Review of podcast Appetite for Change.
Blown away
I woke early this morning. It was windy and noisy as well as warm. I stepped outside and looked up at the stars – it was a clear sky. I read this from Brain Pickings and the poem by Joseph Pintauro, about the wind, seemed made for the moment. It’s a beautiful post.
I was asleep by 8:30pm last night after an eventful day that included a short burst of chasing my grandson around on my knees. I am out of shape for crawling, but it was so much fun that I kept doing it, rewarded with giggles and cuddles from him.
I did a jewellery making workshop at The Bee and the Spider yesterday ran by Sarah Munnings Jewellery and I made myself a ring (pic) and some earrings. It was really fun to smash on the metal and we smiled about channelling blacksmiths as we soldered and put the heated metal in the water to cool it with a hiss. My friend Jane Darling made some stunning pieces as well, that I forgot to photograph because I rushed off at to visit my daughter.
This week I let go of the Gippsland Woman project and handed it over to a team of good women who have stepped up to be responsible for the resource. My involvement has been a series of great learning experience for me. I don’t feel that it is any way nearly complete, it’s just started and I look forward to the improvements the team will bring.
The Modern Techniques of Sales and Negotiation
A local company, In2 Project Management hosted Jack Corbett to deliver sales training and I was fortunate to win a ticket to the event. Neil Betts and Chris Allford from In2 have been supportive of our project – The VRI – and worked with me in 2014 to help me realise the vision we had for a community space. They are an appreciated part of our whole community approach that has made The VRI what it is.
Jack Corbett practises what he preaches. I got a pre-event call from his sales team to ask what I was most seeking from the training and this was well and truly covered with humour and humility by Jack in the training. He packed a lot into the 5 hour session, covering the process of sales and negotiations as well as sharing a lot of learning, presenting and business improvement tips. I received a call after the event and had the opportunity to work on my elevator pitch with one of ISR’s team members, which was a bonus.
Jack’s company ISR gave participants access to his LMS allowing us a vast range of resources to interact with. The training session was packed with value and my friends who attended were impressed. One of the bonuses he offered was a live call on overcoming objections a couple of mornings later, lots of us showed up.
The last sales training I did, was in the 90’s with Money & You, when I was on the sales team. When the opportunity to do this training came up I reflected on what I needed to improve. That’s where the learning process begins isn’t it? Looking at yourself and thinking about the results you are getting and what could be better. This was reinforced by the call from ISR.
What I most wanted to improve was closing a sale. One of the distinctions I got was to stop talking and give the client/customer/person the opportunity to think. Interestingly I’ve been doing the Lifeline training this year and the learning has been similar. It is more powerful to listen and to allow people to think for themselves.
I’m very grateful to the In2 team for sharing this learning opportunity with our region. The training was very affordable and improved sales is something we can all benefit from. The investment of time (and $$ if I hadn’t been a winner!) was entirely worth it.