Field Marketing Blog | Sales Advice | Training Tips

Writing to suit the style of the reader

Christine Knott — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:07:23 +0000

Those who know me well are aware of my interest in letter writing, business or personal. I still get a flutter of excitement when a personal letter drops through the post. Sadly email doesn’t hold the same thrill factor but the I do like the fact that it enables us all to keep in touch to a much greater level, and that is a good thing. When delivering communication courses I always include a section on written communication with reference to writing the content in the style of the reader. Lynn Gaertner-Johnston the founder of Syntax training has written a lovely article about just that - taking into account your reader when you write. Lynn has included some great tips on how to recognise different styles which is really easy to follow and interesting too! I know which style I fall into

Take a look at it here and maybe you can spot your own style. Feel free to get back to me to let me know how much you enjoyed it: http://www.syntaxtraining.com/articles_biz_writing1.html

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Dixons Stores Group International Training Team

Christine Knott — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:20:13 +0000

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DSGI Training Team

Christine Knott — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:50:01 +0000

The training team employed by Beyond The Box to work with DSGI can be seen below. The journey that followed included product knowledge training from a selection of manufacturers and training skills from Beyond The Box. Keep in touch to follow their journey!

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Forming Groups

Christine Knott — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:27:06 +0000

It has been quite amazing and rewarding to watch a group of people previously unknown to each other build relationships over a 7 week period. Similarities were drawn to the Big Brother House on many occasions! Without doubt I feel extremely privileged to have watched the journey progress and relationships form and strengthen. With such diversity in the group, age, background, culture, previous experience, hobbies, lifestyle, - to put it simply an extremely colourful tapestry many may have concluded it would take time to form a cohesive group. On the contrary – throughout my lifetime I have never seen a group bond so well. I feel confident that apart from forging strong personal friendships it has also formed a special team culture with values that extend well into one of total support for colleagues. That is so important for any working team especially when they will be working remotely. I thought about Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 Forming Storming Norming Performing team-development model and did some more research on the web about group formation. here is a link to Tuckman’s work http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htmIt makes reference to teams and leadership and though I can see some similarities, this group is very different to anything I have ever witnessed before. Respect for each other was always present and though some individuals clearly fitted into ‘family member’ roles I never experienced any battle for supremacy or ‘pole position’. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any additional information on group formation. Perhaps members of this group can shed light on why it became a strong unit so quickly and maintained its strength with out any signs of cracks over a 7 week period!

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New Appointment for BTB - Michael Marks

Christine Knott — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:59:51 +0000

Beyond The Box has appointed a new colleague Michael Marks as field marketing manager. Michael has previously spent 11 years with Black Horse Estate Agencies as national training manager. He has also held senior positions with the Farrell Heyworth estate agency and the Telecoms Advice Bureau.

Michael can be seen here leading a workshop

Welcome to our team Michael!

Beyond The Box wishes you all the best with your new position. We are glad to have you with us!

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Building Rapport on the Telephone…. Top Tips Article by Beyond The Box

Christine Knott — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:22:19 +0000

Here are some great top tips from me for you to create the best rapport on the telephone. Check out the link below to see my article on behalf of Beyond The Box posted on callcenterhelper.com.

http://www.callcentrehelper.com/top-tips-for-building-rapport-on-the-telephone-2646.htm

This topic should be of particular interest to all in the business world. Do let me know your own thoughts on the subject, perhaps from your own personal experiences!

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Announcing Beyond The Box YouTube Channel

Christine Knott — Mon, 25 May 2009 15:04:22 +0000

Beyond The Box is proud to announce that we have our very own YouTube channel! Keep an eye open for plenty of information available to you. Updates can be viewed on the following link. Why not take a look to see our current videos!

http://www.youtube.com/BeyondTheBoxUK

The DSGI training team was on the receiving end of some excellent training from manufacturers during the product knowledge section of their recent induction programme. The team`s first experience of Imaging training was from John Howells from Canon. John encouraged the team to handle the products and then try their hand at using them to fully understand the benefits of the key features. Off the team went armed with camers and enthusiasm to find suitable locations, create action packed story lines and audition for key roles so that they could ’shoot’ what they hoped would be ‘Oscar worthy’ results! It was a great way to familiarise themselves with the product. The team found the cameras easy to use and concluded that the results delivered by Canon cameras could make anyone look like and expert and expert photographer. The results can be seen on the following link.

