Are you the greatest leader of your ship? Can you lead your business, no matter how small it is, to the safe shore in a well-designed, operative way?

With the right use of leadership styles and leadership programs, it is guaranteed that you, your team and your SME will reach a pioneering position in the world of business. Many managers or SME owners undervalue the importance of the style of leadership they practice on their team. They even falsely assume that leadership style is a function of personality rather than strategic choice. Consequently, we advise you to ask yourself which style best fits your company culture, situation, and goals.

Leadership style affects organizational climate, the way managers motivates their employees, make decisions, encourage initiatives and handle the crisis. On the other hand, it is also true that there is no best way to lead a group of people; the ultimate model is to combine all styles according to every situation. The best leaders don’t know just one style of leadership. ‘They are skilled at several and have the ability to shift between styles fitting all circumstances’.

Hear from leaders who changed the world:

• Mary Kay Ash: Mary Kay believed in the power of recognition, giving prizes and praise at every level to motivate success. She also advised that criticism should be constructive and should be sandwiched between two thick layers of praise. This approach ensures that the employee receives feedback without feeling discouraged.

• Bill Wilson: Bill Wilson believed that as people climb up the corporate ladder and become successful, there is a risk that they start believing they are always right. Their egos start to dominate the organization, and employees become hesitant to speak their minds. So he wanted to promote individual initiative and prevent egos and hierarchies from taking over the company.

• Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs was known to be a demanding and tough boss as he believed there is a risk of becoming complacent when trying to cater to everyone in every market. So, while everyone wants a happy and polite work environment, performance expectations must be met. If you fail to motivate your team to do their very best, your business will eventually be overtaken by someone who can, according to Jobs.

The 6 leadership styles:

Here is a brief about proven SME leadership styles. It is now your chance to reevaluate your style and to reveal your weaknesses in order to start fresh, with a promising way of leadership:

• The Laissez-Faire style:

  This style of leadership applies to highly skilled, educated and trained employees. The Laissez-Faire leader follows an “ employees come first” attitude. He rarely offers advice and he allows the team freely to make any decision that suits the tasks to be accomplished. The role of the leader consists more of delegation. But be careful, not all employees possess the characteristics adequate to this style of leadership. This can result in leaving languid or hard to motivate employees needing supervision in a predicament. This also can lead to some undesirable consequences such as lack of control and increasing costs.
  Advice: Do an assessment of your employees, and apply this style only on those who match the requirements; the highly skilled, educated, motivated and trained ones. And apply another style to the rest of your team.

• The democratic style:

  We also could call this style also participative leadership style. As the title indicates, in a democratic style, the manager gives the employees a voice in decisions; thus, he shares the decision-making process among workers. This will build an organizational flexibility and responsibilities rising fresh ideas that are highly needed in SME’s. Nevertheless, as a leader, you always have the final say.
  This leadership style makes the employees feel important and that their opinions matter. But be aware, this will need debates, discussions and sometimes endless meetings, which will confuse the employees who feel leaderless.
  Advice: This style’s impact on organizational climate is not as high as you might imagine.
  Apply this leadership style when you need to make changes within the organization because it helps easily the employees to accept them since they were already playing a role in the process.

• The coercive style:

  This “I am the boss” style creates a highly hierarchical system. Almost all employees have no say and they are fully committed to the leader. The manager makes decisions alone without the input of the others. This will limit the creativity of some employees and transform them into followers lacking initiation and motivation. They become robots, doing exactly what their managers informed them to do. Only employees who require close supervision will be fine with this style of leadership. Otherwise, in most situations, coercive leadership constrains the company’s flexibility and diminishes employee’s incentive.
  Advice: Don’t apply this leadership style in your SME, as one of the keys to the success of SME’s is creativity. This style imprisons your employees inside the box.
  This style might be effective only in a turn-around situation, a natural disaster, or when working with problem employees.

• The authoritative style:

  An authoritative leader uses the “take my hand approach”. The manager will set the overall goals but gives the employees the freedom to choose their strategies and tactics to reach them.
  Advice: As an SME manager, use this style only when your business is directionless and your team is less experienced than you. Else, this leadership style is unproductive.

• The transactional style:

  Managers using the transactional leadership style base their managing on providing rewards or punishments to team members based on the result of their performance.
  Together, the managers and team members will predetermine goals. The leader sets extremely high standards and exemplifies them himself. He is determinant about doing things faster and better. The mission starts, the leader can interfere at any moment and pinpoints poor performance and demands more from them. At the end, managers will reward succeed, such as bonuses, but if they fail managers will punish them, such as replacing them with people who can.
  Hence, this style is a military operation where the workers have to follow the leader’s instructions and do things as planned and requested.
  Advice: This style will avoid your employees to think outside the box. Employees will focus on finishing the task the way you want it to be done. They will lack any enthusiasm or self-motivation to come with new ideas or maybe more efficient ways to reach the goals. It can destroy the climate of the company.

• The coaching style:

  Instead of focusing on immediate work-related tasks and goals, the coaching leader emphases personal development. This style works the most when employees are open to learning new ways and skills realizing how cultivating new abilities can help them advance.
  Advice: As a manager, we recommend to apply this leadership style to employees who are already aware of their weaknesses and want to improve. But not when they are resistant to changing their ways.

