i need a sales training program.. like what activities we can use that can be helpful to the trainees.proper answers will be greatly appreciated!
Best answers:
Answer by mischiefinthemoonlight
Use puzzles and fact-finding scenarios to show and practise the use of open and closed questions.Many people habitually ask closed questions when they want to gather information and encourage the other person to talk, instead of using open questions.
Here are some scenarios to use with groups in demonstrating the effectiveness of open questions, and the ineffectiveness of closed questions, for gathering information efficiently. Use your own alternative scenarios if more appropriate to your situation. In each case state the scenario to the group, and then role-play or ask for closed questions by which the group must gather all the facts or solve the puzzle. This is neither easy nor efficient of course. Then ask for suggestions of open questions which will reveal the information or answer most efficiently.
Scenarios (numbers 2 and 3 are lateral thinking puzzles suitable for questioning exercises):
1. You are seeking to rent a holiday cottage in a particular area (say Cornwall, or whatever). The newspaper has one advert in the Cornwall section, stating merely: ?Holiday Cottage For Rent? and a phone number. Role-play your phone call to discover if the cottage is what you want, using closed questions only. (If helpful, brainstorm a long list of typical requirements beforehand.) Similar exercises are possible using other sale/hire/services scenarios, e.g., cars, houses, party/wedding venues, coaching, clubs, etc.
2. A class of twenty-five children is invited by their teacher to share a bag of exactly twenty-five sweets. After the share-out all the children have a sweet but one sweet remains in the bag. How is this? Instruct the group to ask closed questions to solve the puzzle. (The answer is that last sweet was taken away in the bag.)
3. Two electric trains were mistakenly routed onto the same track in opposite directions into a tunnel. One travelling at 200 mph, the other at 220 mph. Each train passed successfully through the tunnel and was able to continue its journey without stopping or colliding. How so? Instruct the group to ask closed questions to solve the puzzle. (The answer is that the second train entered the tunnel several minutes after the first one had left it.)
Use or adapt your own puzzles and scenarios as appropriate for the audience.
You can also vary the way that the group asks questions ? in turn, one-to-one with observers, in pairs, etc.
Here is some explanation of the use of questioning in a sales training context, as typically found in a traditional selling process. Questioning of course features importantly within coaching, counselling, interviewing, investigating, and many other disciplines, so adapt the explanation to suit your needs.
Use the poster of Rudyard Kipling?s ?six serving men? verse to help explain and reinforce the best way to ask open questions.
Quick and easy to set up, and very adaptable for all sorts of training and development purposes, this exercise is based on the following simple principle:
Ask individuals or pairs or threes (or a larger team with guidance as to team for leadership) to identify an example in a newspaper of some sort of dispute or conflict, and then to analyse the causes and solutions.
Ask people to adopt the view of a mediator. Suggest or brainstorm some pointers to help people approach the task, for example:
What helpful facilitative questions could be asked of the parties involved to work towards a solution?
What might be changed in the methods or attitudes or structures of the situations in order to prevent a recurrence of the problems?
How does each side feel and what are their main complaints, feelings, needs and motivators?
To what extent could the problem have been averted or predicted, and if so how?
How can others learn from the situation?
Discussion and presentation format and timings are flexible and at the discretion of the facilitator.
Save time if needs be by highlighting suggested articles in the newspapers.
Refer delegates to relevant management or behavioural theories and models, and/or ask that delegates do this when they present/discuss their views/analysis.
This is a simple twist to bring any quiz or question to life, and add a wonderful dimension for developing and demonstrating the power of successfully communicating and engaging with other people.
Split the group to suit you (teams, pairs, or threes probably best). Decide rules, timing, presentation, discussion, review, etc., to fit your situation. All this is flexible.
Take any quiz or series of questions, or one big difficult question. Issue it to the teams (or pairs, or individuals, etc).
The task is to go out and engage with the general public to find the answers.
Introduce variations to suit your situation.
For example if working with competing teams you can arrange that each team has a ?shadow? or observer from another team to ensure no cheating, and also to give observer feedback in any reviews that happen afterwards. (If appropriate brainstorm the review points prior to the exercise with the group ? it?s easier and better than you doing this by yourself.)
You can also define certain areas or places for the teams to go (shopping centre, pubs, library, old folks home for example), although take care to ensure no nuisance is caused.
State clear rules for the use of phones. Purists might argue that they are not allowed at all, which is fine, but there is no problem allowing an element of phone research if it fits the group roles/preferences and development situation.
There are lots of quizzes in the quizballs section, including many with interesting varied content that would suit this exercise.
