We're excited about constantly developing new training modules for our clients with new methodologies -- While also drawing upon the classic, "Basic 101" time-honored foundations of success in selling and management systems, especially in today's economy where the rules of the game are constantly in flux. Why? Because our clients say that it works!

We'll customize your program based on where you think your team is, where they need to be, and how well they comprehend and apply new skills. Programs can be tailored from 1 or 2-day installations to a more in-depth approach of 6-12 days per year or more. Installations can be applied monthly, bi-monthly, every trimester, or quarterly, depending on your scheduling and business flow.

Our unique benefit and a key ingredient to Training for Winners is that Gary and his training associates provide complimentary between-visits coaching. This helps your team members retain the training concepts, work smarter toward their goals, take the newly-learned tools out for a "road test", adjust their methods, and overcome the obstacles they encounter. This increases the effectiveness of the training (your R.O.I.) by "looping" the visits.  It also allows for individuals to get help at their speed on what they need. Clients have hailed this as an "R.O.I. no-brainer."

To meet today's heavy challenges, sadly too many team leaders tell their performers to just go out and do more of the same "activities" that may not be working all that well in the first place: Make more (mediocre) calls, go on more (unprepared) sales calls, sell harder (feature-vomit) to more prospects, send more (poorly-worded, non-customized) emails, etc. This doesn't really work anymore. Take notice of this startling discovery:

Fact: Our research, based on workshop exercises with sales teams across the country, reveals that less than 2 in 10 salespeople understand the difference between features and benefits! It does indeed seem hard to believe, until you see it in person. Those other 8 salespeople better be really lucky, because they are set up to fail.

To top it off, the customers and their businesses are constantly changing, they are harder to find, they have a lot more choices where to take their business, and their buying habits have been altered, too -- "Value is king, so what's in it for me?" Sound familiar?

We arm your sales and management teams with new, sharpened skills to be able to tackle old problems with new ways of operating, so to increase your success rate for ACQUIRING and RETAINING more customers. Without those two components, your organization is in trouble.

Thus, our Training for Winners sales battle cry for these tough times is this:

"Someone, somewhere, is booking business with somebody this year, so game on -- It might as well be with me!"

This is truly an offensive game plan. It is a mantra that challenges salespeople to have confidence in their "game", use their tools properly, and go out and pursue their share of the business at hand, because someone is going to book it if they don't. Too many salespeople are feeling beaten down and lack confidence these days, and are in dire need of sharpening and increasing their skill set in order to do this. We can help you!

The sales team at the Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau and Mobile's Outlaw Convention Center made a colorful poster of their training topics covered in their TFW workshop, and used it as a refresher in the office after the training, and as an aid to help track their goals and take-aways from the sessions.

Gary's 2011 sales training program for the Fort Worth CVB culminated in a 2-day workshop in December themed "Changing Up Your Game." The group was challenged with the goal of "twisting the familiar" and changing up their sales approaches, activities, and ways of operating their territories like their own small businesses in the new year. Here, the group gathers for a group lunch at the Fort Worth Hilton. John Cychol (VP of Meeting Sales) and Melanie Hoover (Director of Meeting Sales) are 3rd and 4th from the left.

Let's ask a tough couple of questions: When was the last time your team got together in a dedicated environment for learning (no phones, no texting, all hands on deck totally focused on getting better), and really interacted? We're not talking about the typically dull weekly sales or manager's meetings, but a true-blue opportunity to learn new skills and solve issues together? When is the last time they learned SOMETHING new to help them succeed more? You can't leave that to chance.

Some of our most popular training topics include the following subjects (and many more are available, please ask!). And because we believe that adult learning should be fun, we have incorporated plenty of things to do that call on "play" skills that encourage competition, learning, and group inter-activity. We say "Work hard, play hard!"

These skillshops are extremely interactive, getting your participants involved throughout the day via a combination of individual exercises, group exercises, presentations, role-playing, table groups, and problem-solving. Everyone rolls up their sleeves and takes ownership for their part in the success of the group.

With Training for Winners, you get a partner that works as if they are on your very own team!

"Constructing New Ideas" was the theme in Monterey for the sales and services team at the Portola Hotel & Spa. To help drive the points home, participants worked together to construct individual models that related to their prospecting and selling efforts. Caution: Salespeople at work -- Hard hat area only!

Salespeople are responsible for results. As such, they are always being asked to achieve greater results in topsy-turvy times, grow their customer and prospect network, expand your organization's market reach, and beat the competition...

