The following are five free sales training activities we have used for more than a decade with clients during our sales training courses.

We frequently receive requests for sales training ideas from organizations wishing to develop their own sales training programs. In the interest of improving sales skills, we are sharing these activities for use by others.

You may also link to them.

However, we request that you not publish them in an online guide, for-profit printed guide, or otherwise without our permission.

Each of the activities listed requires a basic knowledge of customer service. While we are happy to answer questions about the mechanics of the games and activities, we kindly request that you do your own research on questions related to content.

For easier reading away from the computer, Five Free Sales Training Games is an easy-to-read PDF document containing the games listed here.

For more information about onsite customer service workshops and seminars for your group, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 301-934-3250.

Ask or Tell?

Purpose: To illustrate the importance of discovering needs before launching into a sales speech.

Note: This activity can easily be used as a sales training icebreaker.

Goal: To remind salespeople that selling is not about the product or service. It is about how products and services can solve problems for customers.

Materials Needed: Object available in the training room

Directions: Ask the participants to find a partner and then decide who will play the role of the buyer and who will play the role of the seller. Once the decision is made, instruct the sellers to sell an item in the room to the buyers. Next, while the activity is in progress, take two to three minutes to walk around the room and listen in on the conversations. Take note of which sellers are discovering needs versus those who are pushing the features of the objects theyve selected. End the activity after four or five minutes.

Debrief: Ask the buyers if they were asked questions to determine needs or if their sellers immediately launched into pushing the features of their items. If buyers report that they were sold features without discovering or confirming need, make the point that even seasoned salespeople can fall into this trap. If nobody failed to discover needs, congratulate the group for their good work.

The pacing of this activity should be fast. Most salespeople have little interest in games for the sake of games. It is critical that you tie activities back to actions that they can take for improvement and better results back in the field.

Time: 5 Minutes

Your Order, Please

Purpose: To teach participants how to uncover a buyers priorities.

Goal: To emphasize identifying priorities as part of the sales process.

Materials Needed: Pen and paper

Directions: This activity can be run by choosing two people to interact in front of the larger group or in groups of two run concurrently. Where you insert this activity in your training and the activities and exercises that surround this one should determine the format you choose. After deciding on a format, tell the group that the role of the seller is to determine the buyers priorities.

Next, share the fact that the seller represents an art warehouse that carries a wide range of products. The buyer represents a hotel undergoing a major renovation. The buyer must prioritize several attributes: price, quality, delivery dates, product originality, and payment terms. Then by asking questions, the seller must discover the buyers priorities.

The buyer should write the priorities for the hotel on a sheet of paper. The buyer should also determine the particulars of the hotel. For example, the hotel may be a high-end property, or it may be a budget location. During the conversation with the seller, the buyer should reveal information when asked. The seller should make a written list of the buyers priorities in order.

Allow between five to ten minutes for dialogue.

Note: You can adjust the scenario to your industry if desired.

Debrief: When the questioning is complete, ask the buyer and seller to compare lists. If they match, congratulate the seller. If they dont, ask what happened. With either outcome, ask the group to talk about the value of discovering priorities. Next, ask them how much time they typically devote to this part of the process. Do they feel they invest enough effort?

Time: 20 25 Minutes

Mr. Parker Schroeder

Purpose: To show the value of doing sales research.

Goal: To increase participant awareness of the resources available for researching people and organizations.

Materials Needed: Flipchart and marker

Directions: Divide the group into teams of four or five people. Next, tell each team that they will be sending a representative to meet with Mr. Parker Schroeder, the CFO of Gapland Industries.

Gapland Industries manufactures high-end equipment used in hospitals. You are there to sell leasing financing services that Gapland can offer its customers. (If this scenario does not fit the group you are working with, you should rewrite it.)

Ask each group to list all of the places they would go to research Mr. Schroeder and Gapland Industries.

Debrief: Each group should come up with multiple places to look for information. Here are a few of our favorites:

Ask the participants how much time they devote to research. Make the point that it is no longer acceptable to show up not knowing publically available information. People expect you to do your homework.

Time: 15 Minutes

So Whats My Line?

Purpose: To demonstrate the importance of establishing rapport with those you have researched.

Goal: To encourage salespeople to plan for their sales calls.

Materials Needed: Pen and paper for each participant.

Directions: Explain to the group that they must each develop one or two conversation starters and a list of topics that might be better left for self-disclosure. As with the last activity, this game focuses on Mr. Parker Schroeder and Gapland Industries. The participants have done a good job of researching Mr. Schroeder and have learned the following:

Mr. Schroeder earned a BS in finance from UCLA and an MBA from Rice University.

