In the first of a two-part episode on staffing, PAUL HARRIS of Real Success Ltd provided down-to-earth and practical advice on RECRUITING the right staff.  He advised employers not to panic when faced with sudden staffing needs. Careful planning is necessary to identify likely candidates, leading to crafting an offer of employment - with legal obligations.

In Part 2, Paul focusses on RETENTION.  He says that clear, upfront and two-way communication with all members of staffing on a regular basis is the golden rule for ensuring, as far as possible, that loyal, skilled staff - stay loyal.  Good working conditions and positivity will often outweigh issues of money.

Paul Harris's 'Magic Formula'

(S+K+A) + A = P

(Skills + Knowledge + Attitude) + Alignment = Performance Score

Paul explains at 20:42

LINKS

Real Success Ltd

LISTEN to Paul with Part One on Recruitment

Possibly the biggest challenge facing businesses today is recruiting the most suitable staff, and then taking every step necessary to ensure that they stay in the company or organisation.

In a two-part episode on Recruitment and Retention, I talk to Paul Harris, the founder of Real Success Ltd, a company specialising in meeting the staffing requirements of the farming community. His down-to-earth and highly practical advice is relevant to the land-based engineering sector – or any business without a fully functioning HR department.

In this first episode, Paul advises not to panic when faced with sudden staffing needs.  He says careful planning is necessary and clear steps to identify candidates, leading to crafting an offer of employment with legal obligations.

LINKS

Real Success Ltd

Indeed.com

Real Success Indeed website

Andrew Findley is an experienced competitor in ultra endurance running events ranging from 200 km races in the 50 degree heat of the Sahara to a 300 km race across the French Alps in the biting cold - whilst climbing the equivalent of Everest three times.

The quality that all competitors need in such events is resilience – which can simply be summed up as the ability to keep going. In other words “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

But it is never just about toughness, there are many other qualities that Andrew has discovered during the events.

Today, Andrew is a motivational speaker talking to groups and businesses about resilience.  Of being able to cope successfully with the bad or difficult times – and you can be assured that Andrew experienced many of those during his participation in extreme conditions.

In this episode, Andrew talks about the conditions he faced, and what he found out about himself during the events that could help those facing challenges in business or life itself.

A link below will take you to an article Andrew wrote for Sorted magazine

LINKS

Andrew Findley website

Article: The Road to Resilience

In this episode, St John Craner, connects the two important elements of The Art of the Sales Conversation, that of listening, and then asking the right questions at the right time and in the right way.

He says "I think it's really important that if you want to succeed in sales, you need to be a student of psychology. You need to get curious and study the basic laws of human nature and behavior. Psychology is a rural sales superpower; of that I'm absolutely convinced"

"There are three magic words that you should always say in your conversations, if you want the conversation to keep going. They are 'Tell me more'. ."

LINKS

The Art of the Sales Conversation - Part One

St John Craner on LinkedIn

Website

In the first part of his series of The Customer is always Right, Dan Pratt, founder of DAP Consultancy talked about different types of customers, their behaviour, and ways of successfully diffusing difficult situations.

In this episode Dan says that receiving a complaint should often be looked at as a positive business opportunity – and at relatively low-cost.

He also talks about goodwill gestures which can often work wonders - and how to practically deal with negative on-line reviews which are often unjustified.

LINKS

DAP Consultancy

EPISODE NOTES: The Importance of Creating Goodwill amongst Customers

LISTEN TO PART 1 of The Customer is Always Right?

ROUND TABLE PANEL with Dan Pratt. Interested? EMAIL Chris for details

AI references are now all over the media with countless commentators or experts having their say on the impact that AI (Artificial Intelligence) is likely to have, good or bad, beneficial or dangerous on all of our lives.

To try and understand more about AI, and its likely future influence on you and your business I’m delighted to be joined by Wesley Baker.

Wesley is a renowned international business entrepreneur who has run companies in the UK and the United States.  He is the Founder and CEO of Canterbury AI (that’s’ Canterbury Kent) and its division Blue Strawberry - and is someone, I’m sure, can answer my basic and perhaps dumb questions about this new phenomenon

LINKS

Wesley Baker

Canterbury AI

Blue Strawberry

In the first part of his series of The Customer is always Right, Dan Pratt, founder of DAP Consultancy talked about different types of customers, their behaviour, and ways of successfully diffusing difficult situations.

In this episode Dan says that receiving a complaint should often be looked at as a positive business opportunity – and at relatively low-cost.

He also talks about goodwill gestures which can often work wonders - and how to practically deal with negative on-line reviews which are often unjustified.

LINKS

DAP Consultancy

EPISODE NOTES: The Importance of Creating Goodwill amongst Customers

LISTEN TO PART 1 of The Customer is Always Right?

ROUND TABLE PANEL with Dan Pratt. Interested? EMAIL Chris for details

'The Customer is Always Right' was a mantra instilled into staff by Gordon Selfridge when he opened his landmark London department store in the early 1990s.

Does that still hold true for businesses in the 21st century?

Dan Pratt, founder of a customer experience agency DAP Consultancy says "Yes . .except when they are wrong!"

Dan has worked in customer relations most of his career in a variety of industries. He once manned a customer complaints phone line "being shouted at for 8 hours a day"

In this episode he describes the different types of customer, and how to categorise and deal with complainants. He also talks about ways of combatting negative, and often unjustified, online reviews.

This the second episode in our new podcast The Agri-Turf Academy Show and ideally complements the first episode on selling by St John Craner (link below).

DAP Consultancy

The Art of the Sales Conversation by St John Craner

'The Customer is Always Right' was a mantra instilled into staff by Gordon Selfridge when he opened his landmark London department store in the early 1990s.

Does that still hold true for businesses in the 21st century?

Dan Pratt, founder of a customer experience agency DAP Consultancy says "Yes . .except when they are wrong!"

Dan has worked in customer relations most of his career in a variety of industries. He once manned a customer complaints phone line "being shouted at for 8 hours a day"

In this episode he describes the different types of customer, and how to categorise and deal with complainants. He also talks about ways of combatting negative, and often unjustified, online reviews.

This the second episode in our new podcast The Agri-Turf Academy Show and ideally complements the first episode on selling by St John Craner (link below).

DAP Consultancy

The Art of the Sales Conversation by St John Craner

The first episode of The Agri-Turf Academy Show, a new podcast to complement the Inside Agri-Turf shows which have notched up over 10,000 downloads and featured more than 100 guests from across the land-based engineering sector.

The Agri-Turf Academy show will provide specially curated episodes full of business ideas, growth advice and personal development support for organisations and individuals working in the land-based engineering sector - delivered by experts in their field.

Although developed for a niche industry, the episodes are highly relevant to any small business

This opening episode, The Art of the Sales Conversation (Part One) is delivered by St John Craner, (pronounced Sinjin) founder of New Zealand-based Agrarian, a leading rural sales and marketing company.

St John's key message is 'The problem with sales, is selling. Stop selling and start serving'

LINKS

Agrarian

St John Craner LinkedIn