How Much Does Leadership Training Cost? (+ Pricing Models)
Leadership training in the Philippines costs anywhere between Php10,000 to Php1,500,000, depending on various factors. Companies can choose from introductory programs to advanced multi-day or modular courses, with costs tailored to their specific requirements.
Factors That Affect the Cost of Leadership Training
The answer, “it depends,” to the question, how much does leadership training cost? may surprise you, but it is the reality when you hire a corporate training provider to conduct leadership training programs or when you want to do it in-house with your L&D practitioners.
Professional Expertise
The expertise and reputation of the trainer significantly affect pricing. A trainer with in-depth experience or popularity in their field will command higher rates. Corporate training providers like Success Options Inc., Inspire Leadership, all founded by Francis Kong, and LJMB (Learning Just Made Better) by Louie Banta are known for offering high-quality programs, which may come at a premium price.
In this regard, you should do some research and ask for proposals and quotations to determine the cost of each leadership training program.
Duration of Training
Another factor impacting the cost of leadership training is its duration. How long or short it is depends entirely on the training needs of your leaders and managers.
For instance, leadership training can change from a two-day session to a series of modules covering 10 key areas such as:
- Leadership Communication
- Coaching and Mentoring
- Decision-Making and Problem-Solving
- The POLC Framework (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling)
The longer the duration, the more costly the training, as it covers each leadership area in detail. This is much better for facilitating a great learning experience for your participants.
Beware of training providers who’d like to conduct one-hour leadership training. Leadership training usually lasts half a day to weeks.
Number of Participants
The standard participant size for training is 25 to 30 individuals. Larger groups might be split into batches, increasing overall costs. For instance, a company needing to train 100 employees might run four sessions, each with a unique price. So paying P70,000 for 1 batch of 25 pax for your 100 employees will cost you P280,000.
Mode of Training
Given that today's workforce consists of hybrid teams, leadership trainers adapt to this changing learning need. There are usually two types of training modes today: on-site training and virtual training (another is a combination of two—hybrid training).
On-Site Training: In-person training costs more due to venue fees, travel expenses, and logistical requirements. And if it’s outside the metro, like the venue to be held is somewhere in Subic or Boracay, the leadership training costs adjust to that.
Virtual Training: This is typically less expensive but may limit hands-on engagement. Hybrid options can also be explored to balance cost and effectiveness. In our leadership training, we experienced all three training modes, which highly depend on what the clients want and how the participants could better adapt to the program.
Company Budget and Resources
Another significant factor in leadership training cost, of course, is the company budget and resources. If you’re part of the HR team of a startup company, it may not have a big budget compared to multinationals (assuming the startup company isn’t funded by any investor—in this case, it is a bootstrapped company).
That’s not to say startups don’t invest in leadership training. In fact, we’ve seen many startups today encouraging their leaders to be trained with us—it’s a matter of the decision of the top management.
Leadership Training Pricing Models
There’s no one-size-fits-all price point for leadership training programs. Differences in training needs, target participants, and training goals produce a sizable number of pricing scenarios.
To give you a hint, leadership training programs can fall either any of these (or a combination) of these pricing models:
Course Model
You’ll see a course model option for multi-national companies' leadership development programs. Leadership training comprises three or ten modules, or even more, each focused on a specific area, such as emotional intelligence, leadership conversations, or management essentials.
The course model usually works for companies with different management levels (top management, middle management, and lower management). Given that each management level requires a different leadership training curriculum, a particular corporate trainer would create customized and personalized training modules for each of these levels.
Hourly Model
Trainers who charge on an hourly basis usually want to work on short-term projects with clients. These projects could last an hour or up to one whole day, and they would include coaching sessions for each participant for an immersive learning experience.
This is very rare for corporate trainers, given that they usually charge for a day's training, which goes to the last pricing model.
Daily Model
Training costs are calculated per day. Depending on the factors mentioned earlier, a two-day leadership session may cost Php100,000 to Php500,000. At Rainmakers, for example, we conduct 1 day to 2 days for our Modern-Day Leadership Training. This ensures we covered all essential topics and that activities and workshops were adequately included in the training.
How to Get Buy-In for Leadership Training Programs
If you’re an L&D or HR professional, convincing top management to invest in leadership training is crucial. It could be a make-or-break scenario, as this is where the leadership training program will depend. If you can persuade them to invest (if they’re still not into it), hiring a corporate training provider to conduct leadership training programs is much easier.
Here’s how to get more buy-in support for your leadership training:
Influence Key Stakeholders
Present a strong case for leadership development. Don’t just mention you’ll conduct one at a particular quarter or month.
Highlight its benefits for improving productivity, employee engagement, and business outcomes. Today, we’ve seen several case studies in which L&D practitioners can now justify training spent as long as it helps the company achieve its goals and objectives.
Your ability to influence your higher-ups is also a good indication of how much you truly want leadership training in your organization.
Emphasize ROI
The language of business is numbers. Emphasizing the potential return the organization can make once training has been implemented could strengthen your case when you present it to top management.
Of course, realistically speaking, you can’t quantify learning, but at least in the grand scheme of things, you can help improve the KSA of your leaders, knowledge, skills, and attitudes—which can all correspond to certain quantifiable outputs for your organization.
One way to support you with this is to use case studies or data from companies within your level and industry. This would help management better understand the investment and impact of leadership training programs.
Start Small
Begin with a two-day training for a select group of leaders. If you have over a hundred managers and supervisors, start with a few to help the management see its impact weeks and months after the training.
This pilot program for a few leaders can help demonstrate the value of leadership training to decision-makers. And the more you see results (assuming you get the best corporate trainer in the Philippines), the more opportunities you’ll have to conduct the same training for your other leaders.
Partner with Experts
Work with trusted providers like Rainmakers, who bring experience and expertise. It may sound self-promotion, but a well-known provider increases credibility and ensures high-quality training.
The typical process for conducting leadership training programs starts by proposing three or more service providers. Management will decide which one best fits the company based on context, industry experience, facilitators’ level of expertise, and other related factors.
Plan and Budget Strategically
Allocate a portion of the annual budget for leadership training during strategic planning sessions. If you’re not part of the top management, you have to influence them to set aside a budget for corporate training.
It is easier said than done, but the only way to fully implement training for your leaders is to have it approved by the top.
Realistically, it is not easy to get a seat on the board and relay your case as to how training can impact the company's bottom-line goals. Most organizations are still reluctant to do this and would rather invest in technology and other business functions except human capital.
In this case, your abilities and skills to influence them are much more required.
Sample Cost Breakdown
| Training Type | Cost (Php) | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Basic 2-Day Training | 50,000 – 200,000 | Includes core leadership skills |
| Advanced 5-Day Program | 300,000 – 800,000 | Covers leadership strategies and coaching |
| Modular Program (10 Modules) | 500,000 – 1,500,000 | Comprehensive leadership development |
| Virtual Training | 10,000 – 50,000 | Per session, fewer logistics required |
Develop Future-Ready Leaders
Leadership training is an investment in building future-ready leaders.
Organizations can maximize the benefits of these programs by understanding the factors affecting costs and aligning them with company goals.
Whether opting for a basic session or a multi-module program, choosing the right provider ensures a meaningful impact on employee performance and organizational growth.
With the tips mentioned above on how to get more buy-in and support from top management, you’re likely to start having the confidence, trust, and courage to execute leadership training for your company this year.
What Kind Of Training Would You Provide To New Sales Managers?
If one set of employees has been overlooked for corporate training, it’s the team of sales managers.
One of the main reasons is that VPs and Senior Executives think these sales managers already have the competencies they need to succeed. Truthfully, like any employee, they need to ramp up their skills over time.
In this guide, I’ll share what kind of training you would provide new sales managers and share some of my personal insights as a corporate trainer and resource speaker.
Transitioning into a sales management role requires an arsenal of skills, from leading a team to managing processes and inspiring your sales agents to continuously invest in themselves so they can produce the company's desired output.
You may be confused about which one to start with, but below is a solid list of sales training programs you should start using to train your sales managers.
What Kind Of Training Would You Provide To New Sales Managers?
1. Consultative Selling
Gone are the days when you sold products one-time off, like a transactional type of selling when you went to groceries, malls, or brick-and-mortar shops.
New sales managers should understand that selling is more than just closing deals; it is purely solving customers’ problems. The better you solve, the higher the chances of achieving their sales goals.
I have an entire guide on consultative selling and B2B sales - so be sure to check it out.
Essentially, consultative selling involves understanding and assessing clients’ needs so that you can solve their problems with customized solutions from your offer.
It’s that simple. If sales managers can start selling the right way by wearing a consultant hat, they’ll be better able to attract qualified clients—people who need help and truly want to solve their problems.
Here’s a good idea to start training your team. Practice role-playing scenarios where managers must assess clients’ needs and recommend solutions. You can do so with a facilitator or an outsourced corporate training provider. Let Rainamakers help you if you want to be done right.
2. Negotiation Skills
Another training need for sales managers is negotiation skills.
In our experience as corporate trainers, we’ve seen this lacking with sales managers despite their years of experience in the industry. They’ve been doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting results, but they don’t see much to be satisfied with the outcome.
Train your sales managers to identify common ground and find win-win solutions for both parties (the client and you/your company as the solution provider).
They must know how to answer or handle objections and address clients’ concerns without compromising value. By using these sales techniques, your sales managers will be more equipped to close deals themselves instead of delegating these tasks without prior knowledge to their sales agents.
Remember: they can only share what they already have with their team. If they don’t have the skills they need, they can’t share them with others.
One exercise activity you can have with sales managers is stimulating high-stakes negotiations, during which they can work on their negotiation skills and evaluate strategies for reaching agreements.