He is divorced from his first wife with whom he had two kids.

He remarried two years ago.

He is on the board of the citys art museum.

He is on the board of the citys Humane Society.

He enjoys skiing, science fiction, and golf.

He has worked for Gapland industries for six years.

He recently bought a house.

He was sued by a neighbor.

He donates to Republican candidates.

Debrief: After reviewing the conversation starters and lists of inappropriate topics, make any suggestions for improvement. Then close the activity by summarizing how to be informed without appearing to be a stalker.

Time: 15 Minutes

Seat 4C

Purpose: To demonstrate to participants that they should always be prepared to make a new business contact.

Goal: To encourage participants to be ready to meet new prospects anywhere.

Materials Needed: None

Directions: Explain to the group that they are traveling for work and have just received a first-class upgrade. When the lady in seat 4D sits down, you see from her reading material that she works for an organization you are planning to approach for business. When the pretzels come out, conversation starts. The lady in 4D asks, So what do you do? In this activity each participant must craft an answer. Once they are done, have them share their answers with a partner and then with the larger group.

Debrief: After listening to each answer, you will probably discover that some are much better than others. You should encourage those with responses needing work to put some additional effort into introducing themselves. You should also make the point that introductions can get stale and should be updated from time to time. Finally, you never know where the next deal is sitting!

Time: 20 Minutes

Read more here:
Five Free Sales Training Games and Activities

Everybody is always selling something. Sadly, however, few people do all that they can to delight existing clients and attract new ones. Are your salespeople trained to do all they can to grow your business?

What if you could put processes in place to increase your existing sales and increase your market share? Would you invest the time?

Taught by professionals with decades of experience, our sales training courses are designed to help salespeople and non-salespeople alike improve their ability to build relationships, close deals, and retain clients.

Our solutions can be used off-the-shelf, tailored, or completely customized to your groups industry, corporate culture, and environment.

For information beyond what we've posted, please contact us to discuss your training need and how we can educate your staff and realize your goals.

To review course overviews for our existing sales training courses and programs, click on the links to the right. Alternatively, review the short descriptions found on this page.

If you dont see exactly what you are looking for, contact us to discuss program tailoring or fully customized content.

B Conference Breakout Session or Lunch Program

H Half-Day Training Course

F Full-Day Training Course

M Multi-Day Training Course

W Webinar

W2Two-Part Webinar

O Self-Paced Online Course

Selling Made Simple: Tools to Jump Start Your Sales Success

F

M

Basic Sales Training: Selling Fundamentals

H

F

The Six-Step Shift: Transform Your Sales and Grow Your Bottom Line

F

M

The Ultimate Sales Pro: Three Days to Stronger Selling

M

Finding Gold: Prospecting for Sales Leads Like a Pro

B

H

W

Calling All Callers: Tools and Techniques for Better Phone Sales

B

H

W

Great Exhibitionists: Mastering Trade Show Sales and Booth Etiquette

B

H

F

W

The Relationship Advantage: Connecting with Customers and Increasing Sales

F

W2

This onsite sales training program focuses on all of the elements of selling. The course includes self-evaluation exercises, customer and client needs analysis, tactics for making initial contact with customers, creating sticky sales (repeat purchasing), and methods for improving follow up. It is designed for those already in a sales position.

This introductory course presents the fundamentals of the sales and selling process. During the workshop, participants will learn how to get into the salesperson's mindset, distinguish between features and benefits, present competitive strengths, find new clients, and network more effectively. This workshop is ideally suited to those new to the sales role.

This workshop is about putting systems in place to take sales from "blah" to "ta da." Topics include articulating goals, addressing failures, asking the right questions, adding value, positioning and building strong relationships, and maintaining momentum.

The Ultimate Sales Pro: Three Days to Stronger Sellingcovers all aspects of sales and selling. It can be adjusted to accommodate experienced salespeople and those new to the profession. Depending on your needs, we can teach this multi-day training seminar in either a consecutive or nonconsecutive day formats.

Finding clients, networking, and growing a customer base are the key elements in this program created for those people who need to improve their sales prospecting skills. This courses focuses on building an electronic Rolodex and then knowing what to do with it. As with all of our professional selling programs, this course includes multiple role plays and practice cases.

This phone sales training course addresses skills needed for effective selling over the telephone. It can be combined with customer service training for participants sharing service and sales responsibilities.

