Executive Playground

Does your company face these challenges?

Your sales team struggle to achieve targets

You need better leadership and management skills

You're not making enough profit

You need to reach new markets

If so, we really can help.

Executive Playground is a business development and training consultancy specialising Sales Growth, Team Development, Leadership & Management and Talent Management programmes.

We assist companies large and small to improve results through strategic business consultancy and people development. Our services are delivered by experienced and highly qualified consultants with business backgrounds and specialist skills. Our programmes are designed uniquely for each client to meet their specific needs.

Our methodologies include Accelerated Learning (brain friendly learning), Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Business & Executive Coaching.

We have gained a track record of achievement and a reputation for getting results leading to many delighted clients from public and private sector. Click here for a small selection of client testimonials.

To find out more about our company call 0845 330 7884 to request a brochure or arrange an exploratory meeting with one of our consultants to discuss your needs. You will also find downloadable mini e-brochures as you explore our website.

Why The Apprentice is Bad for Business

I suppose like Big Brother, the events unfolding in The Apprentice have many people talking about it and so in media terms, it's a success. However The Apprentice paints a really bad, outdated picture of how good business is conducted and is unrepresentative of what we see and experience. Of course there are always exceptions.

Alan Sugar has certainly achieved things in the past, maybe in the 80's when his particularly aggressive and rude style of communication would have served him well and made him a lot of money. But a lot has changed since then and thank heavens it has. It's just that the TV companies, like the newspapers are only interested the negative side of life to bring in the viewers. And it works sadly.

Was it something I said?

When meeting someone for the first time we do our best to 'get on' with them don't we? Particularly in sales when we meet prospects or customers for the first time. Those first few minutes are crucial to the first and often lasting impression.

Communication is both simple and complex. It can easily go right or easily go wrong. Our choice of words, our voice, tonality, pitch, intonation, speed and volume, our facial expressions, degree of eye contact, gestures and body language - we use them all instinctively and unconsciously to communicate the little and the large things in life.

We may even get a 'gut feeling' about how things are going as we decide 'I like this person or I don't like this person'; often without really knowing what it is that leads us to these decisions.

Here's a true story.

Choosing the best sales strategies for your product

The strategy you choose to get your product or service to its target market will determine how big or small your market is, how quickly you can access it and how much profit you will make.

Simple I know, but it's amazing how many small businesses get it wrong from day one. 

Here's a true story.....

This week I was approached by the owner of a young business who needed help. We'll call her Jo. Jo made music recordings for a niche market. A great start for any business - a niche product for a niche market.

Jo told me that her business was less than a year old and although she really believed in the product which 'sold itself', she was struggling with sales and not earning enough money. Getting through the door was the problem she said, she felt stressed out and stuck - could we help her?