Training

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Graystone Associates offers comprehensive training for all personnel, to insure informed management and a staff that embraces the firm's stated vision and objectives.

	Employee Training
	People Skills		This program addresses basic communication skills necessary for effective, influential interpersonal relations with clients, the public and one another. Participants learn the techniques needed to enhance your firm's reputation in the community and gain valuable referrals. Another benefit of this program, according to Graystone clients, is a rise in employee morale and cooperation.

	Initial Call Skills		Few contacts are more important than the initial telephone call. Trainees learn why the first 90 seconds of the call are the most critical. In addition to general telephone skills, your employees will master the ability to turn the information-seeking caller into a client.

	Arrangement Conference		Participants hone skills in asking questions, listening for key information and making recommendations. Employees learn to understand shifting consumer buying patterns and how clients reach arrangement decisions. We teach employees how to link information gathered from a client family to recommendations that are fitting and proper to memorialize the loved one's unique life. Funeral Director confidence and effectiveness are dramatically improved by participation in this program.
	Management Training
	Leading for Success		This course focuses on leadership. Leaders develop personnel by building consensus around a vision and gaining the full respect of their followers. This program is crucial for enabling your firm's leaders to build credibility and get everyone "on the same page" and moving in the same direction.

	Managing Change and Setting Objectives		This course focuses on the skills and tools necessary to generate group and individual goals and guarantee their completion. Participants will also expand abilities in time management and prioritizing tasks, as well as in delegating assignments and conducting effective staff meetings.

	Performance Management		This series of courses instills in managers the successful methods of getting top performance from staff members. The course work covers: Interviewing, Hiring and Training - Managers learn standardized selection methods to build a team of top performers through hiring, training and/or promoting the right people. Managers become proficient in the use of structured behavioral interview techniques, competency-based profiling and effective orientation methods. The legal aspects of the hiring process are also covered. Basic Performance Management Skills Managers - Learn the four fundamental skills for eliciting and motivating behavioral improvement in employees. Documenting and Reviewing Performance - This segment teaches how to give ongoing feedback, both positive and negative; how to document performance; and how to prepare and conduct effective annual appraisals. Motivation and Team Building - This program demonstrates a step-by-step method of building a shared-responsibility work team of highly motivated members. Conducting Meetings and Making Presentations - Managers learn how to plan and run effective meetings, set agendas that keep meetings on track and handle problem behaviors. Skills learned here can be applied to public speaking and work with community organizations. Coaching for Improved Performance - Managers are exposed to the two models for coaching and monitoring ongoing performance improvement.

	Tools for Service and Financial Performance		This course addresses the skills needed to deliver continuously improving financial results and client satisfaction.