engage-relate-and-persuade-people

The Stuff No One Teaches You About Human Engagement

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Brand & Reputation, Communication, Education in Sales, Human-centred, Life Skills, Presentation & Grooming, Sales Presentation & Grooming, Self Promotion, Uncategorized, Wellbeing

In 30 seconds

We all need to know how to engage, relate, and persuade people. It’s part of life. So, how do we learn to make memorable introductions, deliver compelling presentations, effectively position ourselves for career promotions, and navigate our way through a myriad of human relationships without falling to pieces? When it comes to presenting and engaging with others, a lack of skills can fill people with fear, especially when you’ve never been taught how to manage yourself in these situations. I see this all the time. As one MBA student told me recently on a Narrative, Presence and Presentation …

The Stuff No One Teaches You About Human Engagement Read Post »

being-respectful-pays-on-every-metric

Being Respectful Pays on Every Metric

By / / Blog, Common Ground, Ethics & Values, Human-centred, Leadership, Life Skills, Sales Culture, Success, Teamwork, Wellbeing

For a long time, getting ahead in business has been promoted as a war to be won, going into battle, beating the competition, and having a “be tough, no wimps” policy which has created leaders, teams and cultures that are often combative, hyper-competitive (think Survivor) and, in some cases, downright dangerous and toxic to be around.

The accompanying put-downs, bullying, shaming, physical threats of violence, and constant yelling at your team, individuals and colleagues to ‘boost performance’ might make for entertaining TV shows and movies but it does not improve performance. Instead, it has the opposite effect severely diminishing people and …

Being Respectful Pays on Every Metric Read Post »

tackling-rise-of-rudeness-with-Courtesy-and-Respect

Tackling the Rise of Rudeness with Courtesy & Respect

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Common Ground, Ethics & Values, Leadership, Life Skills, Sales Culture, Success, Teamwork, Wellbeing

If you’re sensing that rudeness and incivility are on the rise lately, you would be right.

Research shows that since the pandemic incidents of rudeness and incivility have been escalating worldwide.

Before we look further at the statistics, let’s look at Rudeness and Incivility themselves.

Culturally, people can be perceived as rude if they are too direct, blunt, or cheeky, or if they do not follow certain social mores – customs and codes of behaviour established by a social group- whether they intended to behave that way or not; however, this is not what we are talking about here.

This post is specifically calling …

Tackling the Rise of Rudeness with Courtesy & Respect Read Post »

volunteers-as-a-sales-force

Selling – a powerful agent for change

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Common Ground, Human-centred, Life Skills, Sales Skills, Selling Better

I live by the philosophy that everybody lives by selling something.

I also believe -I know- that Selling is a powerful agent for personal, social and political change.

Many people treat selling as a business function, which it is. However, they often see it as something done by others – those called salespeople. Yet when it comes to enacting any kind of change – personal, social, environmental, political – we need to embrace our inner salesperson to take charge and take action.

Knowing how to sell, ethically and honourably, is a game changer on every level.

We might have an idea or initiative we …

Selling – a powerful agent for change Read Post »

Soft Skills, Selling, and Micro-credentials

By / / Blog, Customer Service, Education in Sales, Life Skills, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Selling Better

How systematically are you and your team developing Soft Skills?

Soft Skills are now seen as the new hard skills for the 4th Industrial Revolution. They are referred to as employability and enterprise skills. They are transferable between industries and occupations. Soft skills include things such as communication, teamwork, and problem solving, as well as emotional judgement, professional ethics, and global citizenship. These universal soft skills also form the foundations of good selling and customer service.

Deloitte Access Economics forecasts that soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030, compared to half of all jobs in 2000. The …

Soft Skills, Selling, and Micro-credentials Read Post »

world-gratitude-day-21-09-2021

World Gratitude Day: The Moral Case for Gratitude, especially in uncertain times

By / / Blog, Common Ground, covid-19, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Life Skills, Remote selling, Resilience, Sales Psychology, Self Development, Value Based Selling

Tuesday 21 September 2021, is World Gratitude Day

In March 2019, I published my first paperback book: 142 Days of Gratitude that changed my life forever 

It is part memoir, part self-help, part business book all underpinned by science and philosophy.

In it I wrote a chapter about the moral case for gratitude. Given we are living in uncertain times I thought we could reflect for at least a few minutes, the time it takes you to read this article, on the power of gratitude to change our lives for the better.

So here’s my contribution to World Gratitude Day.  

The Moral Case …

World Gratitude Day: The Moral Case for Gratitude, especially in uncertain times Read Post »

adult-training-session-salesessentials

Celebrating adult learners & the positive power of lifelong learning

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Education in Sales, Learning and Development, Life Skills, Sales Training

Learning doesn’t just happen in a school classroom with a teacher telling us what to learn – although that is how many people think of learning still. Learning happens everywhere anytime whether we are aware of it or not. Learning is an essential part of our evolution, our daily lives, and our daily survival strategies beyond the school gate. Interestingly, learning starts off as an intrinsic joy to children – Maria Montessori talks about the absorbent mind of children, inquisitive and curious about how the world around them and beyond operates. Oh, the joys of being a curious, courageous adventurous …

Celebrating adult learners & the positive power of lifelong learning Read Post »

david-bowie-are-entrepreneurs-and-change-agents-born-or-made

Are entrepreneurs & change agents born or made?

By / / Blog, Entrepreneurship, Life Skills, Self Development, Success

Are successful entrepreneurs and change agents born or made? This is an important question because it can affect how people see themselves and what they aim for.

Let’s start first with some basic definitions:

Entrepreneur: Entrepreneurship is defined as the act of starting and running your own business or a tendency to be creative and wish to work for yourself in your own ventures.

Change Agent: A change agent is a person from inside or outside an organisation who helps an organisation, or part of an organisation, to transform how it operates. They can be thought of as a catalyst for change, a …

Are entrepreneurs & change agents born or made? Read Post »

Listening beyond self interest to achieve a fair exchange of value

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Business Acumen, Common Ground, Communication, Life Skills, Sales Tips

Back in 2012, I wrote the article – Are you really listening or just waiting to speak – which resonates with salespeople and leaders and gets them thinking about how well, or not, they really listen to others and how comfortable they are with silence and creating the space for others – in this case, their clients – to be heard and understood.

As we say in the Selling Better Manifesto, Selling is about creating a fair exchange of value between buyer and seller; it’s about mutual prosperity. For that to happen, we need to …

Listening beyond self interest to achieve a fair exchange of value Read Post »

I’m in sales, you’re in sales, we’re all in sales

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Blog, Brain Science, Call Reluctance, Everybody lives by selling something, Human-centred, Life Skills, Opportunity, Prospecting, Sales Psychology, Selling Better, Success

When my eldest son was eleven, he said to me ‘Mum I don’t believe everybody lives by selling something’. I said, ‘That’s interesting, why do you say that?’ and he started to try to persuade and convince me as to why this statement wasn’t true. So I said to him ‘by you trying to persuade and convince me why this isn’t true, aren’t you trying to sell me something?’ To which he said ‘Ahh, I get it Mum.’

Yes, we are all in sales, one way or another.

If you have ever tried to initiate contact with a person …

I’m in sales, you’re in sales, we’re all in sales Read Post »

Scroll to Top