So what type of leader are you? And how many leadership styles can you master to create the best climate for your company and the best performance among your employees?

Many studies have shown that among the above styles, the authoritative, democratic, laissez-faire and coaching styles have an ultimate and great effect. As a conclusion, remember that the most effective leaders are the ones who can switch flexibly among the leadership styles. So, don’t change the direction of the wind but adjust the sails to always reach your destination.

The post 6 Leadership Styles Available For Use When Managing an SME – Updated 2024 appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Well, that’s why we developed the Ultimate B2B Sales Guide.

We believe that selling skills are essential to everyone and should be taught in school. Everyone needs selling skills on a daily basis – it’s a core part of your people communication toolkit. Every time you try to convince someone of something, you are actually selling your idea to them.

B2B Sales takes the selling skills to the next level. It’s much more complicated and requires more skills than selling in a retail environment.

When you are selling to organizations, you need to convince several people of the benefits of your product or service. Each of these customers has their own perspective, own character, own style, and as such you would need to adapt to each one of them.

In Enterprise or B2B sales, you should also develop good planning and time management habits since you need to prioritize your activities. You need to develop innovation and problem-solving skills to find solutions to the common client objections and so on..

Whether you are an Entrepreneur, Sales professional, looking for a sales job, or a Sales manager this Ultimate Enterprise Selling Guide will give you the needed skills, process, and tools to help you prepare to increase your enterprise sales.

Sales is a fundamental aspect of any business as it aims to match the needs of the clients with the benefits that your product or service can provide to these clients.

Without sales, there is no business!

In what follows are a set of Skills and Techniques to keep in mind as you go about doing your B2B Sales.

Think of the way you are approaching your enterprise clients

The most successful salespeople exhibit two essential enterprise selling skills:

1. They have Empathy by being able to put themselves in the shoes of the customer and understand the client’s needs and requirements
2. They have Ego which drives them to overcome rejections and obstacles so that they can close the deal in a way that is good for them and the company

These two skills are necessary and need to be balanced at all times. Every person in the organization can apply these skills since everyone is involved in selling something to someone.

How are your ego and empathy skills? Do you believe you use one more than the other?

Think of an opportunity that you are working on right now and reflect on which skill you are using more than the other. Are you giving the customer too much or are you being too aggressive with your approach?

Remember, nothing really happens in a business until someone sells something!

 

Think of the Benefits that your offerings provide your B2B customers 

The sale of your products or solutions is what keeps your company alive, and to best position your offerings you need to focus on the benefits that they provide to your clients instead of focusing on the features of these offerings.

In enterprise sales, there are 2 key benefits that are always of interest to clients and which you should capitalize on when positioning your offerings.

What you are selling should either help your clients:

1. Make more money
2. Save money

Everything else is considered nice to have, but if you can demonstrate the above business impact of your offerings, you would get the clients’ attention.

Think of your offerings. How do they help your enterprise clients?

Do you help them make money, or save money or can you even do both? That would be great, wouldn’t it?

In most cases, you can find ways in which your products help your client make more money and save money.

Here’s an example of an enterprise sale done right:

Let’s say you are selling a CRM solution to your clients.

You can position the solution as a way to make more money since the company would be able to market to the right people and upsell.

You can also position the CRM solution as a way to reduce costs of time spent by the sales teams on digging through emails to find what was the last conversation trial with a prospect. The client might also be able to save costs on staff calling each other to be updated about the prospect. Through the CRM every team member can have the same customer view available to them when they need it saving money to the company.

In the end:

You are not selling your products or services but rather you are selling Money.

This money is in the form of savings or an increase in revenue for your clients!

3 Ways to Segment your B2B Clients 

Segmenting your clients helps you focus the message that you will deliver to them and in the process clarify the benefits that they would get in language that they would understand. It’s the first step in your B2B Sales Process.

Companies often segment their target corporate clients by:

1. Industry (Finance, telecom, Government, Education etc..)
2. Geography (Country or regional focus)
3. Size of Clients (by number of users, or revenue, or spending)

You might have more than one segment that you address or more than one sub-segment but by focusing your energies on the most relevant one you can ensure that the message to that segment is tailored and effective.

The bottom line:

You need to have a high-impact, simple message that could be quickly delivered to and understood by your target clients!

5 key stages of the sales funnel and the B2B Sales Process

The sales funnel is the process of taking client opportunities through a qualification process towards a successful deal closure. It is essential in enterprise business to have a sales funnel since it provides the ability to forecast future revenue.

The B2B sales funnel stages include:

1. Prospecting which is the initial identification of possible opportunities
2. Qualifying or validating where we ensure that there is truly an opportunity in the account at this point of time and identify the key decision makers
3. Proposing by which we propose a solution to address the client needs within a budget that they have
4. Closing the deal which includes the final stages of negotiations
5. Winning the project and handing it over to the delivery team

These 5 stages represent the sales roadmap for any business and you should review them on a daily basis!

