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Learning Better Using ‘Scaffolding’

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There was a time when what you learned in school before entering the workforce would be all you needed to know for the rest of your career. That is no longer the case. Today, skills can become outdated very quickly.

The rapid evolution of workplace technologies and best practices means you need to keep your skills current. You can no longer rely only on what you already know and must truly be a life-long learner.

Learning is the process of acquiring new, or modifying existing knowledge, behaviours, skills, values, or preferences. It is a means of honing our skills, enriching our minds, and changing the way we see things in the world. (more…)

The Phone As A Powerful Sales Tool

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At some point in the sales and marketing process of most organizations, they will use the phone to reach the right person, close a sale, follow-up with a customer or to handle a customer inquiry. Thus the phone is necessary and integral to most organizations’ success.

This is primarily because there is nothing entirely as personal and as fast as a phone call, which is why potential customers still prefer to call, despite having other options such as social media or chats.

Also, many people have phones. There are almost as many phone subscriptions as there are people on the planet. In Nigeria alone, the total active telephone subscriptions were 182.70 million at the end of November, 2019. This ubiquity of phones means that many prospects are accessible through calls. (more…)

Reviewing Your Organization’s Value Equation

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What are your products and services actually worth to customers? Not many organizations are able to answer this question, but it’s very important.

In fact, right now, with so many things changing in the way we live, the ability to understand the value of our product or service from the customer’s perspective has never been more important. And that’s where the value equation helps.

Value means the benefit the customer gets from our product or service compared to its cost to them. Put differently, it means benefit to cost ratio. (more…)

One Simple Way to Make Employee Training Pay Off

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Reasons. If you could put in one word what makes employee training pay off, that would be the word. As humans, if we have enough reasons we could do the most incredible things.

Tell a child that if they do well in school, you’d buy them a bicycle, you will see their commitment and performance soar. Explain to a young accountant the opportunities that will come their way if they become chartered, they will put in extra effort in preparation to pass the requisite exams.

When it comes to employee training, the case is not different. Give employees enough reasons, they will take the training seriously and excel in learning and application. (more…)

Why Customers Leave | Astonishing Statistics

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Businesses spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to attract new customers to their product or service. But less thought is given to customers who stop buying and simply leave.

Customers leave for various reasons. And it’s not always easy to pick out the exact reason why they leave. When you ask, they may give a variety of excuses but those may not be the real reasons.

Statistics, depicted in Figure 1 and Figure 2, tell us the major reasons why customers leave. (more…)

5 E-learning Myths That May Deny Your Company Huge Benefits

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When e-learning was first proposed as a viable alternative to classroom-based learning, many organizations were skeptical.  And, at the time, their suspicions were well-founded. Unfortunately, while the quality of e-learning has improved greatly over the years, many of these early misconceptions have yet to fade way.

Here are some of the top myths many organizations have about e-learning, and why they’re either not true, or not the complete story. (more…)

The Inadequacy of Hard Skills

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To do their work, employees typically need hard skills. For example, Customer Service Officers need to know how to solve customers’ problems, Computer Programmers need to be able to write functional codes, and Accountants need to be able keep and inspect financial records.

However, beyond the hard skills, which customer service officer do you go to? The one who is pleasant and takes time to answer your questions; or the one who treats you like a number in a long line of customers?

Which programmer do you retain when the economy is down? The one whose attitude is positive and upbeat, and who is always willing to help; or the one who is inflexible and has a hard time admitting mistakes? (more…)

When A Supervisor Is Not Assertive

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When a supervisor is not assertive, then in real terms, they are either aggressive or passive.

Aggressive supervisors use their positions of power and authority to belittle, intimidate, and control those who report to them.

As a result, their team members begin to resent them. Then their productivity begins to fall, and if the dictatorial behaviour of the supervisor continues, it will not be long before the organization begins experiencing a high employee turnover. (more…)

Importance of Strategic Planning

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Dwight Eisenhower was the one who said, “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”

Strategic planning is a good example – it’s not urgent but it’s important. Very important.

Many of the day-to-day operational struggles we face in our organizations had their seeds sown in the past, when we failed to plan.

Of course, no one can predict the future, everyday has its own operational struggles but the fact remains that many severe operational struggles have, as their origin, a failure from months or years earlier – a failure in strategic planning. In other words, the absence of strategic planning or poor strategic plans, usually lead to operating nightmares. (more…)