You need an external perspective who knows how negotiations work. If you need negotiation skills training, contact our team, and we will provide it.
3. Effective Communication
Sales require the ability to communicate the results that you want your clients to get. This includes not only demonstrating features and benefits—which most salespeople focus on—but also strongly communicating your brand with finesse.
Effective communication training is essential for sales managers to ensure the team understands goals, targets, and strategies. This way, they can align their team toward having the same vision, mission, and action plans, better addressing issues and challenges, and ultimately getting to where they want to be at the end of the year.
Effective communication also helps them train themselves to provide construction feedback to their sales agents. One word makes a difference. If they miss out on providing guidance, they won’t see any improvement in sales results. That’s why having a strong communication skill set for sales managers can bring their team to the next level.
A good practice for this is conducting team meetings where managers can practice presenting objectives and delivering feedback. It is best to create an environment where it is good to learn, unlearn, and relearn new things—set some rules before doing the exercise.
If you need help, contact Rainmakers for effective communication training for your sales managers.
4. Virtual Engagement
In a hybrid world, virtual engagement is indispensable. Many salespeople now have systems for virtual engagement, as they can reach more sales prospects while having less stress to physically meet them (given the hassle of traffic we have here in the Philippines).
Managers must learn how to lead virtual meetings and use tools like Zoom, MS Teams, or Slack for effective remote communication. Thanks to 2020 happenings, Filipinos were pushed to learn technologies in the comfort of their homes to better market and sell their products or services.
Another upside of learning to engage in virtual activities is the ability to build rapport virtually through personalized approaches. Learning how to look at the camera every time you speak and using non-verbal languages to better communicate your message is a plus skill any salesperson, including sales managers, should practice and master.
One good workshop idea for this training area is hosting a mock virtual meeting where sales managers refine their online communication techniques. It is best to use the product or service you’re offering itself as an example.
5. Lead Generation (Prospecting)
New sales managers should know how to identify and nurture potential clients. If they just hand this critical component of selling to their sales agents, they won’t have a chance to improve processes for their sales teams.
Key skills in lead generation must include building a prospecting pipeline, which means learning how to use CRM systems to organize leads (there are many web tools - one, in particular, is Hubspot).
Another skill is lead qualification, which is learning to identify high-potential prospects among leads you collect or gather. From there, you should train your managers with follow-up strategies to maintain consistent communication without overwhelming prospects.
These can help your sales managers develop the mastery needed to attract a large number of prospects to their sales pipeline.
Real-World Task: Assign managers to create a lead generation plan targeting specific demographics or industries. In our sales training, we have an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) worksheet activity asking our participants to create their ICP based on their preferred product or product category.
6. Sales Management and Leadership
Of course, given that we’re talking about sales managers, they should excel at sales management and leadership. They should have the mindset of both a leader and manager and transition from individual contributors to ones worthy of influencing others.
Sales management includes inspiring the team through appreciation, recognition, and goal setting. It also includes performance monitoring and training salespeople to identify KPIs to measure individual and team success.
Another key area is conflict resolution, which equips them to mediate disputes within the team (as they arise).
One perfect activity for sales management and leadership is role-play scenarios in which managers address underperformance or team conflicts. Although this activity may be too serious to conduct, it would really help them deal with it in actual work.
7. Personality Development Using the DISC Framework
Knowing your personality type helps you understand and accept your strengths and weaknesses. You can adapt to different situations by gaining strengths from other personality types and using them to your own advantage.
You can use the DISC framework to help your sales managers recognize the personality types of their team members and clients. This will also enhance their selling ability, as they will know how to adjust communication and sales strategies based on personality traits.
Hire a certified DISC facilitator to conduct DISC assessment training with your team and provide personalized coaching for better practical application.
Sales Managers Can Always Go To The Next Level
Beyond position, sales managers can invest time and resources to improve their skills and lead their sales associates in achieving results. With specific areas of sales training for managers listed above, they’ll be better equipped to overcome challenges in selling and create sustainable growth for their teams.
5 Levels of Leadership: John Maxwell's Framework
John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership outlines a clear pathway for leadership development.
I highly recommend this book as a leadership trainer, speaker, and business consultant.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the five levels that define the growth and impact of every leader and organization. I'll also share my personal insights into how you can leverage them in Filipino leadership.
Level 1: Position
Leadership begins with a title or role. At this stage, people follow because they have to, not because they are inspired.
From the name itself, leadership relies on their authority to direct and guide others. So people follow them because of their position —that of a supervisor, manager, or director. It creates structure but the most basic level of influence.
Pro Tip: If you assess yourself in this position, you’ll have solid benchmark where to start. Determine ways to improve as a leader and better influence others.
Increase self-awareness and emotional intelligence. To be a great leader, you must understand that people follow you more than just the surface level—your job role. As soon as you understand it, you’ll grow into the next milestone of your leadership.
Level 2: Permission
Leadership progresses when connections form. The keyword here is relationships.
People follow because they want to. Trust and connection are key, as leaders earn influence by genuinely valuing others and fostering a positive team environment.
When your team members permit you to enter their professional lives, allowing you to serve as their mentor, coach, or advisor, it becomes easier to work with them and adjust to their working styles.
Have you noticed any bosses or managers who are always being left behind by their team, as if the team doesn’t want their boss around all the time? That speaks truthfully for leadership who are not in the second level—permission.
Permission allows you to get closer to your team. Given that high-performing teams require both results and relationships, it’s critically important to build professional connections with your team so you can get to know them better.
Pro Tip: Invest time in knowing your people. Learn the five languages of appreciation (framework by Gary Chapman) to identify what makes your people tick. From there, you can think of ways to connect with your people by valuing their work and them as human beings.
Level 3: Production
Results define this level.
People follow because the leader achieves tangible outcomes.
At this stage, leaders focus on team performance, driving productivity, and leading by example to inspire commitment and results.
Given that you’re a solid contributor to the team, organization, and even to your upper leaders, people see that you’re setting an example for them to work hard and smart to get the results.
At this leadership level, you help people produce the same or higher output so that the organization will be rewarded for your efforts.
Pro Tip: Learn how to transfer skills to your people through coaching and mentoring programs. Strategize how you can teach your team (not based on how you understand it), but more on how your team can learn from the knowledge and skills you’d like to transfer to them.
If you can identify gaps through training needs analysis, you’ll have a better understanding of the learning path and be able to execute coaching well enough, given that it comprises 70% of the 70-20-10 model in learning and development.
People learn much more in their jobs than they can acquire from formal training programs.
Level 4: People Development
Actual growth happens here. People follow because the leader invests in them.
This involves mentoring, coaching, and empowering others to become leaders themselves. At this level, leaders build a legacy by multiplying their impact.
People development is what leaders should aim for. More than the results you and your team produce, you’re much more concerned about how you can develop your team members.
In today’s work environment, the new workforce - Generation Z, is leaning towards personal and professional development. As they see themselves growing in the organization, it becomes a good reason for them to stay longer.
Pro Tip: Include people development in informal (casual) and formal interactions with your subordinates. As the team learns more about their daily work, you can advise, give feedback, or transfer knowledge.
As a consultant and corporate trainer, I challenge my participants to reach this level, as this is where true success starts. When they continuously develop themselves, the team will be more ready to adapt to the ever-changing needs of the market.
Level 5: Pinnacle
The highest level of leadership is earned through sustained excellence and integrity.
The reality is that it takes a long time for people to respect you as a leader. People follow you because of your values.
By seeing you as a great example of character and success, they would want to rally with you to achieve your professional goals and the goals of the organization. They’re no longer working just for the sake of earning money but for the true mission you carry as a leader.
Achieving the pinnacle is rare for corporate organizations, as most top leaders consider results to be their ultimate career goal.
However, genuinely successful leaders want to leave a legacy by developing their people and seeing them become better leaders in the future. Through servant leadership and other leadership types, they continuously invest in them, even sacrificing for them. They make the best efforts to see others grow through their example.
Pro Tip: Live by values and live a life of character and integrity. Pursue character development over anything else. Be true to yourself, as authenticity matters to being a pinnacle leader.
How to Move From One Leadership Level To The Next?
This framework provides clarity for leaders at any stage. Knowing how to level up from your current level helps you achieve your professional and personal goals.
1. Recognize your current leadership level.
Be self-aware. Check your current leadership level and be honest with yourself so you can create leadership objectives as soon as possible.
Without self-awareness and honesty, you won’t deal with the challenges accompanying your current leadership level.
If you’re at level 1 - position, start connecting with your people. If you’re at 2, be a person of results, not just as an individual contributor but as a holistic contributor to your team and organization. If you’re at level 3, learn to develop others through coaching and mentoring. If you’re at level 4, stick to your values and walk through it.
2. Take actionable steps to grow.
Develop yourself. Read books, attend seminars, and participate in in-house training programs that include soft skills training such as problem solving and decision-making, critical thinking, leadership communication, and management.
Do not rely solely on your organization's training. Learn to invest your hard-earned money to further improve your knowledge and skills.
As you grow, you’ll see yourself moving from one leadership level to the next.
3. Become a person of influence.
A person of influence doesn’t need to manipulate others through words or actions. Because of their character and personality, they can move others to take action.
Learn body language and how it affects when connecting to others. As you improve your body language, you’ll see yourself effortlessly persuading others to do your favor.
4. Produce results and inspire others.
Make work efficient and effective. Produce the desired output to improve most of your work. By doing so, you’ll be seen as an asset by your company and someone worthy of investing in.
Inspire others to do the same so your team members can achieve what you have achieved (and even more). Leaders cannot motivate others. They can only inspire others to be self-motivated.
Professionals have self-motivation; you just need to tap it to give them the push they need to create fantastic work.