Methods to get more B2B Sales from your Enterprise prospects 

Prospecting is the first stage of the B2B sales funnel and involves a low level of engagement with possible clients. The aim of this stage is to expand as much as possible the reach into the market and to identify new prospects.

Here are 4 ways for you to increase the number of prospects:

• Networking at Events and Trade Shows (utilizing an event staffing agency can help maximize your presence)
• Email Campaign to your Contacts
• Referrals from existing clients or friends
• Reaching out to LinkedIn leads

Prospecting should be an ongoing process since sales is a numbers game and as such, you should aim to increase your chances of success by increasing the volume of leads you are working on.

Essential corporate selling skills qualification questions 

After initial interest from a client, the next step is to validate the opportunity and ensure that your time and efforts are well spent on the hottest leads.

Here are 4 questions to ask yourself as you qualify for an opportunity:

• Does the client seem to have an allocated Budget for the project?
• Do my contacts in the client have the right authority to make a decision?
• Is there are a need for my offerings?
• Will the client be able to take a decision to move ahead in a timely manner?

This lead qualification method is called the BANT model and allows you to determine if you should propose that opportunity.

5 essential components of winning B2B proposals 

Proposals explain to clients our solution to their needs. They are time-consuming to produce so they should only be put together after good qualification of the opportunity.

Here are 5 essential components that you should add to your enterprise sales skills to generate a winning proposal:

• Summarise the proposal in an Executive Summary. Most clients would read this section so you should leave it till the end to ensure you cover all key points
• Have a section that shows that you Understand Client Needs
• Include a section that outlines Your Solution to those needs
• Include an easy to understand Financial Investment section. Always refer to your sales price as an investment and not cost and as much as you can show the Return on that investment. You can also put the next steps
• Appendices to cover all other standard information, like your corporate profile, implementation methods, solution features etc..

The proposal’s main body can be short and effective but has to be customized for each client.  The appendix material, on the other hand, can be prepared ahead of time and reused in proposals efficiently.

Remember, proposals reflect your company’s professionalism, so make sure they give clients a feel of the quality of service they can expect from you. So, to save some time and allocate more attention to your prospects, consider using a professional proposal creator that automatically covers all the essential elements aforementioned.

Tactics to watch out for when Closing your B2B Sale  

Here you will learn about creating better negotiated outcomes.

Negotiation happens all the time within the organization, with suppliers and with clients. If done well, it strengthens the relationship between the two negotiating entities by ensuring that expectations are clear and the outcome is in the interest of both parties.

Many negotiated outcomes are jeopardized due to these 3 tactics:

1. The negotiator breaks up the negotiation to small parts so that you approve one element just to find that there is another that is then introduced. Always make sure that you only give your final answer after knowing all the elements that would be negotiated
2. The negotiator claims that if there is no deal if they don’t get what they want. If the negotiator is being one-sided and not ready to take your point of view, then it is better to disagree early than to get into a one-sided relationship. Most of the times they are bluffing
3. The negotiator takes from you what they want today with the promise of better future terms. No one can guarantee the future unless it is in a contract, so don’t count on empty promises

Everyone in the company should be aware of good negotiation tactics so they preserve the interest of the company in all their dealings and to reach better outcomes.

Remember that the best possible outcome is a Win-Win situation where both parties win the negotiated agreement.

3 Considerations in Implementing Successful B2B Sales Projects 

Projects are launched all the time across firms whether they are internal or external. It’s important to ensure successful project implementations so as to avoid a loss of a lot of time, money, and in some cases reputations.

Successful Project Management takes into account the following considerations:

1. An agreement on the acceptable quality level of the output of the project. As an example, if the project is to send a person to the moon, the quality requirements would be dramatically high.
2. A budget for the costs that would be incurred to deliver the project
3. An accepted time period during which the project should be completed

The three aspects are all related to each other and as such are set out at the beginning of the project and are tracked all through the implementation of the project. If there is a need to improve any one of the three elements, that would have an impact on the other two elements.

Everyone in your organization should learn these three basic aspects of projects and define them at the beginning would help save a lot of costs, time, and effort.

The ultimate aim of the enterprise sale is that you get paid quickly and get paid in full.

Want to know more?

If you are interested in learning more about Enterprise Sales and how to develop your sales skills, you can take our 24 min sales course.

Since you have read this far, we have a special offer for you.

If you want to see all the library of services you can check out our shop and your special discount would apply to any order.

We hope that through this Enterprise Selling guide you would be able to increase your sales and have a banner year ahead!

The post B2B Sales – The Ultimate Enterprise Selling Guide appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Becoming a better negotiator is becoming a better communicator and thus, becoming a more successful individual. In this blog, we will take you through a step by step process of how to improve your negotiation skills by learning how to be always prepared. 

Negotiation skills are important to everyone, whether at school, university, when looking for a job, while at a job, when starting a business and when seeking investment or financing. It is one of the essential skills in any career whether you are an academic, a doctor or a business person. 

So let’s get started by going over some essential negotiation skills.

Ways Negotiation Skills Enhances Any Discussion 

Have you ever wanted something so badly but were afraid of not getting it? “They won’t agree. If I ask, the consequences will be disappointing. What I’m asking for is kind of impossible…” and forward goes the unending trail of negative thoughts, until you realize that negotiation is simply about creating win-win situations.  

