THE SERVICE ADVANTAGE

This session presents a new and unique approach on how we look at customer service. Satisfied customers are easy targets for your competitors as their loyalty is fleeting. Satisfied customers do not provide referrals nor do they generally increase their business with you. You are meeting their basic needs and not much else.

Loyal customers are created by exceeding expectations and creating a memorable experience that sticks. Customers will remember you and will refer family and friends. You will learn what customers really want and why so many customers leave your business and why they don’t refer. Recent research has indicated that 68% of customers leave your business because they “feel” unappreciated. Many businesses believe price is a major factor for getting business and losing business. You will learn how to overcome the price objection with memorable service.

The key to service is the people who work in your business, the people who interact with your customers. You already know some of your people are exceptional and we will help all your people become exceptional and create those memorable moments during the service experience that will set you apart and build amazing loyalty. 

This highly interactive session is both fun and challenging.  We discuss simple yet effective techniques to help your service people recognize those opportunities to create the WOW experience.  We provide the scientific research that supports consideration for a new approach to building relationships, networking and creating memorable experiences that lead to stronger retention and referrals.

Learning Points:

  1. Why memorable experiences lead to loyalty and more referrals

  2. Recognize opportunities to WOW your customer

  3. Simple yet practical approaches to creating a unique service experience

  4. The psychology behind exceptional service and how to make it memorable

  5. Its always the little things that win the day and the little things that lose customers.

  6. How to establish a customer centric culture and make it last

power of persuasion

Length of Course: 2.5 hours
Audience 24 - 100

This session presents a new and unique approach to influencing your clients and referral sources to say "yes" to your requests more often.  Using the psychology of human nature, we investigate how to be more persuasive and in turn more successful.

This highly interactive session is both fun and challenging.  We discuss simple yet effective techniques to help sales people get what they ask for and close more business.  By making more powerful requests and becoming increasingly aware of those key moments of power during a conversation, you open the door to becoming more influential.  We ask five sales related questions on how you would position certain requests, and provide the scientific research that supports consideration for a new approach to building relationships, networking and getting more referrals and more business.

This is the most popular of our value add programs for all employees involved in the sales process.

Learning Points:

  1. Increase referral sourced business

  2. Enhance how "to ASK for the business"

  3. Networking skills

  4. How to get "shoppers to phone you back"

  5. Be more influential in all aspects of life

Moments of power

Length of Course: 2 hours
Audience 24 - 100 

Moments of Power is the series of programs that follow the Power of Persuasion.  There are three specific seminars, and each of these goes into much more detail around two of the six principles of influence.  We include some role play to enhance teh learning and application of these principles back on the job.

It is our recommendation that participants take the Moments of Power series of seminars 4 to 5 months after the Power of Persuasion, and then every 4 to 5 months until the group has completed all three segments.  Follow up and continual reinforcement is critical if we expect long term behavioral change, impacting results at the branch level or in the field.

Learning Points:

  1. Enhanced understanding of the Power of Persuasion principles

  2. Role play with real life case studies and situations

  3. Commitments made to practice techniques on the job

  4. Influence skills significantly improved for better results

  5. How to win friends and influence people

price is never the issue

Length of Course: 1.5 to 2 hours
Audience 24 - 100 lenders & brokers

This program attacks the notion that mortgage lenders must compete on price because mortgages are becoming a commodity. We provide learning around the value proposition individuals must make to avoid the price trap.  We provide answers to "what is your best rate" and how to shift the conversation to the value rather than price.  People buy value they don't always buy based solely on price.

This is a challenging program as many have difficulty dealing with price shoppers.  We will discuss ways to get the price shopper to give you a second chance after they shop with your competitors and discuss how to increase your close rate significantly.  Getting clients to phone you back is far more effective than you doing a follow up phone call.  We will share the secrets to get customers to phone you back before they decide.