5. Develop future leaders and create lasting impact.
Your goal is not to do all the work all the time. Your role as a leader is to delegate tasks and decisions so others feel empowered to do their own work.
Through autonomy and trust, you can produce leaders from being just followers. From here, you can create lasting impact-producing leaders who can also grow others.
Why Leadership Training Fails And What To Do About It
One of our Rainmakers training clients approached us recently and told me that they’ve invested a lot of money in previous training but have never seen its effectiveness on their employees.
It’s a sad reality I’ve seen in many companies. Yet, many continue doing leadership training, whether in-house or outsourced, without evaluating if the exact training impacts results.
In this post, we’ll examine why leadership training fails and what to do about it (and what you should avoid) so you can maximize the training investment.
Common Reasons Leadership Training Fails
1. Lack of Clear Objectives
Many training programs, including topics on leadership and management, start without clear objectives. As common sense as it sounds, HR teams hire outsourced training providers without first understanding their employees' needs.
They would consider hiring a leadership trainer, but the reality is that the root cause analysis of their needs went beyond just leadership—examples would be a lack of performance management systems or conflicts rampant among team members that can’t be easily solved by just doing leadership training.
Without specific goals, leadership training lacks focus. Therefore, it is difficult to measure success.
2. Generic Training Content
Leadership programs often use one-size-fits-all content. This is rampant in many public seminars, given the variety of participants.
However, as soon as they conduct in-house programs for their companies, few companies customize their leadership training to address the language, context, behavior, and existing challenges of their participants, making the training irrelevant and ineffective.
3. Lack of Support or Buy-in from the Management Team
Training programs sometimes need more buy-in from senior leaders or top management. Without visible support, participants may not take the training seriously. As we know, leaders must model the behaviors of learning, unlearning, and relearning in today’s agile environment.
You can have the best corporate trainer or facilitator. Still, without full support from top management to invest in leadership training, it wouldn’t even start taking action on any available plans.
4. No Follow-Up After Training
Leadership training often ends without follow-up or reinforcement. If it’s not designed specifically to elevate participants' skills and knowledge, it becomes a one-time event.
At most, 10 to 30% can only be retained in someone’s mind. You wouldn't see measurable impact without even applying it and following through.
If you’re not intentional in leadership training, participants will return to their routines, and new skills may be forgotten. Without practice, coaching, and feedback, training benefits fade quickly.
5. Ignoring Organizational Culture
Training programs may clash with the company’s culture. For example, training that emphasizes collaboration might not succeed if the organization values hierarchy.
Participants may feel disconnected from the training content and sometimes view it as an additional activity rather than a means to improve the leadership team.
If this happens, you will see high resistance to learning in training, which could affect the entire learning experience.
6. Poor Trainer Selection
The quality of the trainer can make or break a leadership program.
Trainers who need more expertise or connect with participants can reduce engagement and learning. By understanding their participants' context, trainers offer templated and generic content that people in the room find irrelevant and disconnected from their daily work.
Be selective when hiring a corporate training provider. Find a company with a proven track record of providing effective corporate training programs that drive business impact to organizations.
7. Focusing Solely on Theoretical Knowledge
Some training programs emphasize theory without providing practical application. Participants need help to connect concepts to real-world scenarios, limiting their ability to apply what they learn.
This is where training design comes in. The trainer or outsourced facilitator must know how to design training to include activities and workshops that can attend to different learning styles of participants. Given that not all learners are purely listening to every content, some would need to have kinesthetic or visual activities to grasp the lessons better.
8. Overloading Participants with Information
Cramming too much content into a short timeframe can overwhelm participants, making it difficult for them to retain information and implement it effectively.
You can’t expect your participants to retain all that information, so better yet, be observant and structure the training to be more learner-centric, allowing participants to digest the content.
You need to properly design the training and possibly recommend an extended duration, such as a two-day program for leadership training, for instance, to allow more facilitating of group discussions and case studies.
9. Failure to Measure Results
Many companies need to assess the impact of their leadership training. Without data, it’s impossible to determine whether the training achieved its goals.
A training evaluation method must be used for every leadership training. This ensures that each participant will get critical takeaways and practical lessons from the training, measuring the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to acquire from the program.
How to Make Leadership Training Effective and Successful
This should be the next question after knowing why leadership training fails. After all, if some programs don’t exceed certain expectations, it’s better to avoid them at all costs and ensure you’re getting the most value out of each leadership training program.
Here’s how to make leadership training effective and successful.
1. Identify Specific Training Needs
Conduct a thorough assessment to identify gaps in leadership skills.
Set clear and measurable objectives before starting any training program (or training implementation).
It should all start with a training needs analysis. Training needs analysis identifies the performance gaps of each individual, team, or department to ensure employees possess the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude after the training has been conducted.
Are they lacking in certain skills like leadership communication, strategic thinking, culture building, influencing, or creating a high-performance team?
Be more specific in your training goals. Instead of simply saying, “I want to improve the customer service skills of my participants”. You could do more research and create a training objective of, “I want to increase our CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) by 20% (from 69% to 89%).”
Using this approach, you can now measure the training effectiveness weeks or months after it has been given to your employees.
2. Customize, Personalize, and Individualize
The best thing about conducting in-house training programs is the luxury of the trainer's customization, personalization, and individualization of the training design and delivery based on the context of the organization and individual participants.
Customizing content means addressing your organization's specific needs. This must include knowing the company’s mission, values, and core values so as to align your training delivery—the words and language you use—with their existing context.
With customization, you include case studies, examples, and scenarios that reflect real challenges participants face, not any problem the industry faces. This makes the training relatable and actionable.
This is essential for leadership training as you’re talking to specific groups that will dictate the culture of their teams and organization. So, understanding where they’re coming from will help you and the participants connect to the message and make the training worthwhile for learning.
3. Involve Participants in Design
Engage participants in designing the training. Conduct a focus group discussion with selected participants so you can ask questions related to their current challenges as a leader.
Ask as many questions as possible to identify needs, challenges, and expectations. This is one of the best ways to customize your leadership training, as you can deliver it in a way that speaks directly to the learners.
After all, leadership training is not about you. It is about the experience of learners.
4. Utilize the Power of Multimodal Training
Today's new best practice for facilitators, trainers, and speakers is using multimode elements to engage participants. These include using online survey tools (e.g., Mentimeter), interactive workshops, role-playing, group discussions, and case studies to keep participants engaged throughout the training.
It also helps better retain knowledge and concepts. This is why a solid training program that includes breaks is necessary.
Focus on a few critical topics per session. Use spaced learning techniques to break content into manageable parts over time. Allow participants to practice and reflect on what they learn before moving on.
5. Provide Continuous Learning Opportunities
Leadership development is an ongoing process. Establishing a follow-up plan for continuous learning helps build momentum and upskill and reskill to enhance the competencies of your leaders.
To reinforce key concepts, schedule periodic check-ins, workshops, or coaching sessions. You may also offer access to resources like online courses, webinars, and mentorship programs.
6. Integrate Training with Organizational Strategy
Link leadership training to the company’s strategic goals.
Show participants how improving their leadership skills contributes to achieving these goals. You may include this as part of your introduction to the module to instill the compelling reason (“why”) for the leadership training.
This approach better frames the training as a necessary investment rather than just another activity to attend to.
7. Foster a Culture of Learning
If you’re part of the HR and learning and development, encourage a growth mindset within your organization.
Recognize and reward employees who demonstrate improved leadership skills. This reinforces the value of development. Reinforcement is critical for people to accept better and manage change as they embark on a new journey of growth and development.
Be a Lifelong Learner-Leader
Leadership training fails when it lacks focus, relevance, and follow-up. To make training effective, companies must set clear objectives, customize content, and ensure ongoing support.
Leadership development is not a one-time event but a continuous journey. With the right strategies, organizations can create programs that deliver lasting results.
By addressing these common pitfalls and implementing the solutions provided, companies can transform leadership training into a valuable tool for growth and success.
3 Best Sales Training Programs in the Philippines (2025)
Finding the right sales training program can be a game-changer for HR people or learning and development practitioners looking to level up their employees by increasing competencies.
Below are three of the best sales training programs in the Philippines, each designed to equip participants with essential skills and strategies to thrive in the dynamic world of sales.
3 Best Sales Training Programs in the Philippines (2025)
1. High-Impact Selling Training
By: Rainmakers
Best For: Sales professionals seeking advanced strategies for hybrid and virtual engagement.
Headquartered In: Metro Manila, Philippines
Industries: Retail, B2B Sales, E-commerce, and Professional Services
Strengths: Focus on modern sales techniques for hybrid work environments.
Pricing: Customizable based on company needs (Contact for details).
Recognizable Clients: Leading corporations across various industries.
Program Highlights:
This program focuses on equipping participants with cutting-edge sales strategies for both face-to-face and virtual selling. Participants learn the nuances of building a personal brand, managing client relationships, and leveraging tools to create a high-impact sales experience. Delivered by expert trainers from Rainmakers, the course is ideal for professionals looking to excel in a hybrid world.
Learn more about High-Impact Selling Training.
2. Art and Science of Selling
By: Jeff Manhilot, Inspire Leadership Consultancy, Inc.
Best For: Professionals and leaders from diverse fields looking to unlock the universal selling skill.
Headquartered In: Quezon City, Philippines
Industries: Leadership, Consultancy, and Corporate Training
Strengths: Unique integration of leadership principles and selling techniques.
Pricing: Available upon request.
Recognizable Clients: Executives and high-potential leaders from multinational companies.
Program Highlights:
This program, led by Jeff Manhilot, emphasizes the life skill of selling and its application beyond traditional sales roles. Participants discover practical steps to market themselves effectively, confidently navigate conversations, and achieve professional growth.
