Step into the Conflab with us, Bob & Jeremy, lifelong friends since our days at drama school in 1991. With over two decades of experience running a successful sales and management training business together, we bring a wealth of insights and anecdotes to the table. Launched during the lockdown of June 2021, Bob & Jeremy’s Conflab gives you fresh perspectives on business, life, and everything in between. Join us as we share stories and observations from our extensive travels, training, and co ...
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Join your hosts Bob Morrell and Jeremy Blake as they draw from over 20 years of global sales training and coaching experience to bring the world of sales conversations to life with insightful and related stories. Companies will often question investment in skills training for varied and fascinating reasons. Bob and Jeremy will show you how, so often, the answer is: sales training. They'll tackle questions such as: How many organisations need sales training? What does this investment give the ...
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Welcome to Contact Centre Focus, your go-to podcast for industry insights and expert advice tailored specifically for advisors, agents, salespeople, team leaders, managers, and directors of contact centres. Join your hosts, Bob Morrell & Jeremy Blake, renowned sales trainers and executive coaches from Reality Training, as they share their wealth of knowledge from training thousands of people in contact centres worldwide. Our mission? To empower you and your team, ensuring that your contact c ...
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Networking Do’s & Don’ts: Mastering Networking Opportunities
28:02
28:02
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Send us a Text Message. Have you ever wondered what it takes to make a lasting impression at a networking event? This episode kicks off with a hilarious sketch showcasing some common networking blunders, reminding us all about the importance of making a strong first impression. We dive into practical tips on overcoming shyness, avoiding snap judgme…
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‘Obviously, Pal': Stop the Irritators - Watch What You Say, When You’re Selling!
10:27
10:27
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Send us a Text Message. We all have irritators – things we say without realising. You may know what you’re talking about but you’re not thinking about how you come across, and as such you will pepper your discussion with verbal habits that are really annoying. ‘Obviously’ is the most common, followed by ‘basically’. How patronising when you think a…
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Election Special: Why Does Public Speaking Matter? How Do You Engage & Influence Your Audience?
32:59
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Send us a Text Message. Elections are great ways to learn about the best public speaking. Rishi Sunak, Keir Starmer, and Nigel Farage, as well as a huge number of supporting cast members will be trying their best to influence us over the next few weeks and any of us can study how good they really are. We all need, sometimes to elevate our voices an…
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Senior Management Development - What Are Your Options?
29:03
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Send us a Text Message. Senior Managers have an important question to answer – what development is going to make them better at what they do? Or do they need any at all? Unlock the full potential of senior leadership with expert insights from Bob & Jeremy, executive coaches who bring to life the varied activities that are available. This episode pr…
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Send us a Text Message. This is the most underused question in sales. Unlock the secret to improving your sales with the subtle, yet impactful, 'power of choice' strategy. Join Bob Morrell and Jeremy Blake as they reveal how offering options can shift the customer's mindset from a passive observer to an active decision-maker. Ever been trapped by t…
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Send us a Text Message. In this new podcast, The Reality is Sales Training, Bob Morrell & Jeremy Blake, with over 20 years of experience behind them, dissect the worldwide sales conversation. They offer you the wit and wisdom to craft compelling narratives and new sales approaches that captivate any prospective customers. In this first episode, dis…
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Send us a Text Message. Have you ever caught yourself jumping to conclusions about someone based on their age or financial status? Our latest episode peels back the layers of ageism and bias within customer service, highlighting a conversation that will challenge your assumptions. Tune in as we dissect a fascinating call between a contact centre ag…
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Tipping, Service Charges, Brand Charges… What is happening with this ‘grey area’?
38:58
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Send us a Text Message. Ever been caught at the end of a meal, wallet in hand, wondering just how much to tip - or if at all? That's the exact conundrum we unpack in today's lively podcast, where we navigate the new Employment Allocation of Tips Act 2023, set to revolutionise UK's service industry. Join us as we delve into the principles of fairnes…
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Empowering Your Teams – Free Up Time & Focus on Valuable Work
6:32
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Send us a Text Message. Are you constantly the go-to problem solver in your contact centre? It's time to break free from the chains of reactive problem-solving, and our latest episode is your key to unlocking a more proactive team. We delve into the persistent cycle of team leaders being side-tracked by their team's issues, a pattern that not only …
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B2B Buying & Selling in a Hybrid Work World
30:20
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Send us a Text Message. How do you get through to a company's decision-maker? You’re not alone, this episode is a must-listen for anyone in the B2B space. We kick things off with a hilarious skit that hits close to home, capturing the all-too-familiar frustration of reaching out to remote-based workers. Then, we break down the hard truths of the in…
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Send us a Text Message. How often do you have to ask a manager for permission to use an offer? In your call centre how often does it happen? Well, strap in because we're dissecting that dance of discounts and it's quite the cha-cha of consumer psychology and strategic pricing! In this podcast we role play how these sound to customers – and work out…
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Selling More: Is It Down to Behavioural Science or Just BS?
