This is a "must do" masterclasss

A day spent under the wise tuition of Derek Arden and Graham Jones at their Masterclass, is a must-do for every aspiring- or established- business person. The workshop provides attendees with facts, methods and wisdom tailored to each individual. Their presentation and life skills perfectly complement each other as Derek’s intensity as a negotiator and Graham’s laid-back academic background contrast yet meet somewhere in the middle. A common trait, however, is passion. It is evident throughout the day that their enthusiasm for giving you results is absolutely key, as it is made your day. The ability to interact in open discussions was encouraged and all the questions were answered, enabling us to gain a better understanding of the topics covered.

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Guiding us through 17 topics, covering business psychology to negotiation skills, Derek and Graham imparted a range of knowledge on us – information that is transferable across a spectrum of scenarios. The topics that stood out for us personally were:

• How to brand yourself
• Negotiating
• Psychology in selling and CLICK system

Branding and selling yourself is extremely important because the first impression that you make with someone lasts and you only have 30 seconds to make this impression. This can be crucial in a range of aspects in life from securing a job, securing a deal and in day to day life meeting new people. This topic opened my eyes, making me think: what can I do to make sure that I stand out from everyone else? Derek’s example of giving his personal phone number to select clients was clever and like this, I will now push the boat out and make sure to go the extra mile in order to achieve my goals.

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Derek’s Negotiation presentation was extremely valuable, teaching that everything is negotiable and everyone is a negotiator and can be transferred even to the simplest everyday situations. He described techniques that enable us, as individuals to directly influence the outcome of negotiations with subtle yet meaningful tweaks to our behaviours. If there was one thing to take away from the session it would be that communication is the absolute key to negotiation. Questions need to be precise in order to extract the best answers; you need to read body language and use techniques such as mirroring in order to appeal to the person you’re negotiating with and- most importantly- you need to be a good listener. The key nugget of information to take away, however, is that the best outcome for any negotiation is a win-win situation. This represents the best outcome for both parties and the business relationship and is the key to unlocking negotiation success.

Graham’s insights have a different, thought-provoking view of how important psychology is in business situations. Really appealing for me was the psychology used in selling. From pricing strategies, such as decoy pricing, and discounts to the number of options (three) you should offer to people so they can decide what to purchase.

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He also spoke about the importance of the internet to businesses and how they should learn to utilize it, in order to be really successful. As the customer needs only 3 seconds on a certain website to decide is the thing he is looking for, it is crucial for the business to make its website look attractive. By developing the CLICK system, he summarized the psychological factors that will lead to website success – C- convenient, L- likeable, I- informative, C- customized and K- knowledgeable. Applying this system, businesses will establish better connection with their customers online, helping them to achieve better sales records and improve their profits.

As a student, I found this Masterclass extremely helpful and I will make sure I improve my skills and apply the techniques I have been taught on it during my university career when I go on placement and after I graduate.