Many companies will hire a keynote speaker perhaps once or twice a year to deliver a message to their employees or to inspire them in various ways. While planning a keynote speech can be time consuming, it is clear that hiring speakers is beneficial to a company’s success. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is the novelty of an outside speaker. This and other reasons for the success of outside speakers are listed and considered below. Novelty of a New Speaker: Employees often respond better to criticism and advice if it comes from someone they don’t work with every day. If that person has a proven track record of success in their field, employees are more likely to respond positively to the speaker and implement his or her advice. For example, a lecture on the importance of technology will be much more effective if given by Bill Gates instead of by the office IT manager. Keynote Speakers are Entertaining: Keynoters are paid to speak. If they couldn’t capture and hold an audience’s attention, they would be out of a job. A keynote speaker may not say anything that someone in your office wouldn’t think of themselves, but what they can do is deliver their information in a fun and entertaining way. Listeners are always more affected by a lecture when it was interesting and catches their imagination in some way. Individuality of Talks and Lectures: Each speaker has a specific way they prefer delivering their information, and the variety between speakers is part of what makes their talks effective. If you hire a keynote speaker, do not ask him or her to fit their talk into a specific format that you prefer. This will take away from the individuality and effectiveness of the speech. Motivate Your Employees: The point of a keynote or motivational speaker is to get your employees excited about new ideas and to fuel their imagination, helping them become more productive. The success of a speaker can be measured by how much it improves the success of your company and your workers. Get a Preview: In essence, a keynote speech is often a teaser for the speaker’s book. By hiring the speaker, a company can determine if buying their book for employees is worth the cost. If the speech goes well, for example, and employees are excited and invigorated by what they hear, then buying several copies of the book could further the productivity sparked by the keynoter’s speech. Consider hiring a keynote or motivational speaker if your workers seem to be slowing down, or if your company appears to be losing some of its momentum.  

A sales plan is integral to any company’s success. The strategy most take is to devise an effective sales plan, which remains the same until it begins to become less successful. This can be an effective strategy for a company looking to maintain present success. However, the best companies in any industries are always growing and expanding. A business serious about success has to think big. One way to push towards greater success is to improve and reevaluate your current sales plan. Fortunately, there are plenty of small changes a company can make without overhauling its approach to sales: Monitor analytics. The only way to know what changes will help your company is to look at the stats. Continuously checking up on your website’s analytics lets you know what’s working and what’s not. Make a goal. Do you want to expand your customer base? Improve customer experience? Streamline production? Once you’ve analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of your business plan, come up with an attainable goal for your reevaluation. Stay up to date online. In today’s world, every company has a social media presence. An under-utilized social media page means lost sales and poor reputation. There are changes every day in the technology world. Staying apprised of these updates allows makes your company relevant, appealing to new customer bases and keeping old customers loyal. Keep up with technology to maximize your company’s potential. Focus on your audience. Your audience’s response is how you determine what parts of your sales plan are effective. Your reevaluation is primarily concerned with this response, so make it your top priority. Don’t be afraid of change. A reevaluation of your sales plan should be a small update, not taking up too much money or resources. However, sometimes the reevaluation can lead to a bigger realization of a potential untapped market or branding opportunity. In these cases, don’t be afraid to go for gold. A big change can mean big success when it’s relevant and oriented towards your audience’s needs. Be patient. Big changes don’t happen overnight. A successful reevaluation of a sales strategy takes time. Proper analysis of your company’s success can only be done by experts looking over a lot of data. Similarly, figuring out what changes should be made with the data in mind is not a quick process. Even small changes take time. By devoting necessary time to a sales plan reevaluation, you stand to bring your company growth and success. Get some advice. Shapiro Negotiations offers extensive sales and negotiation training opportunities for maximizing any company’s sales potential. Professional help with reevaluating your company’s sales strategy can mean big growth.

