Ignite Seminar

Let’s face it. When times are good anybody can sell. It is at times like this, when the market is down that you find out what your team is made of. Sales teams that are baffled and stuck are losing their customers to teams led by managers who know how to fire up their teams to sell more.

Want to know how to ‘Fire Up’ your team to sell more when the chips seem down? Metamorph presents a ½ day seminar, to give you simple and practical tools to boost the energy levels of your teams, especially in recession.


What you will learn in this seminar:

• Use ‘lens words’ to judge the energy levels in your team
• Learn the R-C-C cycle to move your team from inaction to action
• Learn how to act as a ‘Charging station’ for your team
• Learn practical usage of your sub-conscious mind to boost success
• Make your people go the extra mile using ‘trust’ account principle

Seminar Details

Date: 18th Jan 2009, Sunday, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Venue: Seminar Hall, 1st Floor, All India Institute of Local Self- Government, C.D.Barfiwala Marg, Andheri West
Registration Fees: Rs.1500 only
For early birds: Rs.1000 ( book on or before Jan 7th)

Speaker Profile
M.S.Ramgopal worked as Senior Vice President & Head of Sales Quality and Sales Coaching at HSBC. Ramgopal has 13 years of experience in fields of Marketing, Training, Sales, Sales Management and Strategy. He has a post-graduate degree from Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.

Our Clients
We have trained participants from a range of multi-national banks, insurance companies ( life and non-life), pharmaceutical , IT and Retail companies.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2009

Hope that 2009 is year filled with fun learning experiences and a wealth of cheer.

Picture courtesy - Ayhan YILDIZ

My presentation is being hijacked

Ever faced the problem of external events outside your control hijacking your training or presentation? Participants getting too many phone calls? Projector refusing to work? Laptop conks off? Don't lose your cool out there - in front of the audience because if you lose your cool, you have lost control of the presentation. A small presentation on dealing with natural and unnatural disaster and retain control of the training...

Covering Presentation Goof ups

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: covering training)

Is e-learning replacing trainers?

E-learning as a mode of training is generating a lot of interest now and there is no question that it is a really useful tool. However, do all these benefits mean that e-learning should be the way forward for all types of training? Are trainers going to be replaced by videos, hyperlinks, text and audio?

What value do trainers add as compared to an e-learning tool? Let us consider this question by contrasting ATM and a Bank Teller. An ATM has many advantages…

- It can be made available in multiple places at a lower cost per transaction

- It can processes repeated requests without trouble or grumbling

- It is available any time 24 X 7

- It has a standard level of service

- It does not fall sick, go on strike, ask for promotions, ask for a raise or be rude to customers

But then, why do banks still have Bank tellers (the human ones)?

This is because the list of transactions people do, is not limited to what an ATM can do. While the ATM takes care of the most commonly executed transactions like cash withdrawal and cheque deposit…

- It cannot answer questions (except for what is my balance or do I have credit available)

- It cannot give feedback to the bank on new things customers are looking for

- It cannot form long term relationships and finally, most important of all,

- It cannot teach customers new behaviors. Even an ATM still requires a guard who helps out people who cannot operate it!

This last point, about maintaining relationships and changing behaviors is the most important value addition done by a human teller or trainer. An e-learning module no matter how well made, can never influence or change human behavior. To implement a new behavior a human being need practice and personalized feedback based on observation, about where we are going wrong.

So, until suitably programmed robots (with human qualities and defects) are available in the mass markets, behavioral trainers need not worry about being replaced by an e-learning tool. Product trainers, any take on this?

November Advanced Content Creation Workshop for Trainers

Nov 25th and 26th - 2 days were packed with fun, learning and mingling among participants from different industries and companies.

Our favorite part of giving out certificates to our participants...



Here, all of us posing for the camera...to remember an unforgettable day!



Note: Those who attended the program from outside Mumbai, have reached back their respective cities, safely.

The next Workshop on Content Creation for Trainers is scheduled for 19th and 20th December.

Editing Images and Graphs in PowerPoint

In our workshops, we talk about the importance of adding images to a presentations. While we use a number of sophisticated tools like Photoshop, Coredraw etc. to edit our images, it not required to own or use software for most people.

Most trainers and managers are aware of basics of putting in pictures, there is more they can do in PowerPoint itself in terms of :
- Modifying/ cropping images/ changing brightness and contrast
- Adding and playing with graphs
- Adding music and transition to create a self-running presentation

The presentation below ( can be downloaded) is put up for your convenience if you face any of the above problems. Do post a message or email me, if you have any further queries.

Tips on Polishing Powerpoint Presentations

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: powerpoint images)

Another suggestion, if you are looking for a free, easy to use basic photo editing software, is to use Google's Picasa. Its a fabulously user-friendly tool.

November Managers Workshop

A quick update on the Workshop for managers on November 12th - Make presentations with Impact - FAST. Here's us - presenting certificates to some of the participants. Turned out many of them knew each other from before, making it a more nostalgic occasion than expected!


Working through one of the exercises...thinking from A to Z..

