How to Plan A Successful Lunch and Learn Program

Lunch and Learn Program

A lunch and learn is a fun and beneficial combination of a learning and social event. It helps businesses to maximize professional development, build skills and engage in a little laidback team building too. They are short, training-focused programs that can take place during your attendees’ lunch break, enabling them to enjoy a meal and pick up new information and skills before returning to their desks to continue their work. How should a business go about planning and hosting a lunch and learn? Here are five steps to get your first lunch and learn underway.

Create Surveys to Decide on the Topic

The first step is to decide on a good topic. First, find out what your employees feel they need to learn more about. Ask for feedback – even better, send out a survey asking the team what kinds of topics they would like to learn about. Decide what you want to achieve as a team. You can focus on team development or business goals or even life skills. Good food will always act as an incentive and the point is for the team to acquire real skills and knowledge that will benefit them in doing their work. 

Keep the Discussion Open

Both prior to and during the lunch and learn, be sure to foster an atmosphere of open discussion and collaboration. Fostering this kind of open atmosphere will help staff members to engage with the subject matter and ensure that the learning material sinks in and makes a positive difference in work performance.

Find A Good Presenter

Aside from good food, a lunch and learn should also feature an engaging, knowledgeable speaker who can get the information across in an entertaining way. Remember that people are giving up their lunch break to attend the session, so make it worthwhile. A dynamic and engaging speaker, together with a good spread, will help ensure that staff members see the session as time well spent and thus make the best of what they learn. 

Food Is A Priority Too

Speaking of food, be sure to cater well and offer your staff something enticing. Along with the survey on the subject matter, ask everyone about their dietary preferences and then splash out a little on a great spread that will make team members glad they passed on that sandwich they could have brought from home or the takeout they would normally buy.

Choose An Appropriate Frequency

How often should you host a lunch and learn? That depends on you and your goals. It could be something you need to do on a quarterly basis, once a month or once a week. It depends on what needs to be taught, how much information there is to cover, your budget, and your business objectives. Choose the frequency that is most appropriate to your training strategy. 

Corporate Class Inc. is a global authority in leadership coaching and empowerment. We strive to develop exceptional leaders and assist organizations in developing effective leadership approaches. Based in Toronto, and with a worldwide presence, we have helped to nurture mindful leaders since 1984. Contact us to find out how we can help you host an enjoyable and edifying lunch and learn.

Social Selling: A Must for Every Salesperson

Social Selling

If you think that social selling is just a buzzword, you need to think again. We all know how big social media is and what a central place it holds in so many people’s daily lives. Thanks to this unparalleled reach, social media provides a platform on which a business could increase its leads and ROI exponentially. Why is social selling so effective – and why should sales teams invest more time in mastering it, taking full advantage of it? Here are four reasons we think are pretty compelling.

You Can Easily Pinpoint Your Target Audience

Obviously, any effective marketing campaign requires you to identify your target audience as accurately as possible and then target that audience directly. However, this is not always so easy. Social selling makes it a considerably more achievable task. It offers you the opportunity to get to know your prospects on a more personal level and then identify their needs, challenges, and issues. You can engage with all of your audience members on a regular basis, getting feedback and useful information about their preferences and the trends prevailing among them. It is difficult, if not impossible, to do all this with traditional marketing.

Real Relationships Are Formed

Social selling enables you to connect with new and existing customers on social media, where they’re already engaged in ongoing conversations. Social listening tools give you the power to go a step further and identify who are already talking about and to your business and your industry. You can reach out to an audience that is already interested in what you are selling, offering useful, authentic information, and building trust and loyalty.

Take Advantage of Warm Introductions

Social media networking provides the opportunity for warm introductions. A warm introduction is when a mutual connection introduces you to a sale prospect, providing recommendations and testimonials, linking you directly to a potential new customer, and priming them to buy your services and products. You can gain a new client’s trust by association.

Everyone Cares About Social Media, You Should Too

Even if you are not terribly interested in social media, you can rest assured that a large portion of your audience, and many of your competitors, most certainly are. Your customers and prospects are, most likely, already buying on social media. Other brands are active on social media, picking up leads that you could be gathering for yourself. You really cannot afford to ignore social selling if you want to remain competitive.

Corporate Class Inc. is a global authority in leadership coaching and empowerment. We strive to develop exceptional leaders and assist organizations in developing effective leadership approaches. Based in Toronto, and with a worldwide presence, we have helped to nurture mindful leaders since 1984. Contact us to find out how our training and consultation can help you master social selling.