Too many companies deploy staff to a trade show with no plan for making the most of the organization's investment. This trade show sales and selling course covers the ins and outs of successfully staffing a booth, setting realistic goals, generating traffic, qualifying leads, acting with professionalism, and following up after events.

Our relationship sales training course is designed to develop skills needed to foster long-term sales and client loyalty. The program examines the elements of the sales process with the end goal of building relationships to better serve clients and grow sales. This workshop is designed for businesses in which better relationships are essential to the bottom line.

We love free stuff just as much as anyone, and weve put together several tools to help our clients and site visitors improve their selling skills. From reading lists to training games and activities, weve posted several documents to help you improve your chances of making the sale. Check out the links in the left column of this page. Enjoy!

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Sales Training Courses Directory - Business Training Works

TrainOne offers innovative, award-winning online and classroom training products in Sales Techniques, Attitude, and Customer Loyalty, based on the work of Jeffrey Gitomer.

Our basic 'Core' library includes 78 online training modules with extensive video, interactivity, downloadable resources, and pre- & post-tests. They're hosted on our Learning Management System (LMS), which offers managers real-time 24/7 reporting on multiple levels.

We also offer live classroom programs and 'train the trainer' (T3) programs to bring your own training and coaching people up to speed quickly, as well as DVD/CD training products.

For larger clients we offer custom course development services mixing Jeffrey Gitomer content and your own market or company-specific content, delivered online with our LMS, through SCORM modules for your own LMS or through blended solutions mixing online and offline components. We have delivered products in over a dozen languages to date, and offer extensive student survey, polling and feedback options to fine-tune your training as needed.

Go here to read the rest:
Sales Techniques, Attitude & Customer Service Training from ...

Overall

If you've been considering retiring in the Empire State, here is information on the best places to retire in New York. This website has useful data and opinions on the exciting active adult retirement communities in New York. The Empire State has over 19 million people and 62 counties. It includes America's most famous city, the Big Apple, to charming sea coast villages on Long Island; from wealthy New York suburbs to the vast Adirondacks; from upstate to the Finger Lakes wine region; there is definitely a New York community where you can be happy in retirement. TheWikipedia entry for New Yorkhas more facts.

New York Climate The New York climate is called humid-continental. There are 4 seasons and the climate is influenced alternatively by the Gulf of Mexico and the Northeast. Summers are hot and winters are cold with occasional snowstorms. Western New York has a more severe climate, Long Island more moderate.

Economy and Home Prices New York has one of the highest household incomes ($55,223) in the United States. Median home prices can range greatly - in wealthy New York City apartments routinely cost over a million dollars. In the bigger NY Metro the median home price was $368,300 in the first quarter of 2013. In Albany, however, the median home price was $194,300. Cost of living in the New York Metro is very high but differs in other regions - 135 index in New York City and 101 in Ithaca.

New York Taxes

Tax Burden:New York is generally regarded as a high tax state. Its state and local tax burden is 2nd highest in the nation.Total tax burden inNew York Cityis the second highest in the nation at 12.3%.

Marginal Income Tax Rates.New York's top marginal income tax rate is 8.97% on the top bracket of $500,000.

Retirement Income Exemptions.When it comes to taxation of retirees, the tax situation is quite friendly. Military pensions, civil service pensions, NY State and local pensions are not taxable. Up to $20,000 of qualified pensions can be excluded if you are 59 years of age or older.

Social security exemption.Social security is not taxed.

Sales Tax:State sales tax is 4.0% but many towns and cities can and do add 5% additional tax.

Property Taxes:The worst tax problem for retirees is property tax, which is 2nd highest in the nation.

Homestead Exemption.New York has a homestead exemption.

Estate and/or Inheritance Taxes.New York has a new estate tax as of April 1, 2014. The exemption for 2014 was raised to $2.062,500 and is set to rise by just over $1 miilion each year until it reaches the federal exemption of $5.3 million (indexed for inflation) by 2017. The tax rate is 16%.

Here is more information abouttaxes for senior citizens in New York.

Topretirements named NY as the 8th worst state for retirement on its 2012 list.

Certified Retirement Communities New York does not have a certified retirement community program.

Best retirement communities in New York New York is a great state for active adults and people over 50, particularly if you live there already or hanker for "car-free" life in the Big Apple. For example, active adults looking for retirement information on thegreat City of New Yorkwill find vital information to help assess pros and cons of living there.