Jeff’s extensive background in leadership and sales ensures that this program combines theoretical insights and real-world strategies for success.
3. Essential Selling
By: Jerome Tuason
Best For: Aspiring and experienced sales professionals looking to build a strong foundation.
Headquartered In: Makati, Philippines
Industries: FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, and Corporate Sales
Strengths: Comprehensive approach to sales fundamentals and practical applications.
Pricing: Offered as a one-day workshop (Contact for details).
Recognizable Clients: Entrepreneurs, executives, and corporate teams.
Program Highlights:
This eight-hour workshop strengthens participants’ understanding of the 7-stage sales process. The program is facilitated by Jerome Tuason, a seasoned sales expert, and offers actionable techniques in prospecting, communication, and closing deals. It also emphasizes creating lasting customer relationships to ensure sustained success in sales.
Each of these programs is tailored to different needs, ensuring that sales professionals at all levels can find the right fit for their goals.
Whether you’re a beginner looking to build a solid foundation or a leader refining your sales strategies, these programs stand out as top choices in the Philippines.
How to Choose a Sales Training Program?
Choosing the right sales training program is a critical step in maximizing the return on investment for your learning and development needs, or it can be an additional expense that is wasted.
A well-suited sales training program provides tools and strategies that directly impact your performance and results.
Below are detailed guidelines to help you make an informed decision:
1. Assess Your Training Needs
Start by identifying the specific sales skills you want your sales team to improve. Ask yourself questions such as:
- Do I need to strengthen foundational skills like prospecting or lead qualification?
- Am I looking to improve specific techniques, like closing deals or handling objections?
- Do I want to adapt to modern sales environments like hybrid or virtual selling?
- Does each of my salesmen need to improve their presentation of our company’s products or offerings? Can they be more confident after the training?
- What advanced skills do my tenured salespeople need to level up with?
Having a clear understanding of your sales training needs helps you narrow down certain areas for improvement. It can help customize the sales training program, whether you want it to be in-house or outsource it to a training provider.
This would help you later in the training evaluation to assess whether the sales training itself has both individual effect on the participants and business impact to the organization.
2. Check the Trainer’s Expertise
The trainer’s background can significantly influence the quality of the program.
Some of our high-end clients look for trainers who:
- Have hands-on experience in sales across various industries. Insights by seeing common patterns in training different verticals can help educate participants with the best practices they can contextualize in their respective industries.
- Hold certifications or have recognition in sales coaching or training. In 90’s, two popular sales training certifications are Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy. They’re both known for being the top sales trainer for global organizations.
- Demonstrate a proven track record of success in leadership roles or sales strategy development.
For instance, programs led by professionals with extensive experience in B2B, corporate sales, or specific industries offer actionable insights that align with your real-world challenges.
Given they get insights from experiences and expertise of their participants of different organizations, they can share real-world case studies and scenarios your audience can relate to.
3. Evaluate the Sales Training Program
The program’s content and outline should align with your learning objectives. Examine if the content:
- Covers essential topics like negotiation, relationship-building, and objection handling. There may be more to it, depending on the current context, such as how to do virtual presentations, especially for hybrid teams - overall, the essential topics must be covered in the sales training.
- Provides advanced modules for specific sales contexts, such as consultative selling or customer-centric approaches.
- Incorporates modern sales trends, including using CRM tools or virtual engagement strategies.
A comprehensive sales training program ensures you gain foundational and advanced skills contributing to long-term growth. It should balance both theories (i.e. principles) and practical application to create a holistic learning experience for participants..
4. Consider Industry Focus
Some programs specialize in addressing the nuances of particular industries. Whether you are in B2B, FMCG, retail, or healthcare, a program tailored to your industry:
- Reflect on the unique challenges and opportunities in your field.
- Use case studies and examples relevant to your work environment.
- Enhances your ability to apply learned techniques directly to your role.
Choosing an industry-specific program ensures relevance and applicability to your day-to-day tasks.
It’s not that easy to find a corporate training provider who can customize a sales training program to fit to your current context. Today, the best corporate trainers are the ones who can both customize their training programs based on the organizational’s training needs as well as individual learning needs of participants.
The latter is hard to find, as you would normally just observe it during the training delivery and training evaluation.
5. Look for Hands-On Training
Theoretical knowledge is essential, but practice solidifies learning. Opt for programs that include:
- Role-playing exercises to simulate real-world sales scenarios.
- Practical activities like drafting proposals or conducting mock sales presentations.
- Peer-to-peer feedback and coaching from trainers.
Hands-on training allows you to refine your approach, receive constructive feedback, and build confidence in applying new skills.
Any corporate training program, including sales training program must include activities, role-play and workshops to immediately apply principles and tips shared by the sales trainer.
6. Verify Flexibility
Sales professionals often juggle busy schedules, so flexibility is critical. Check if the program offers:
- Modular sessions that allow you to learn at your own pace.
- Options for in-person, online, or hybrid learning formats.
- Customizable programs tailored to your organization’s specific needs.
Flexibility ensures that training fits seamlessly into your professional and personal commitments.
In many organizations, sales people are very busy professionals, so having a 1-day schedule to train them, can be challenging. Find a corporate training agency who can adjust to your schedule, if it’s possible.
7. Read Reviews and Testimonials
Past participants’ feedback provides valuable insight into a program’s effectiveness. When reviewing testimonials, focus on:
- Specific outcomes achieved by previous attendees, such as improved sales performance or client acquisition.
- Experiences shared about the trainer’s teaching style, course content, and overall engagement.
- Ratings on the program’s relevance, applicability, and ROI.
Authentic reviews can help you gauge whether a program delivers on its promises.
At Rainmakers, we have a couple of testimonials from our past and current clients, giving you the preview of how our actual sales training look like, and how it benefits our training participants.
8. Examine Post-Training Support
Practical training doesn’t end when the program concludes. Look for programs that provide:
- Post-training materials, such as guides, templates, or toolkits.
- Access to trainers for follow-up questions or advice.
- Networking opportunities with other participants to share experiences and strategies.
Post-training support enhances retention and helps you implement what you’ve learned effectively.
In 5 levels of training evaluation, two of which, learning reaction and retention can be both applied after every training delivery. We typically provide our training participants an evaluation form they have to fill up, for us to see their main takeaways and how they could apply learnings to their day-to-day work.
9. Compare Costs and ROI
While pricing is an essential factor, focus on the value you will receive. Consider:
- The program’s cost is relative to the skills and certifications it offers.
- Long-term benefits include increased sales, better client retention, and improved confidence.
- Additional perks, like access to exclusive resources or future discounts.
Investing in a high-quality program can yield significant returns in your career and business outcomes.
In fact, budget must be one of the top considerations before searching for potential training providers. As this would also play crucial when picking high-quality sales trainers (as most will charge premium given their extensive experience and expertise).
Set Non-Negotiables and Negotiables When Choosing a Sales Training Program
Choosing the right sales training program requires careful consideration of your goals, the trainer’s expertise, and the curriculum’s relevance.
By following these guidelines, you can select a program that empowers you to succeed in sales, whether through closing more deals, building stronger client relationships, or adapting to new selling environments.
A thoughtful decision ensures your training investment translates into measurable career success.
What Are The Different Types Of Leadership In The Philippines?
Leadership styles are crucial in shaping families, organizations, communities, and corporate teams in the Philippines.
If you’re part of a team or a leader yourself, understanding these styles helps you clearly see how Filipino leaders inspire their people in various settings.
Let’s explore the different types of leadership in the Philippines while providing clear examples and insights into their impact.
1. Authoritative Leadership
Authoritative leadership is characterized by a clear command structure in which leaders set goals and provide direct instructions. This style of leadership is particularly common in the government, military, non-profit organizations, and traditional businesses. As the scope and demand of work are too high, leaders need to use authority to further control the situation.
Leaders under this style maintain control over decisions and expect followers to comply with little input.
The decision-making is centralized from top to bottom, and there’s little need for recommendations and suggestions from the frontline staff.
As for the people they’re leading, you could observe high expectations for discipline. Team members must adhere to the rules and regulations of the team and organization, allowing less time and resources for slack output.
Impact in the Philippines:
Authoritative leadership is effective in environments requiring quick decision-making and strict compliance, such as disaster response teams or manufacturing sectors. However, if overused, it may limit creativity and innovation.
2. Democratic Leadership
Democratic leadership encompasses the majority of leadership know-how, as the Philippines is a democratic country.
Leaders with democratic leadership actively involve their team members in decision-making processes, valuing their input and ideas. It fosters a sense of ownership and accountability among employees or community members.
This approach empowers subordinates to make their own decisions, think of new ways to improve processes and level up themselves to achieve progress and success for the organization.
You’ll find open communication, shared problem-solving and decision-making, and genuine encouragement of feedback (promoting what we call “psychological safety”).
Impact in the Philippines:
This style is evident in Filipino workplaces and organizations with flat hierarchies and inclusive cultures. Start-ups and NGOs often adopt this style to build cohesive teams and generate innovative ideas.
3. Transformational Leadership
Transformational leaders inspire and motivate their teams by focusing on shared goals and vision.
During strategic planning and goal-setting exercises, transformational leadership is reflected in the facilitator, who is involved in facilitating the trainer and the management team involved in the major strategic roles and execution.
Transformational leadership aims to drive positive change through encouragement and personal leadership. This leadership style relies on a leader’s emotional connection with their team. With higher emotional intelligence, leaders can address concerns objectively and with greater sensitivity to their team members' feelings and emotions.
Relationships have become more transformational than mere transactional at work.
Impact in the Philippines:
Transformational leadership is prevalent in educational institutions, religious organizations, and community development programs. For instance, Filipino pastors and community organizers often use this approach to unify and uplift their followers.
