Lichfield & Taworth Chamber Event

Richard Denny presenting at the highly successful Lichfield & Taworth Chamber of Commerce networking event at Drayton Manor Park on 15th March. "A huge thank you for yesterdays event. I have been organising Chamber events for the Southern Staffordshire region for over 5 years and we have never received such positive feedback from our delegates. It was first class." Chris Plant - Area Marketing & Events Manager.

A Ratner Moment?

This is the age of the customer and all of us at work should take a reality check in protecting our brands.

Two major brands have suffered in the past two weeks with serious brand damage - one possible irreparable, Goldman Sachs with their ‘Muppet Customers’, and now the Conservative party with ‘apparent payments to meet policy makers at best, and beans on toast with the Camerons at worst’.

The Conservative brand would of course be a different rating to Goldman Sachs who was supposedly AAA whereas the Conservative Party was probably a D- in trust, reputation and loyalty.

So what would you do if you were the brand manager of the Conservative Party?

BlueStar Vartech UK Event

Richard Denny is the guest Keynote speaker at the BlueStar Vartech UK event at The National Motor Cycle Museum on 21st March.

The topic is 2012 – The Year of Growth – and will include tips on -

• How to grow your business
• Professional sales techniques
• Taking great care of customers
• The vital ingredient

Click on the Bluestar Vartect event to view more information.

Thought for the Day

Take risks, if you win you will be delighted; if you lose you will be wise.

Profit from Humour

Is Laughter Really the Best Medicine?

Victor Borge the Danish American humorist, pianist and entertainer once said “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” Laughter really does connect people, strengthens relationships and can be a useful business tool to increase sales success.

Research by Dr Terri Kurtzberg of Rutgers University uncovered that a simple laugh could actually result in more effective and efficient negotiation and measurably helped towards reducing suspicion, building trust and a dramatically increased positive outcome.

So now armed with that laughter really can be great medicine for the winner of business, get the balance right. Avoid the silly dirty joke or the jokes best left to the comedians but a sense of humour an amusing situation or funny story shared can bring you great returns.

Very difficult to train but humour can be enhanced with coaching, therefore we should all learn to lighten up a little and have a bit more fun with those sales and meeting presentations.

Thought for the Day

The function of leadership is to produce more leaders than more followers.

Learning As Against Training

Now that we are coming out of the recession there is once again an enthusiasm in companies to develop the skills of their people. So what type of skill development is proving to be most effective in this age of electronic technology? I think that we all agree that we (sadly) seem to learn more by our mistakes and failures than by our successes – sad but true.

Research has shown that solely focusing skill development on positive aspects of best practice can be a mistake as the most persuasive approach in the development of people. A sizable part of knowledge sharing towards learning should be devoted to how others got it wrong. Case studies of errors that lead to discussion that lead to suggestions on how those errors could be avoided are more effective. The research demonstrated this approach is not only quicker, more productive but also cost effective in creating the learning experience.

Thought for the Day

More doors are opened with please than keys.

http://www.richarddenny.co.uk/

Avoid the Hindsight Club

Have you ever been a member of The Hindsight Club, you know the one, populated with failed politicians and civil servants whose qualification for membership is justification/excuses for their actions.

“We can all be wise in hindsight…”

Or

“Well of course in hindsight we wouldn’t have…”

Or

“We would have done things differently if we had known…”

How about prior to making a decision visiting hindsight first? I get all my clients to visit hindsight before making any major decision and then prepare a contingency just in case hindsight should rear its ugly head. Now all of the concentration is to make the decision successful and fascinatingly when one visits hindsight first you never have to visit there later.