Or make up your own questions or subjects for the teams to research among the general public, for example:
List the last 20 prime ministers/presidents in correct order.
List all the county towns/state capitals.
Name all the Big Brother winners in order.
What?s the history of the local town?
Who are the most famous people born locally?
What are the five most liked corporations, and what are the five least liked corporations?
Who would win an election if one were called now?
You?ll think of lots more ideas.
This is a simple exercise for goal-setting and making changes. The ideas are relevant for calendar new years, new trading years, new roles, teams and projects, and for personal development.
The activity is based on the simple concept that even small aims actually comprise a series of elements which need to be identified, planned, and implemented in correct order.
Achieving aims, goals and changes is like building houses ? they need to be understood and assembled bit by bit ? like bricks in a wall.
You might start with a vision or dream or objective, but this cannot be achieved in one single move.
A house is not built from the top down or all at once. It starts with a plan ? or maybe a vision if the type of house has never been built before ? and is then constructed from the foundations upwards, section by section, brick by brick.
Like building a house, any aim or change or objective must be analysed and planned, and then built in a sensible order:
what will it look like? ? describe the vision or end-aim so we will recognise it and be sure it has been achieved correctly
what are the components? ? the causal factors and circumstances? ? what needs to be put in place? ? physical resources and materials, maybe people too, and intangibles like agreements, permissions, understanding, etc.
and what is the process for assembling it all? ? the steps, sequence, timings, etc.
Using this concept, ask the group, split into whatever teams or individuals that makes sense for your situation, to visualise and then map out ? in very simple terms ? one of their own main aims for the coming year/period, quarter/lifetime, whatever.
Keep it simple. Resist getting into a lot of detail. Merely seek to explain/reinforce the need for basic structure and sequence and the relationship between cause and effect. This is the extent of the exercise.
The framework is:
Describe the end-aim ? what does the completed change/objective/aim/dream look like? What will it/you be like, feel like, behave like, and what difference will the change make? Is the end aim worth the investment? Is the end aim actually a good and right one? How will you know when it?s been achieved, and everyone else too?
What are the components of this change? The physical things you can see and touch and put a cost to, and the other factors that are less easy to see and to measure? What are the cause-and-effect relationships ? start at the end and work backwards ? what needs to happen before this, and this, and this, etc.
What is the sequence and timings of assembling the components, and for more complex changes, what is the inter-relatedness (and inter-dependence) of the components? Certain elements are part of sub-sets or sub-structures that need to be built at the same time alongside eachother, converging at a suitable point. Understanding these connections is very important where a project comprises a number of separate inter-dependent structures. (Imagine how long it would take to build a house if only one trade or activity could be on site at any one time, and imagine how chaotic things would be if these different activities were not planned and joined together at the right time.)
Finally, having identified the above ? in outline terms only ? ask people to bring them together as a rough plan for their own particular aim/objective/change, in whatever format people find easiest. (Some people prefer to map out a flow diagram, others prefer a pictorial representation like a house; other people prefer a list; any format is fine as long as it?s clear and structured.)
The purpose of this exercise is not to produce a heavily detailed project management plan ? that can happen afterwards if required (see the notes on project management for examples of traditional planning formats) ? the aim of this activity is to explain the importance of cause and effect, and compenents and process, in achieving aims.
Home-based staff and remote teams miss out on the valuable social contact normally available to office-based teams.
Personal interaction between staff (typically chatting and engaging in the canteen, elevator, lounge areas, etc) is crucial for developing relationships and mutual awareness among teams, so if teams do not meet frequently then the leader must devise ways to enable this personal interaction to happen.
Traditional autocratic management discourages chatting between workers because it considers chatting to be a waste of time, but this misses the point.
?You are paid to work not to chat or socialise in the corridor ? get back to work..? is actually a very unhelpful management tactic.
The truth is the better team members know each other the better the team performs.
See the Johari Window model ? it is a powerful explanation of the value of increasing mutual awareness, and why mutual awareness is central to effective teams and team building.
Within reason, people need to be given every opportunity to get to know each other, and chatting achieves this very well. Chatting develops mutual awareness, and it also helps people feel included and valued. Conversely, if you deny people the chance to engage personally with their colleagues you starve them of interaction that is essential for well-being and life balance.
The internet increasingly enables people to connect through ?groups? and ?social networking? websites, but for many remote or home-based work teams a simple telephone-based alternative can provide an easier more natural process, moreover using the telephone ? even for chatting ? helps improve telephone skills, especially listening.
A simple way to achieve this double benefit of team development and skills improvement among remote teams is to encourage telephone chatting (within reason of course) between team members.
