Reality Training run a series of interactive workshops – all of which can be tailored to suit your needs: 

Reality DRIVES - Collaboration and Business Growth
Train-the-Trainer - Develop effective trainers and build on your current skills
Train-the-Coach - Create effective coaches and a coaching culture
Omni-channel Strategy - Operational Level Challenging & Strategic Thinking
Black Friday Sales Training - Make the most of this Once a year opportunity
Service Recovery - Empower more people to handle complaints
Selling to the C-Suite - Improve confidence and conversion from your top salespeople
Reality – The Business Within - What would your managers do if it was their business?
Teambuilding - Interactive and Entertaining – fun and valuable
Project Management Training - Make sure your PM’s are getting it right
Key Account Management Training - Learning to manage your best customers
Conference Call Coaching - Maximise Each Conference Call – learn to love them!
Media Training - What are you like on camera?

Reality – DRIVES – Effective Teambuilding for Big Brands and Big Teams

A unique approach to revitalising your business, REALITY DRIVES will transform your working practices – and the profitability of your business. We’ve examined the reasons behind the success of some of the world’s leading brands and organisations, and distilled the lessons we’ve learned into the 6-point DRIVES.

Who is it for?

Managers who want to explore and maximise the potential of their team members.

D – Discretion: How do you liberate your team members to make decisions? How do you delegate effectively?

R – Roles: How to improve clarity in roles and lines of responsibility and reporting. Do job descriptions match job functions? How do roles affect relationships within the team?

I – Integrity: What do we mean by brand integrity? Does the team embody this integrity and how can they communicate it to colleagues and customers? We’ll examine brands that do this well – what can be learnt from them?

V- Vision: Everyone wants to know where they are going – not everyone is great at expressing and explaining their vision. Clearer goals mean more effective teams.

E- Environment: Successful brands know how crucial our working environment is – and how we impact on others within the workplace. We examine how they’ve optimised the environments they work in and devise solutions for your team.

S- Self-worth: No one can work to their fullest potential if they lack self confidence. But confidence is something that can be developed – we introduce the management science principle that can foster and develop confidence and show how teams can – and must – apply these consistently and constantly.

Outcomes

Managers and employees will experience greater freedom within their roles – which will lead to less stress, greater happiness and job satisfaction and more productivity. Greater clarity and vision at work means goals and targets are understood and bought into by the whole team – meaning productivity increases and results improve. Newly confident team members will inspire colleagues and customers alike – clients will buy more and more often from a team that is focused, energetic and confident.

To learn more about Reality DRIVES, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Train the Trainer

Harness your workforce to become your next generation of trainers.

We’ll give them the tools, information and techniques to pass on – and what better way to embed their own training than by becoming trainers themselves?

• Identify exactly what is meant by ‘learning’
• Beliefs, Desire and Feelings about work
• How to engage trainees
• Presentation Skills
• Setting Goals, Strategies, Actions
• How to evaluate Training Sessions
• Anchoring trainees’ learning

Outcomes

Confident, skilled trainers who can save you time and money by cascading training throughout your company. Spread your training messages without having to engage an external training provider – yes, we’re doing ourselves out of a job!

To learn more about Train the Trainer, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Train the Coach

You want to get the very best out of your workforce. You see your employees as individuals within a large team, and recognise that to get a team working at its best you have to get the individual working at his or her best. This is where Work Coaches can make a huge difference in the personal and professional development of their colleagues.

• Skills to unlock problems
• How to identify, set and review strategies and actions
• Turning problems into goals
• What a coach is – and isn’t
• Confronting negative attitudes – dealing with the ‘stinking thinking’ modes
• Mutual support networks
• Anchoring habit changes

Outcomes

Increase your workforce’s motivation.

Upskill colleagues and employees in how to support and inspire team members.

Strengthen team spirit and team work and have a more cohesive workforce.

To learn more about Train the Coach, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Omni-Channel Training and Strategy

Omni-channel is the empowerment of customers to choose how they research, when they compare and why they buy from all brands. It applies to business to consumer brands and business to business. Business to business has had the opportunity to be Omni-channel since the internet was created, they just never viewed it like that. Many businesses have used siloed messaging and marketing and locked down the revenue and the team responsible, to a distinct channel.

For consumers or business buyers the lines have always been blurred and now with an Omni channel strategy, all businesses have a chance to allow their customers to have a wider perception of their brand, products and services.

We can now allow our customers to own their data and experience, then give them the ability to use it to guide their creation of products and services which defines their relationship with you, and sets up their future interaction.