Technology advances rapidly in the business world. However, some things will always stay the same. The art of negotiation is as important a business skill as it ever has been. Strong negotiation skills can be the difference between a beneficial compromise and a loss. There will always be conflicts in life, and the ability to solve them, particularly in the business world, is what creates success. What are some important negotiation skills, and why are they so critical? Confidence. Don’t be intimidated; bullies know how to get their way. The business world has its fair share of tyrants, as some people intimidate their way to success. Feeling intimidated means you’re already on your way to defeat. People can sense when you’re emotionally not up for the fight, and they take advantage of it. In the business world, this can mean lost profits, promotions, and opportunities. Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated during negotiation. If the other person appears more confident, understand it’s typically not because they deserve something more than you do; they’re just convinced they do. By bringing this conviction to the table, you can win a negotiation. Knowing when to walk away. Some battles are not worth fighting. When business decisions hang in the balance, it’s imperative to know when to walk away. If someone is transparently trying to get their way with no concessions to you, it’s best to exit the negotiation. Playing fair. In most negotiations, the goal is compromise. If both parties can understand this and be sympathetic to the others’ needs, both stand to benefit far more. A competition for money or business resources isn’t a true negotiation. In any negotiation, each side has something to offer, and some things they can reasonably concede. Be open, fair, and honest, and you can gain the most from business negotiations. People skills. More often than not, it’s not what you say - it’s how you say it. By presenting your case in the right light, you stand to gain much more from any negotiation. Approaching a negotiation nervously or aggressively gives the other party the upper hand. Be calm, civil, and direct. A good sense of humor and open demeanor, as well as being a good listener, go a long way to realize a successful negotiation. As a business skill, negotiation is here to stay. By prioritizing having good negotiators on your team, you create an environment for business success. Remember, negotiation should be approached not as a competition, but as a compromise that both sides stand to gain from.

Communication skills can be learned and are often part of effective negotiation training. However, there are some people who are inherently more skilled negotiators than others. Most excellent speakers had the following characteristics from the get-go before they were trained in negotiation: Quick thinking. Being able to think on one’s feet is essential to being a strong negotiator. Negotiating can be stressful, and sometimes requires making big decisions quickly. Strong negotiators can absorb new information and decide the best course of action immediately. Intelligence. It’s no surprise that negotiating requires some smarts. Business negotiators must assess their needs and the needs of others, coming up with compromises that benefit everyone’s interests - often on the fly. Confidence. Negotiation requires asserting one’s will. Many negotiations fail before they begin because the negotiator feels they don’t deserve what they’re asking for. Strong negotiators project their confidence and strong will throughout the conversation. This has an effect on their opponent. Without realizing it, they will begin to see the other’s point of view. Ability to anticipate others. A successful negotiation requires strong listening skills. However, equally important is the capacity to anticipate other’s needs before they express them. With knowledge of their opponent’s wishes, a negotiator can manipulate the conversation so they make fewer concessions, but their opponent still feels they came out on top. Compassion and people skills. Negotiating is a social skill. The ability to connect with others is essential to being a good negotiator. Knowing what others are likely to want and how they will react to things means a good negotiator can easily manage an interaction. Making things sound good. A good negotiator goes into a conversation willing to make concessions. However, while they may be willing to make large concessions, the goal of the negotiation is to make as few concessions as possible. A strong negotiator makes small concessions sound bigger than they are. This isn’t about lying; lying will ruin an honest negotiation. Rather, it’s about presenting things in a light that is beneficial to the negotiator. Knowledge of how much to let on. Negotiation is all about presenting the facts in a way that is convincing. Giving away too much information leaves one vulnerable; being too tight-lipped come across as cold, which doesn’t have a good effect on the negotiation. A strong negotiator is personable, but strong willed. They listen well to words, but pay attention to subtext and body language. Great negotiators must train to maximize their abilities. However, the social intelligence they hone is innate.

They might have told you differently when you graduated high school, but the fact is that dealing with unpleasant people is a fact of life. Regardless of age, you will have to deal with difficult people in multiple roles and environments. In the business world, unpleasant people can be a particular problem. You may have to deal with the same problem every day, or they may be in an important position for the future of your company. SNI’s Conflict Resolution Training focuses on how Dealing with Difficult People. Learning a few tips for managing interactions with unpleasant people can make your life a lot easier and improve your business prospects. Accept the problem. Some people are just awful to deal with, and there’s no more to it than that. There are plenty of different kinds of unpleasant people in the workplace. Denying the problem or trying to make it your own fault solves nothing and can be detrimental to your ability to deal with it. Unpleasant people don’t have to make your life miserable. Don’t be afraid to accept that they are the problem, and go from there. Don’t get defensive. Many unpleasant people thrive on putting the blame on others - including you. Although it may be incredibly difficult to resist the urge to defend yourself, it’s ultimately the best choice. Your self-defense will have no effect on them, as they live in a world where you are always to blame. Getting defensive will usually have the reverse effect by making you appear guilty. Don’t lose your temper. In work situations, losing your temper is unprofessional. No matter how infuriating a coworker is acting, it’s never appropriate to yell or act out in anger. Unpleasant people are not worth your emotional response. Don’t allow yourself to get too angry. Stay out of the emotional situation they are trying to create with you. Control your interactions. Seeing a difficult person every day can be frustrating. However, some people are only unpleasant in certain situations. If possible, avoid these situations. If not, avoid the person as much as you can while remaining professional. Avoid one-on-one encounters. Some difficult people are explicitly trying to bully you, and they will try to get you alone to do so more effectively. Avoid this in any way possible. Bringing in a third party can help diffuse any situation with an unpleasant person. Nothing results from an open conflict beyond making their behavior more unpleasant. If necessary, tell someone. Some workplace interactions are just unpleasant. However, you have a right to feel safe and comfortable at work. Talk to HR if an unpleasant person goes too far.