Here are some ideas for doing this:
Introduce a compulsory 15 minutes telephone chat-time which each team member must have with every other team member every week. Give no subject or aim other than having a good chat and getting to know the other person.
Introduce a rota or matrix for inter-team chat telephone appointments ? timings to suit workloads ? again with no aims other than to have a chat and learn something about each other.
Introduce a virtual team tea-break or virtual visit to the pub ? everyone is in fact by their phone in their own homes or offices (with a cup of tea or a tumbler of what does you good) connected a suitable via telephone conference call ? and the tone and spirit of the discussion must be as if the team were gathered around a table in the canteen or at the local pub. There are no aims or intended outcomes aside from having a good chat and getting to know each other better.
When people are connecting more regularly and the telephone chats are up and running, maybe try introducing a few discussion subjects ? not necessarily about work ? anything to get people talking and understanding each other better. Maybe ask the team to suggest topics too, and then see where the team wants to take things.
Encouraging and enabling chatting between team members improves telephone communications skills since it involves using the telephone to develop understanding, mutual awareness, empathy and relationships between people. Skills development becomes sharper still if activities are adapted for ?conference? calls connecting several people. Communications skills are placed under greater pressure when the voice is the only medium, which obviously tends to develop people?s listening abilities.
These are quickies in the sense that they are quick for me to explain and for you to understand the basic ideas. What you do with them is up to you. Of course the development of these ideas could also be team exercises in their own right. Have fun.
quickie 1 ? marbles
Take a few bags of marbles into the session. They are inexpensive, extremely evocative and nostalgic, beautiful and can be used for all sorts of exercises, aside from simply organising a quick knock-out competition (in which case be sure to brainstorm and agree the rules first with everyone..)
quickie 2 ? ultimate sandwiches
Provide various loaves of bread, butter, margarine, and various (adventurous) fillings, plus bread-knives and wipes. Competition to make the ultimate sandwich. Variations extend to sending delegates out at lunchtime to buy their own ingredients for the ultimate sandwich challenge. Group tasting and voting as appropriate. Be adventurous with fillings and if appropriate enforce penalties and forfeits for anything you could buy in a sandwich bar. Bonus points for anything including anchovies, capers, etc. Could you patent a sandwich? What sandwich would be most or least profitable? Consider production, packaging and distribution too. Correlations between sandwiches and types of people (makers and eaters)? Brand your ultimate sandwich. How would you market and promote your sandwich? How would you extend your successful sandwich business?.. Fancy rolls/cobs/batches/baps? (any other names incidentally for a bread roll?), pot noodles? restaurants, delivery? Market sectors? Range diversification? Pies, pasties, soup in the basket?..
quickie 3 ? papier mache
Papier mache, for those who never paid attention at infant school, is newspaper strips and flour paste glue, which is a wonderful modelling material, for small and large constructions, especially with a few tubs of Vaseline (petroleum jelly) as a release agent (if using moulds) and maybe some chicken wire from the local DIY store for making base structures. Painting is optional if you have time for constructions to dry and work on another day. For ideas see papiermache.co.uk. Revisit all the construction exercises you know and consider how they might work with papier mache. Aprons are advisable.
quickie 4 ? conkers
Still a few around (October 2006) and amazingly the kids aren?t interested in them any more, which means there?s plenty for grown-ups. A knock-out championship is the obvious activity, but like marbles they are beautiful and will prompt lots of thoughts, memories, feelings etc., which can be used to address all sorts of issues ? environment, cultural diversity, technique, quality, ageism, etc.( Conkers of course get better with age, not vinegar, which just makes them smelly and soggy..)
quickie 5 ? sweeties
Buy a few chocolate bars and tubes of sweets ? one or two of the main varieties ? and see how the groups responds to them. Why do we each have our favourites? What correlation is there between favourite chocolate bar and personality? Is there a class thing going on? Is there a gender thing? Cultural diversity and team correlations or analogies? What are the brilliant marketing and packaging successes and abject failures? Does anyone in the world like the new Smarties packaging? Bring back the tube I say. The possibilities are endless.
quickie 6 ? breakfast cereals
Another visit to the supermarket, or task the delegates to go shopping at lunch-time for the cereals (according to whatever rules you state) and report back on their service and marketing experiences and observations. Same sort of activities and discussions as above basically. Milk, sugar, spoons and bowls are optional. Who prefers it straight out of the box dry? Anyone prefer water on their cornflakes? Salt and sugar debate, linked to marketing and social responsibility issues? How old is Tony the Tiger? What?s the best thing you ever had free from a cereal box? What?s the greatest example of added value? Which actually tastes the best and can we predict what your team members will like and dislike? Are the adverts grreeeeaaat or are they a load of rubbish? Can we see similarities in the style and feel of products from the same organisation? Which brands are more likely to succeed globally and which will need re-branding?