Learning Points:

  1. How to negotiate price

  2. Sell value not price

  3. How to outsell price cutters

  4. How to builld value

  5. How to handle the price objection

retail is detail

Length of Course: 1.5
Audience 24 - 100

This program discusses the fact that companies don't fail on the major issues, it's usually the small items that are unattended to that cause significant problems with customer service and growth.  We investigate the moments of truth that occur in those first 10 to 14 seconds, when customers see us or our branch and how they judge the rest of the conversation based on that first impression.

We review the "broken windows" philosophy and use case studies to see how dealing with the detail can result in significant enhancement to service and sales.  This is an interactive program where participants do a virtual tour of their branch and discover their own broken windows and make commitments to "Retail is Detail".

Learning Points:

  1. Change the environment, change the resutls

  2. How to create a team founded on excellence

  3. What to look for in enhancing first impressions

  4. Builld rapport - build business

art of persuasion, based on 12 angry men

Length of Course: 3.5 hours
Audience 24 - 80

This is a case study of a jury trial as 11 jury members vote guilty and one votes not guilty.  The exercise involves understanding the various management, leadership and sales skills used to change the inds of each of the jurist, one at a time.  Discussions and learning will be tailored to the specific needs of the group attending.  Team building and team dynamics play a key role in the learning, as smaller groups have to arrive at a consensus, who will change their mind next and what technique was used.

This program turns quite competitive between teams as we keep score of their success at determining who changes their mind. The group discusses why and then determnies who is next and why.

It is a challenging and exciting learning opportunity form a totally different perspective than most training programs.  Participants have commented that it was the most valuable program they have had in years, and have said they will never forget the experience.  You will never watch a movie the same way again!

Learning Points:

  1. A study of team dynamics and how to build team support

  2. Winning against the odds

  3. Invite others to join the team

  4. How to deal with different character traits

  5. Management and sales skills

coaching & TRAINING for success

Length of Course: 2 hours
Audience 18 - 32

Managing people has shifted in recent years from micro management to coaching.  This transition has not been easy for many managers as their natural style is to tell tell people what to do and to micromanage by finding things wrong so they can help employees fix their weaknesses.  This strategy has proven ineffective over the years and yet many managers find it difficult to become effective coaches.  They don't understand what coaching means nor how to use this tool effectively so they rely on their natural tendencies to control.

This seminar will focus on clear research that supports an effective coaching style.  One that is inclusive and the staff become engaged in the success of the company rather than doing what they are told.  We will show how to build on strengths and how this will significantly impact the performance of your team.  We provide a template that will make it simple to be much more effective almost immediately.  This program is a life long approach to how we grow our people in the competitive business world we face today.

Learning Points:

  1. The difference between management and coaching

  2. How to build on strengths

  3. Role play on coaching - words count!

  4. How to gain commitment from employees and keep it

  5. Align individual goals with corporate goals

overcoming objections

Length of Course: 1 - 2 hours
Audience 24 - 80

Serving customers who are frustrated, angry or who have had a bad experience is a challenge for both new and experienced service providers, and requires extraordinary patience and tact.  Research shows that the effort cannot only restore the customers loyalty, but can create an even stronger relationship.

In this module, participants discuss the positive and negative customer experiences and learn how to restore a customer's trust and confidence.  In addition, participants gain insights and learn techniques for managing their own reactions in difficult situations.

Learning Points:

  1. Identify things that set customers off

  2. Why it's important to heal relationships after an angry experience

  3. Manage one's own personal reactions to emotional statements made customers - how to choose the right behavior

  4. Use several defusing techniques with customers who are angry or upset

  5. Take action to turn things around after a service breakdown and how service recovery can win referrals

sales conversations

Length of Course: 4 hours
Audience 10 - 30

This training module is designed for those who deal with customers in person on a daily basis.  It provides a universal approach service providers or sales staff can use to manage any customer interaction with confidence.  This can be broken into two sessions if the client prefers.