All brands need to be Omni-focused in their marketing, customer service ethics and their delivery to customers. This takes planning, getting the strategy right, and the developing the right behavioural and management techniques. When you get this right you are helping your customers to buy from you in the way they like most, all they might need is the right nudge which is not compelling them to do something, rather inviting them to learn more, be aware of a change or take advantage of an opportunity that will help them.

Over the last 5 years Reality Training has helped consumer and business brands to both launch and also perfect their Omni-channel offering.

Our focus is on the behavioural change required from sales and service colleagues, in order to deliver on the Omni-channel promise. To be clear, get this wrong, and you lose customers very quickly. We also, crucially work with managers and help them to lead this change, as with an Omni channel business you aren’t generating leads in the old fashioned linear approach, as so you can’t manage sales and service people to convert them in the same way either. The customer may have done a huge amount of their own conversion before you even turn up!

What is your Omni-channel strategy? Do you have one, or are you developing one? We can help you get it right, first time.

To learn more about Omni-channel training, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Black Friday Sales Training – Make the Most of that One Day!

What’s the cure for Black Friday? A dose of Reality Training!

‘Black Friday’ has become a new annual tradition with retailers. We’re still surprised by the spectacle of thousands of shoppers descending on our shops on that one day every year to secure a bargain, and to take part in this brilliantly marketed phenomenon.

Over the last 10 years Reality Training have worked with many major retailers such as Halfords, B&Q, Dunelm, TUI & Kuoni. We have created new customer service systems for them, models that have become part of the brand and represent the service level each company requires.

Now, for Black Friday, Reality Training have developed a package of training measures which will ensure your teams are geared up for this trading event.

The Black Friday Training Package:

1) Sales Training DVD – we create a bespoke DVD which highlights key areas of knowledge and skills your teams need to know. What are the most popular product lines? How can you make them more accessible? How can you engage with Omni-channel principles to enhance the customer experience and make life easier for your brand and your people?

We create fantastic value training DVDs which will help your managers cascade the right information to your customer service teams.

2) Manager Training – Reality Training write bespoke training content which is trained to your manager population through regional workshops. This is an interactive workshop which allowed the managers to reflect on past experience and design solutions for their particular stores. Reality Training add in 3 key principles which will make the management of this big day so much more efficient for customers, and staff.

3) Embedding – An online training blog is made for managers to share ideas and to form a hub of planning where sales and service language and strategies from the workshops are shared, added to and improved. Reality Training run online webinars using Adobe Connect which means all managers can check in, in their own time, and see what colleagues are doing.

The ideal time to deliver workshops is September.

There is a minimum 5-6 week lead time required for training DVDs.

To learn more about Black Friday sales training, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Complaints Training – Service Recovery Through Omni-Channel

Hello? I have a complaint! My phone is invisible!

As the move to Omni-channel grows customers who have problems or complaints expect their issues to be taken seriously and felt with quickly.

Many brands have elongated or ‘linear’ complaints systems ultimately designed to deter anyone from complaining. These can take considerable amounts of time and have bureaucracy that is inherently slow and expensive.

Once you’ve realised that empowerment of your colleagues to negotiate and compensate customers will actually save you money, then the rest is easy.

Just get Reality Training to take your people through the Reality service recovery course and your teams will instantly understand:

• The true cost of a complaint.
• The right way to receive a complaint.
• The language to use around apologies.
• Negotiating settlements.

Once you understand that service recovery is part of what you do – and that to do it well will make you more money than you lose, then this module makes total sense.

A typical project will look like this:

• Research the current system – identify the flaws and costs.
• Develop the training content.
• Create a training support DVD which illustrates both points of view.
• Deliver Training programme.
• Training Managers to Embed this Process
• Training Webinars
• Training Ebooks and Notes.
• Online learning via blog or OLE.

Reality Training have delivered service recovery training to TUI UK, Costa Coffee and Kuoni UK, so to put together your first project and start saving money then contact ann@realitytraining.com to arrange a meeting.

To learn more about complaints training, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Selling to the C-Suite – How to Sell to Senior Executives

‘This C-Suite Training is excellent. I can start using these ideas tomorrow. ‘ – Eric McCashey, Head of Distribution, Adobe EMEA

There is a perception that once someone gets to the C-Suite, Chief Executive, or Managing Director and other board level positions, then they somehow become untouchable. You can’t get to them. An invisible wall of people act as ‘filters’ to decide who gets to the individual.

So, we don’t bother. ‘I used to know him well, and then he got promoted… can’t get near him now.’ It’s a perception of course, we simply stop trying.

Our programme for selling to the C-Suite considers 3 main elements of this process.

Getting the Meeting. Positive and fun techniques to reach and generate enthusiasm for a meeting.