4. Servant Leadership
Servant leadership prioritizes the needs of the team or community over the leader’s personal ambitions. It is a selfless act rooted in humility, empathy, and the willingness to serve others.
While it’s not always apparent in many situations, servant leadership is primarily found in the private sector—corporations and small- to medium-sized enterprises.
Servant leaders who are in charge create an atmosphere where no one is higher above themselves than anyone else. Everyone must serve others, whether it is their internal customers (stakeholders) or external customers/clients who bring money and profit to the organization.
Leaders ensure their team’s well-being and empower them to reach their full potential. Through service, leaders can act and lead by example. They don’t simply say what they want; they act on it, modeling the right behavior and attitude visible to their teams.
Impact in the Philippines:
Servant leadership resonates strongly with Filipino cultural values, such as bayanihan (community spirit) and pakikipagkapwa (relationship-building). It is often seen in family-run businesses and grassroots initiatives, where leaders genuinely care about their people’s welfare.
5. Laissez-Faire Leadership
Laissez-faire leadership allows team members to work with minimal interference from their leader. Leaders under this style trust their team’s expertise and give them autonomy in completing tasks. This approach is ideal for highly skilled and self-motivated teams.
In leading the younger workforce today (Gen Z), leaders who practice laissez-faire leadership put themselves at an advantage by releasing freedom and flexibility to their younger subordinates.
It creates an atmosphere of trust and empowerment, where each team member participates in the decision-making process. They also delegate in a way that empowers, not controls, which helps the team move forward in the right direction.
Impact in the Philippines:
In the Philippine context, laissez-faire leadership is less common due to the preference for hands-on guidance. However, it can be effective in creative industries such as advertising, where teams thrive on independence and innovation.
Given the lack of discipline commonly seen in Filipinos, some leaders don’t practice laissez-faire leadership but resort to other leadership styles mentioned in this guide.
6. Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership focuses on structured roles and clear expectations. Leaders motivate their teams using rewards and punishments to ensure compliance with established goals.
This results-oriented style works well in environments where measurable outcomes are prioritized.
With transactional leadership, you’ll expect clear performance expectations, reward and penalty systems, and short-term goal orientation.
Impact in the Philippines:
Transactional leadership is widely practiced in corporate settings, sales teams, and front-line staff. Filipino managers in these environments often set quotas and incentivize employees with performance-based bonuses.
7. Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic leaders rely on their personality and charm to influence others. They inspire loyalty and enthusiasm by connecting with people on an emotional level. This leadership style often thrives in times of change or uncertainty.
This type of leadership is usually visible in politics, where most politicians are celebrities and famous personalities on social media. Relying on charisma as a determining factor of leadership is mostly being considered by many Filipinos.
Charismatic leadership involves strong personal leadership, an emotional connection with followers, and the ability to provide a vision and inspire confidence in the crowd.
Impact in the Philippines:
Charismatic leadership is evident in Filipino politics, where leaders often win support through charm and relatability. It is also prevalent in the entertainment industry, with artists and influencers inspiring large audiences.
8. Situational Leadership
Situational leadership adapts to the needs of the moment. Leaders assess the situation and choose the most effective style to guide their team. This flexibility makes situational leadership highly practical in dynamic environments.
The framework that popularized this, Ken Blanchard, Situational Leadership, covers the four situational leadership styles: delegating, supporting, coaching, and directing.
As the name suggests, leadership style depends on the situation and current context of the mentee or coachee you lead. It requires greater flexibility on the part of the leader to ensure he or she can assess the situation and respond to the daily challenges they encounter as a team.
Impact in the Philippines:
This approach is common among Filipino entrepreneurs and project managers who handle diverse teams or unpredictable challenges. Adapting leadership styles helps them manage varying circumstances effectively.
9. Paternalistic Leadership
Paternalistic leadership mirrors familial relationships. Leaders act as parental figures, offering guidance, protection, and support.
In return, they expect loyalty and respect from their team. This leadership style aligns closely with Filipino cultural values.
Given our family values, you’ll see paternalistic leadership even translated to corporate settings, where subordinates see their bosses as father figures who show care, guidance, and protective leadership.
It also has some disadvantages. At some point, leaders with this leadership approach have the difficulty of coaching their team, giving constructive feedback, and reprimanding for mistakes only as needed. As they care more about the feelings rather than the actual output, this hinders them from achieving the desired goals of the team.
Impact in the Philippines:
Filipino leaders in small businesses or family-owned companies often adopt this style. Employees value the sense of belonging and support it provides, fostering long-term loyalty and dedication.
10. Bureaucratic Leadership
Bureaucratic leadership emphasizes structure, rules, and policies. Leaders focus on ensuring processes are followed to achieve consistency and fairness. This style is often necessary in large organizations and government institutions.
This is almost similar to authoritative and transactional leadership, where the leaders must instill strictness and leadership so the team can focus on their work and create momentum out of consistent wins and individual successes.
Impact in the Philippines:
Bureaucratic leadership is common in Philippine government offices and regulatory bodies. It ensures that decisions are made systematically and resources are managed responsibly.
11. Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership centralizes all power and decision-making in the leader’s hands. Team members have limited input and are expected to follow orders without question.
While it can seem rigid, this style is effective in high-stakes or crisis situations. Leaders must sometimes know how to be autocratic to solve problems and effectively communicate their concerns and challenges so the team can navigate tough times.
Impact in the Philippines:
Autocratic leadership is often seen in traditional workplaces and emergency response settings. For example, Filipino leaders managing natural disaster relief efforts use this style to ensure fast and coordinated action.
12. Empathetic Leadership
Empathetic leadership focuses on understanding and addressing the emotions and needs of the team. Leaders who show genuine care and concern for their people build strong relationships.
We Filipinos are empathetic (also known as “pusong mamon”). We know the basic elements of empathy, such as active listening, emotional intelligence, and genuine focus on the well-being of the people we lead.
This is essential in driving high performance as we strengthen our professional relationships with our colleagues.
Impact in the Philippines:
This style aligns with the Filipino malasakit (compassion) culture. Leaders in healthcare and education often adopt this approach to connect with their teams and build trust.
Different Strokes For Different Folks
The leadership styles in the Philippines reflect the country’s rich cultural values, diverse industries, and unique challenges. While some styles emphasize structure and control, others focus on collaboration, inspiration, or service.
Influential leaders often blend these approaches to suit their teams and circumstances, ensuring they achieve their goals while fostering trust and unity.
Understanding these leadership types provides valuable insights into the dynamics of Filipino workplaces and communities.
Leaders can inspire positive change and achieve meaningful outcomes by choosing the right approach.
If you’re looking for comprehensive leadership and management training, send your training needs using our contact form, and we’ll schedule a TNA session with your team.
B2B Sales: Everything You Need to Know
B2B sales is the process of one business selling products or services to another business.
Most people are familiar with B2C (Business-to-Consumer) sales because they target regular people. However, in most of the sales training we did for companies, we always encountered B2B selling.
One example of B2B selling is my SEO services at SharpRocket, which cater to tech and SEO agencies outsourcing their link building work. The company website hosts this blog, Rainmakers, as we sell corporate training programs to HR people.
Why Salespeople Struggle with B2B Selling?
Selling in the B2B space is often challenging for salespeople. It’s much easier to sell a skincare product to tens of people than a software solution to a healthcare company.
A typical salesperson can quickly develop the skills to sell B2C products, as only basic product knowledge and a specific repertoire of selling skills and selling types are needed to achieve a sales quota.
However, in B2B selling, it is not only knowing the product features but truly understanding different measures of success—i.e., understanding the multiple stakeholders of your target companies.
The sales cycle for B2B takes longer, given that companies need 2 to more approval steps before making a final decision to choose you as their solution provider.
Over the years, I’ve observed that many salespeople who master B2C selling struggle with B2B selling, given that they rely heavily on generic pitches and scripts.
Below are some of the best B2B sales techniques we practice at Rainmakers, Hills & Valleys Franchising, and SharpRocket.
B2B Sales Techniques
Success in B2B sales requires a structured and systematic approach. Here are vital techniques to help you close more deals and build long-term client relationships.
1. Defining Your Target Persona
The first step in effective B2B sales is identifying your target persona. Based on data and insights, a target persona represents the ideal customer, helping salespeople focus their efforts on the right prospects.
By identifying your target persona, you focus resources on selling to specific target consumers who will likely have a more profound need to purchase your solutions.
In my sales training, I teach that there are three categories to defining your target persona, these include:
- Demographics - age, location, income level, gender, marital status, etc.
- Psychographics - interests, attitudes, beliefs, pain points, etc.
- Firmographics - technology adoption, decision makers, company size, revenue level, etc..
In B2B selling, we mainly focus on firmographics to see if the target business is ready to purchase our solutions. For instance, you could sell a desirable high-income ticket to the market. Still, in a later discussion stage, you find out they’re not ready to utilize it due to a lack of technological resources to adapt to the solution.
In addition to the factors mentioned above, here are more questions to ask in firmographics:
- What industries or sectors are you targeting?
- What are the key characteristics of companies that need your product? Consider factors like company size, revenue, and geographical location.
- Who are the primary stakeholders within these companies? Identify their job titles, roles, and responsibilities.
As you discuss it with your team, you become more aware of the right persona to target with your sales strategy.
For example, if you sell software solutions, your target persona might include IT managers or CIOs at mid-sized companies in the healthcare industry. Knowing this allows you to craft messaging and outreach strategies that resonate with their needs.
2. Identify Key Roles in the Decision-Making Process
B2B sales involve multiple roles in the decision-making process. To close deals effectively, you must understand these roles and tailor your approach accordingly. Here are the three leading roles to consider:
Decision-Maker
This person has the authority to approve or reject a purchase. They often hold senior positions like CEOs, department heads, or procurement managers.