Here are 5 ways negotiation skills paves your way to enhance any discussion: 

1. Reflects Your Critical Thinking: When you negotiate, you are presenting arguments, reasons and other logical approaches, which make you appear analytical, smart and trustworthy. Consequently, others will be more motivated to reach an agreement with you. 
2. Helps You Better Understand What You Want: Negotiation skills takes you through the pros and cons of what you want, allowing you along the way to refine and redefine your needs, thus better focusing your energy on the desired outcomes. 
3. Handles the Concerns of Others: Just like negotiation makes your needs clearer, it also helps others identify exactly what they are concerned about. Through negotiation, you give them the chance not only to address their problems at once, but to also manage them through the resolutions you offer. 
4. Improves Your Persuasive Skills: As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.”  The more you negotiate with others, the more insights you will discover about human psychology. Hence, next time, you will approach your targets with more confidence and sell them your ideas in more powerful ways. 
5. Increases People’s Likelihood of Approaching You: We usually say “I don’t like working with X. He doesn’t give and take.” First and foremost, negotiation proves that you are a flexible person, who doesn’t adopt rigid beliefs but rather tries for creative solutions to make everyone satisfied. 

Eventually, negotiation makes you a winner, and people offer you what you want as if it is what they want too. Negotiation can start with any ordinary conversation and soon it becomes a skill you build on and use in your daily life, whether at work, home, in relationships, and the list goes on!! So its well worth your time to invest in developing your negotiation skills. 

5 Essential Negotiation Skills Pillars A Negotiation Can’t Work Without 

Think of an empty construction space as the stage just before negotiation. You have your arguments, right? Those are building stones. Similarly, the other party has its arguments, building stones from another nature that might not work with yours. Wondering about the solution? Establish some fixed pillars, upon which you can handle even conflicting view points. 

Here are 5 pillars to consider in your back mind every time and for every negotiation. 

1. Active Listening: This powerful skill allows you to gather information about the other party and make them think you are on their side. Listen. Show understanding. Ask open-ended questions, and help them describe their problems more specifically.  
2. Emotional Control: Keep your negative emotions in check although it is very possible that the discussion might frustrate you at times. However, giving the lead to your emotions will negatively affect your thinking ability and might lead you to rush to the wrong thing to say or do.
3. Time: The longer you remain in control, the more you can use the time to your benefit. Nobody likes to feel they’re in a rush or under pressure. Slow things down. Allow the other to talk and feel they are taking part in the decision process, while you gradually lead them to your resolution, instead of directly imposing it on them.
4. Decision-Making Ability: While you abide by all the above, it is important be a firm decision maker. Remember you don’t want to give the impression that you are taking it slow because you are hesitant about what you really want. On the contrary, you should act decisively, either accept or reject a compromise.
5. Ethics & Reliability: This pillar equally deserves the first and the last place. It is important at the beginning to establish an environment of trust and respect. But also at the end, you should stick to the promises of your resolution. 

These are 5 basic negotiation skills pillars to kick start your negotiations, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spice them up with your own values and character traits that make you stand out as a successful negotiator, who breaks the rules but only after mastering them. 

5 Big NOs to Avoid During Negotiation 

Do you dream of becoming a brilliant negotiator? If you are already reading this article, the answer is probably yes, you aspire to become what they call a street-smart negotiator who seems to naturally perform well. But what if something you shouldn’t say suddenly slips out? 

Consider these 5 mistakes you preferably stay on your guards to avoid as you improve your negotiation skills: 

1. Showing You’re the Final Decision Maker: Even if you really are, don’t show it. Mention someone else you should refer to, whether a higher authority or a partner, because you neither want the opposing negotiators to pressure you with making a decision on the spot, nor think that you’re the only person they’ve got to manipulate. 
2. Sticking to the Plan: A plan is necessary prior to negotiation, but if youstick to its rigid scenarios, you will risk losing many opportunities. Instead, maximize your focus during a negotiation and be flexible to figure out on spot-solutions, while your primary plan rests in the back of your mind, only as a guide but not more. 
3. Taking It Personal: We go back to the pillar of emotional control in the previous video. Play it as calm as you can and show the opposing negotiators that you can’t be easily provoked or impressed. Even if they speak angrily, stay relaxed. It might be a trap to get you more emotional and less in control. 
4. Signaling to Closure: When you say something like, “Ok, we are nearly getting there,” it shows that you are eager to finish. The other party, if skilled, will be very likely to seize this opportunity and rush through the conditions they still want to impose, knowing that you won’t protest any longer.  
5. Ignoring Future Prospects: Sometimes a small successful deal turns out to be the start of many other great feats. Don’t underestimate the importance of any negotiation skills and always do your best. Regardless of the negotiation’s outcome, maintaining good relationships will benefit you one day.  

Just like these NOs show you how things might go wrong, it is already easier to avoid them now that you are aware of them. After all, mistakes aren’t but opportunities to learn, change and improve. 

Body Language Hacks to Improve Your Negotiation Skills

If you read again the title of this unit, you’d find out the definition of a skilled negotiator – someone who can communicate and also control their verbal and non-verbal signals. Body language is an ideal judge of people’s behavior and constitutes more than 50% of any communication. 

