Learning is one thing, but driving long-term change in your company is quite another. PPG workshops will generate immediate action and commitment to your desired outcome by making attendees active participants with ownership for developing the solution to their business problem, while enabling your management team to execute on that solution post-program. We offer both proprietary programs and programs from some of the top thought-leaders in the industry, delivering them with cutting-edge content, energy, and humor. For more information on any of these workshops and how they can be customized for you, please click below or contact our office.

INTRODUCTION

Workshops

Strategic Sales Presentations

Exceptional salespeople know the fastest way to close complex deals is to win over senior level decision makers with compelling business value propositions.  Developed by Fortune 100 consultant Jack Malcolm, this workshop begins with the fundamental challenge of crafting and delivering a compelling “pitch”, but adds two additional skills: how to express the value of your solution, and how to appeal to the decision styles of senior executives.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Analyze their customer to identify their most pressing needs
  • Craft a compelling and memorable value proposition
  • Structure their pitch for clarity and power
  • Adapt their content and style to the information-processing and decision-making preferences of senior executives
  • Confidently manage the Q&A, and deal effectively with objections
  • Get the customer involved in the presentation of the solution

Defined Outcomes: Participants will greatly enhance their professionalism and credibility in front of executives, making them a key competitive asset.  They will develop stronger relationships at higher levels of their customer organizations, while enjoying higher win rates and shorter sales cycles.
Customization Options: This is a full day course that can be lengthened or shortened based on need.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Executive Selling Skills – SellXL®

Developed by well-known author and consultant Dr. Steve Bistritz, the SellXL® workshop helps professional salespeople create, maintain and leverage relationships at executive levels in client organizations.  His best-selling sales book, Selling to the C-Suite, was based in part on this workshop, and many of the graphics in the book were taken from the workshop.  Based on findings from research with executives in each global region, SellXL® makes a unique contribution to the sales profession that is empirically accurate and culturally sound.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Target the Right Executive by determining which key executive is most impacted by the buying decision. Learn how to identify the relevant executive for the sales opportunity – and how to align with that executive, so as to have a better chance of winning key deals.
  • Focus Your Approach to executives by using the methods that executives report as most likely to result in a meeting being granted. Learn the best time in the buying cycle to meet with senior executives, how to treat gatekeepers as a resource, avoid the inevitable roadblocks, and what to do when you’re sent down to lower levels.
  • Establish and Enhance the Relationship by thoroughly analyzing the executive’s key business issues. Follow the executive thought process to identify how external forces drive internal initiatives. Learn how to perform appropriate discovery, researching the client’s industry, the client’s company and the client executive using the Guide to Internet Resources  – a concise tool to help you harness the power of the Internet. Learn how to communicate and get credit for your insight, ultimately displaying both integrity and capability – operating in the Client Value Zone and becoming the trusted advisor of the client executive.
  • Create and Articulate Your Value by helping executives see their business through a new set of eyes. Construct a value proposition that’s meaningful to executives and sets clear implementation expectations. Learn how to consistently communicate your value to client executives, using the client’s metrics and terminology – thereby ensuring return access to them.

Defined Outcomes: Using a case study approach, participants will learn how to become a “Trusted Advisor” to their client executives, earn the right for return access, improve their forecast accuracy, and win more profitable business.

Customization Options: This is a full day course.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

 

Consultative Selling Skills

Strong consultative selling skills are the lifeblood of any sales force’s success.  Until your salespeople can build trust, ask powerful questions, and bring massive value to their customers, no selling model in the world can be effectively executed – period.

Created by Top 100 global thought-leader John Spence, and distilled from his work training sales people at some of the top sales organizations in America (GE, Lanier Worldwide, IBM and NCR), this workshop deals with the critical skills and attitudes necessary to become a superior consultative salesperson and position yourself as a Trusted Advisor to your customer.  This program is especially well-suited to reps who do not view themselves as “salespeople”, but are required to go out and meet with clients to help close business.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • What it means to be a “Consultative” sales person
  • Presentation of an advanced sales questioning model
  • Uncovering customer needs, wants and desires
  • Turning implied needs into financial impact to create urgency
  • Questioning workshop and role plays
  • Getting the customer to sell themselves
  • Managing objections
  • The three most important sales questions
  • The power of the agenda