Having a positive attitude may sound a bit trite, but in truth, it has a noticeable effect on the quality of people’s work. Those who focus on the negative and allow setbacks to crush their spirits tend to produce less and lower quality work. Below are a few ways of encouraging positive outlooks in the workplace, according to negotiations training experts. Smile more. As silly as it sounds, smiling more has been shown to increase people’s happiness. The simple action of smiling makes a person feel happier, and by "pretending" to be happy, you will find that you truly are. Smiling at other people will also provoke positive feelings. It will compel them to smile back and feel the same happiness as you. Focus on the positive. This is a bit more difficult and requires some self-control. In everything that happens throughout the day, look for the positive and celebrate it. When you forgot to bring your lunch to work, celebrate that you have an excuse to eat junk food from the vending machine. There are two sides to every situation, and constantly looking for the good will ultimately result in a positive and more productive attitude. Appreciate what you have. Recognize and count your blessings every day. You could always be in a worse position. Your peace and thankfulness will inspire your coworkers, and bring positivity into the workplace. Affirm your coworkers. Everyone has gifts and talents, and everyone likes to be recognized for their work. Affirm your coworkers for their strengths, and help them to recognize their worth if their esteem is low. You can make people’s day by letting them know that they are appreciated, and that attitude of appreciation and affirmation will eventually spread to your coworkers, as well. Set goals. Setting goals is a good way to make sure you are productive. Set daily goals, for you and your coworkers to ensure that everyone feels accomplished upon completing a project. The feeling of success will lead to increased positive feelings for everyone at your workplace.

It’s not easy to become a top negotiator. It requires instruction and practice to become truly adept. Negotiations Training from experts in the field is a great catalyst for success in your career. However, there are certain negotiation tactics that enable people to succeed in the tensest negotiations, even with inadequate negotiation training. Read on to learn a few key methods for success. Know when to make the first offer. In most negotiations, you do not want to be the person making the first offer. Letting the other side set the starting point will give you an idea of what their goal might be and will usually give you the upper hand. However, there are some cases in which you might want to move first; the trick is to recognize those rare cases when they arise. This is where negotiations training from Shapiro Negotiations can make the difference between success and a failure to close the deal. Provide reasonable counter offers. Most people have seen how negotiations go in movies: two people both shouting unreasonable numbers at one another until they somehow come to an agreement, or else the situation devolves into violence. In actual negotiations, countering with unreasonable offers will rarely help improve your hand. Be prepared for aggressive tactics. Some negotiators rely on hyperagressive tactics, hoping to intimidate their counterparts to win the negotiation. Be prepared for insults, backhanded comments, and attempts to get underneath your skin. While these strategies are immature, you will likely come across them a few times in your career. Ask questions. Learn about the people sitting across the table from you. If they are pushing back against what seems to be a mutually beneficial agreement, ask why. This will give you an insight into their motives and goals and will open the communication lines between you and your opponent, hopefully leading to a fruitful conclusion. Come prepared. Research your opponent’s company to find out what its background is, how it has grown, what its goals are, and how it stands to benefit from your negotiation. If possible, research your fellow negotiator, as well, to learn his or her tactics, demeanor, and character. The more information you have, the better the outcome will be for your company.