Decision Messenger
This person gathers information and communicates it to the decision-maker. They could be mid-level managers, or team leads tasked with evaluating solutions.
Decision Influencer
This person influences the decision by providing recommendations or sharing insights. They may be end-users or subject-matter experts.
To identify these roles:
- Ask questions during conversations to understand the company's buying process.
- Research the company’s structure on LinkedIn or its website.
- Observe how stakeholders interact during meetings or calls.
For example, suppose you’re selling a marketing automation tool. In that case, the decision-maker might be the Marketing Director, the messenger a Marketing Manager, and the influencer a Digital Marketing Specialist.
Learning about the critical roles in your target business to present with your product sales presentations helps you customize your pitches to resonate well with the clients you’re dealing with.
After your product presentation, you would only have a sense of how long it will take them to decide. If you’re talking to the decision messenger and influencers, expect you to schedule another meeting with their decision-makers. All these factors can assist you well in preparing your B2B sales presentations.
3. Consultative Selling (Solution Selling)
Consultative selling focuses on solving the customer’s problems rather than pushing a product. It involves understanding the customer’s needs, challenges, and goals and offering value propositions.
In B2B selling, consultative selling works well because it addresses every challenge, concern, and pain point as potential clients go through the sales cycle. It may take time for the sales hustlers, but it remains vital and lucrative for the patient sales teams.
Today, salespeople must act like consultants. Consultants ask questions and provide valuable and customized recommendations that address their clients' gaps and problems. This skill is much more needed, given that more and more decision-makers are becoming skeptical about purchasing a solution that fits them.
Steps to implement consultative selling:
- Ask Open-Ended Questions: Start by understanding the customer’s pain points. For example, “What challenges are you facing with your current system?”.
- Listen Actively: Respond to the customer’s answers and dig deeper if needed. This helps build trust and uncover additional needs.
- Provide Customized Solutions: Based on the information gathered, explain how your product addresses their specific challenges.
- Focus on Benefits, Results, and Experiences: Highlight the outcomes they can achieve with your solution, such as increased efficiency, reduced costs, or higher revenue.
One sample statement you could say, instead of “Our software automates tasks”, a consultative salesperson might say, “Our software can save your team 10 hours a week, allowing them to focus on strategic projects.”
4. Improve Product Presentations
A strong product presentation is essential for converting leads into customers.
Given that you’ll have several meetings before closing a sale in B2B, knowing how to craft presentations and deliver them effectively can make or break your sales success.
Here’s how to improve your product presentations:
Structure Product Presentations Systematically
In my presentation skills training, I teach the 4Cs in structuring presentations. These include:
- Core Idea - what’s your one big message?
- Compelling Reason - why should the person you’re talking to should care about your presentation?
- Content - What are the three main points that support your core idea? You can have many points to say, but drill them down into three points.
- Call-to-action - what are one or two things you want your audience to take away from your presentation?
End with a Clear Call to Action
Always end your presentation by guiding the customer on the next steps. Examples of effective calls to action include:
- “Let’s schedule a demo to show you how this works in real time.”
- “I’ll send you a proposal, and we can discuss it further next week.”
A clear call to action helps the decision maker, influencer, or messenger think about your product presentation, assisting them better in their decision-making process. You can check out my guide on advanced presentation skills.
Add Stories to Demonstrate Experience and Results
Stories help customers visualize how your product can work for them. Share case studies, testimonials, or success stories to make your presentation more engaging.
For instance, you can provide case studies related to the product you’re offering, such as, “A client in the retail industry faced similar inventory management issues. After using our software, they reduced stockouts by 30% in just three months.”
More Practical Tips for B2B Sales Success
To further improve your B2B sales approach, keep these practical tips in mind:
Build Relationships
B2B sales are relationship-driven. Focus on building trust by staying consistent, following up promptly, and delivering on promises.
Be more relational than transactional. Clients would feel that you’re just in it for the money and not for providing value to the relationship.
Leverage Data
Use data to support your claims and show the value of your solution. For example, share metrics, graphs, or performance reports demonstrating how your product can improve outcomes.
Include key insights in every piece of data you share so your clients can easily grasp what you want to emphasize.
Personalize Communication
Tailor your emails, calls, and presentations to each customer. Avoid generic messaging and focus on addressing their specific needs.
Be a more effective communicator by using words to match user intent and drive potential clients to the later stage of the decision-making process.
Invest in Training
Continuous learning is critical in B2B sales. Attend workshops, read books, and practice your skills regularly.
Start investing in B2B sales training to equip your salespeople with the tools and strategies to navigate the complexities of selling to businesses.
All the tips mentioned above will be part of the course outline we send our prospective clients during sales training.
B2B Sales Require Patience and Persistence
You can close more deals and build lasting client relationships by defining your target persona, understanding decision-making roles, adopting consultative selling, and improving product presentations.
Start implementing these techniques today to see measurable improvements in your sales performance.
Empowering Leadership: Strategies to Inspire and Motivate Teams
Empowering leadership is about enabling individuals to perform their best while fostering an environment where everyone feels valued and capable.
You can have the most skilled direct reports, but without empowerment, trust-building, growth, and innovation wouldn't happen in your organization.
Leaders who empower their teams focus on clear communication, shared goals, and continuous development.
What is Empowering Leadership?
Empowering leadership involves giving team members the tools, resources, and authority they need to succeed.
It means trusting employees to make decisions and supporting them as they take ownership of their tasks. It is about creating an atmosphere of confidence and motivation. It is more ideal than it is written, but when there is empowerment in leadership, it assists people in doing the best they can (their fullest potential), which drives their individual and team performance.
At its core, empowering leadership shifts the focus from command and control to collaboration and shared accountability. Leaders encourage their teams to take initiative, learn from mistakes, and build on their strengths.
Benefits of Empowering Leadership
Empowering leadership has several positive outcomes for individuals and organizations:
Increased Employee Engagement
Empowered employees feel a sense of ownership in their work. They are more likely to stay motivated and invested in achieving goals.
You may have seen someone engaged at work, and when asked if they enjoy what they do, you’ll notice in their body language how true their answers are. That’s how empowerment can affect employee engagement.
Better Decision-Making
By delegating authority, leaders enable their teams to make timely decisions through team training. This reduces delays and improves problem-solving.
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen among leaders in many organizations as we conduct leadership training programs is the lack of autonomy for most of their subordinates.
As they lead people, leaders tend to micromanage every task (down to every detail), which negatively affects how subordinates perceive their work and their boss’ leadership.
Empowering leadership helps the leaders make decisions for the team and enables their subordinates to solve problems and make decisions on their own.
Stronger Team Relationships
Empowerment fosters collaboration. Teams that work together and support each other are more productive and cohesive.
It helps build trust that high-performing teams have in common (based on several studies). Relationships that almost become sour tend to reconnect for the purpose of teamwork and the organization's goals. It may not be as magic as many speakers would say, but I believe that empowerment can strengthen any professional relationship if used as leverage.
Higher Innovation Levels
When employees feel valued, they are more likely to contribute creative ideas. Creativity comes from having a safe space for innovation.
We’ve tested this in SharpRocket, Rainmakers, and Hills and Valleys Cafe companies. What I’ve found to be a contributing factor to innovation is allowing your team members to make decisions for themselves.
Without constraints at a certain point, people can think of new ideas and insights to improve processes and make their work more efficient and effective. Ideas usually get kicked out when a boss only wants to give up his opinions.
With empowering leadership, you won’t see that happening, as leaders value their subordinates’ opinions and bring their next-level ideas to the table.
Improved Organizational Performance
When all points covered above were affected by empowering leadership, organizations would eventually get better overall results.
Of course, that won’t happen in an instant, but as the team continues to innovate, strengthen relationships, and produce results that contribute to achieving the organization's goals, you can expect improvements in organizational performance as well.
Empowered teams deliver quality work and adapt quickly to challenges.
Key Traits of an Empowering Leader
Leaders who empower their teams share several key traits. These traits help them build trust, inspire confidence, and drive success:
Clear Communication
Empowering leaders communicate goals and expectations clearly - learn about 5 functions of communication. They ensure that team members understand their roles and responsibilities.
Being clear about what you want and how to achieve it gives a solid message to your team. Subordinates follow their managers and supervisors not only because of their actions but also because of every word they speak (which corresponds to their daily actions). Effective communication is a crucial area we teach in our management training programs. Without this core skill, leaders won’t be able to empower their teams.
Trust in Team Members
Leaders who empower their teams trust employees to handle tasks independently. This trust builds confidence and loyalty.
Leaders have different views on trust-building. Some see it as a weakness that others can manipulate to their own interests. Others see trust as a glue that binds teams.
My strong belief is that leaders can only empower their teams if they first trust their team members. Then, they would be able to delegate tasks and decisions that matter to personal and organizational goals.
Encouragement of Growth
Empowering leaders invest in their team development. They provide training, mentorship, and opportunities for skill-building.
For instance, I’ve seen some of our clients (HR and Learning and Development personnel) ask or receive requests from senior leaders to look for and hire corporate training providers to conduct leadership training and other soft skills programs, such as problem-solving and decision-making, sales and marketing, presentation skills, critical thinking, strategic thinking, and many more.
This shows how necessary training is for these leaders. They don’t just speak about it, they take action to level up their team members.
Adaptability
Empowering leaders adjust their approach to meet the needs of their teams. They are flexible and open to feedback.
In today’s knowledge world, cognitive flexibility is a critical skill for any leader who faces different work challenges. The ability to look around, find patterns, and implement solutions becomes a crucial part of their leadership.