As condensed and brief as possible, the 5 guidelines below point out almost all you should know: 

1. Set a Benchmark: Body language is more or less universal, yet you can’t apply it to everyone equally. First, you have to understand the person in front of you. For that purpose, start a light conversation asking questions whose answers you already know. This helps you observe how others behave when not under pressure, so that you later develop a more accurate reading of their body language. 
2. Learn the Basics: A quick online research will give you the meaning of common gestures. For example, leaning forward is agreement, leaning backwards is disagreement, nodding the head is approval, frowning the eyebrows is suspicion, and looking away is disinterest. Learning about these will help you both interpret the other’s response and control yours. 
3. Defuse Tension: It is only natural that tension grows around the conflicting arguments during a negotiation. However, a positive mood is substantial for reaching an agreement, and it gives you the sense of power to be the one who gives back the conversation its positive vibes. Smile like you mean it, nod your head occasionally and maintain friendly eye contact. 
4. Build Rapport: This is probably the best advice you would receive about running successful conversations. By nature, people feel safe and secure when surrounded with familiar things or people they feel they already know. The latter is your job. Gradually, try to mirror the person facing you, changing one gesture at a time until you are sitting and interacting exactly like them. 
5. Relax Your Body: This most likely goes without saying, but probably you already feel tense finding out that you have to make all the above efforts other than already focus on what you want to say. In fact, a relaxed body does it all. It shows you’re confident, positive and reliable. 

Learning body language is not a study you accomplish overnight or after a few tests. It is a continuous process of reading people and deeply understanding how every person is unique, but all of that all starts from knowledge. The more you read, the more you know, and the better you become.

4 Traps to Escape During a Negotiation 

To many people, successful deals are measured by the maximum advantages one can gain. Some of those people are direct and make you consciously give them what they want. Others are indirect, and use controversially unethical behaviors to reach their target. 

Find out below, 4 attitudes you better get suspicious about: 

1. Exaggeration: Negotiators would exaggerate to pressure you and make you feel guilty. For example, they would say “No way, this is just impossible, you can’t be serious.” Don’t get intimidated. Ask, “Why do you say that? What are your concerns?” Keep your position clear and be the one who puts the pressure by suggesting alternative ways to reach an agreement. 
2. Sudden Mood Change: Your opposing negotiators might display at first great enthusiasm to make you feel how exciting it is to be close to an agreement and to encourage you to lay all your cards on the table. Suddenly, they become reluctant to agree or even negotiate, indirectly pressuring you to offer as much compromises as possible. Be a step ahead, and as soon as you detect a mood change, inquire about the reasons and argue about them.
3. Only One More: When your opposing negotiators need a lot of compromises from you, they will be cautious to tell you everything at once. Instead, they will present only one or two requests each time, mentioning them as one last point to add, so that you don’t feel you are giving up a lot. Make sure you count all their demands at the end.
4. Superiority: Many negotiators would attempt to be fully authoritative and impose their power and control, barely allowing you space to suggest or decide something else. If you can’t avoid a negotiation with those people, it’s advisable you stick to your position, back it up with logical arguments, or else announce that you will solve the problem yourself. 

You can’t always predict the person you will have to talk to, and this can add to the uncertainty and stress of a negotiation. Build confidence in your position, prepare yourself for a possible letdown, and keep a flexible positive spirit. A problem might be one, but its solutions can be numerous. 

4 Steps to Improve your Negotiation Skills by Handling Negotiation Anxiety 

If after all these videos, you still feel intimidated to start a negotiation, you are not alone. In fact, theoretical learning is only the first step of nurturing the confident negotiator inside you. But remember, as much as negotiations make you feel nervous, eventually they will make you smarter too. 

Below are 4 steps to relieve your nervousness before negotiation: 

1. Reframe Anxiety as Excitement: Most of the stress you feel before a negotiation, happens inside your mind. That’s good news because it means you can control it. Reframe your anxiety as excitement to face what’s coming. Don’t leave room for discouraging thoughts. Instead, channel your energy to accomplish step 2. 
2. Prepare Yourself: Boost your confidence by trying to anticipate the situations you are about to face. “What if I am asked this? How should I answer? What if I talk about that? I think they would like it.” Finally, lower your expectations and prepare yourself for the worst, a technique called defensive pessimism. 
3. Focus On Opportunities: Now that you have prepared, you can consider that you have done your best. Why think about all the ways you might fail? There’s an equal possibility that things will go extremely well. Channel your thoughts, and you will be more likely to make the right decisions. 
4. Practice Regularly: As you pass from one negotiation to another, you will be able to identify your weak points to work on them and your strong points to sharpen other skills. Research supports that if you negotiate regularly, you will become more familiar with the possible scenarios and situations. Hence, you will be less affected by the negative effects of anxiety. 

With this frame of mind, soon you will start to recognize the significance and frequency of negotiations in our daily life. They are part of almost every conversation, so you will have tons of opportunities to practice your skills. You don’t have to wait for the real situation.

