence in what they are doing. People come to work for a variety of reasons, some of which on analysis can be complex. As managers it is important to maintain the motivation of each individual, however complex their reason, so that he will be able to give of his best; not only for the manager, but the team and the organisation.
Establishing yourself as a strong leader requires an understanding of people and what motivates them. Those who understand can create a working climate in which team members can meet individual needs while achieving goals. Understanding what motivates individual employees requires time and effort but the results are worth it.
Negotiation Skills – ‘Seal the Deal’
“Let us never negotiate out of fear – but let us never fear to negotiate” – John F. Kennedy
More managers are required to negotiate as part of their daily work. Through this course, you will develop a framework and understanding of the negotiation process and its techniques, and gain the skills needed to achieve a better agreement resulting in a win-win situation. You can apply these methods to many of your daily relationships. Negotiating, like many skills, seems simple in theory but is, in reality, quite complicated. It can be learned by training, practice, experience, and by studying.
Negotiating skills is now a vital part of every executive, and it is not solely the task of the buyer or purchasing manager. He has to be familiar with the different kinds of negotiation, and must be able to recognise negotiating situations and opportunities. In commercial situations sellers must be allowed make a reasonable profit, but have to be competitive. There are often many “value considerations”, apart from price, which can be the subject of concessions by both parties to a negotiation. Effective negotiations lead to cost evaluation techniques and profitable company operations. This course will help lead the participants in that direction. I’ll pass on some of my personal experiences in this subject.
Change and Leading Change – Nothing Stays the Same!
“If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.”
In my career I have had to be increasingly adaptable to change. I made change and change was created around me. This course will equip the learner with a range of knowledge and skills that are fundamental to positively contributing to change in our business. The aim is to leave the seminar with skills that you have practiced and can apply immediately on return to your workplace. To continuously improve the process by which you run your business, you need the ability to look at things differently, develop new concepts and generate fresh ideas. You also need an organization that is receptive to change. Change can be creative and creates new opportunities.
Change has been defined as an event that occurs when there is a transition from one state or phase to another. Change is the most basic fact and a practical necessity of life and essential skill for survival. It affects us as individuals and calls for an appropriate response and adaptation.
Delegation for Results
“Delegation crowns the process of developing people: it is the seal of recognition, respect and trust”
All managers work with people. The chief tool that managers have in this work is delegation. The powers and abilities of individuals are channeled and organized by delegation, so that the manager gets things done through others. Managers of any discipline, whose organizational role requires them to organize their own time and that of their team members. Increasingly more is expected of us both at work and in our private lives. The demands on our time are ever present. Time is a valuable resource. Through this course, you will develop a framework and understanding of tools and methods available.
The Winning Business Sales Pitch
“There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.” – Dale Carnegie
Here’s a fact that can change the way you prepare and deliver your presentation. In the interview the evaluators / buyers are looking to answer two main questions: Can we work with these people? and should we trust them with our project?
The client already knows you are technically competent. That’s why you are in the interview. It is not about the technical work. It’s about the people!
What you need to do is help the evaluation panel answer those questions in your favor. They want to hear your enthusiasm for the job and to feel that they can trust you with the project. You won’t get them to feel that way by repeating what you’ve already said in the proposal. These prospective investors are not investing in a physical document but in an idea and in those proposing to deliver the idea.
Conflict Resolution to Strengthen the Team
“The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way in which we use them” – Adriana Doyle
Every relationship of any depth has conflict. No matter how close, how understanding, how compatible you are, there will be times when your ideas, actions, needs or goals won’t match those of the others around you. Most of us fear conflict because we have seen that serious disagreements can damage personal or business relationships. In fact, effective handling of conflicts can actually keep good relationships strong. In an ineffective management of conflict people will walk away from disagreement and let it linger. But despite the risk of pain and irritation, however, the rewards for handling disagreement constructively are gratifying. I’ve learnt from mistakes and successes. I will pass on my ideas.
Masterful Meetings Management
“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.”
To develop your skills in managing meetings, so that future meetings will be more productive. This module will equip the learner, and also enhance established strengths, with a range of knowledge and skills that are fundamental to positively contributing to an effective meeting anywhere. I’ve held and been part of hundreds or even thousands of meetings. Some good and some very bad. I have learnt from each and will share these thoughts.
Managers of any discipline whose organizational role requires them to plan or chair meetings on behalf of the company or business unit, with internal / external customers or suppliers. More managers are required to chair and participate in meetings as part of their daily work. Through this course, you will develop a framework and understanding of the meeting process and its techniques, and gain the skills needed to achieve a better outcome for all concerned.
Train the Trainer
“You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.” Galileo Galilei
I have enjoyed delivering this course to aspiring trainers in a number of companies. It has been an opportunity to pass on some of my experiences and tips on training. With a fair dose of presentation skills we also look at method and techniques of training. Welcome to the wonderful world of training! This workshop will give you the confidence to train a group of people or individuals either in a class room environment or on-the-job. You will learn some very effective new skills which will impress your colleagues and make the job of training more effective and enjoyable.
Training is an important function of business. It allows organizations to equip and maintain themselves with skills, so that the company and its employees develop and grow. The Train the Trainer workshop will concentrate on your ability to train others. You will be well equipped to enjoy the rigours and successes of training. I put all of my 20+ years of training experience into this course.
Managing the Manager – Secretarial Skills
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude”
Over the career I have had a number of secretaries, or administration assistants as the named has evolved. Some I shared and others were solely for our department. The affects of contributions of a good secretary cannot be underestimated. I always tried to emphasise we are a team in our work. I delivered this course in Holland and Middle East, as well as speaking at a Senior Secretarial conference in Istanbul.