Defined Outcomes: Participants will be able to quickly build trust with customers by demonstrating honesty and core values.  They will be able to ask powerful questions to uncover customer needs, and enhance the customer’s urgency to take action by quantifying the need into hard financial impact.  Finally, participants will be comfortable handling objections, and closing the sale in a manner that is effective and enjoyable for both the salesperson and the customer.
Customization Options: This workshop is typically delivered as a full day program, but can be lengthened or shortened based on need.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Facilitation Skills

Being able to guide a group to a consensus decision is a critical leadership skill in the modern work environment.  The traditional command-and -control style of leadership is no longer effective, with effective leaders today employing a more participative and inclusive approach.  Facilitation skills are a key tool for using these new styles of leadership effectively, and greatly enhance your organization’s ability to make the best decisions in a timely manner and move your business forward.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Planning for an effective outcome
  • Establishing rapport
  • Leading effective discussions
  • Asking powerful questions
  • Responding to questions and comments
  • Handling problem situations
  • Recapping for accountability and next steps

Defined Outcome: Participants will be able to effectively facilitate meetings to drive consensus decisions with definitive actions and pull-through.  They will be able to ask powerful questions that challenge the audience’s thinking, and appropriately respond to audience questions and comments.  Participants will also be comfortable handling common problem situations that arise, from side-bar conversations to navigating political dynamics within the audience members, to being directly challenged or diffusing tension.
Customization options: This workshop is a half-day course, or can be combined with our Presentation Platform Skills and/or Designing Effective Presentations courses to build additional skills in a 1 day, 1.5 day, or 2 day course.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Presentation Platform Skills

Effective presentation skills are among the most critical skills for a leader, both for their ability to influence as well as for career advancement.  Every presentation you give is a precious opportunity to mobilize your organization behind your goals and vision, and inspire people to take action towards them.  Leaders shape the perceptions of others through their presentations, and if leadership is largely about working through others, then presentation skills are perhaps your most valuable tool.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Overcoming fear of presentations
  • Structuring an effective presentation
  • Effective communication principles
  • Slide design principles
  • The importance of speaking from the heart
  • Effective body language
  • Maintaining proper eye contact
  • Utilizing vocal inflection
  • The power of pauses
  • Purposeful movement
  • Proper use of technology
  • Clothing tips

Defined Outcome: Participants will be able to deliver effective presentations by assessing the needs of their audience, designing effective presentation structure and content, and delivering with conviction and confidence.  Participants will feel vastly more confident on stage, as well as a sense of pride in their improvement.
Customization options: This workshop can be done as a full day course, or can be combined with our Facilitation Skills and/or Designing Effective Presentations courses to build additional skills in a 1.5-2 day course.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Delivering Effective Feedback

The ability to give candid feedback is one of the most difficult and stressful competencies for most managers.  Yet, it is also one of the most critical competencies for driving performance.  This workshop is designed to give managers the skills and techniques to have effective feedback conversations that give employees total clarity around their performance, while leaving the employee in a positive, grateful, and empowered frame of mind.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Why it’s always best to give honest feedback, even if it’s difficult.
  • Overcoming the stress of delivering tough feedback.
  • Making action steps actionable.
  • Handling defensiveness.
  • Writing effective written feedback documents, including emails, periodic feedback documents, and annual performance reviews.
  • How to make feedback valuable and well-received, and a positive experience for all involved.

Defined Outcome: Participants will be able to deliver clear, effective verbal and written feedback that drives performance and employee engagement.  Participants will practice verbal and written scenarios based on actual feedback conversations they will be having with specific employees.
Customization options: This workshop can be done as a half or full day course, or can be delivered as a 1-2 hour breakout session as part of a larger meeting.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