Editing Images for presentations

Most people use images in presentations. If you have ever wondered, how you can use the images more powerfully than you do now, the following presentation gives some tips. The suggested editing is simple and can be done within PowerPoint ® itself. I have also suggested sources for some pictures as well as editing software. These will be useful to you if you want to avoid using the low quality pictures you end up getting by doing a Google search.

Editing Images for presentations Metamorph

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: editing images)

Do you have any further suggestions - things that you usually do to get images looking good?

Advanced workshops in November at Mumbai

We are pleased announce open workshops to be held by Metamorph in November.

Highlights
12th Nov: 1 day Advanced workshop for managers: Make presentations with impact - Fast

What is it about? Managers constantly present their ideas to an audience, be it customers or colleagues. These presentations showcase their ideas and reflect the depth of their thinking. This interactive and hands-on workshop helps managers present their ideas powerfully. It completely changes the way managers think and create presentations.

Commercials: Rs.5000 + taxes for booking before 5th November. Program cost includes Powerful Presentation CD worth Rs 1250.
View Brochure

25-26th Nov: 2 day Advanced content creation workshop for trainers:
What is it about? This program is focused content creation related aspects like how to create and use appropriate analogy, games, stories, AVs etc. to make training more engaging and let audience discover the learning for themselves.

Commercials: Rs.8000 + taxes for booking before 17th November. Program cost includes Powerful Presentation CD worth Rs 1250.
View brochure for trainers workshop
Other details
Timing: 9 am to 6 pm
Venue: Hotel Sea Princess, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai.
We offer a discount of 10% for booking 3 or more seats

To book or know more email us at metamorph.training@gmail.com.

With best wishes from all of us at Metamorph this festive season!

September Open Workshops Update

We had 2 open workshops running in September.
1 day presentation skills workshop for managers

The workshop went off great in the distinguished board room of Hotel Sea Princess. The participants were from a diverse range of industries such as banking, insurance, network marketing, event management and public sector enterprise.

The participants enjoyed the workshop which was compeltely participative.

Advanced Content Creation Workshop for Trainers

The managers program was followed by the content creation workshop for trainers. The noise levels were astounding at times - especially during the games! Not only did they play games but they were excited to learn how to create their own games and learn about a new way to create content that would make training sharper and more engaging at the same time.

We made them rethink a lot of old beliefs....

A lot of the participants were from insurance this time - but we did have groups of trainers from other industries such as Retail, Pharmaceutical and Bank.

Here is the team from one insurance company smiling on completition of their program, after recieving their certificates and CDs.

Awaiting the next workshop with enthusiasm!

Metamorph is COOLEST one

Hot Startups = Innovative, high-potential, world-class companies
Metamorph is competiting for the slot of coolest of Hot startups.
Our commitment to bringing unique products and services to the market will take us there. We believe it. If you with us, show your appreciation by voting for us.

Vote for us online by clicking on the link above or type HOT ( space) 147 and sms to 56767.

Thank you for your support!

Advanced Workshop for Trainers

Our Advanced Workshop for Trainers at Best Western in Juhu was a great combination of fun and learning. Our participants from competing organizations as well as diverse industries (Insurance and Pharma!) bonded together and shared their concerns and views over the period of 2 days.

The program was focused on issues of content creators for training. We covered training for products as well as skills - using a range of training techiniques to match with the learning style of the audience. We talked about changing the way slides are made today, practised creating games, telling stories, making caselets and role plays.
The feedback we got?
" The program is 90% different from any Train the Trainer program I have ever attended!"
"Not good but great!"
Sharing some photos of the eventful 2 days...
What better way to learn than to try? Here they are trying to untangle themselves….
















…and receiving certificates of attendance on completion….

We are looking forward to the next one with enthusiasm !

Reporting on the success of our Seminar

This week has been hectic in Mumbai. Rains have decided to suddenly start pouring down, but it still did not dampen the enthusiasm of 2 seminars held by Metamorph this week.

First off, we had a small session with the Rotary Club in Andheri. Members of the club are mainly business people, and their warmth and friendliness wiped out the dreariness caused by the weather. Our small presentation on ‘How to motivate your teams for more sales’ was well appreciated. Small businesses typically are run by one person who is everything for the business. Businesses do not run without their presence and we discussed someways to keep one self motivated in such a situation.












The session at Rotary was a prelude to our longer and more indepth session held the next day - 26th July. The All India Institute of Self-Government, Seminar hall, slowly filled with participants from various companies. The wide range of sectors and industries represented made the program more interesting. S Team Consulting represented Direct Sales Agents, ICICI Prudential’s participants represented Insurance, HSBC – bank, HSBC Contact center – represented the service sector, enthusiastic participants from AstraZenca represented pharma industry, some people from network marketing and our friends and well-wishers made up the audience.
Some photos of the event....

A big thanks to everyone who made the event a success – and to all those who missed this one because of being out of town and rains – well, we will be back again!

Seminar for Sales Managers

We are proud to announce a Seminar on "How To Motivate Your Team For More Sales".