Within this framework, participants learn how to gain the customer's confidence and cooperation from the outset, and how to use questions to uncover and onfirm customer needs.  We use role play to showcase the techniques on how to close and follow up to build the relationship and build the business through larger share of wallet and referrals.

Learning Points:

  1. Know the four common segments of a conversation cycle

  2. Learn how to gain customer confidence quickly

  3. Use open and closed questions to understand the customers' needs

  4. Practice the power of restatement to guide the conversation

  5. Learn the magic words to increase the close ratio

  6. Discover the secrets to follow up and retention

  7. Best practices for that first interaction and building stronger relationships

time management

Length of Course: 30 minutes
Audience 10 - 30

In this half hour session, we provide time saving techniques that will make individuals more efficient in their day - to - day lives. Participants will learn time honoured methods of getting more done with less time.

Learning Points:

  1. Telephone tactics for Home & Office

  2. The #1 productivity theif and how to overcome it

  3. The A B C 's of prioritizing

  4. The to do list

  5. Just say No!

  6. Email management

asking for business - asking for referrals

Length of Course: 1.5 hours
Audience 24 - 150
Most people in sales are still rather humble people and really don't like to ask for business but much prefer to hint at the business instead. This program demonstrates how to make more powerful requests and get more of what you really want. Many people are afraid of rejection and this is usually the reason we prefer to hint.  If we know what we want and know how to ask for what we want, the results will surprise you.

This highly interactive program deals with the psychology that holds us all back from achieving our goals and presents simple yet effective methods of scripting to capitalize on why people say yes to requests.  This is an excellent follow-up to the "Persuasion is Power" program which should be the pre-requisite for most programs we offer.  This is a unique way of looking for the business with well reseacrhed, proven results that will make a difference in your life.  Take control of your life and start making those powerful requests that will lead to amazing success.

Learning Points: 

  1. Know what you want as the starting point for all sales

  2. Make more powerful requests

  3. Accept "no" as professional, not personal

  4. Learn how to control your inner voice that limits your success

  5. Increase referrals and increase sales results and using the "self-fulfilling prophecy" to your advantage

emotionally selling

Length of Course: 2 hours
Audience 24 - 100

People shop logically but buy emotionally. 
The challenge for all of us is to shift a shopper into a buyer and we do this by engaging their emotions into the transaction. The right kind of questions gets the right kind of results and creates an emotional attachment to you and the product. This increases sales and increases client satisfaction. 

Psychological research has proven these two aspects of buyer’s behaviour are true. 
“PEOPLE VALUE WHAT THEY SAY AND THEIR OWN CONCLUSIONS MORE THAN WHAT THEY ARE TOLD!”
“PEOPLE VALUE WHAT THEY ASK FOR MORE THAN WHAT IS FREELY OFFERED!”

How will this knowledge change your current approach to presenting your case to clients? This highly participative program will get participants to take a close look at their current sales conversations and they will change the way they ask questions and change the way they relate to clients. The results will speak for themselves.

Learning Points:

  1. How to get clients to talk 80% of the time and you only 20%

  2. How to engage the emotional connection with clients

  3. How to ask more effective questions to capitalize on scientific research on getting to YES

  4. Learn to ask for the business at the right time. Most ask too early before emotional connection is made

  5. How to close with a question

advanced presentation skills

Length of Course: Six Hours - One day
Audience 6 -10

This program will expand on the introductory presentation skills program. The focus will be on perfecting the message and the delivery of this message. This workshop is interactive, energizing, with individual activities, video taped presentations, and individual skills practice. Pre work will include a prepared presentation with power point which will be video taped and critiqued. Take your communications to the next level and learn how to be an effective public speaker. 

Learning Points: 

  1. Perfect public speaking with verbal and non verbal skills

  2. How to get clients to be more attentive and say "YES" to your requests

  3. How to handle questions

  4. Fine tune the PowerPoint for maximum impact

  5. The perfect close