SNI is giving away one spot to our upcoming invitational seminar in Baltimore on December 18th! To win this $650 value  enter via the Rafflecopter below. You can enter multiple ways (today and tomorrow!) and the more you enter the more likely you are to win! One winner will be drawn at random and announced on Monday, November 3rd! Good Luck!   HOW TO NEGOTIATE AND INFLUENCE SO EVERYONE WINS - ESPECIALLY YOU! This highly interactive invitational seminar is conducted in an educational and engaging format highlighting the three vital elements of SNI’s process: Prepare, Probe and Propose. You will learn a straightforward, systematic approach to Negotiation and Influencing, applying SNI’s philosophy that "the best way to get what you want is to help the other side get what they want." Attend this full-day seminar and you will: Eliminate bad habits that lead to Win-Lose and Lose-Lose Outcomes Learn to do deals that build relationships that lead to more deals Learn a seven-step process vital for effective preparation Develop skills to increase confidence in negotiations Learn four key probing questions to find out what the other side really wants Develop a system for breaking deadlocks by obtaining vital information Utilize new tools to overcome the probe-resistant negotiator Learn the three fundamental rules for proposing deals Overcome the fear of rejected proposals REGISTRATION FORM DATE: Thursday, December 18, 2014 LOCATION: 5520 Research Park Drive, Baltimore, MD TIMES: 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. COST: $650 (Includes continental breakfast, lunch, a copy of the award-winning book, The Power of Nice, and all course-related materials) You can enter by: Leaving a Blog Comment Liking SNI on Facebook Following SNI on Twitter Tweeting about the giveaway Joining our LinkedIn Group Subscribing to our DealCoach Newsletter Enter all day today and tomorrow and come back on Monday to see if you won!   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Think about parent-children interactions you’ve met with. How often does the child get what he or she wanted in the end? We like to think, as adults, that we are much smarter and more complex than children, but children are the ultimate negotiators, using surprisingly elegant tactics to get what they want. As adults, we often disregard the more simplistic negotiating skills children employ, but sometimes simple is the best. The following are a few of the simplest child negotiation techniques and what we can learn from them in corporate negotiations training: Aim high. Children have a seemingly intuitive knowledge that starting out with a large request will result in more a more beneficial outcome. Whether this begins as simple greed or a childlike hopefulness, we can’t be sure. Yet somehow children know when they ask for 3 more scoops of ice cream, they will end up getting at least one more. Perhaps this explains why they always look so overjoyed when they get what they originally ask for: they weren’t expecting it. In business, always ask for more than you expect. Ask at the right time. One of the most devious tricks children employ is asking for something when their parents are distracted. They learn at an early age - if mom or dad is distracted by watching TV or talking on the phone, they will be more likely to get a positive answer. Negotiators can use this trick, as well: when negotiating, slip in a seemingly unrelated request that will provide your company with a big reward. Even politicians use this tactic, slipping unwanted bills and stipulations into otherwise popular legislation. Offer something first. Children almost always preface their negotiations with reminders of their good behavior, performances of odd favors and tasks, or gifts and compliments. Most parents have wised up to this trick, prompting the well-used line "what do you want now?" Nevertheless, it is still effective. Everyone knows that you don’t get something for nothing, and doing a favor for or offering assistance to a company before beginning negotiations is one way to get better results. Be persistent. This is perhaps a child’s most effective negotiation tool, and it’s one we incorporate into our negotiations training module. Kids understand a "no" often means "not right now" and even the strongest parents can eventually be worn down by sheer persistence. If you know what you want, go after it, and don’t stop until you have achieved your goal. This is just as applicable in negotiation settings as it is in the rest of life.

Of all the negotiation tactics used over the centuries, there are some that stick out as being particularly low-down and dirty. At Shapiro Negotiations, we offer negotiation training that focuses on productive and mutually beneficial tactics, but not all negotiators have the courage to negotiate with integrity. Knowing how to handle nasty tactics when you encounter them is vital for novice negotiators. Here are a few of the most common bad negotiation tactics and how to avoid them. Exaggerating future sales growth. Some negotiators, in an attempt to make their company more intimidating or more appealing for a partnership, will lie about their estimated future sales growth. The way to combat this is simple: do research. If you come prepared with copies of their past growth records, then you can nip this strategy in the bud. Pretending to back out. This is a somewhat childish but unfortunately still effective attempt to persuade other negotiators to cave to their demands. By making it seem like their company is no longer interested, negotiators hope to force opponents to offer better deals to bring them back to the table. Recognize this farce for what it is, and call the negotiator’s bluff. Retract your offers, and if his company is truly not interested, you can find better deals elsewhere. Withholding important information. Negotiations are most effective when everyone at the table has all of the information they need. If you are negotiating a corporate buyout, for example, you need to have all of the sales information for the company you are buying. If your fellow negotiator withholds that information or other important documents, you may end up making a bad deal. Do not be afraid to be direct with your questions, and accept nothing less than a straight and complete answer. Faking offense at typical questions. When you ask direct questions about a company’s finances or sales success, your opponent may act offended and insulted. In all likelihood, he or she is simply trying to avoid answering the question. With the right corporate sales training, negotiators should be prepared for all business-related questions, and if someone takes pains to avoid giving an answer, you should be wary of them. Demanding last minute changes. Do not give in to last minute demands; they are often nothing more than a ploy to take advantage of your surprise. When you have settled the stipulations of an agreement, stick to them and do not change them just to keep the other negotiator in the game. If the other company is successful in making minute demands before entering into an agreement, then they will try to take advantage of your company again in the future.