Brief details are as follows:
This 2 ½ hour seminar on “How to motivate your team for more sales” talks about simple and practical tools for Sales Managers. This seminar aims to impart some powerful and practical management principles in an entertaining and easy to remember way.

To Register: SMS 'REGN to 9930 16 9191. Booking closes 6:00 p.m, Thursday 24th July.
Registration fee Rs.500 is payable at Seminar Hall.

When : July 26th 5 pm to 8 pm

Where: Seminar Hall, 1st Floor, All India Institute of Local Self-Government,
C.D.Barfiwala Marg, Juhu Gully, Next to Navnit Motors, Andheri West, Mumbai 400058

View detailed brochure here

Marketing Executives Wanted

If you have relatives who have just graduated - especially B.A. English Literature who are looking for jobs with growth opportunities as well as excellent opportunities for earning and learning, here is something you can tell them about...

To know more about us you can check our website:

http://www.metamorphtraining.com/. These positions are open in Mumbai only as of now.

Clarity in communication - RULE 1

Communication - is all about clarity - clarity of knowing whom you are addressing and for what purpose.

This sentence was running through my mind constantly as I watched the movie Bhoothnath. Was it supposed to be a kids movie? It revolved around a kid and his relationship with a ghost. So shouldn't it have stayed focused on kids?

Post-interval, I felt as if I had entered a saas-bahu serial! Weeping ladies, miserable kiddies, broken relationships, people running up and down the stairs as if on a 'crash' diet - people talking to each others backs...enough said!

Maybe, the director thought that since kids would come to the movies with thier mommies, naturally he should cater to both. So he dedicated the first half to kids and second half to moms. It left both parties distinctly disatisfied - as it was not what either of them expected.

This happens in emails - many times I wonder what some people where thinking of when they forwarded stuff to me. This goes for presentations or speeches as well. Are you clear on whom you are addressing and for what? If not, you will leave all parties disatisfied.

Powerful Presentations CD is out!!!

Our ‘Powerful Presentations CD’ self-learning CD has been launched today and we are really excited about it! Here is the story on how this CD came about.

One of the most critical skills my MBA helped me develop was the ability to present confidently. Regular assignments and critical questions by competitive classmates made sure that by the time I joined work, making presentations were a snap.

Many MBA institutes don't have as much focus on presentations. What a pity! One of the first things I did on joining my new company from campus was to present on what I had learned of the company’s product. I was immediately earmarked for travel to client sites - a much sought after task and I was recommended to the seniors. While mere presentations skills (without knowledge) would have got me nowhere – those skills brought me quick recognition and coveted assignments.

My husband, too, made his presence felt in his organisation by the kind of presentations he made. His uniquely made, engaging and short presentations had everyone taking notice. It became his trademark. Over a period of time he has been asked to ghost-write presentations for quite senior managers in the company. Today, when someone says the word ‘presentations’, he is ‘top-of-the- mind’.

The kinds of presentations both of us have been called upon to make are distinctly different ranging from the nitty-gritty to the strategic. As part of this training endeavor we decided to ‘bottle’ our approach (for all presentation types) to help others make uniquely different presentations. The audience, who listen, will benefit from as well.

The first task, we realized was to make the presentations as ‘simple’ as possible and the word ‘Minimal’ was born. The second task is of course ‘Creativity’. Before you say ‘I am not creative’ – wait! Making the presentation ‘creative’ too has been made into a process.

The quality of the final output depends on how much practice you have using this ‘minimal’ approach. Interestingly, while we ‘bottled’ our approach, we also began to notice that our presentation skills too were improving as we realized some things that we could do better as well.

This whole exercise has been advantageous to us too. When we make presentations, we check it against the structure suggested in the ‘minimal’ approach. The presentation always becomes better if it sticks to the principles laid out there. We pulled out some presentations made some years back and realized what a long way we have come.

Since not everyone can make about 200-300 presentations each and perfect the skill that way…here is the shortcut. Follow our approach. It may seem a little tedious at first. But once you get the hang of it – it becomes so easy that you don’t even need to fill in the structure guide provided with the CD. And guess what, the principles mentioned are so universal to communication itself – that you may soon find yourself writing emails and talking a little differently – making yourself stand out in every way. So get hold of this CD and get going with it. See the way it changes the way you communicate!

4 common mistakes of presenters

Continuing the series about presentations, here is a presentation that talks about the 4 common mistakes presenters make. Are you guilty of any of them? Do you know people who make these errors and how doyou feel as part of the audience when that happens?

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Telling a story

Wondering how to make an important message more palatable? Take a hint from Aesops Fables and all others after him and tell a story!
Here is an interesting presentation that does exactly the same thing.
It tells the story of two fish and ends with drawing a parallel to importance of learning. Makes the presentation interesting and embeds a moral too!

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Get Noticed with Powerful Presentations!

Ever wonder how making good presentations is of importance to you? Here is a short presentation with answers!

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Happy New Year 2008

Wishing everyone a great 2008 !
Hope the year has begun well!