For the Retail sector, we offer the following:

New Start Market Stalls & On-Line Traders Training - Programme for Participants who would like to start their own retail business, or may have already set-up and need support for getting to the next level. Whether you are creative with crafts, textiles and design have culinary talents or IT skills and are familiar with the internet perhaps?

This interactive, motivational and invigorative training, Participants can become Market Stall Traders and/or Trade On-line with the following support: Awareness of the skills needed as a Market Trader or On-line Retailer

• Awareness of the skills needed as a Market Trader or On-line Retailer
• Practical ideas and actions points
• Guidance of the rules and regulations to help set up
• We will help with networking, building links and contacts with other people within your community
• The opportunity to learn valuable skills such as communications, selling, negotiation, customer service skills and Social Media for business
• These opportunities will improve the confidence & self-esteem of those Participating on training programme
• All equipment and materials will be provided

Retail Strategy Training - This innovative programme for the retail sector is designed to make sure that your selling skills and standards both in care and service giving the recipient practical hits, tips & know how in delivering a service that differentiates your business from the competition.

Customer Service (You are judged by what you do – not what you say), experience of customer service & selling skills, why good customer care & service are essential.

Sales (Identifying what your customer really need), anticipating these needs & satisfying them, successful sales in retail & getting focused.

Merchandising (The true visual experience), you are in a crowded market, the golden rules for outside and inside your store & window display. See our latest news page here for more information.

Market & Craft Traders – Improving experienced traders’ skills as retailers & new traders’ skill sets.

Helping to improve their retail best practice skills, how to increase their turnover & improve profitability, improving their sales, customer satisfaction, customer experience & levels of customer service. We develop these modules: How well do you prepare, rules & regulations, it is about displaying your products & goods for sale, housekeeping standards, customer service, promotions, natural progression – from market stalls to the high street, practical tips in running the market stall.

Mystery Shopper Programme Designed to engage with retail traders & stores in order to improve footfall & retail performance. We also assess the retail businesses & strengthen their approach. We are commissioned by Local Authorities and Town Teams conducting this exercise in District Centres & local high streets.

Aims of the programme having conducted the mystery shopper: Distribute the information of the exercise to the business owner/manager, meet with the business owner/manager to conduct a customer service assessment, provide diagnostic 121 sessions with the businesses to develop S.M.A.R.T Action Plans for retail improvement, evaluation of programme for our clients.

Are you a business looking for key business skills training? We offer the following programmes tailored to your needs:

Negotiation skills

This is all about how to discover a practical tool kit to manage each negotiation successfully, understanding your own personal negotiation profile, learning ways to create greater confidence, cessions and breaking deadlocks.

The following modules will be relevant: what is negotiation, we do we need to negotiate, evolution of negotiation skills, what are the possible outcomes of negotiation, negotiation approaches, identifying your negotiation style, different styles of negotiation, negotiation techniques, negotiation & body language.

Time Management & Delegation skills

Are you taking control of your time, being more efficient in your work and happier in your life. How do you manage your time, workload, delegate if need be and still achieve results and improve your effectiveness.

We shall focus on the following modules: The difference between time management & delegation, what stops time management, effective planning to aid time management, planning your time being S.M.A.R.T, delegation is about you, key considerations on delegation, fear of delegation, the delegation process, different levels of delegation, the steps to successful delegation, useful tips on time management & delegation, creating & monitoring action plans.

Building Great Relationships in business (BGR)

How do we in business identify the causes & symptoms of relationship breakdowns and the stages they develop before manifesting. We will explore the recognised techniques for creating harmony in conflict resolution in the workplace or business arena.

The relevant modules include: The six dimensions of trust in business, establishing the relationship in the workplace, what happens when relationships breakdown, managing relationships in the workplace, the different approaches, are you a team player, BGR the business leading the way, BGR staff leading the way, what is your business relationship profile, well being in the work place, BGR with your customers, BGR with your suppliers.

Turning Customers Into Advocates - Customers For Life

In these challenging times how palatable are your products & services. Are you really stirring your customers’ appetite to buy more from you. The following modules will feature: What are advocates in business, asking customers for feedback & reviews, cultivating relationships, relationship building, knowing your customer needs, how knowing your customer needs can turn them into advocates, embracing excellent & world class customer service, understanding your customers.

Generating Greater Revenue

Why do businesses need to generate greater revenue? We identify the causes behind this. There is anecdotal evidence behind the methods within a business to generate greater revenue, looking at the principles of knowing about your customers, evaluating them and who are the most valuable to your business. We shall explore how to go about maximising your customer base cost effectively. These are the modules relevant: The two significant reasons for generating greater revenue, marketing with a limited budget, effective networking, how well do you really know your customers, the ten things you should know about your customers, maximising your customer base cost effectively and increase profitability, the ultimate objective – making your customers have your business as their lifetime supplier.

Self Management & Personal Development

We examine self awareness in business, your contribution & that of your colleagues. These modules will be relevant: Taking ownership, what are your short & long term goals, how are you going to achieve these goals (targets & objectives, your journey), what constraints are there in you achieving your goals, who & what are time thieves, what’s an internal customer chain, who are the key people in your business involved in this chain, recognising your internal customers’ importance looking at the pivotal roles they play potential issues, barriers & pitfalls in this chain, how well is the internal customer chains working in your company, what needs improving within this chain, changing mindsets & culture (can do, will do, greater determination).

Do you need specialised sales support?

We represent businesses by focusing on a relationship building strategy which is key as opposed to hard sell sales. We aim to enable the creation of 'brand identity' for our clients and extend their philosophy by communicating effectively. All our work is on a project basis (minimum 13 weeks) where the foundations for relationships are laid for new client longevity and increased clients base.

We generate appointed meetings for clients by delivering the right message to the right target market, by creating rapport and the beginnings of a relationship, utilising soft sales skills, how these skills differentiate the client from their competitors, how we best use these skills & other techniques, how we best handle objections by separating emotion, recognising the buying signals within objections turning the them round into positives and we fully appreciate the 5 W’s (who what where why & when).

Our processes include the following: The sales cycle, planning & prep (fail to plan is to plan to fail), dealing with Decision Makers/Levels of DM’s, generating interest, identifying business needs, questioning techniques, closing techniques, winning friends & influencing people. Consolidation of appointments, confirmation of appointments by e-mail, database integrity regular exception reports, customer communication / e-mail accounts / call recording.

New Start Businesses or looking to start your own business?

New Business Start-ups

Our mantra is before you start how not to make the mistakes we have made and others do! We advocate that you know the areas you can achieve, focus on your skill sets, be motivated and have a structure to create your business.

Business Plan & Planning

Starting out with a business plan is the foundation for the building blocks in a business. To regularly review a business plan is to ensure it continues to meet its needs and responds to the variations in the market, such as the economy, the customers and the competition. Reviewing the business plan will aid the process for identifying the most likely strategies for growing your business. We shall develop the following modules: Business planning definitions, business planning overview, anecdotal evidence, allocating resources, business objectives, drafting a business plan, sales & marketing strategy, S.W.O.T analysis, P.E.S.T analysis, getting a new customer – having a sales plan, management team & personnel, your operations, risk assessment, financials (cash flow, profit & loss), review business plan performance & potential for growth, business plan cycle, business planning tips.

Introduction to sales

We believe that sales in business is the process where the actual financial transaction is the last in a series of steps.

We develop the following modules: What is the sales process, planning to sell (covering the first steps that you should take to get the process up and running), the sales appointment (how to prepare & deliver a great sales presentation), closing & following up the sale (making sure you deliver what you promise)