Preparing for the Meeting. Deciding what are the key objectives, the relevant information, surprises, and tactics to develop rapport and generate opportunities.

and then…

The Meeting. The correct agendas, the role of the C-Suite individual and your outcomes.

‘Very worthwhile to get ideas on how to have quality engagement.’ Bonami Meredith, Education, Adobe EMEA

Selling to the C-Suite makes sure you maximise your opportunity to generate business from ‘made’ individuals.

This module challenges your sales team. They will naturally be selling to customers at the same level as themselves, and maybe one or two level up. That may work well for years. It discounts the possibility of generating a better business relationship by dealing with people at a strategic level.

A CEO, CFO, CMO, CIO, Managing Director, Finance Director, Marketing Director, HR Director, IT Director etc – should all operate at a strategic level planning long term for business growth. The fact is that they pay people to filter information, do deals, create business and deliver business. They may not know enough about your offering, your strategy, your various plans that could and probably would dovetail with theirs. The truth is you need each other, it just comes down to deciding how much and for how often.

These individuals are, after all, human. A ‘made’ person, (to use the mafia expression!), is shown the books, they no longer ‘operate’, they simply help to plan to do better, and implement those plans, or supervise the implementation, or hear about the implementation. They can do nothing without current knowledge, thinking, opportunity, and a way to calculate risk. That’s where you come in.

‘Really enjoyed the C-Suite Training especially as this is a specific goal of mine – very effective.’ Jo Rhodes, Partner Account Manager, Adobe EMEA.

To learn more about selling to the c-suite, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Reality – The Business Within

Too often people regard their ‘job’ and the ‘business’ they work for as two separate things. This course trains people to see their role as part of a wider business picture – and even encourages them to regard themselves as businesses in their own right.

Who is it for?

Managers who want a greater understanding of running a business and want to treat themselves and their teams as a ‘standalone’ business that needs to operate profitably within the larger company.

We ask delegates to regard themselves as a business and ask the following questions:

• Finances – do I understand the costs of running me? We look at Accounting and Economics
• Human Resources – do I fulfil the function described?
• Ethics and Entrepreneurship – what is my attitude to risk? How do I feel about trying new ventures and ideas?
• Marketing – how would I market what I do to the rest of the business? How can I make them aware of what I do?
• Management Science – Do I know the best ways to manage people?
• Organisational Behaviour – What are the best ways to behave?
• Strategy – what is my short, medium and long-term strategy for me personally and for my part of the business?
• Timeline – each manager will build a 90 day plan for themselves.

After the workshop, we’ll carry out a quarterly review. This is a half-day session per group to reassess, improve and modify their strategies. Over 12 months each manager has a workshop and 4 half-days to provide that extra level of support, advice and motivation.

Outcomes

Greater levels of input and a higher understanding of individual and departmental responsibility mean a more effective management team. Individuals have a greater appreciation of how the business runs and what it needs to run effectively and profitably and what they can contribute to this. Staff are more highly motivated, they invest more in the company as a whole and are less likely to leave.

To learn more about Reality – The Business Within, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Team Building

Team building can be a byword for ‘a jolly’.

Do your people really need to build rafts or climb mountains to realise they can work as a team?

Why not give them skills that will help them work as a business team together?

This course gives them concrete knowledge about themselves and each other that they’ll be able to use in the company – THE NEXT DAY.

You don’t care if they can or can’t cross a river just using a piece of wood and two barrels. You want to know they can assess a colleague relationship, identify what drives people and crucially work together to be able to develop and secure more profitable clients– and higher value sales.

Who is it for?

Teams who already work closely together – or who should be working closely.

People you want to put together as a new team.

People from different and disparate parts of your company who don’t even realise they’re in a ‘team’ together.

Individual strengths and goals – so that everyone recognises their own strengths and goals and how they can contribute to a team and fit themselves to others’ strengths and goals. We’ll use examples of great teams to motivate their thinking and inspire new behaviour and attitudes.

Identify the principles of leadership – and question them. How can they be applied or adapted? We’ll devise and set a plan of action with measurable results and review dates.

Outcomes

The result is a revitalised and positive company, facing the challenges of the future with a solid plan.

Increased co-operation within and across teams.

A greater appreciation of how working together benefits the individual will increase your team’s productivity and profitability.

Staff turnover will decrease and a more cohesive team will mean everyone is ‘on brand’ and promoting the company more effectively and profitably.

To learn more about team building, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Project Management Training with Reality Training

Deploy your people after Project Management Training

Project Management is either your job, or as a manager, what you are paid to manage alongside other duties.