We hope that these negotiation skills tips will help you come out with better deals in your business and personal affairs.

The post Negotiation Skills: Become a Better Negotiator Today appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Many people spend their whole careers thinking about how to start a small business but are worried, that they might fail.

 

That’s totally understandable given the fact that 1 out of 5 businesses fail!

Failure is an essential part of running a business because if there wasn’t some risk involved, everyone would do it. However, manageable failures allow you to learn and adjust your business.

You may be asking how can we do that? How to start a small business that has a high chance of success?

We’ve put together our expertise gained over 13 years of working with entrepreneurs across the world and distilled for you the essential skills and thinking that you need to undertake as you launch a business. Over 500,000 entrepreneurs have gone through our various programs including the flagship SME evolution program and many other programs that we have run for leading brands and governments including google, Microsoft, Airbus, HSBC and others.

How to Start a Small Business – Course Bundle Overview

Launch your Startup or Small & Medium Business (SME) with the online course bundle & step by step guide. Save time, money and frustration.

In the how to start a small business course bundle, you will learn essential entrepreneurial skills needed to get your Startup launched on solid ground. The practical video-based courses are designed for time-starved entrepreneurs or professionals.

The courses included in the bundle cover the essential skills needed to give you a better chance of success:

• B2B Sales and Negotiation Skills
• Digital and Social Media Marketing
• Accounting and Book-keeping
• Project Management
• Supervision and Teamwork
• as well as a Leadership course to guide you in putting your startup strategy

How to Start a Small Business – Course Bundle Methodology

This online course bundle and support service is provided by www.potential.com as part of our Real World Education series.

All videos aim to provide practical learning that you can put into action. Over 1 hour of practical video content, supported by cases and additional resources.

In addition to the online self-service course, you will also be invited to attend a webinar on the topic which gives you an opportunity to ask questions to an expert and interact with peers.

A support team would be available to answer any questions you have within 24 hours.

How to Start a Small Business Sample Course Curriculum

Participant Reviews and Media Coverage

The SME Evolution program has been running since 2010 and continues to expand and adapt to provide the needed support for entrepreneurs. Below is a small fraction of the feedback and coverage, we have received over the years.

Here's some of the feedback that we have received from previous participants in the program:

“We would like to thank every person who contributed to the development of this program” – Tarig Hamad Alrweily, Rawafed Almaamar Contracting Company

“Provided me with a unique chance to discuss business issues and topics with top managers where I can leverage my experience and bene t from the experience of the others” – Kamel El Ghossainy, SPAN Supply Chain Solutions a division of SPAN Group

“Amazing job!” - S. Rizwan Shah, Shahjee Supplies

“Keep up the good effort” – Mahmoud Yassin, United Group Enterprises

“The program is very good overall” – Qassim M. Al Ghanim, Unifco W.L.L.

“Speakers are really good” - Gurpreet Ahuja, Spanco Golden Key Solutions W.L.L.

How to Start a Small Business Money Back Guarantee

If you are not 100% satisfied with the course bundle and its value within 30 days of purchase, we would happily provide you with a refund - no questions asked.

We hope that this How to Start a business course will help propel you into a successful entrepreneurship career or help you earn a passive income. Doing mistakes is part of the learning process, but don't do the same mistakes that others have learned from.

Take this course to save time, money and pain so you can focus on your own learnings.

The post How to Start a Small Business (SME) – Online Course appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Many people spend their whole careers thinking about how to start a business but are worried, that they might fail. That’s totally understandable given the fact that 1 out of 5 businesses fail! Failure is an essential part of running a business because if there wasn’t some risk involved, everyone would do it. However, manageable failures allow you to learn and adjust your business.

You may be asking, how can we do that? How to start a business that has a high chance of success?

We’ve put together our expertise gained over 13 years of working with entrepreneurs across the world and distilled for you the essential skills and thinking that you need to undertake as you launch a business. Over 500,000 entrepreneurs have gone through our various programs including the flagship SME evolution program and many other programs that we have run for leading brands and governments including Google, Microsoft, Airbus, HSBC, and others.

How to Start a Business – Course Bundle Overview

Launch your Startup or Small & Medium Business with the online course bundle & step by step guide. Save time, money and frustration.

In the how-to start a business course bundle, you will learn essential entrepreneurial skills needed to get your Startup launched on solid ground. The practical video-based courses are designed for time-starved entrepreneurs or professionals.

The courses included in the bundle cover the essential skills needed to give you a better chance of success:

• B2B Sales and Negotiation Skills
• Digital and Social Media Marketing
• Accounting and Book-keeping
• Project Management
• Supervision and Teamwork
• as well as a Leadership course to guide you in putting your startup strategy

How to Start a Business – Course Bundle Methodology

This online course bundle and support service is provided by www.potential.com as part of our Real World Education series.

All videos aim to provide practical learning that you can put into action. Over 1 hour of practical video content, supported by cases and additional resources.

In addition to the online self-service course, you will also be invited to attend a webinar on the topic which gives you an opportunity to ask questions to an expert and interact with peers.

A support team would be available to answer any question you have within 24 hours.