45:17
45:17
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Send us a Text Message. What makes a sales strategy irresistible? This episode promises to change your approach to sales and sales training through the lens of behavioural science. We kick things off by discussing how societal trends, can signal shifts in consumer behaviour — a key factor in shaping effective sales tactics. We sight insights from b…
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Customer Service in the UK – In 2024 How Are We Really Being Served?
36:52
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Send us a Text Message. In our latest episode, we examine new research into the level of customer satisfaction in the UK, where the landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years. We start by discussing the reasons behind the decline in customer’s experiences, from the pandemic's shake-up of our shopping habits, to Brexit and the economic and p…
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Checking With Your Manager – It’s Time to Stop!
8:19
8:19
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Send us a Text Message. Do you understand the frustration a customer feels when you say “I need to put you on hold and check with my manager"? This episode promises to unravel why this all-too-common practice is holding back the potential of call centres everywhere. We confront the lack of agent empowerment head-on, striving to identify the bottlen…
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Sales Targets (& How They Work Against You)
29:12
29:12
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Send us a Text Message. Do sales targets work? In this episode we study sales targets and expose their problems. Unpack the dilemma of arbitrary figures with us, as we get into the reasons of how these numbers can warp sales strategies, leading to short-term wins but potentially jeopardise your company's future. And if you think corporate life can'…
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Voice Tips for Contact Centres Part 2: Five More Key Tips!
8:06
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Send us a Text Message. If you have heard part one of this series you will know all about active listening, and utilising the best tone for your customers. Already you will be ahead of people who haven’t learnt these key skills – and here are 5 more! This jam-packed episode of Contact Centre Focus is all about amplifying your vocal prowess in ways …
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Voice Tips for Contact Centres Part 1: Five Key Tips to Improve
8:11
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Send us a Text Message. Why are some advisors effective and some less so? Let's unlock that mystery! In this episode Jeremy Blake and Bob Morrell show you how important and flexible the voice is – and how you should be using it. In the first part of our special double-feature, we're laying down five key tips that will make your voice the secret wea…
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First Jobs: What’s the best first job? What should you look for?
34:57
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Send us a Text Message. Join us for a down-to-earth journey through the highs and lows of launching a career in today’s job market. In this episode, we dive headfirst into the unpredictable world of early employment – offering practical advice, real insights, and a roadmap to success. We’ll take you on a tour of the first-job scene, sharing stories…
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Top Tips for 2024: Contact Centre Customer Experiences and Engagement
9:14
9:14
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Send us a Text Message. Top Tips for 2024! What is going to make the biggest difference this year? Ready to take your customer service to a new level? Call centres all over the world need key areas of focus to have a great year. We're talking about the art of selling—yes, even you, the customer service pro, are in sales, whether you're booking appo…
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2024 Reflect and Reset: What are your goals and resolutions? How will you have a great year?
31:39
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Send us a Text Message. 2024 Reflect and Reset: How are your resolutions going? Why do those January promises often slip through our fingers? How can you to be a part of the resilient 9% that Arnold Schwarzenegger says, actually achieve their goals. We're looking at goal setting to habit-forming, and how peering into the rear-view mirror at the yea…
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Team Leaders Do's & Don'ts: Leadership Tips & Tricks for Thriving Teams
35:37
35:37
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Send us a Text Message. Team Leaders Do's & Don'ts - Why are some teams better than others? In our latest episode of Bob & Jeremy's Conflab, we dig deep into the do's & don'ts that differentiate a thriving team from a struggling one. This episode is jam-packed with our personal research, tips and tricks on effective leadership, emphasising the need…
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Team Leaders: Building Resilience in Your Contact Centre Teams
14:44
14:44
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Send us a Text Message. Team Leaders, is your contact centre team prepared for the challenges of peak seasons and ready to emerge stronger? Join us for a discussion on resilience – a crucial trait for thriving in the demanding environment of a contact centre. We’ll tap into Dr. Kenneth Ginsberg’s insights on the Seven Cs of resilience, covering com…
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Top Tips for Contact Centre Interviews: Strategies to Impress
7:42
7:42
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Send us a Text Message. Interview Skills and Tips: Ready to be the stand-out candidate at your next call centre job interview? Join us, Bob and Jeremy of Reality Training, where we promise to equip you with the exact insights and strategies you need to impress any interviewer, regardless of their role or seniority. We share key tips on demonstratin…
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The SFC Coaching Model: Sweary Coaching for All
33:10
33:10
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Send us a Text Message. What is sweary coaching? Toss out those conventional coaching models and try something refreshingly direct. We're here to guide you through a unique approach: the SFC model. It's all about being brutally honest about what you genuinely don’t care about in your life or work. We believe that by eliminating these elements, you …
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What’s Funny? The Evolution & Impact of Humour in Business
45:46
45:46
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Send us a Text Message. What’s funny these days? Ever wondered how the landscape of humour has evolved in the business world over the past decade? Prepare to discover, through our lively conversation, how comedy has shifted gears, for better or worse, in the day-to-day corporate realm. From recounting our experience of revising the 'Auntie Close' t…
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Mastering Your Festive Contact Centre Party - Christmas Party Tips
12:56
12:56
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Send us a Text Message. Picture this: You're at your Contact Centre Christmas party, the music is playing, the drinks are flowing, and you're just about to photocopy your body parts as a fun party trick. Stop right there! We're here to guide you through the do's and don'ts of the Christmas party, especially in a Contact Centre environment. After ye…
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Redefining Customer Service: The Upselling Advantage – Service is Sales.