Under that vast heading comes all of the others; Time, Resource, Objectives, Reviews, Success Criteria and Financial facts and analysis.

Reality Training have developed 2 Project Management courses. The first came from the implementation of our training programmes with large brands. To develop several thousand people, within a reasonable time scale, requires a team of people making key decisions, so when we are engaged to deliver a training programme, the first stage can be to ‘train’ a team of Project Managers in how to implement this project.

The effectiveness of this 1 day immersion on Managers means they get core ideas and planning techniques which will be useable on just about every project they do.

Reality Training can now offer this 1 day course to our clients, to improve the way your organisation delivers it’s different development aims, and makes sure that the communication and execution of each project is as effective as possible, and also at the most reasonable cost.

The second Programme ‘Advanced’ is aimed at PM’s with specific project issues that they want to overcome. Smaller groups, over two days with a break between, analyse their current project plans and get help from Reality, and each other, to realise great success.

Project over-runs are damaging, costly, and largely un-necessary. This one day course will pay for itself with the next project you deliver, by looking at bottle necks and potential delays that will win you back time and money immediately.

To learn more about project management training, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Key Account Management Training

The need to retain and grow business from existing accounts has never been more important. Our 3 day Key Account Management Training programme develops the selling and presentation skills of Account Managers, and gives them the strategies for implementing sustained key account growth.

Days 1 & 2 cover a range of sales and account management skills, including:

• Define modern account management.
• How to retain and grow existing accounts.
• Identify buyers, influencers and users – how do they interact?
• The Structure of sales conversations, from Effective Openings to Closing the Sale.
• How to approach customers with something old, something new, something borrowed, something green.
• Understand and utilise modern competitive strategy.
• Develop goals that benefit you and your key account.
• Develop crucial internal and external connections.
• How to develop a proposal – and what you must do beforehand…
• Presenting your case – the BDF formula – understand the beliefs, desires and feelings of your clients

Crucially, we recommend 3 weeks of experiential application before we return to the final day, when we:

• Dissect real scenarios encountered by delegates and identify successful approaches.
• Develop personal top 3 goals, strategies and first actions to implement over the next 90 days.

With full and continuing back-up from Reality Training, this is an ongoing process where delegates will continually refine their skills and approaches, to develop and test a strategy that works for them and their accounts.

Outcomes

Existing account relationships will be revitalised and deepened, as known customers return more often with higher value orders.

To learn more about key account management training, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Conference Call Coaching

A course tailor-made for sales people whose business is conducted by phone and who have completed some sales training. Delivered by phone or Skype, the sessions can be one-on-one or group sessions. The programme gives course members the chance to refine their skills in an environment where they can try ideas and techniques and adjust them according to the feedback they receive.

• How to structure a sales call.
• How to deal with difficult conversations / topics / objections.
• How to end a call – how to drive further action.
• Conquer nerves about phone calls

Outcomes

• Increased confidence in making calls.
• Increased sales
• Increased value of sales made
• Improved relationships with key clients.

Length

From 3 sessions upwards – whatever level you and your team need.

The call-coaching sessions will be backed up by written notes tailored to each delegate which set the feedback, tips, techniques and goals in writing.

What They Say

“I just wanted to let you know that after our Coaching Call on Monday I tried the RED HOT TIP – Once again it worked – thank you again for the tips – they always work!” JM, Global Travel Company

To learn more about conference call coaching, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.

 

Media Training – How to Behave in Front of a Camera

Filming with Green Screen

How do you behave in front of a camera?

How confident are you when interviewed by journalists?

Do you understand how you come across?

How do you know what to say?

Reality Training are experienced presenters who work with Senior Managers and Leaders on Presentation Skills. Their courses ‘Presenting with Impact and Character’ and ‘Presenting using the CADA System’ are firm favourites with leading brands.

Taking the presenting element, and adding in Camera Work, Interview Techniques, Crisis Management, and Structuring Messages, Reality Training have put together an interactive course that gives you everything you require – tailored around your delivery style and personality, so that you can approach media and camera based situations with extreme confidence and preparedness.

Marketing and Social Media

Many brands now utilise social media and video to get their unique messages across in a personal and cost effective way. If you are the face, or faces of your brand then this training will make sure you hit the mark every time.

Executive Coaching and Leadership

Senior Managers often take our media training programme along with a selection from our portfolio of Senior Management interventions. Coupled with Managing Time, Reality DRIVES, or Executive Coaching, this course will help you deliver collaboration messages, and productivity initiatives with greater effectiveness.

To learn more about media training, or to simple discuss your challenges and opportunities, please visit our Contact Us page.