Monthly Archives: July 2010

A colleague and I completed a  follow up session for a sales training program we did late last fall.  During the session we discussed all the changes that had occurred since the training.  Both my colleague and I were very impressed with the behaviour change and shift in attitudes toward prospecting.  This sales team was a delight to work with and responded well to the coaching that took place between the initial program and the follow up session.

I think it is imperative for sustainable change to provide clients with a structure to support the learning once everyone is back doing their day-to-day activities.  It is easy to slip back into old patterns unless there is structure and a way to celebrate small successes along the way.

A legal firm approached me after our initial introduction meeting to inquire about running lunch and learns for their admin staff.  They had an approved budget and were excited to get started.  We sat down and looked at all of their options and after a one hour meeting we walked away with a tentative schedule for 15 lunch and learns.  These programs were to run throughout the year.  They chose programs such as: Leadership, Communication Skills, Wellness, True Colors, Personal Branding, Goal Setting, Delegation and more.  I arranged for each of the facilitators to meet with the two young ladies who were managing this project.

One of the young ladies said it would have taken weeks to search the internet and find programs for the variety of programs they wanted to offer, not to mention interviewing the various companies. The customer was so impressed at the calibre of the trainers and their programs and commented more than once how easy I was to work with the Athena Alliance.

A manufacturer approached me to inquire about a Presentation Skills program for their engineers.  The engineers in this firm were extremely knowledgeable and frequently were required to give presentations to both customers and suppliers.  The Director of Human Resources had been asked to source a program that would give the engineers the tools they needed to deliver more professional presentations.  This was an easy one for me because I personally deliver a very powerful half day program that includes a follow up session.

Like most people today, these engineers were very busy and did not want to take a lot of time out of their busy schedules to take a course.  I recommended they do our half day course which is designed so the participants deliver presentations within an hour from the beginning of the program.  The participants loved receiving feedback from both their peers and the facilitator.  They also left with a DVD of their presentations so they could see where they needed to improve and prepare for the follow up session.  The General Manager also attended the session and at the end he said he was impressed with the impact the program had within a short period of time.  We continue to run programs several times a year.