Recognition of Contributions
These leaders celebrate achievements and acknowledge hard work. Recognition boosts morale and motivates employees to excel.
Leaders must decide when and what to celebrate with their teams. A rewards system (not always monetary) helps the team achieve quick wins and create the momentum they need to excel further in their work.
Strategies to Implement Empowering Leadership
Adopting an empowering leadership style requires intentional actions. Below are practical strategies to help leaders empower their teams:
1. Delegate Effectively
Assign tasks and decisions based on each team member’s strengths and skills. Provide the necessary resources and clear instructions.
Trust employees to complete their tasks without constant oversight.
Step back and see what your team can do. As mentioned earlier, delegation requires trust, which would define whether or not you truly delegate.
2. Encourage Open Communication
Create an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and concerns.
Actively listen to feedback and address issues promptly. Do not be too emotional when receiving feedback, as it can get in the way of making decisions. Be objective as much as possible and learn from your subordinates’ successes and mistakes.
Given that they’re involved in their technical work daily, they face common challenges for which they may formulate solutions based on their actual experience.
3. Provide Development Opportunities
Offer training programs, workshops, and mentorship opportunities.
Help employees acquire new skills that align with their goals and the organization’s needs. Leaders learn, unlearn, and relearn (as I always say in my seminars). Leaders who don’t pursue active and passive learning will be irrelevant and obsolete in the coming years.
However, leaders who strive for excellence and, over time, become more curious to learn new things will always sustain their success.
4. Set Clear Goals
Define specific, measurable, and achievable goals.
Ensure team members understand how their work contributes to the organization’s success.
Break down goals into meaningful tasks so your team members can achieve quick wins and create momentum for themselves.
5. Recognize Achievements
Acknowledge individual and team successes.
Celebrate milestones and express gratitude for their efforts.
6. Foster a Positive Work Environment
Promote a culture of respect and collaboration. Address conflicts constructively and maintain a supportive atmosphere.
7. Encourage Risk-Taking
Allow employees to experiment and take calculated risks. Let them learn from mistakes without fear of criticism.
Steps to Transition to Empowering Leadership
Transitioning to empowering leadership involves a shift in mindset and behavior. Leaders can follow these steps to make the change:
1. Assess Current Leadership Style
Identify areas where the current approach lacks empowerment. Pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Ask yourself, are there any areas where I need to trust more of my subordinates? And learn to step back so they can step up and make decisions.
2. Develop Trust
Build trust by being transparent and reliable. Demonstrate confidence in your team’s abilities.
3. Encourage Participation
Involve employees in decision-making processes. Seek their input and value their contributions.
4. Set the Example
Model the behavior you want to see in your team. Show respect, accountability, and a willingness to learn.
5. Provide Consistent Feedback
Offer constructive feedback to guide employees while encouraging their growth.
6. Monitor Progress
Track the effectiveness of empowerment strategies. Use employee surveys and performance metrics to identify areas for improvement.
The Future of Empowering Leadership
As workplaces evolve, empowering leadership will play an increasingly important role. Organizations prioritizing empowerment will be better equipped to adapt to challenges and seize opportunities. Empowered teams are resilient, creative, and committed to success.
In summary, empowering leadership fosters trust, encourages growth, and creates a supportive environment. Leaders who adopt this approach can inspire their teams to achieve remarkable outcomes. By focusing on empowerment, leaders enhance individual performance and drive organizational success.
Problem Solving and Decision Making (PSDM): A Guide Using the SAPADAPPA Framework
Problem-solving and decision-making are crucial skills in both personal and organizational contexts. For individuals, they enable objective choices, while in organizations, especially as one advances through the ranks, they become essential to navigate increasingly complex situations.
Someone who knows how to solve problems efficiently has higher chances of getting promoted in the corporate world, as it demands more than just technical skills. PSDM is actually a thinking skill.
Effective problem-solving and decision-making (PSDM) also requires the right attitude toward challenges. If your initial reaction to problems is avoidance, the PSDM approach will likely feel ineffective. A proactive approach to challenges is essential to maximize your PSDM capabilities.
This guide will take you through the SAPADAPPA framework, a structured approach designed to help tackle problems methodically. SAPADAPPA, coined by problem-solving and management experts, stands for Situation Analysis, Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, and Potential Problem Analysis.
Each phase offers a step-by-step breakdown of activities designed to simplify complex decision-making and problem-solving situations. Let’s explore each stage in detail.
What is SAPADAPPA Problem Solving Framework?
The SAPADAPPA framework is based on the Kepner-Tregoe Method, a systematic approach developed by Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe in the 1960s. These researchers identified a need for structured problem-solving and decision-making processes to improve critical thinking in business contexts.
Their methodology introduced a sequential, analytical process to assess situations, identify problems, make decisions, and analyze potential risks—a foundation that SAPADAPPA builds upon.
While the SAPADAPPA acronym is unique, the principles it encompasses reflect the foundational ideas of Kepner-Tregoe, adapted to emphasize clarity, objectivity, and structured decision-making.
This adaptation has made it widely applicable across various industries, helping individuals and organizations manage complex problems with a strategic, disciplined approach.
Step 1: Situation Analysis (SA)
Objective: Gain a comprehensive understanding of the current situation and clarify the primary concerns.
When beginning any problem-solving process, it’s crucial to assess the situation from all angles.
Begin by listing down all concerns or issues, both large and small, that are currently causing unease. This step doesn’t involve analyzing or solving these issues; rather, it focuses on recognizing everything that’s potentially problematic. Here are some ways to make the most of this step:
Conduct a Brain Dump: Write down everything that’s causing friction, worry, or potential risk. At this point, refrain from categorizing or prioritizing—simply get all the concerns onto paper.
Don’t Limit Yourself. Input as many items that has been bugging and bothering you. The upside of this activity is it allow your brain to dump all its items and put them in the proper place -- paper.
Define the Scope: Determine what’s within your control to address and what may need higher-level intervention. This scope-setting helps allocate your focus where it will be most effective.
Key Tips
- Encourage open discussion among team members if working in a group. Diverse perspectives often highlight areas that may otherwise be overlooked.
- Use visual aids, like mind maps or lists, to organize concerns and facilitate clearer thinking.
- You can invite external experts and consultants to help you guide and put all items you need for a specific situation. The more complex the working environment is, the more inputs you need to better identify issues and concerns.
Step 2: Problem Analysis (PA)
Objective: Understand the root causes of identified problems.
Problem analysis is where you dig deeper into the specific issues identified in your situation analysis. This phase involves methods that help uncover why problems exist and how they impact the broader situation. Effective tools include:
- 5 Whys: Continuously asking “Why?” to each answer obtained helps drill down into the root cause of a problem. This method is especially useful for isolating singular issues. The best of 5 Whys is determining causes that are controllable, which means something that are within your scope and reach. For instance, don’t include traffic jam as one of the reasons of personal unproductivity.
- 7 Ms Framework: This approach categorizes causes under Man, Machine, Method, Material, Measurement, Mother Nature, and Management, allowing a structured examination of contributing factors. It is especially useful in organizational settings where multiple variables are at play. Some simply use 5 Ms of Management, whichever works for you.
- Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa): This visual tool helps identify potential root causes by branching out possible factors under specific categories. It’s beneficial for complex issues where many factors might be contributing to the problem.
Key Tips
- Ensure objective problem analysis. Avoid jumping to conclusions or prematurely focusing on solutions.
- Include relevant stakeholders in the process to capture a holistic view of the problem.
- Gather as many data for a specific root cause. Don’t assume. Be more objective in your problem analysis approach.
- Create a problem statement. For instance, a clear problem statement would be: “As of today, 3 of Rainmakers’ loyal repeat clients have 60-day past due payables amounting to a total of Php 225,000.”
Step 3: Decision Analysis (DA)
Objective: Establish criteria and make well-informed choices.
After thoroughly analyzing the problem, it’s time to make decisions that align with both the organizational goals and the immediate needs of the situation. Decision analysis is guided by a structured approach to weighing options based on established criteria. Here’s how to proceed:
Establish Decision Criteria: Define what’s non-negotiable (must-haves) and what’s flexible or negotiables (nice-to-haves) in the decision-making process. This clarity will help you prioritize your options effectively.
Generate Possible Solutions: Brainstorm all potential solutions without dismissing any immediately. Each option may contain viable elements, even if not selected in its entirety.
Assess Each Option Against Criteria: Use your must-haves as a baseline to filter out solutions that don’t meet core needs. Once filtered, weigh each solution according to the nice-to-haves, allowing a comparative ranking based on value.
Use ECTEA criteria to evaluate solutions to problems. ECTEA stands for Effectiveness, Cost, Time, Effort, and Acceptability. Here’s a quick explanation of these five criteria:
- Effectiveness - Does the solution truly eliminate or reduce the problem?
- Cost - Will the solution require too much money? Is it within the or over budget?
- Time - Will the solution take only a short amount of time to complete?
- Effort - Will the solution be easy to implement? Do we need to learn a new skill to get this done?
- Acceptability - Will the solution earn the respect and cooperation of clients/stakeholders that you want to please?
Select the Best-Fit Solution: The option that meets all the must-haves and maximizes the nice-to-haves becomes the ideal choice. While considering the option that meets the highest rating for all ECTEA criteria.
Key Tips
- Include only relevant people to the decision making body.
- Involve key stakeholders in decision-making to gain buy-in and ensure comprehensive perspective.
- Utilize decision matrices or scoring systems to quantify how well each option meets your criteria.
Step 4: Potential Problem Analysis (PPA)
Objective: Anticipate and mitigate any problems that may arise from your chosen decision.
Once you’ve made a decision, it’s crucial to think ahead and prepare for any challenges or risks it might bring. The Potential Problem Analysis phase focuses on proactive troubleshooting to minimize negative outcomes before they occur.