How to Start a Business Sample Course Curriculum

Participant Reviews and Media Coverage

The SME Evolution program has been running since 2010 and continues to expand and adapt to provide the needed support for entrepreneurs. Below is a small fraction of the feedback and coverage, we have received over the years.

Here's some of the feedback that we have received from previous participants in the program:

“We would like to thank every person who contributed to the development of this program” – Tarig Hamad Alrweily, Rawafed Almaamar Contracting Company

“Provided me with a unique chance to discuss business issues and topics with top managers where I can leverage my experience and bene t from the experience of the others” – Kamel El Ghossainy, SPAN Supply Chain Solutions a division of SPAN Group

“Amazing job!” - S. Rizwan Shah, Shahjee Supplies

“Keep up the good effort” – Mahmoud Yassin, United Group Enterprises

“The program is very good overall” – Qassim M. Al Ghanim, Unifco W.L.L.

“Speakers are really good” - Gurpreet Ahuja, Spanco Golden Key Solutions W.L.L.

How to Start a Business Money-Back Guarantee

If you are not 100% satisfied with the course bundle and its value within 30 days of purchase, we would happily provide you with a refund - no questions asked.

We hope that this How to Start a business course will help propel you into a successful entrepreneurship career or help you earn a passive income. Making mistakes is part of the learning process, but don't do the same mistakes that others have learned from.

Take this course to save time, money, and pain so you can focus on your own learnings.

The post How to Start a Business – Step by Step Course appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

An elevator pitch is a short summary used to quickly and simply define a product, service, or business and its value proposition; which, if successfully developed and strategically utilized, it can make networking more successful at generating new leads, developing relationships, and advancing business.

So how can you craft a powerful statement that explains who you are, what you do, how you do it, and whom you do it for, in the simplest of terms?

1. In your pitch to an investor, highlight the need in the market, address how your solution answers that need, clearly define the potential of the opportunity, and discuss how you have the capability to make it happen.

2. In your pitch to a prospect, shed light on the benefit your solution provides, show how you have provided that benefit to others in the same line of work, and request to demonstrate how this can be done in a follow-up session.

4. Ensure that your elevator pitch takes no longer than 30-60 seconds, employs a language that everyone understands, uses powerful words, creates a visual image in the listener’s mind, tells a short story, is aimed for a specific audience, and is designed with a specific outcome in mind.

5. Keep your pitch consistent and in line with your overall strategy, but personal in delivery. In other words, make sure it is solid in structure, but fluid by design!

6. Hook your listeners into wanting to hear more from you, and close your elevator pitch with a call for action!

Remember that you only get one chance to make a good first impression! So, pay close attention to what you say and how you say it!

The post Crafting a Powerful Elevator Pitch appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Sales professionals are continuously challenged to uncover the client needs so that they can offer them the best solution to those needs. This process can be quite daunting and inefficient, as sometimes the clients don’t know what they really need and as such need guidance.

After opening a meeting and setting an agenda, then next aim is to uncover the client’s needs. You don’t have time to tell them about all your products, so first, understand what their needs are and then you can tell them only about the products or solutions that meet those needs.

Use two questioning methods to uncover client needs:

• Open questions

  It gives the client an opportunity to shed light and expand on the question area.

• Closed questions

  It forces the client to give you a specific answer such as when a decision would be made.

The aim of the questioning is to uncover the client’s circumstances and needs which would help you in suggesting the best solutions to their requirements.

Remember, listening is a much more effective skill than talking when in meetings.

The post Uncover your Client Needs appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Are you managing your projects well? Do you need Project Management Support?

If this is your first project, or you are working on a critical project for your home or business, this bundle of online courses and coaching is for you.

Save time and effort and get the support you need to make your project a success.

Define the scope of a project and effectively manage it.

In Potential.com, we have been supporting Startups, SMEs, and Individuals since 2005 to reach their business potential through the deployment of practical learning solutions. We call these bundles of services – Real World Education.

Save Money, Provide Better Quality and Complete your Project on Time. Get Project Management Support. 

By taking our online content and submitting your input on our course template, you will then schedule a one hour call with our coaches. This will help you fine-tune your project priorities, challenge your inputs and guide you through next steps. You can then come up with the final action plan, tools, and guide.

This bundle is for anyone that is working on a project scope and needs support

Any entrepreneur, individual or manager that is looking at effectively managing their project. We will provide you with a step by step guide on how to successfully scope and to manage your project.

We have developed this efficient process guide since we know your time is limited and we want to ensure that you get the most return on your investment.

For a limited time only we will be offering the bundle at a special rate providing a saving of over 60%

You can benefit from a bundle of 7 core courses in the Potential.com library, including Leadership, Marketing, Social Media, Accounting, HR and Online Productivity Tools worth over $70

The Project Management course will be the first step to guide you through the process. After you complete the 30-minute online course we would get in touch to schedule the first expert coaching session. You will have access to the other courses on demand for a period of 1 year. The coaching session is normally charged at over $250.

If you are not happy with the support and content of the program, you are entitled to a money back guarantee from Potential.com. No questions asked – just send us an email to support@potential.com and our team will handle the refund.

The post Scope and Manage Your Project Successfully appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

Through all the situations and hardships that you go through at work, how is it possible to maintain your humanness and remain focused on the big picture to achieve success without letting small details distract you?

