Mitchell Anderson were honoured to be asked to present a Power of Sales? workshop at the annual Women In Business International Conference in London.

WIBI is a not for profit organisation dedicated to supporting women’s economic development through it’s training programmes, international forums and networks.

The event started with a networking and charity fundraising dinner at Claridges with Guests of Honour Mrs Sarah Brown promoting White Ribbon Alliance.

Sarah Brown, White Ribbon Alliance Charity, The Claridges

The evening was a fantastic way to start to the WIBI Event. We met lots of fascinating people across many industries from every part of the world. Gala events like this are an opportunity to network with lots of different people and hear their stories. Of course the food, champagne and opportunity to get dressed up was also rather pleasing!

After an enjoyable evening the event kicked off with a variety of influential speakers outlined over the 2 days including Lord Mandelson, UK Secretary of State for Business & Enterprise; Harriet Harman QC MP, Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Women & Equality, Lynn Franks, and Sheikha Hissa Saad Al Sabah, President , Council of Arab Businesswomen.

Lord Mandleson Speech supporting business challenges through recession

The topics covered throughout the two days included:
• International Trade and economic development
• Human potential developing the next generation
• Energy and the environment
• Breaking down barriers in entrepreneurship
• Financing business growth and development
• The power and influence of the media

On day two 3 training workshops were provided for the delegates to refresh their skills on Leadership, The Public Face and the Power of Sales. Mitchell Anderson are avid supporters of WIBI so were delighted to offer a 2 hour workshop. As the workshops were scheduled towards the end of the event we knew an active and high energy approach was required to engage delegates to avoid bum numbness. Feedback from the delegates was that they appreciated the workshop being interactive, full of colour, music and chocolate.

So the challenge was how to cover ‘The Power of Sales’ in 2 hours? We know we can deliver but even this was beyond the realms of reality so we decided to focus one part of the sales process – Identifying Needs.
Throughout the workshop we had delegates working in groups and completing a variety of exercise to explore the impact personality & selling styles has on identifying customers needs.

Our objective was to challenge delegates and get them to think about their approach to sales. We also wanted to provide some alternative perspectives along with practical tips to take away and put into practice. The time flew by and everyone who attended commented that the workshop was not what they had expected and they were challenged to think again about their approach to sales. The biggest lesson that delegates took away from the workshop was that a ‘one size fits all approach’ is not an effective way to sell.

After an enjoyable yet exhausting two days Mitchell Anderson were thrilled to be able to support WIBI and promote women worldwide in the business community.

As part of the Insights Community accredited practitioners are obliged to attend associate events to keep updated on news, research and activities within Insights Learning & Development.

Although we are obliged to attend some of the events throughout the calendar year we find the events are always useful and provide us with a great opportunity to learn best practices within the community.

February’s event was indeed eventful. Having tackled the snow to travel 2 ½ hours to Northampton we were pleased to see a full house of talkative associates only too eager to proceed with the agenda to explore the Insights Discovery ‘Effective Selling Chapter’.

This chapter explores individual approaches towards selling and influencing at each stage of the sale from preparation to follow through. It was great to hear about the different approaches to using this chapter and indeed the impact it has with clients who use this chapter as part of their sales development plan.

Another Insights event which is best described as ‘interactive, informative and lively’.
We look forward to the next one (with hopefully no snow in sight)

Mitchell Anderson attended the launch of joint venture between the Middle East Association and Women in Business International to create a business network with a difference.

Women in business International is the leading International business to business forum for women in the UK.

The Middle East Association is the UK’s leading organisation for promoting trade and good relations with the Middle East.

Together ‘ The Network’ enables businesswomen to share knowledge and business opportunities as well as establish contact with influential business woman in the Middle East.
The patrons Christine McCafferty MP, and Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean both delivered inspiring speeches at the launch.

Mitchell Anderson already support Women in Business International and we are now honoured to support ‘The Network’ in providing training workshops aimed at enhancing communication skills.

Thank you to ‘The Network’ for an enjoyable evening and for the delicious food and wine too!

Having got the go ahead to action our recommendations from our previous visit to Qatar, Mitchell Anderson arrived in Qatar to begin phase 1 of the Sales and Cultural Change Programme.