The Science of High Performance Toughness

We can’t lie – this is Spencer’s favorite course!  This highly unique and differentiated workshop was designed to answer the question, “What makesa high-performer a high-performer, and how can I bring those elements into the workplace?”  This workshop enables participants to analyze specific elements of their mental toughness, and identify specific strengths and weaknesses they can develop to enhance their individual and team performance.  Founded in research across multiple disciplines of business and psychology, the content focuses only on areas that are modifiable and within one’s control, and will enable participants to elevate their motivation and performance to new heights.  This workshop has been described by numerous participants as the most eye-opening course they have ever done, and applies to employees at every level of an organization.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • The importance of self-awareness
  • Character attributes of high-performers
  • How mindset drives behavior
  • Handling failure and adversity
  • Using stress productively
  • Setting your personal standard and self-expectations
  • Interactive activities to demonstrate the concepts
  • How to improve in these areas yourself

Defined Outcome: Workshop participants will leave with increased resiliency, a more positive mindset, greater accountability and ownership, and improved effectiveness in driving individual and organizational results.  They will perform a self-assessment of their current mental toughness strengths and opportunity areas, as well as a developmental action plan for enhancing their strengths and closing their gaps.  Participants will be excited to share their learnings with their direct reports and co-workers!
Customization options: This is typically a half-day course.  The course can be reduced to a 1-2 hour breakout session, or makes for a dynamic keynote speech.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Accountability and Execution

Accountable execution is as rare as it is vital, and is among the most consistent and common pain points for executives regardless of company size.  Improving accountability and execution is one of the fastest ways an organization can boost both its effectiveness and performance.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Shifting the organization’s perception of accountability from a negative one to a positive one.
  • Understanding the current gap in execution, and the enormous opportunity it brings.
  • How to build accountability and execution into your company culture.
  • Clear models for accountability and execution.
  • Strategic and execution planning on a real-life, critical current business initiative.

Defined Outcome: Workshop participants will leave with a new appreciation and positive perception of accountability and execution, along with a plan for embedding these elements into their organizational culture.  Additionally, each participant will develop a SMART strategic and execution plan for a real-life, critical current business initiative.
Customization options: This course can be conducted anywhere from half a day to a full day, or can be combined with a coaching course for a two day program.  It can also done as a 1-2 hour breakout session as part of a keynote speech or larger meeting.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Coaching Skills

Effective coaching is among the most vital skills of successful people managers.  The business impact of coaching is both broad and deep, and is a critical capability for numerous drivers of bottom line results, including execution, talent development, employee retention, and building a culture of performance.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Introduction of the Corporate Coach U coaching model.  Or, if you already have a coaching model for your organization, we can custom build a coaching skills workshop to practice the skills within your existing model.
  • Understanding of the core components of an effective coaching conversation.
  • The difference between coaching and feedback.
  • A self-assessment of the dominant coaching styles of each participant.
  • Coaching practice using real-life scenarios of the participants’ direct reports.

Defined Outcome: Workshop participants will leave with a full understanding of the importance of coaching, and the ability to conduct an effective coaching conversation.  Additionally, each participant will develop a SMART action plan for developing their coaching skills, as well as a plan for coaching each of their direct reports on a real-life issue.

Customization options: This course can be conducted anywhere from half a day to two full days, depending on the desired depth and intensity.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Designing Effective Presentations

Ineffective meetings and presentations are an epidemic at virtually every company today.  They are productivity and execution killers, and companies could vastly improve their bottom line by simply improving these skills throughout their organization.  Ever wonder why you are in a particular meeting?  What the purpose or intended outcome of the meeting is?  Listened to a long, boring presentation and still had no idea what the point was?  Poor presentations waste time and sap people of valuable energy, while effective presentations enable better business results and improve organizational efficiency.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • How to get the outcome you want from the presentation.
  • How to strategically structure a presentation for maximum effectiveness.
  • Tailoring the presentation to your audience.
  • Incorporating adult learning principles in your presentations to enhance retention of key points.
  • How to effectively plan the meeting to set the presentation up for success.
  • How to efficiently run the meeting once it begins.

