FOCIS® Training Update

Productive Strategies is working to enhance your education in consultative skills training. We believe that the more you practice your discovery and presentation skills the more you will make persuasive, focused presentations…..and win!

In October we met with 12 graduates of FOCIS® training from the Chicago area. The group indicated that they could benefit from the following:

• An  online forum in which they could post questions and discussion topics related to FOCIS®. They want to share ideas, successes, and “how to” information with other graduates. They would also like feedback from those of us teaching the course to correct their mistakes or misunderstandings.

• An occasional “users group” meeting where they could meet other graduates and have the opportunity to share ideas in person.

• Increased ongoing education through e-mail communications. These could feature case histories, observations from the market, and other topics.

Responding to the above we have the following programs coming on stream:

• We will schedule a Chicago FOCIS® user’s group meeting at our offices at least four to six times a year as long as there is continuing interest in the sessions. There will be no charge for these, and at least one of our instructors will be present. While this is not meant to be a networking group, there certainly can be networking opportunities for those who attend. Each person who attends will be asked to share their experiences using FOCIS®.

• We will implement an online bulletin board for FOCIS® graduates. We will be testing the online forum at the end of November with a few users and go live for all of you in December (or sooner).

• We are sponsoring a FOCIS® contest (for graduates only). Those of you who have taken the course in 2005 or 2006 will see an entry form in the appendix of your FOCIS® workbook. If you need an application form, please e-mail us and we will send you one. We are using the contest to recognize those individuals who have applied FOCIS® to their sales opportunities and have been rewarded with sales success. We will award a first, second and third place award. The awards will be both monetary and as a commendation.

All of the above initiatives are free to those of you who have taken our course. The new programs are intended to increase your success in ways that will only require you to invest time, not money.

You can help our effort on the free programs by making sure that everyone at your company who has taken the course receives this communication or just send us their e-mail addresses.

If you have ideas on other ways we can support your objectives to improve your sales and marketing results please contact Kristin, Mike, or me. We continue to offer on a fee-for-service basis coaching in the field, presentation development, market research into buying motives, lead generation and other services. As always, we continue to appreciate all of the referrals that so many of you have made to us. Thank you.