- Identify Potential Problems: Consider the possible consequences or issues that might arise from your decision. Aim to identify even low-probability but high-impact risks.
- Assess the Likelihood and Impact: Rank each potential problem by how likely it is to happen and the severity of its impact on your goals. This helps prioritize which risks need the most attention.
- Develop Contingency Plans: For high-priority risks, prepare a plan that outlines steps to take if the problem does occur. Having a contingency strategy can reduce disruption and facilitate quick responses.
- Implement Preventive Actions: Where possible, take proactive measures to minimize risk exposure. This could mean adjusting aspects of the chosen solution or preparing resources in advance to address potential issues.
Key Tips
- Involve team members in risk assessment for collective brainstorming on mitigation strategies.
- Consider using tools like Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to systematically evaluate risks and controls.
Applying the SAPADAPPA Framework Effectively
SAPADAPPA provides a structured yet flexible approach to problem-solving and decision-making. Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind when applying this framework:
- Stay Objective: Throughout each phase, focus on maintaining an objective and analytical perspective. Personal biases or assumptions can obscure the root cause of problems and lead to suboptimal decisions.
- Collaborate: Problem-solving in an organizational context often benefits from collaboration. Different perspectives can provide invaluable insights that help uncover hidden aspects of problems and improve decision-making quality.
- Document: Keep a record of each stage of the process, including criteria for decisions, analysis of each option, and identified risks. Documentation is useful for transparency and for revisiting decisions if issues arise later.
- Review and Reflect: After implementing your decision, reflect on the outcomes and the effectiveness of the PSDM process. Continuous improvement is integral to refining your problem-solving and decision-making skills over time.
By following this SAPADAPPA guide, you’ll find that even complex problems and decisions become manageable through clear, systematic steps. Mastery of PSDM equips you to make more informed, objective, and impactful decisions both in personal and professional settings.
Steps in Problem Solving: Effective Framework for Decision-Making
Anyone can use many frameworks and tools to solve problems, but only one method works for every situation. When conducting corporate training programs on problem solving, decision-making, and critical thinking, we emphasize the need to have different tools and frameworks so that one can have multiple means of solving problems.
Given that every problem has its context, and there are different ways to solve it, it’s essential to have an arsenal of problem-solving tools.
Today’s guide will focus on one practical and structured problem-solving method: SAPADDAPA. This step-by-step process emphasizes thorough analysis, clear communication, and actionable solutions.
Steps in Problem Solving: Effective Framework for Decision-Making
1. Situation Analysis (S)
The first step in the SAPADDAPA framework is Situation Analysis, where the current circumstances are closely examined.
Pro Tip: You have to look at different situations for your problems. You need to be accountable and take ownership of things to face your current problems.
Understanding the problem's background is essential in this phase to prevent misidentifying the issue or jumping to solutions prematurely.
To conduct a situation analysis:
- Gather facts and data surrounding the issue.
- Identify who is affected and the severity of the problem.
- Determine how long the problem has been ongoing and what triggered it.
Suppose a company experiences a sudden drop in employee engagement, resulting in decreased productivity. During the situation analysis, management collects employee surveys and performance data and conducts interviews to understand the scope and root causes of the problem. Recent changes to work schedules and a lack of feedback from managers have led to disengagement.
The primary reason why data gathering is important is that there are no biases in data - these are facts and numbers that can’t lie. This is compared to opinions and gossip, where there is subjectivity from people based on their relationships with the situation and with people involved in problem-solving situations.
2. Acknowledge the Problem (A)
After analyzing the situation, the next step is to Acknowledge the Problem. This formalizes the understanding of the issue and ensures that everyone involved sees the problem from the same perspective.
Acknowledging the problem requires full accountability and ownership. By facing the problem head-on and understanding that the person involved has a level of accountability toward the issue, there is a higher likelihood of solving the problem in the later steps.
Many managers face this dilemma: if a problem isn’t solved within their jurisdiction or scope of function, it could negatively affect their job. While that’s a reality they should be facing, more than focusing on the loss, it is a better strategy to look forward to solving the problem rather than denying accountability.
This stage involves:
- Clear communication about the problem’s existence and impact.
- Align stakeholders with the urgency of resolving the problem.
- Make it a priority so all parties can focus on it.
In the case of employee disengagement, the company’s leadership must acknowledge that the issue goes beyond numbers. They should address how low engagement negatively affects company culture, innovation, and retention rates.
3. Problem Definition (P)
Next is Problem Definition—a step that transforms insights from the situation analysis into a specific, actionable statement. A well-defined problem ensures the team focuses on the proper challenge and avoids ambiguity.
Effective problem definitions are:
- Specific: Pinpoint the exact issue to address.
- Measurable: Define how success will be measured.
- Neutral: Focus on the issue, not blame.
A vague problem definition would be, “Employees are not happy.” A more precise statement is, “Employee engagement has decreased by 25% over the past six months, affecting productivity and collaboration.”
It may sound simple for many people to define a problem, but this is one of the overlooked parts of PSDM (problem solving and decision-making), so defining issues correctly is critical.
4. Alternative Solutions (A)
With the problem clearly defined, it's time to brainstorm Alternative Solutions. This stage encourages creativity and collaboration to generate as many potential solutions as possible. It’s essential not to dismiss any ideas prematurely.
Key actions include:
- Encouraging open-minded brainstorming.
- Listing a variety of solutions, from immediate fixes to long-term changes.
- Involving different departments or external experts for fresh perspectives.
For the employee engagement problem, the company might consider:
- Offering flexible working hours.
- Increasing manager feedback and support.
- Investing in professional development programs.
- Introducing team-building activities.
One of the best strategies for brainstorming alternative solutions is to consult with in-house and external experts and consultants to gain insights into the problems.
Given their experience and expertise, they can provide specific advice and possible solutions you can add to your list of options.
5. Decide on a Solution (D)
Once you have a list of potential solutions, the next step is to Decide on the Best Solution. This involves evaluating each option's feasibility, risks, and potential benefits.
Factors to consider when selecting a solution:
- Resources: Do you have the budget, time, and personnel to implement the solution?
- Impact: Which solution will have the most significant positive effect?
- Long-term vs. short-term: Some solutions might address symptoms, while others tackle the root cause.
After evaluating the options, the company might decide that increasing feedback through regular one-on-one meetings between employees and managers will have the greatest positive impact in the shortest time.
Beware of analysis paralysis when deciding and implementing the solution, as this might cause a severe problem if the respective solution hasn’t been applied.
6. Develop an Action Plan (D)
Once a solution has been selected, the next step is to Develop an Action Plan. This plan outlines the steps to implement the solution, assigns responsibilities, and sets deadlines.
A practical action plan should:
- Break the solution into actionable steps.
- Assign roles to specific individuals or teams.
- Set clear deadlines and deliverables.
The company might develop an action plan that includes:
- Training managers on how to conduct productive feedback sessions.
- Setting a weekly schedule for one-on-one meetings.
- Monitoring feedback quality through employee surveys.
7. Act on the Plan (A)
Once the action plan is developed, it’s time to Act on the Plan. Execution is crucial, and this step requires close coordination and communication to ensure the plan stays on track.
Key points in this step include:
- Providing the necessary resources to those executing the plan.
- Ensuring everyone involved understands their role.
- Keeping open lines of communication to address challenges quickly.
The HR team begins implementing the action plan by organizing manager training sessions and ensuring one-on-one meetings start within the next week.
In my opinion, the most critical step is acting on planning, where you determine if the specific decision will solve the problem. The shorter the interval between planning and action, the better, as it helps the team move forward to other issues or problems.
8. Perform Monitoring (P)
With the solution in place, Perform Monitoring to ensure the solution works as intended. This involves tracking key metrics, observing behaviors, and gathering feedback to assess whether the problem is being resolved.
In this stage, consider:
- What metrics will you use to evaluate success?
- Are there any early indicators of success or failure?
- How will you gather feedback from those affected by the solution?
The company tracks employee engagement metrics monthly, collects feedback after each one-on-one meeting, and monitors productivity data to measure the effectiveness of the new feedback system.
9. Adjust as Needed (A)
The final step is to Adjust as Needed. Even the best-laid plans may require fine-tuning. If monitoring reveals that the solution isn’t fully addressing the problem, adjustments may be necessary.
Considerations include:
- Whether the problem definition needs revisiting.
- Whether additional resources or changes to the action plan are needed.
- How small tweaks could enhance the solution’s effectiveness?
If the one-on-one meetings show some improvement but not enough to meet the company’s targets, HR might adjust the plan by incorporating anonymous employee feedback to identify further areas of improvement or expanding training for managers on effective communication techniques.
Not all solutions will come to fruition. Some need adjustments or alternatives to see which one will work. That’s the beauty of problem-solving: there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. So, it is best to learn to be flexible and test different approaches to solving actual problems and implementing solutions as quickly as possible.
Conclusion
The SAPADDAPA framework is a practical, step-by-step approach to problem-solving that ensures thorough analysis, collaborative decision-making, and continuous improvement.
By following each step—situation Analysis, Acknowledging the Problem, Problem Definition, Alternative Solutions, Deciding on a Solution, Developing an Action Plan, Acting on the Plan, Performing Monitoring, and Adjusting as Needed—teams can approach even the most complex problems with confidence and precision.
For businesses and organizations, adopting structured problem-solving methods like SAPADDAPA ensures that issues are tackled systematically. This reduces the risk of overlooking key factors and increases the chances of implementing sustainable solutions.
Whether addressing declining employee engagement or troubleshooting operational inefficiencies, SAPADDAPA provides a comprehensive framework to guide you through each problem-solving phase, resulting in measurable improvements and lasting success.