Learning upon learning

We train literally thousands of managers, DMs, Buyers, and Home Office supervisors each year. In those sessions and the sessions our clients train using our retail-specific programs, there is tremendous learning and insight. Since retail is our industry we see themes and trends for leadership and negotiation and influence that many of our clients aren’t…

How do we know what they know?

Over the years, we’ve seen a clear reaction to economic downturn.  If customers aren’t buying, retailers cut training.  Why?  I think it’s because from the outset the value or specific financial impact of solving a particular problem through training hasn’t been quantified.  Many of our clients are initially excited about our ability to measure training…

“You get it!”

“You get it!” was what this VP, Sales said after I summarized what I thought they needed and what we should do.  This isn’t a rare event for us.  More and more companies who come to our site and talk with us know that one of the most valuable benefits we bring is that we…

Trust the Process

We’re a training and consulting company by industry type but in fact what we do in our sessions is facilitate the learning and in some ways change.  We have a proven process for certifying others to do what we do.  They do it differently than we do.  They do it with their own experiences and…

Retail Hero

A few weeks ago we received a request from a retailer about our Retail Leadership programs.  We followed up as usual with the information requested.  This morning around 9:15am we got a call from this client.  He was calling from Cairo…Egypt not Indiana (where they pronounce it Kay-Roh). We had a productive conversation about the…

The Motivation Mindset: Questioning the ‘Carrot’

Retailers like results.  They’re constantly looking for ways to motivate employees to meet and exceed goals.  We’ve discussed MOHR’s Leadership Model and our view that motivation is an input not an outcome in past blogs.  A collegue sent the following YouTube link to me and it resonated strongly.  Not only because it’s scientific proof that…

Engagement: The next level

We work with more than a hundred different retailers each year and train thousands of retail store associates, managers, and DMs.  One of the words that retailers are using now is “engagement”.  The focus is clearly shifting, especially regarding customer experience, toward ways to more fully engage the customer.  Clients are looking for skills and…

Summer’s here…time to plan for Fall!

In the past two weeks six different, major retail clients have called to schedule meetings to discuss plans for training September thru December.  With July almost here BTS will begin shortly.  In retail, everything happens fast.  That means that having all your ducks in a row, getting the resources, partners, participants, and agendas laid out…