quickie 7 ? groups
Essentially this is an activity for the group to organise itself into sub-groups according to the categories you state. People should have space to move around, and materials to create simple signs (for sub-group names). It?s up to the group to establish the sub-group sections, which many people will find very challenging ? they have to create the structure from nothing and then fit themselves into it. The facilitator can stipulate minimum and maximum sub-group sizes, which obviously increases or reduces challenge of deciding the sub-group structures. Here are some examples of subject categories. These are daft, but daft is thought-provoking, fun, and a great leveller, which makes the topics helpful for relating to each other in ways that are completely removed from usual work or social groupings:
preferred washing-up or vacuuming or decorating or gardening methods
favourite type of TV or show or entertainment
leader role model
random words, eg., ?pets/money/sport/wow?, or ?table/tree/nut/leave? (obviously the random words are effectively the sub-group structure)
holiday destinations
favourite music
dream car
preferred retirement age
Points to review after several group organisation phases would be for example: what did you think when you saw different people in different sub-groups? Who surprised you in their choices? Who was predictable and unpredictable? How did people?s behaviour change in according to the different group categories? Who has knowledge or expertise or passion about something that we didn?t realise before?
quickie 8 ? playground visit
Take people to a local kids playground and mess around on the swings and roundabouts, etc. Try not to get into trouble with the local authority. Find a location without an upper age limit ideally. Preferable go when the kids are at school. Playgrounds help people get in touch with feelings and imagination that gets buried and hidden at work. And it?s fun.
A simple exercise with deep meaning, for any group size subject to appointing discussion leaders if appropriate. Review is optional. Thoughts can be shared and discussed or kept private; the type of review and follow-up depends on the situation.
The purpose of the exercise is to encourage and enable people to think creatively and imaginatively about their direction and potential. As such it is particularly appropriate for people who are in a routine that is not of their choosing, or who lack confidence, or who need help visualising who they can be and what they can do.
Ask people to imagine they are 18 years old and have just received a great set of exam results that gives them a free choice to study for a degree or qualification at any university or college, anywhere in the world. They also have a grant which will pay for all their fees. No loans, no debts, no pre-conditions.
So the question is, given such a free choice, what would you study?
Put another way, what would you love to spend a year or two or three years becoming brilliant at?
For older people emphasise that they can keep all the benefit of all their accumulated knowledge and experience.
They can even create their own degree course to fit exactly what they want to do.
The important thing is for people to visualise and consider what they would do if they have a free choice.
And then either during the review discussion and sharing of ideas, or in closing the exercise, make the following point:
You have just visualised something that is hugely important to you.
You are (depending on your religious standpoint) only here on this earth once. You will not come back again and have another go.
So what?s actually stopping you from pursuing your dreams?
In almost all cases the obstacles will be self-imposed.
Of course it?s not always easy to do the things we want to do. But most things are possible ? and you don?t need to go to university for three years to start to become who you want to be and to follow a new direction. It starts with a realisation that our future is in our own hands.
We ourselves ? not anyone or anything else ? determine whether we follow and achieve our passions and potential, or instead regret never trying.
(Additional stimulus and ideas can be provided for the group in the form of university and college course listings or examples, although people should be encouraged to imagine their own subjects. Anything is possible.)
Here are two simple ideas for groups which can each be developed and adapted to suit local situations.
Split very large groups into teams of ten to twenty people.
exercise 1 ? isolation
The task demonstrates the feelings that a person experiences when isolated or subject to victimisation, group rejection, etc. As such it supports the teaching of positive human interaction principles, and laws relating to equality, diversity and harassment.
Ask the team(s) to nominate a person among each team to be the ?victim?, who must then stand away from the rest of the team, while the team members stare and sneer at the unfortunate isolated ?victim?. For very grown-up people you can allow mild criticism directed at the ?victim? (nothing too upsetting or personal please). In any event be careful, and do you best to ensure that the first ?victim? is not the most vulnerable member of the team. Preferably it should be the most confident or senior member, and better still the team?s boss. Ensure every team member that wishes to is able to experience being the victim. The review should focus on how ?victims? felt while isolated and being subjected to the staring or worse by the rest of the team. The exercise demonstrates the power of group animosity towards isolated individuals. If appropriate and helpful you can of course end the activity with a big group hug to show that everyone is actually still friends. (Hugging incidentally demonstrates well the power of relationships at the positive end of the scale of human interaction and behaviour. See the Love and Spirituality at Work section for more supporting background to this subject.)
exercise 2 ? intuition
Aside from the lessons from exercise 1 relating to victimisation, the above activity also highlights the significance of intuitive feelings, which although difficult to measure and articulate, are extremely significant in relationships, teams and organisations. This next exercise augments the first one to further illustrate the power of intuition and feelings that resides in each of us.