We were to embark on four separate tailored programmes aimed at developing existing sales skills, engage & motivate the teams, and increase new business revenue for the bank.

– Insights’ into Interpersonal Effectiveness
– Coaching and Assessing Skills
– Sales – The outbound Call
– Sales thru Service – The Inbound Opportunity

The call centre was is hub of Middle Eastern culture which includes 18 different nationalities in the call centre.
Our usual approach of creating a fun, creative, stimulating environment to learn and explore new experiences went down a storm. This experience prompted agreement that some changes can be made to the existing working environment to create a more stimulating motivating space.

As the four programmes were being rolled out at the same time we had to dig deep to come up with a workable solution to ensure the programme delivery did not affect the day to day operational activities.

Our solution worked a treat!

We split each programme into half day modules which allowed us to spend the afternoons off site to complete a module and the following morning (the busiest time at the bank) coaching each delegate to put into practice the lessons from that module. This approach enabled essential consolidation time allowing the individuals to apply the theory into reality. The feedback we received indicated that this approach is something they had never experienced on previous training programmes and was extremely valuable.

Feedback
“It was a very useful and beneficial training course. In addition a great coaching programme done in our work area”

Feedback Scores
Content & quality of the programme – 100% Relevance to my needs – 100%

In order to provide a clear return on investment a coaching course was implemented to facilitate a continued and sustainable level of growth which resulted in the increase of sales by 15%.

We are working on designing phase two of the programme and look forward to our continued partnership with Commercial Bank.

Our time spent in Qatar was extremely enjoyable, we got the chance to shop until we dropped and even managed to take a gondola ride in one of the amazing shopping centres – not many people can say that!

Being told you are a chosen people development training provider for the UKTI Trade mission to Saudi Arabia is pretty amazing, going there and delivering a Leadership Skills presentation to the business women of Al Khobar is even better.

After arriving in Bahrain and driving across the King Fahid Causeway into Saudi we begin with our Saudi experience with a culture awareness briefing in the first restaurant we find across the Saudi border – McDonalds!

Mitchell Anderson are fortunate enough to have close working links with ‘Women In Business International’ who are principal innovators for business women worldwide. We had the pleasure of being accompanied by Ahmed Suleiman & Tara Culhane the founders of Women in Business International.

The UKTI Trade mission lead by ‘Digby’ Lord John of Birmingham was the first of it’s kind which witnessed women sat alongside men, as the key speakers Lord Digby Jones, HRH Prince Faisal Bin Fahd Bin Abdulla Al Saud & Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean addressed the Al Khobar Chambers of Commerce.

Our brief was to provide a sample of our training & consultancy style and content. The ladies were wonderful and leapt at the chance to participate in our interactive ‘Leadership Styles’ presentation.

They were all provided with coloured cards with brief descriptors of four different leadership preferences and then asked to choose those that most described them. Next they were given the task of discussing with those who had a different preference what their strengths and weaknesses might be.

A Q & A session followed with many wanting to know more about how these styles impact their Management approach, the results they achieve and how to influence and facilitate improvements in performance.
Whilst there we met with Saudi Aramco and still maintain links with their Leadership Development Division in Dhahran. Outcome of the event:
- Improved relations between Saudi & the UK
- Subsequent trade missions organised by the UKTI
- Recognition of the importance of woman
- Saudi delegation scheduled a visit to the UK to develop partnerships with UK businesses

After our amazing experience on the Trade Mission to Saudi Arabia, and a quick pit stop in Bahrain we were on the plane yet again to another Middle Eastern country, Qatar!

As well as meeting our new prospective client Commercial Bank, we were tasked with conducting a skills gap analysis as part of the banks training development plan to up skill existing staff in sales skills.
We were thrilled to meet the call centre team and experience yet another Middle Eastern culture.
Everyone was very helpful and we spent our time gathering valuable information which was to form the basis of the three programmes rolled out the following month.

It was astonishing to see the amount of development in Qatar and to learn how many new businesses are starting up in this once desert land. Mitchell Anderson is excited to be involved in this evolving country and look forward to partnering with the reputable Commercial Bank.