Unfortunately too many salespeople fail to grasp the client's needs and understand the thing that drives all sales -- "What's in it for me?" They spit out the features of their product ("show up and throw up") or service with little knowledge of what will actually appeal to that customer. They "feature-vomit" when they should be consultative selling the VALUE of the deal. This is the thrust of our sales training. Increase your revenues by:

• "Low-Hanging Fruit" Series -- What the buyers want to see and hear in order to do business, yet too many salespeople miss these opportunities right in front of them!
• Prospecting -- Knowing where and how to find new business 
• Sales Funnel --How to understand it, work it, make it flow more proficiently
• "Gap Selling" that stresses closing the gaps between the customer's expectations and desired price vs. your value and profit line 
• Personal Branding and how to use it to your advantage
• Mastering the art of negotiating a profitable agreement for you and your customers with time-tested "best practices" and gambits that really work
• Improving interviewing, listening, prospecting, and questioning skills
• Creativity plus! "Twist the familiar" so you stand out from the rest of your comp set
• Understanding personality styles of yourself and others -- Why people buy, and why they don't; Which styles match best and how to work through those that don't
• Time (self) and priority management -- Low-tech approach, and it really works!
• Preparing and making presentations in front of customers
• Working trade shows, customer events, and site inspections at a higher level
• Making EVERYONE in your organization a salesperson
• Overcoming objections & finding the "WII-FM" for customers
• The power of referrals -- Making them work for you
• Being able to make the customers see the Price-Service-Quality equation
• Closing & negotiation skills
• Hotel reservations and revenue sales training: Mystery shopping, overcoming objections, up-selling, accessorizing, and learning to ask for the sale

NEW FOR HOTELS/RESORTS!

Internal Selling -- Increase your guests' "flow-through dollar" spend and bring more to your bottom line -- More revenue per occupied room!

Expose your team members to the idea of up-selling, accessorizing, and cross-selling on a consistent basis

• Learn how to internally "help your guests buy" rather than chaotic, pushy sales approaches
• Detailed examination of each department's "Moments of Truth" that your guests encounter, and how to turn those into selling and accessorizing opportunities
• Selling basics (the art of subtle selling) made easy for traditionally non-selling types... Turn EVERYONE into a salesperson!
• Create powerful alliance partnerships between departments that help increase the cross-selling results

Build repeat sales through:

• Learning how to "twist the familiar"
• Improving internal and external customer relationships
• Managers/supervisors/team leaders' training in getting behind the sales message and instilling the culture among their teams
• Understanding and managing those critical "Moments of Truth" that can make or break your business
• Examining your organization's "Three P's" -- (People, Procedures, and Products) to determine strengths and needs
• Finding ways that make you and your organization easier to do business with
• Creating responsibilities and accountability for a total commitment to service excellence

Inspire teams to perform at their peak by:

• Leading vs. managing... there IS a difference!
• Moving the status quo; Sending "sacred cows" out to pasture
• Personal Branding and how it affects your ability to lead and succeed
• Discovering how to "manage the process" so it doesn't manage you
• Time (Self) and priority management -- Are you DOING things or ACCOMPLISHING things?
• Channeling the "fear of change" into productive energy that increases profitability -- "Twist the familiar"
• Training team leaders on essential skills such as: selecting, coaching, evaluating, goal-setting, and communicating
• Analyzing, creating, enacting, and evaluating "Moments of Truth"
• Developing and galvanizing guest/customer recovery programs
• Training team members for better job performance and personal development
• Creating and maintaining seamlessness between departments, teams, divisions
• Learning how to motivate and mentor your team to the next level by converting "me" into "we"
• Recognizing what makes for a great team, what can tear it apart (and what to do about it), and how to help it flourish as a unit

Develop stronger teams by:

• Learning how to bring a team of individuals together to work toward a common goal, yet retain their individuality
• Converting the individual goals into team goals
• Turning quacking ducks who just complain into soaring eagles who accomplish results
• Applying coaching strategies that put the emphasis on results
• Effective conflict resolution techniques
• Learning how to have more effective meetings, eliminating the "junk"

Achieve more by:

• Setting goals as a team — who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much
• Addressing the four key "Platinum Questions"
• Consensus-building
• Assigning action paths and responsibilities as a group, no matter how diverse
• Staying on time and working through an agenda with monitored follow-up

Having a capable leader to direct the post-training process is HUGE. Get the most out of your investment by helping your directors and team leaders:

• Sustain the enthusiasm from the sessions and between-visits coaching
• Track participants' usage of tools and concepts: Keeping it going!
• Determine accountability for increased results & re-direction if needed
• Spend more time leading and coaching instead of pushing papers & reports
• Individualized corporate coaching for team leaders, supervisors, line staff

 Individualized Coaching & One-on-One Development

 One-on-one customization with you or your team member on areas such as:

• Personal development in the areas of sales skills, management expertise, etc.
• Career coaching for those going into, experiencing, or coming out of a job or career transition
• Developing action paths for successful individual growth in the necessary skill sets. Many people fail because they are over-promoted from Job A without getting help on the new skill sets needed to succeed in Job B
• The program is totally customized on what needs to be accomplished in the time given (i.e. reach a goal, get a promotion, make a career move, etc.)

Sales (Mystery) Shopping Services

We also provide Sales Shopping, whether part of the customized training program in order to ascertain the competencies of your sales team and analyze the greatest need areas in advance of building the program, or as a stand-alone service for any sales unit of your organization.