Using the same or similar team(s) in terms of size, then split the team(s) into two halves. One half of the team (called ?the watched?) should stand facing a wall unable to see the other half of the team (called ?the watchers?) which should stand together, several or many yards away from ?the watched?.
The watchers then decide among themselves which person to stare at in ?the watched? half of the team (for say 30 seconds per ?target? person). The watchers can change whom they stare at and if so should make rough notes about timings for the review. After an initial review you can change the sides to ensure everyone experiences watching and being watched.
Of course ?the watched? half of the team won?t know which one is being stared at? or will they?
In the reviews you will find out if any of ?the watched? people were able to tell intuitively who was being stared at, even though ?the watchers? were out of sight. Also discuss generally how ?the watched? and ?the watchers? felt, such as sensations of discomfort or disadvantage among ?the watched?, and perhaps opposite feelings among the watchers, all of which can support learning about relationships and human interaction. For review also is the possibility that some people in the teams are more receptive and interested in the activity than others, which invites debate about whether some people are more naturally intuitive than others, which is generally believed to be so, and the implications of preferences either way.
Experiments (and many people?s own experience) indicate that many people have an instinctive or intuitive sense of being watched, and although there is no guarantee that your own activities will produce clear and remarkable scientific results, the exercise will prompt interesting feelings, discussion and an unusual diversion into the subject of intuitive powers.
This is a big emotional subject which enables a variety of discussions about morality, ethics, integrity, leadership styles, policies and decision-making in institutions and organisations, and the wider world. It also provides a stimulating basis for exploring ethics versus autocracy, and for examining the balance in organisations and cultures between humanity and efficiency.
Organise the team(s) and debating activities to suit the audience and context. This can include debating, presenting, role-playing, brainstorming, listing and mapping key factors ? anything that fits your aims and will be of interest and value to people. The subject also provides a thought-provoking warm-up discussion for any session dealing with ethics, morality, compassion, leadership, decision-making, and organisational culture, etc.
Read and/or issue the notes about the Shot At Dawn pardons, which were announced by the British government on 16 August 2006, relating to British soldiers shot by firing squad for ?cowardice? and ?desertion? in the 1st World War.
The ?Shot At Dawn? story represents a 90 year campaign to secure posthumous pardons for over 300 soldiers shot by firing squad in 1914-18 when it was known then, and certainly in recent decades, that most of these men were suffering from shell-shock and mental illness. The human perspective is obviously considerable, including the institutional position up to the August 2006 announcement.
The story of the Shot At Dawn campaign and its historical background prompts discussion about some fundamental modern issues relating to organisational management, ethical leadership, and wider issues of cultural behaviour, for example (see the organisational perspectives below too):
leadership styles ? morality-centred versus results-centred (and any other leadership styles models people care to explore)
leadership integrity and ethics
policy-making methods, purposes and reviews
decision-making influences and reference points
decision-making pressures which cloud judgement
morality and compassion in institutions and organisations ? versus the need to maintain controls and systems
the growing responsibility and opportunity for ordinary people to hold leaders to account for humanitarian and ethical conduct
why did it take successive UK governments much longer than any other nation to begin to reconcile this issue?
why is this issue being resolved now and not twenty or fifty years ago?
The different organisational perspectives together provide a stimulating way to look at organisational dynamics, systems, and relationships, etc:
the army and leaders of the time who saw the need to implement the policy to execute soldiers
the politicians and institutional system which until recently refused to acknowledge the injustice of the executions and the avoidance of the truth
the campaign dimensions, and how the modern world enables increasing transparency of ethical issues
When looking at the issues people will also see meanings and relevance in their own terms, and as such discussion can help personal and mutual discovery and awareness. There are also many parallels with modern issues of organisational ethics and social responsibility, because at the heart of the issue lie the forces of humanity and efficiency, which to a lesser or greater extent we all constantly strive to reconcile.
N.B. People will not necessarily all agree a similar interpretation of the First World War pardons. This makes it a particularly interesting subject for debate, especially in transferring the issues and principles and lessons to modern challenges in organisations, and the world beyond.
asked by: elresa_15
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