Other "best" retirement communities include the beautifulcollege town of Ithaca, the North Folk coastal town of Mattituck, or the state capitol in Albany. Towns like Poughkeepsie, Elmira, and Yonkers are other retirement places to consider.

Get started withreviews of the best retirement communities.

View post:
new_york retirement guide - Find Your Best Place to Retire

This Google translation feature is provided for informational purposes only.

The New York State Office of the State Comptrollers website is provided in English. However, the Google Translate option may help you to read it in other languages.

Google Translate cannot translate all types of documents, and it may not give you an exact translation all the time. If you rely on information obtained from Google Translate, you do so at your own risk.

The Office of the State Comptroller does not warrant, promise, assure or guarantee the accuracy of the translations provided. The State of New York, its officers, employees, and/or agents are not liable to you, or to third parties, for damages or losses of any kind arising out of, or in connection with, the use or performance of such information. These include, but are not limited to:

Because Google Translate is intellectual property owned by Google Inc., you must use Google Translate in accord with the Google license agreement, which includes potential liability for misuse: Google Terms of Service.

See the rest here:
NYSLRS About Retirement Online - New York State Comptroller

Though people are very different, each with their own passions, talents, interests, and abilities, in traditional school settings, most students are all given the same path and grouped with others by date of manufacture. At the age where youth are entering college or the workforce, many have never been given the opportunity to find what they love. This is because for many students, school fosters dependency learning and a false sense that if you just keep doing as youre told, it will eventually pay off...even though there may never be time to figure out where it is you actually want to go. This holds true not only for students dissatisfied with school, but also for students with high achievement like Amy, Carlie, Jessica, Maria and this insightful Valedictorian who felt high school robbed her of this opportunity. Upon graduation, she took her diploma and hit the road literally and went on an adventure to make up for lost time and explore who she really is and what she loves. You can follow her adventures on her blog America Via Erica. Youll notice that once she left school behind, Erica had the opportunity to set her own personal goals which she can change and update as she learns and as she pleases.

Currently her goals are:

School is torture because I am required to spend all my time doing menial tasks, worksheets, and rote memorization.

This takes too much time away from being able to discover my hobbies, interests, or passions. Im in 10th grade and I dont foresee having the ability to do that before I graduate high school."

Once students come up with their plan. Theyll need a place to capture all the great things they are doing. My next post on ePortfolios will outline how to do just that.

Original post:
Creating a Personal Success Plan - A Sensible Alternative ...

About WebCE:

We provide quality online insurance continuing education courses to insurance agents and financial planners. Our online insurance CE course catalog includes state-specific insurance CE courses, like NAIC 4-hour annuity CE, long-term care CE, flood insurance training, ethics, law and many more. Classroom equivalent insurance CE courses are alsoavailable inTexas and Utah. Monitor-free insurance CE courses are also available in select states.

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Most of our insurance CE courses also qualify for CFP CE, Adjuster CE, Public Adjuster CE, and PACE CE. Go to http://www.FinancialPlannerCE.com to select courses that are approved for insurance CE and CFP CE. WebCE also provides Enrolled Agent CPE and Accounting CPEat http://www.APlusCPE.com.NMLS CE for Mortgage Brokersis available at http://www.BrokerCE.com. Online insurance exam prep courses are also available at http://www.PreLicense.com.

Corporate Programs:

Hundreds of companies make our insurance CE services available to their producers at discounted prices through our customizable corporate programs like, insurance CE vouchers, private-labeled learning centers, multi-state adjuster CE solutions, incentives, and volume discounts.Contact our Corporate Sales Department and find out how our customizable insurance CE programs can meet the needs of your company. Click here to learn more.

Continued here:
Insurance CE Courses | WebCE

Your momentum is power. Where your focus goes your energy flows.

Making the conscious commitment to empower yourself by directing your thoughts, energy and focus toward what you most want and the goals you need to achieve is the first step towards creating an extraordinary life.

This is why we all need asystem a personal development plan to help ensure were taking control of our focus, learning new tools, strategies and psychology to create momentum and produce the results we want. Thats why 50 million people in over 100 countries hard-working folks from all walks of life, from students, to professionals, to leaders from entertainment, business, sports, and politics have used Tony Robbins award-winning Personal Achievement Systems to make a difference in the quality of their lives.

Losing weight. Increasing income. Eliminating bad habits. Enjoying extraordinary business success. Creating more fulfilling relationships. Whatever your goal is you can learn the steps to achieve it.

