Training Topics
 

Engage With Strategic Questions

The thing about people with strong technical and analytical skills is that they have a strong need to be right. So they make statements that don’t encourage dialogue with the other person. Yet relationships are based on dialogue. This workshop teaches engineers how to captivate the customer’s attention with high-impact questions. They learn to:
 

  zero in on key concerns at various levels of the organization
  probe the costs, causes and consequences of unresolved problems
  explore the potential for innovative solutions

This session forms the foundation for engaging business conversations ranging from customer meetings to technical presentations to negotiations.

Plan The Client Interaction

Why is planning important? It differentiates your company from the competition. It stops in its tracks the attitude an automotive executive displayed to my customer’s engineer [prior to the training, of course]: “D’yall realize it costs me $16,000 a minute to talk to you, boy?”

This workshop presents a simple tool that will save tons of time and put your technical people in control of the client interaction while increasing their customer’s respect for their professionalism.

Participants work through an actual on-the-job scenario, using checklists to simplify the planning process, from logistics to debrief to follow-up. They receive the checklist in electronic format for application on the job the next day.

Communicate With All Personality Styles

You often hear people say that engineers can’t communicate. That isn’t true. They often communicate well enough with one another. The problem is that they need to increase their versatility in order to communicate effectively with decision-makers at other levels of the organization who are sure to have differing interpersonal styles. The purpose of this module is to boost their confidence and effectiveness in working, interacting and negotiating through adapting to all personality styles.

They will establish relationship more easily through recognizing and responding to verbal and non-verbal behavior and communication "clues".

Sharpen Negotiation Skills

There is no business activity that has more power to make or lose money for your company in mere minutes or hours than negotiation. And yet, most engineers who attend this workshop tell me they had no idea that the negotiation starts from the very first conversation. No idea that manipulative tactics were being used against them.

This workshop develops mastery in several critical areas, including:

  solving problems through focusing on mutual interests

  influencing others by taking human foibles into account

  helping customers negotiate within their organization

  considering new ideas and not just looking to solutions that may have
       worked in the past

  improving the ability to tolerate ambiguity in order to end up with a

       better deal.

Break Through Personal Barriers

Since no amount of training will make a difference to one’s results if personal barriers are present, this session provides the platform for the success of all future training. Through a small group process, participants discuss how any of 50 mental barriers may affect their level of confidence and success in communication, negotiation, presentations, productivity and time effectiveness. They select three barriers to overcome in the following weeks. Participants are surprisingly open to sharing their innermost thoughts.

Listening Skills

Typically, when I interview my customers’ customer and ask, “When we come to you, where are we falling short?” the answer is: “You’re not listening to us.” This fun workshop addresses the common roadblocks to listening. Participants learn 10 ways to listen better – most importantly, by making it a problem-solving exercise.

Presentation Skills

Participants develop a superior presentation style. They learn how to influence decision-makers at any level of the organization by presenting their ideas in a structured way. They learn to establish immediate rapport and credibility with their audience. They prepare a technical presentation in PowerPoint and receive constructive feedback from colleagues.

Manage The Stress Of Work

Participants learn to recognize and maintain OP [Optimal Performance] Range to reduce on-the-job anxiety and stress. They learn techniques to develop the “effortless effort” that leads to innovative problem-solving. This workshop is guaranteed to increase productivity.

International Table Manners & Protocol

This session develops the social skills that are so essential to the first impression - particularly when dealing with clients from across the globe. It covers all aspects of wining and dining etiquette.