Defined Outcome: Participants will feel vastly more confident in their ability to plan effective presentations and meetings that get to the point and make valuable use of your most important resource- time.  Participants will work on a real-life presentation they are currently preparing for, and leave with a completed structure for designing and delivering their presentation.  Participants will leave with a greater ability to influence their organization, and enhance their perception within that organization.
Customization options: This workshop can be done as a half or full day course, and can be combined with our Presentation Platform Skills or Facilitation Skills courses to add a delivery component in front of live audiences.  Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Communication Skills

Superb communication skills are essential for success in business and life. Unfortunately, few people receive the focused training and information necessary to become a highly effective communicator. Created by Top 100 global thought-leader John Spence, this workshop was specially designed to give attendees real-world tools and techniques to significantly improve their interpersonal communication skills, and help them learn how to better deal with angry, confrontational, emotional and abusive situations and people.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Recognizing how communication filters degrade understanding
  • How sensory modes affect our comprehension
  • The importance of Body Language
  • Cultural communication differences
  • The four main Social Styles
  • Advanced questioning and listening skills
  • Three reasons why we have difficult communications
  • How we create conflict in our own life
  • Communicating on purpose
  • The “Truth Assumptions”
  • Explanatory styles
  • Utilizing the Gap
  • The four “key questions” for avoiding conflict
  • The power of “I-statements”

Defined Outcome: Workshop participants will leave with greater confidence in their ability to navigate difficult conversations, and a concrete skill set for communicating appropriately in any situation. Additionally, each participant will develop a SMART action plan for having a challenging conversation about a real-life work issue.

Customization options: This program is a full day, or can be broken into half-day sessions on interpersonal communications or conflict resolution. It can also be offered as a shorter 1-2 hour breakout session as part of a keynote speech or larger meeting. Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Insight Selling Development and Execution

The Business-to-Business marketplace has changed drastically over the past decade. Buyers have more control in the “New Normal” economy than ever, and have successfully marginalized suppliers to price wars, eating into your profits. Many companies have responded by attempting to move to an Insight Selling model, but have struggled to successfully implement it due to its complexity. This workshop is designed to help companies with an existing Insight Selling model improve their execution, or to help companies currently shifting to an Insight Selling model launch successfully and sustainably.

  • Key elements of this workshop include:
    • Working within the context of your current or new Insight Selling Model.
    • Why an Insight Selling approach is necessary to win in the “New Normal” Economy
    • Understanding the Commercial Teaching approach, and how to structure your sales messaging and presentations to generate need and urgency from your customers
    • Increasing your customers’ perceived differentiation of your products
    • Being absolutely customer-centric in every aspect of your sell
    • Driving progress and urgency throughout your sales cycle
    • Turning tough conversations with customers into honest and mutually-beneficial ones that move the sale forward
    • Lots of hands-on practice and application
  • Defined Outcomes: Participants will have a full understanding of the need to shift to an Insight Selling approach, and an increased willingness to adapt to it. They will sharpen the various selling skills necessary for Insight Selling, and will be fully confident in executing their sales calls with their actual products and selling materials.
  • Customization Options: This course can be offered as a full day, 1.5 day, or 2 day class, depending on the amount of application desired, and how far along you are in your Insight Selling model roll-out. It can also be combined with our Consultative Selling Skills workshop to enhance the underlying sales skills required for successful Insight Selling. This workshop can also be combined with our “Insight Selling in the New Normal Economy” keynote speech. Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Styles

Emotional Intelligence is now widely considered to be the most important attribute of effective leaders both today and in the future. To effectively influence and inspire employees, leaders need to be able to connect with them on an emotional level. This ability stems from the leader’s emotional intelligence skills, which can be developed with the help of knowledge, awareness, and practice.

  • Key elements of this workshop include:
    • A clear understanding of what Emotional Intelligence is and isn’t.
    • The four domains of emotional intelligence, and their components.
    • The six distinct leadership styles, and how they impact your employees and work environment.
    • A 360-degree assessment for each workshop participant on their emotional intelligence capabilities.
    • A 180-degree assessment for each workshop participant on their use of the six leadership styles.
    • Post-program one-on-one coaching session for each workshop participant.
  • Defined Outcome: Workshop participants will leave with an unbiased, clear picture of their current emotional intelligence strengths and opportunities, and develop a SMART action plan for implementing improvements with their direct reports and stakeholders.
  • Customization options: This is typically a one day course. The course can be reduced to a half-day by eliminating the leadership styles component, or to a 1-2 hour breakout session (without any of the assessments or follow-up coaching) as part of a keynote speech or larger meeting. Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Achieving Business Excellence