Tony Robbins turns self development and professional achievement into a step-by-step process that will help you identify what it is you really want, whats preventing you from getting it, and how to break through any barriers to take action and create true transformation. And he does it all with total passion, power and playfulness that makes this personal development coaching process not only engaging, but thoroughlyenjoyable.

You can utilize the minutes you spend in mindless activities, every day, learning methods designed to help you improve the quality of your life.

See the rest here:
Mind & Meaning, Personal Achievement and Growth Products

Use gentle, powerful hypnosis to train your unconscious mind to move towards your personal development goals.

Hypnosis is an ideal way for you to enhance your personal development. Whether you want to improve your personal performance in a specific field, or feel better able to handle challenging circumstances (or people), or want to foster particular desirable qualities in yourself, going into a deep trance state and using the power of hypnotic suggestion can make a huge difference.

For example, when you want to get into a specific confident and positive emotional state so that you can successfully deal with an upcoming situation that you perhaps dread, you can quickly learn how to hypnotically 'switch on' the state you want. And you can then reliably attach that feeling to the situation, so that in future you 'automatically' go into the frame of mind that you want for those situations.

These personal growth hypnosis downloads offer you a range of targeted sessions that will give you the tools, the skills and the confidence to make the most of yourself and your abilities and potential in life and be the person you want to be.

Follow this link:
Personal Development | Self Hypnosis Downloads

Could Structured Thinking Improve Your Life?

Lao Tzu wrote, When you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

However, the path to mindfulness can be tricky for most, but what if there was an easy way?

In your Starter Kit you will get the foundation skill to controlling every aspect of your life, and you will begin to feel like the whole world belongs to you.

That and the other exercises included in the kit will quickly show you how any or all areas of your life can be changed to suit you!

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free Starter Kit, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails. We will email you your Starter Kit shortly.

Buddha wrote, Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

But for most people being able to think that way is pretty much an impossibility.

However, with this Life Breakthrough Kit you get the simple tools needed to be able to control your happiness, control how you think, and use the simple essential rules to attaining all the breakthroughs you want in life

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free Breakthrough Kit, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails. We will email you your Breakthrough Kit shortly.

Albert Einstein wrote, Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

We are trained to look for the simple solutions to lifes most complex problems. Then we often think something is too simple, so we ignore it.

What youll find here is something that may solve your problem, and may solve many other problems too that you did not even know you had. However, you will also find something that has been made as simple as possible, but not simpler

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free Footsteps course, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails. We will email you your first Free Chaptersshortly.

Just How Happy Do You Want To Be? Discover Your Score And What To Do About It

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Learn to change how you think in a very, simple and easy way

Albert Einstein wrote, Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

We are trained to look for the simple solutions to lifes most complex problems. Then we often think something is too simple, so we ignore it.

What youll find here is something that may solve your problem, and may solve many other problems too that you did not even know you had. However, you will also find something that has been made as simple as possible, but not simpler

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free Footsteps course, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails. We will email you your first Free Chaptersshortly.

Making massive change and progress can be virtually effortless...

Buddha wrote, Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

But for most people being able to think that way is pretty much an impossibility.

However, with this Life Breakthrough Kit you get the simple tools needed to be able to control your happiness, control how you think, and use the simple essential rules to attaining all the 'breakthroughs' you want in life...

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free Breakthrough Kit, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails. We will email you your Breakthrough Kit shortly.

You may be closer to doing that than you might think

Lao Tzu wrote, "When you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."

However, the path to mindfulness can be tricky for most, but what if there was an easy way?

In your Starter Kit you will get the foundation skill to controlling every aspect of your life, and you will begin to feel like the whole world belongs to you.

That and the other exercises included in the kit will quickly show you how any or all areas of your life can be changed to suit you!

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free Starter Kit, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails. We will email you your Starter Kit shortly.

Join our Saltori Mindset Secrets Newsletter to get the latest insights

Mark Twain wrote, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."

Most people live their entire lives thinking that what they know for sure is so. This often leaves them asking, what happened? What did I do wrong? Where did it go wrong?

By learning the subtleties of how we view our options you'll discover what helps and what hurts us.

In this Mindset Secrets Newsletter I will be unravelling crooked thinking and showing the failures in the way we have been taught to think.

We hate spam too. Email is still the best way we can send you your free newsletters, as well as communicate with you. We will communicate with you only as long as you want to hear from us. Every one of our emails to you will give you the opportunity to opt out of any further emails.

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Personal Development | Saltori structured thinking