Speak First Blog
What L&D Professionals need to know about data analysis
These days, almost all areas of modern businesses are results and data driven. A sales team needs to know exactly how much they’ve sold and whether or not they’re making the company a profit; the ...
Read more6 Steps to raising your internal profile
Imagine that you are a senior partner and you have been asked to decide who in the office deserves a promotion. Who do you choose? Do you pick someone who is already on your radar, or are you going ...
Principles of Cold Calling
In many sales jobs, you will need to cold call a potential customer. This means identifying someone that may want to buy your product or service, phoning them and trying to sell it to them without ...
8 steps for effective listening
Humanity has evolved from Neanderthals, who communicated with grunts and points, into having complex systems of language and words that we use to impart information and share ideas with each other. ...
5 types of difficult questions and how to answer them
When you’re giving a presentation, or when giving a report at a meeting, you might be asked questions that you don’t have answers to. Or maybe you do have the answers, but you don’t know how to ...
Handling email overload
Your inbox rarely takes a break. In our increasingly connected world, where you’re always expected to be contactable, how can you stay on top of your emails without it feeling like climbing Everest ...
How to show that your learning and Development solutions pay for themselves
For those of us working in the Learning and Development field, we know the benefits that come from an organisation running training for its staff: increased employee productivity, engagement and ...
10 Secrets to handling questions well
You have done the research, prepared the slides and rehearsed your presentation. You are in control of everything. Well, almost everything. A question and answer session can be a daunting experience ...
10 Secrets of Successful Networking
Have you been to networking events but just ended up chatting to your colleagues and friends all evening? Do you meet lots of new people but struggle to stay in touch? Then you need our tried and ...
How to make an impact in meetings
Meetings can be a great opportunity to sit down and talk to staff, managers, clients and colleagues that you may not usually have time to. Some meetings might be a group discussion and some might be ...