Created by Top 100 global thought-leader John Spence, this is our most intensive business improvement workshop. The course was created specifically to help a management team take a hard, honest look at their business and determine exactly where their strengths and weaknesses are, and then create a focused plan for how to overcome their weaknesses and succeed at a higher level in the marketplace. This program has been presented to CEOs and senior managers at more than 200 companies with extremely positive results.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Understanding the importance of creating a clear vision and focused strategy
  • Numerous benchmarking audits against top companies
  • Understanding the four primary and four secondary drivers of business excellence
  • Examining the importance of mastering the organization’s “moments of truth”
  • Why it is critical to own the voice of the customer
  • An in-depth look at how organizations create effective strategies

Defined Outcome: At the end of this workshop, the team will leave with a greatly improved understanding of their business, and a plan with specific action steps on what needs to be done immediately to improve the revenues, market share and profitability of the organization.

Customization options: This course can be offered as a half day or full day course, depending on the amount of application desired. The content can also be delivered as a 1-2 hour breakout session as part of a keynote speech or larger meeting. Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Building High-Performance Teams

The success of your organization is largely dependent upon your ability to work together. This starts at the executive team level, and moves all the way down the org chart. As a manager, you have incredible influence over your immediate team, and enhancing their commitment and collaboration is one of your fastest options for improving their results and performance.

Created by Top 100 global thought-leader John Spence and following the format of an advanced MBA class, this workshop will present “Best in Class” benchmarking studies on specifically what it takes to create and sustain a high performance team within an organization, and then compares that information to the actual performance of your team as revealed through our customized Team Effectiveness Audit. The resulting gap analysis between the “current” state of your team and the “desired” state of a High Performance Team drives a workshop that will deliver specific and measurable action steps for dramatically improving the effectiveness and success of your team and organization.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • Why teams are so critical to the success of an organization
  • Uncover the major barriers to building a team
  • Examine leading research on team dynamics, pitfalls and successes
  • Study how great teams are built, run and sustained
  • Create a custom and realistic “Team Competency Model” for your organization
  • Determine key measurements for team effectiveness
  • Establish an Action Plan for implementing specific team goals and behaviors

Defined Outcome: Participants will have a clear understanding of why and how to build a high-performance team, and will work together to define their ideal Team Competency Model. They will then build an implementation plan for achieving key team goals and behaviors.

Customization options: This class can be presented as a half-day program of mostly lecture, or a more intensive full-day program with individual and team workshops. The content can also be delivered as a 1-2 hour breakout session as part of a keynote speech or larger meeting. Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.

Creating a Culture of Performance

There are few things that can grow your business like a winning, positive, accountable culture. Volumes of research show that highly engaged and satisfied employees can generate as much as a 104%-189% increase in profitability, while a poor organizational culture with disengaged employees can cost a company up to 22% of total revenues. Best of all, a culture of performance enables you and your employees to be both happier and more successful, and to grow together with mutual benefit.

Key elements of this workshop include:

  • How culture generates cash, and why it should be a key corporate strategy
  • What creates engagement, enthusiasm, and loyalty in employees
  • How high-performing employees have changed
  • Creating an organizational identity, and mobilizing your employees behind that vision
  • Creating a work environment that enables success
  • Defining the behaviors and ways of working that will generate your desired culture and commitment to results
  • How to sustain and solidify your desired culture over time

Defined Outcome: Participants will have a clear understanding of why and how to build a culture of performance, and will work together to define their desired cultural attributes. They will then build an implementation plan to immediately begin moving the organizational culture in a more positive direction.

Customization options: One of our most popular workshops, this class can be presented as a half-day program of mostly lecture, or a more intensive full-day, 1.5 day, or 2 day program with individual and team workshops, depending on the level of depth and application desired. Our Organizational Effectiveness Audit can also be included to provide a baseline analysis of your current culture, identifying strength and opportunity areas for the workshops. The content can also be delivered as a 1-2 hour breakout session (without the Audit) as part of a keynote speech or larger meeting. Contact our office to discuss how this workshop can be customized specifically to your company and improve your business.