Check out below for one example of our Canon training course videos, give it a watch and see what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meM7omRLErA

Alex Owena the trainer from Casio introduced the team to some fantastic features which allowed them to tap into their ‘creative genes’. Everyone was amazed at the effects that an affordable camera can deliver. The training really emphasised how easy a memory can be captured and turned into an artistic treasure. The results were a talking point amongst the group for days.

See for yourself on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg1DuzoyAWY

We would love to hear your comments!

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A New Member Joins Us - BTB Communication Officer

Christine Knott — Sat, 30 May 2009 21:18:01 +0000

Here is another BTB appointment !

Welcoming our new Communication Officer Ms. Urun Kilic

http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-marketing-services/beyond-the-box-appoints-communications-officer-200905265464/

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Here I am!

Urun Kilic — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:57:54 +0000

Hi Everyone,

Here I am! My name is Urun and I am the new Communication Officer for Beyond The Box.

Make sure you check our blog and web site regularly to see what are we up to!!

I am here to update you all with our news!

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Your Business Starts up …

Urun Kilic — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:40:14 +0000

Goals & Targets Settings Training From Christine

I accompanied Christine on a training session last week. It was a motivating and constructive experience for me as well, as for the trainees. It was delivered at the Oldham Enterprise Factory to the current group of student entrepreneurs. Christine was invited to talk to each group and shared her experiences of starting a business. One of the most interesting parts of the day was when Christine outlined the power of the goal settings and I thought I would share it with you.

The section was titled ‘What do you have to do to make your business a success?’

Quite simply the message was …

‘Know your destination and the plan your route’.

Like the others in the group I was writing down my destination which is my goal appeared very loose. Christine encouraged all of us to add The SMART Formula to our goals.

SMART stands for:

Specific

Measure-able

Achievable

Realistic

Timely

Specific means to be clear about your goal. If it isn`t specific it could take you longer to achieve or at worst you may never achieve it, because it is too ‘woolly and loose’. Specific is the difference between saying, ‘I want to loose weight’ and ‘I will loose a total of 20lbs’.

Measurable means to have something against which you can chart your progress. Beyond The Box is keen on measurements, because if it can be measured it gets done. To add a measurement the phrase could be ‘I will loose a total 20lbs in 3 months. If you know you will be achieving your goal in 3 months time, you can plan your timetable to meet your set date and you can measure your success and achievements against it to ensure you are on the track. If you are not on track, you can make changes to ensure you revert back to it as quickly as you can.

Achievable is an important factor when you are setting goals. If your goal is totally unachievable, you are setting up yourself for failure. Make your goal achievable. I will loose a total of 20lbs per week and I will do this by eating a healthy diet and taking regular exercise.

Realistic means just that is it realistic to loose 2lbs per week? Yes, it is. But to loose 14lbs per week is probably unrealistic for most of us!

Timely - is it the right time to put your goal into action? Is everything in your life focused towards supporting your goal. For instance if you are like me, there is little point in starting a healthy eating plan when you are under pressure of work. That would not be timely for me!

I have already started to think about the goals I want to plan and by following this simple formula it makes the journey really exciting.

The secret for me was when Christine asked us to travel forward in time to the date we had set for achieving our goal. It was quite exciting when we were told to imagine that we now had our goal and think about how we felt. What was different now when we owned it and how much were we enjoying it! What an amazing experience!

Such a lovely surprise that one of the ladies attending the course sent this e-mail to Christine the day after attending her course, clearly Nicole was as inspired as me!

Here is Nicole`s e-mail …

I attended your lesson at the business factory yesterday and I just wanted to let you know how good it was.

I can`t tell you how positive I left afterwards so much so I felt confident enough to go and ask for some work experience at my local florist, something I had been putting off doing because I was too scared and embarrassed (don`t ask why!)

The lady was really nice and has allowed me do 2-3 hours on my day off which I am so happy about.

I also was proactive and set up a facebook page last night, putting my photos up of work I had done and from this (approx 20 mins after I had set it up) I have provisionally got a wedding booked in for November.

So ‘THANK YOU’ for your excellent talk I was elated the whole day.

All the best and success,

Nicole

Here is Christine while she is answering to the inquiries of the trainees during session.

Have you heard of any other ways of achieving your goal??? If you do, please drop me a line about it!

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