On-Line Training

Training for Winners has joined with Aprinda to offer unique, customized on-line training courses. These courses are designed to help salespeople with techniques and skills through vignettes, question & answer, and self-testing. The on-line courses may be used to augment the in-person training workshops or designed as a stand-alone program. Contact us or go to Aprinda.com for more details!

*** NEW! *** Reverse Tradeshow Selling (How good are you in 25 minutes?)

The pressure is on like never before! With the new wave of "reverse tradeshows" (customer appointment-based events where customers pick who they want to meet with), there is a new premium on salespeople qualifying and making a terrific, compelling impression during their brief 25-minute appointments with potential customers. Since many salespeople have trouble with a quality 30-second elevator speech, how good are your salespeople with 25 minutes to spend? This course takes them through the preparation, the steps, and the follow-up.

*** NEW! *** "Battlefields-to-Business"

Gary at the Chancellorsville battlefield near Fredericksburg, VA, with client Gary Winkler, Senior Executive, US Army Program Executive Office/Enterprise Information Systems; Victoria Mathews, Conference Sales Manager, City of Fredericksburg VA; and Scott Walker, Tourmaster, Hallowed Ground Tours.

This new program is unique to anything your group will ever do as a team. Guaranteed.

Nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts recently wrote that "It is helpful to look at the past to navigate the future." This program accomplishes that very idea.

Our nation's battlefields and historic areas are the "hallowed grounds" where destinies were made, and history was decided, usually at a cost. This highly participative program explores first-hand the many similarities between aspects of our nation's historic events and battles and the challenges and dilemmas facing today's business professionals, team leaders, and managers.

As facilitator and trainer, Gary draws from the actual historic event the various challenges facing organizations today: Command & leadership, planning, strategy & tactics, communication, effective use of resources, succession planning, teamwork, information-gathering, overcoming obstacles, learning to adapt when "shift happens", identifying roles & responsibilities, working with your Plan B, motivating others, etc.

Here is how it works: Your group will enjoy a tour of the actual battlefield or historic site with professionally-licensed guides, then move into a workshop setting to discuss and dissect the aspects of the event that can be applied as lessons to help move your organization forward. The topics to be covered can be customized to any organization. This can be a 1 or 2-day event.

For example: The 80-person US Army PEO-EIS "Staff Ride" (pictured above) for "Battlefields-to-Business" began its day with an opening luncheon workshop led by Gary, setting the tone of the historic events surrounding the Battle of Chancellorsville during the American Civil War. This was held at a hotel in nearby Fredericksburg, VA.

Gary exposed the group to the components of the two opponents in the battle, and explained what aspects to look for on the battlefield tour as they related to the group's current-day business model. The 3-hour tour of the Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville battlegrounds followed (utilizing 2 luxury buses), with notable Tourmaster Scott Walker providing an excellent narration of the battle's key events at several sites chosen as stops around the battlefield.

Each stop was carefully selected by Gary and Scott because of both its historical importance and how it tied in to a particular management and leadership aspect to be studied. Thus, the group had a unique opportunity to get out and walk where history was actually made, learn about the battle's nuances, study the grounds, ask questions, and discuss what they would have done had they been present in 1863 on the same fields of valor.

Following the tour, the group returned to the hotel and enjoyed a working dinner and post-tour workshop to discuss the day's findings, work on specific management dilemmas assigned to each table, and apply the lessons from history to their own business challenges. Table ideas were exchanged in a "town hall" format, enabling a lively group discussion of the various aspects. Enthusiasm and energy levels were extremely high during the day, and the participants were tasked with taking away at least 3 actionable items from their experience for follow-up in their management roles.

Comments recieved after the program include:

"...Gary, thank you for everything you did for us at the offsite. The facilitated sessions went nicely and you made a difference in providing that linkage between the historical battle and the

leadership lessons learned.  It was obvious that you really knew the

material and you did a great job with the facilitation."

"Gary, we really enjoyed your session. It was very informative. You spoke with such passion for your topic... You obviously know this battle inside and out.. We think you're great and want to work with you on future endeavors."

"Gary and Scott did a terrific job of customizing this program for a client that plans everything to the nines. Gary had several detailed discussions with them in advance in order to provide the customization for them that they were looking for. In fact, during the tour, Gary was asked, 'Where is our next one going to be?'" remarked Victoria Mathews, Conference Sales Manager, City of Fredericksburg.

Gary has said that "the roads of history lead us back to today." This program gets your group walking, talking, and coming to grips together with the challenges of finding success and overcoming both tall and small challenges, just as the people of history did.

If you're looking to be truly UNIQUE with your next group function, look no further. Take advantage of the momentum of interest in the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of the American Civil War, from 2011 to 2015.

PLEASE NOTE: These training components are some of our most popular topics, but due to space and brevity, not all programs are listed. Consider this a "Greatest Hits" approach as suggested by our clients, and please understand that every program is fully customized. We are creating new material all the time, so if you don't see your particular focus area here, please ask!

Explore our site for customized training programs/presentations, and professional speaker topics available today!