The answer lies in leading yourself first in all professional and personal relationships and by acquiring a set of skills that will bring out the best version of you. Indeed, to make a difference in your job, you need to possess significant qualifications and unique characteristics like these 3 C’s: confidence, composure, and credibility. Honing these skills helps you stand out in ways of handling difficult people and unpleasant situations. This also helps you in building strong, positive relationships with co-workers and supervisors and, most of all, in achieving success.

The 3 C’s to success are:

• Confidence

  One of the most attractive skills you can possess is confidence. Knowledge and practical experience will breed a natural level of confidence. However, at times most needed, confidence can weirdly elude you. Whether you are the CEO of the company or just an employee, confidence is of great importance to your output and position. Having confidence will give you the ability to address business and life situations. Examples include making disciplinary decisions, adopting your own style, addressing critical issues with coworkers, etc.

• Composure

  Or you can say “emotional intelligence”! This built-in power of self-awareness and self-belief enables you to deliver a calm and self-controlled response. The capacity to respond in a composed manner to conflicts or disparaging remarks adds up to your self-respect and professionalism. Lack of composure can lead to unpleasant ramifications and escalation of conflicts. This in turn dents works relations, reputation, and productivity. Learn how to respond to such scenarios with mindfulness in order to keep things under control, maintain respect and harmony and achieve dynamic teamwork.

• Credibility

  Without credibility, you are a lame duck! This ‘C’ makes the essence of your own success. People around you need to know that you are reliable and capable of attaining the set goals of the team. Credibility is all about consistency in action, i.e. saying what you mean and meaning what you say. One example, when you tell others to “respect deadlines”, do you yourself respect deadlines and deliver your tasks on time? Do you demonstrate this value in your actions and interactions? This is where levels of behavioral trust are built and relationships flourish. Your credibility is the main reason to why people respect you, listen to you or not.  Once lost, credibility can be difficult to regain so treat this very carefully.

Sharpening these three C’s will present you with valuable insight into the techniques for building your employees’ self-esteem and self-confidence. In addition, it will raise the companies’ profit by developing top-performance professionals who tackle projects and problems with more energy and enthusiasm. So you’d better keep in mind that values are (in today’s business world) the drivers to success.

Case Studies:

Study case 1: After having issues with communication from some superiors, Grace J., a customer service admin at Muntons Malted Ingredients decided to register a course of communication skills for women. After receiving training on how to use techniques of influence and persuasion to build productive and rewarding relationships with all kinds of people, Grace gained confidence and composure to face these issues.

Source: NYEventlist.com

Study case 2: The German car giant Volkswagen Group has discovered the importance of trust because after the scandal of the scale of diesel emissions cheating emerged. This scandal has shattered consumers trust in Volkswagen’s industry and regulators, and today the company has to recall 8.5 million affected vehicles in the European Union alone. Volkswagen managers are promising to do the right thing over emissions and hoping to shine in two to three years.

Source: uk.reuters.com

The post The 3 C’s to Success – Confidence, Composure & Credibility appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.

An effective performance management process aims primarily at aligning your team, supporting employee development, and enhancing employee performance. It ensures that your organization, its departments, employees, teams, and processes are working towards optimizing organizational goals, all year round!

In today’s business world, performance management is an essential part of any business’s strategy. It is much easier these days for you to gather and analyze data from all touchpoints of your business. As such, setting of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and tracking them is not a difficult task.

You can check the below video to explain how to set up a strategy, or skip it to get to the 3 stages of the Performance Management Process.

So what are the stages of an effective performance management process?

• The Prerequisites phase

  In this phase, your organization’s mission and desired future position are defined as part of setting a strategy. This process is then cascaded across the departments to set targets for each department. Each department should be supporting the achievement of your organization’s main mission.

  Within the department, the targets are then distributed across the teams. The tasks needed, methodologies, knowledge, skills required for each specific job are further identified in the form of a job description.

• Performance planning phase

  The performance planning phase identifies the results that need to be produced by an employee, the behaviors, and the agreed-upon development plan. It includes areas that require improvement and the goals that need to be achieved in each area.

  An employee has the primary responsibility and ownership of the performance execution phase. The supervisor observes and documents performance on a daily basis, provides resources, feedback on progression towards goals, coaching, and opportunities to engage in developmental activities.

• Performance assessment phase

  The performance assessment phase evaluates the extent to which desired behaviors have been displayed, and desired results have been achieved. Moreover, the performance review phase provides a formal setting in which an employee receives feedback on past performance, developmental progress, as well as future plans.

  Last but not least, the performance renewal and contracting phase are similar to the performance planning phase except for using insights and information from the other phases.

If your work involves the implementation of projects, then the above process should be used for each project.

The important thing to remember is, you shouldn’t limit performance reviews and assessments to a yearly or quarterly task. Managers and their employees in your organisation, should be regularly reflect on the targets that have been set and in the process do continuous improvements.

The performance management process is ongoing due to the fact that markets, customers’ needs and products are never constant!

The post Performance Management Process and Its Importance appeared first on The Online Learning Platform.