13:30
13:30
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Send us a Text Message. Are your customer service people salespeople? Brand Ambassadors? Efficient Administrators? This episode takes a deep dive into the fascinating world of customer service at 'Bob's Insurance', a company whose customer-centric approach has revolutionised the way their agents handle sales. We dissect a fictional customer service…
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1
Bad Management: The UK Corporate Crisis - Your Leadership Challenges & Solutions.
34:06
34:06
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Send us a Text Message. Is UK management just not good enough? Ever wondered why UK companies are still struggling to recover from the 2008 financial crisis, while their international counterparts seem to have moved on? Curious about why no UK company features among the world's top 25? Join us on Bob and Jeremy's Conflab to explore these realities …
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1
Cost, Price, Offers, Discounts & Fixed Price Issues!
7:59
7:59
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Send us a Text Message. Do you work with special offers? Are your prices negotiable? Or do you sell a hybrid option? Some organisations are fixed price. This means the advisor has to sell what they’re selling purely on the value. Do you expect your advisors to know how to negotiate? Or are they simply discounting or reliant on offers only? This pod…
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Teambuilding Part 2 – Bletchley Park & Codebreaking
23:07
23:07
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Send us a Text Message. In this podcast, brought to you by Reality Training, we report on our recent teambuilding trip to the codebreakers site, Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. We learnt how the teams there, through WW2, broke the codes of the enemy and how that contributed to the winning of the war. By the end of the war over 8500 people, mostl…
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The Camino de Santiago Podcast – Bob’s Camino
40:39
40:39
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Send us a Text Message. What is it like to walk 500 miles across the top of Spain? In this podcast, Bob tells Jeremy all about his extraordinary trip to Santiago. It is a story of resilience, agony, inspiration and endurance. Find out whether you could do something like this and think about what it might give you. Please listen and share with anyon…
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Send us a Text Message. Following hot on the heels of our popular ‘Conferences’ and ‘Exhibitions’ Do’s & Don’ts episodes, we move on to Team Building! Love them or hate them, team building activities inject a dose of fun into the work routine and play a vital role in helping your team work better together. But not all team building activities are c…
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1
Support SELF-WORTH: How Do These DRIVES Improve Your Sense of Self-Worth?
8:23
8:23
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Send us a Text Message. What exactly is Self-worth, and when was the last time you truly assessed it? Join us for the culmination of our DRIVES principles series in Episode 6, where we focus on increasing self-worth in your contact centre. If you've been following our journey through Discretion, Roles, Integrity, Vision & Environment, you're alread…
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Create the best ENVIRONMENT: Nurture a Flourishing Workplace for Everyone
8:56
8:56
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Send us a Text Message. What defines a thriving working environment within a contact centre? How do you transform spaces into hubs that motivate your teams, encourage collaboration, and drive exceptional customer experiences? In Episode 5 of our DRIVES model, we explore ‘E’ – Environment. COVID-19 reshaped the landscape of contact centre dynamics. …
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Define Your VISION: How to Create, Deliver & Inspire a Vision of Success!
10:22
10:22
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10:22
Send us a Text Message. What lies at the core of your business vision? In Episode 4 of our DRIVES model, we unravel the mysteries of motivational visions. Have you ever wondered if your leadership’s visions are crafted with imagination and wisdom, or just another run-of-the-mill idea? In this short podcast, we challenge every contact centre to unde…
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Send us a Text Message. Business Decision-Making Tips – How do you make a decision? What are the different ways decisions are made? What are the problems that companies face with this process? Are they always rational? "A good decision is made with knowledge, not numbers" – who said that? Listen and find out! Are your decisions aligned to your valu…
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Reward INTEGRITY: How Does Integrity Strengthen Your Offering?
