As well as being able to draw borders by hand, Excel also provides some pre-set options that you can apply to groups of cells. This will be covered in our Microsoft Excel Course in Brighton, Sussex.

To do this, highlight the cells that you wish to affect and then, using the “Border Options” button in the Formatting section of the ribbon, select the border Style you want around them. The options are in the top section of the  drop down menu under “Borders” as shown below:

Tip: To save time, simply pressing the Border button will apply the border style you used last which will save you having to choose it from the drop-down menu each time.

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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »

The manager’s role is to organise resources and employees to achieve the best results for an organisation. How a manager perceives his employees will  affect his skill at motivating staff. Consider these two approaches below.

The pessimistic manager
The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:

• People do not enjoy work; they will try and avoid it if possible
• People are not ambitious
• People do not like responsibility
• People prefer to be told what to do
• Most people are not creative when solving problems
• People are only motivated by basic needs for security
• The majority of people are self-centered, and so will need to be controlled in order to work towards organisational goals and objectives
• People are resistant to change
• Most people are not intelligent.
• People are gullible

This attitude towards management and employees assumes that people at work are motivated firstly by money closely followed by basic security needs.

In order to control employees the pessimistic management may rely on coercion, threats and tight control command. The pessimistic manager could be passive and simply hope for cooperation. Neither of these solutions are productive styles of management. The first will result in hostility, employees may purposely under perform, and workers may unite in opposition to management. The second approach does not motivate at all, it may encourage apathy.

The pessamistic approach assumes that once a need is satisfied it no longer motivates hindering the need to satisfy higher-level needs. More money becomes the only form of motivation. Employees will use work to satisfy this basic need only; their higher needs (see McLelland: Motivational Drives) will have to be fulfilled elsewhere. As we will see later – employees can be most productive when their work goals align with  higher level needs.

Pessimism in management that recognises only basic needs for motivation usually encourage employees to work without responsibility, enthusiasm or creativity,  promoting an environment where employees dislike their work, avoid responsibility, have no interest in organisational goals, resist change, etc., thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Optimistic Manager

Maslow’s Hierarchy looks at mans basic needs for survival food, shelter etc. in a working environment money is the only currency that will satify these needs. Managers should also be interested in higher-level needs (see McLelland: Motivational Drives), needs that are continuing needs as in seldom completely satisfied, such as self esteem and self actualisation. As these needs are on going and not so easily attained, the promise of more can more easily be used to motivate and reward employees.

The pessimistic manager may assume the following about most employees:

• Work can be fun/rewarding/enjoyable
• If employees are committed they can be self directed and creative when working towards organisational goals
• If rewards can fulfil higher needs such as self fulfilment, employees will be more committed to maintaining quality and productivity
• Enthusiasm, commitment and creativity can spread
• Most people can handle responsibility
• In the right conditions people will seek responsibility

Here there is an opportunity to align organisational goals with personal goals by using higher needs such as self fulfillment as a motivator.

There may be employees that are not as responsive when offered the promise of higher need fulfillment. There may be employees that will still need a level of control to make them productive. They may however develop as they work in an environment that encourages responsibility and creativity and control can be relaxed as employees develop.

Silicon Beach Training offer a Staff Motivation course.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Management Skills Training on June 3rd, 2008 | Comments Off

Buyer resistance or selling stall occurs when client can see more reason not to buy than to buy. Your job is to change that. It is often the case that a person who could have been easily persuaded choose to wait, what you need to do is to be able to recognise this and convince them to buy now rather than later.

Do not be too aggressive or lie to the potential buyer. Both of these tactics apart from being morally dubious will only put a consumer off and damage your reputation. Even if you get away with lying in the short term you will be setting up real problems long term.

If you have a service or product that a buyer cannot see, touch or feel, it is far easier for a buyer to convince themselves not to buy now, as they do not feel there is any need for them to rush. If this is the case then try and make your product more logical, vivid or emotional, try to make the buyer feel the need to buy your product now, not wait till later. (This is further explained in the subcategory “for services.”)

Selling Goods

If your product is something that the consumer can see and touch then here are some questions that you might find helpful to ask the buyer:

• What aspects do they like about their current product?
• What don’t they like, or like least?
• What would they change?
• What are they looking for in a new product, why they feel a change is necessary?

One way for you to do this is to relate your product or service to the wants and needs of your buyer, show them why they need you product. Talk to the buyer and find some common ground on which you can sell your product.

Don’t be too pushy though as this will only make the potential buyer feel uneasy and  more unlikely to buy anything. Make a sound and reasoned argument as to why they need your product but don’t force it, make it as though you are doing them a favor and it is their best interests to buy now.

Selling Services

If you are trying to sell something more service orientated then try asking these questions:

• Have their priorities shifted over the past few months?
• Where do they see themselves in a couple of year’s time?
• What do they need to accomplish these ambitions?

By asking this sort of question you can more easily decide on what your client is looking for. With this information what you then need to do is find how your service will suit the clients interests and relate it back to them. For example the house or car you are selling may not actually be as interesting to the client as the status that a car or house will provide. Similarly with insurance, as whilst it maybe the case that the client may not want insurance per say; they may actually want the security that an insurance policy will give them.

If you have had success in your client’s area of interest in the past then tell them about it. A client needs to be reassured that you know what you are doing and past experiences, especially positive ones, can serve as a massive advantage. Don’t be afraid to show off little and make sure to use proper names and times etc, as this will help you client envision themselves having received the same benefits your previous client did.

When you are closing you pitch or sale, make sure not just to give your client a reason to buy now but also a reason why not to wait. A good way of doing this is to give them options (so as to not make them feel like they are being pressured or bullied.) Give them alternatives as to what will happen if they wait, make sure that buying now offers benefits that greatly outrank the other options. Make sure they know what they are going to miss out on if they wait and how circumstances might have changed by then. Most, when confronted with an honest and straightforward argument such as this will choose to buy now.

With this advice in mind you should now be far better equipped to shorten you selling cycle. But remember it is the end the client’s choice; don’t be so pushy you drive a potential buyer away, it’s better to have to wait than nothing at all.

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Posted by Aaron Charlie in Sales Resources on April 24th, 2009 | No Comments »