‘Management Development Programme improves employees’ performance, brings out their best potential’ 

Apeejay School of Management (ASM)  recently conducted a management development programme (MDP) titled “Relationship-based Selling” for the delegates from Valedra and Hayden & Reynott in the Dwarka campus.  The Programme was conceptualised by
Ms. Anjana Nath, Head HR, Apeejay Education and Dr. Alka Munjal, Director of ASM. The
programme was designed to strengthen the sales and relationship skills of the participants.

This two and half day training was conducted by the faculty from diverse areas such as Communication, Finance, Marketing and Human Resources. The session started with a  welcome address by Dr Alka Munjal, wherein she spoke about the pedagogy of the program and highlighted the importance of action plan presentations to be made by participants on day three.

Dr Neha Berlia, Co-Promoter of Apeejay Stya & Svran Group virtually joined the session to bless the participants and trainers. Dr Berlia in her remarks emphasised the role of such training programmes is to improve the performance of employees and bring out their best potential. The visionary leader further highlighted, “It is critical to manage time effectively amongst all distractions to achieve the organisational goals.” 

She congratulated Apeejay School of Management for organising this MDP on Relationship based selling and hoped that it would be a great learning experience for the participants.

The first session of the training programme was conducted by Dr Chhaya Wadhwa on ‘Communication for Effective Selling’. In her session, Dr Wadhwa spoke about the key pillars of communication such as Content, Talking Skills, Listening Skills, Body Language. 

The second session was conducted by Dr Akshita Arora who spoke on ‘Time Management for Achieving Targets on Time’. She drew the attention of participants on what results in wasting time in daily life and asked them to apply 4D principles to prioritise their tasks for achieving their goals.

The third session was titled ‘Knowing the Stakeholders Better Using Segmentation Targeting and Positioning’ which was initiated by Dr Preeti Suryawanshi, Professor at ASM. This session dealt with dividing the customers on the basis of demography, geography, psychographics and behavior, further creating the buyer’s persons to help the participants to know their stakeholders better.

The last session of the first day was conducted by Dr Shweta Jha on Intercultural sensitivity. She spoke about the impact of culture on stakeholder’s buying habits and why salespeople should pay attention to these while dealing with stakeholders.

The second day of training started with a session on group dynamics and team building that was conducted by Dr Ishita Adhikari, who discussed the importance of group cohesiveness for achieving organisational goals.

Dr. Etinder Pal Singh in his session spoke about the 10 steps of effective sales process and conversion techniques. The session also brought out the various objections that stakeholders may have and how a salesperson can deal with them through objection handling techniques.

The third session on day two was about Network Sales. In this session Prof. Ruchi Malik spoke about the role of prospecting and how effective prospecting can lead to better conversion.

The last session for the day was conducted by Dr Alka Munjal, She spoke on the very important topic of understanding & analysis of financial statements. Participants were made familiar with the financial decision making process. Dr Munjal explained the synergy between the three functions-Finance, Marketing and Operations. The session was highly appreciated for the concepts and the examples that clarified them easily.

The last day saw presentations on Action Plan by six teams about a product/service chosen by the team and the application of what they had learned during the two-day training session. The teams made great efforts to incorporate learning from all eight sessions and used role play to share their learning during the presentations.

The jury for the presentation comprised of Mr. Sanjoy Roy, CEO Valedra, Ms. Anjana Nath, Chief People Officer, Apeejay Education, Dr Alka Munjal, Ms. Aarti Kapoor, Marketing Head, Apeejay Education. The MDP concluded by presentation of certificates to the participants for successful completion of the programme.

Mr. Sanjoy Roy, CEO of Valedra, was involved in the MDP right from designing of the training modules till the presentations by the groups. He encouraged the participants throughout the training programme and was delighted by the response of the participants. He expressed his gratitude to the trainers as he looked forward to more such MDP sessions in the future.

On the final day, Dr. Neha Berlia also attended the action plan presentation of one of the groups and was pleased to see the efficacy of the programme. She mentioned in her remarks that the programme will prove to be a value-addition to all the participants in their respective domains. Her complete support to the programme reflects her commitment to manpower development of Apeejay Group.

During the vote of thanks, Dr. Alka Munjal thanked Ms. Anjana Nath for her consistent support throughout the programme and hoped to conduct more such programmes together in future. Further, she thanked Mr. Sanjoy Roy for ensuring the participation of the delegates and in making the programme an interactive learning experience for all. She also thanked Dr. Neha Berlia for her gracious presence and guidance throughout. Dr. Munjal also expressed her heartfelt gratitude to President of Apeejay Education Mrs. Sushma Paul Berlia for her kind
blessings and motivation without which the programme would not have been possible.