9:00
9:00
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Send us a Text Message. How does integrity work in your contact centre? How does it help us to collaborate? If it is at the heart of what you do, then consistency is easy. If it isn’t, then collaboration becomes almost impossible. A lack of integrity totally undermines any reputation you are trying to build. It could be individuals, teams, or manag…
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1
Interview with Tim Christie (Jeremy's Uncle)
40:51
40:51
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Send us a Text Message. Jeremy interviews his uncle as he hits 80 with no plans for retirement. “Marketing moves consumers to the product and merchandising moves your product to the consumers.” Tim began his career in advertising in the 1960s and went on to own and run a motor vehicle parts and accessories business. There is lots to learn from as T…
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Understand ROLES: How Does Status Damage Your Contact Centre?
9:55
9:55
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Send us a Text Message. In the second of our 6-part DRIVES series, Bob & Jeremy explain the vital function of Roles and its impact on team dynamics within contact centres. Are you using your power and authority as a manager in the right way to foster collaboration within your team? Do you ensure your team understand their roles and play to their st…
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Send us a Text Message. Following hot on the heels of our popular dos & don’ts for conferences episode, we explore Exhibitions. Exhibitions are your chance to show off. Whether you’re showcasing a product, a skill, or a service, these events provide an excellent opportunity to collect leads, make sales, build relationships, and much more. But when …
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1
Unlocking Success: Discover the DRIVES That Cultivate Collaboration & Self-Worth for Business Growth
31:24
31:24
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Send us a Text Message. In this episode, we explore the importance of collaboration and look at the key dynamic principles that mean we are more likely to collaborate with our colleagues effectively. These 5 principles will help each individual increase their feeling of ‘self-worth’. Bob and Jeremy consider: the importance of being empowered to mak…
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1
Enable DISCRETION: Speed Up Your Service by Empowering Your Advisors to Decide
9:53
9:53
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9:53
Send us a Text Message. In the first of our 6-part DRIVES series, Bob and Jeremy explain the key drivers that increase staff engagement and collaboration, and improves your contact centre. How empowered are your people? How can they decide on what’s best for customers? This first episode amusingly shows you how a lack of discretion can really affec…
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IVR (Interactive Voice Response): The Switch From Bot to Adviser and The Hurdles to Overcome
9:19
9:19
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Send us a Text Message. The frustrations customers face when interacting with automated systems can leave them with an incredibly negative customer journey experience. The challenges you, the advisor, then encounter to provide a seamless transition and make it so much better, is a tough ask after these dreadful responses. The handover from bot to h…
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Stop Winging It! Why Rehearsal Is Your New Habit.
28:10
28:10
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Send us a Text Message. As conference speakers and presenters, we always rehearse. Whereas lots of people don’t. If they did then any audience would receive something far more impactful. What are the four stages of rehearsal? Understanding, Exploration, and the other two? Listen and find out! The more you rehearse the better the quality. Some peopl…
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Send us a Text Message. Hybrid working may be here to stay, but working from home permanently is increasing. As the pandemic hit there were organisations that issued homeworkers with all the right kit and others that bought cheap and bought twice. We explore how home-based working changes management and makes the home worker far more self-dependent…
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Send us a Text Message. Get facts and trivia about tea that you knew you never wanted to know! In this episode, we champion the tea break at work. Tea breaks produce so many benefits to your health and well-being and your ability to do your job better. We discuss the top five reasons why you should have a tea break at work, and we share 10 ways to …
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Send us a Text Message. Do you huddle every morning? What is the purpose? Are they motivational? Do you prepare for them? Do you pledge? In this short podcast Bob and Jeremy give you a series of Do’s and Don'ts about running worthwhile and effective huddles with your teams. If you’re a team leader or an agent, you will learn how to have better hudd…
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Send us a Text Message. Conference Organisers! Are you preparing to welcome an audience and a group of speakers? If you are, then this podcast will give you all the Do’s and Don’ts that will make sure you have an interactive, fully engaged, well received and well reported conference. Who are your speakers? What do you do about awards? Do you run pa…
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Send us a Text Message. How can you improve your outbound calls? Most outbound calls are unexpected, so are they cold calls, or something else? What are the best openings to use? In this podcast, we give you key tips for opening B2C or B2B calls and explain how to maximise the outbound channel. Please listen, review and share! Find more useful and …
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Send us a Text Message. Why do people go on strike? In the this podcast, Bob and Jeremy comment on the recent wave of strikes taking place across the UK, look at the history of strikes, and how effective or not they can be, and consider what it would be like if other groups went on strike and how it would affect us. Using research and remembering t…
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