AMBER OPINIONS
>> Are these Agency Anchors Dragging Down Your Business?
By Paul Smith Calling all Agency Leaders! With thoughts returning to work after the festive break, it’s a great time to highlight the top 5 agency anchors we see dragging down businesses year after year. Here are our anchors to address for a successful 2024. Sales is a dirty word. We’re consultants, we don’t sell! […]
>> DELIVERING FEEDBACK: How to Structure Your Conversation
By Liz Baines People often tell me they find giving feedback to others difficult, no matter how well-intentioned it is. So here are some tips to help you prepare for and structure a feedback conversation:
>> TIME MANAGEMENT: Three Tips for Improving Your Effectiveness
By Liz Baines Time is scarce. There’s never enough of it to do everything we need or want to do, so it’s important to make the most of the time we do have if we are to fulfil our commitments and achieve our goals. Here are three tips for managing your time effectively: Prioritise around […]
>> STRATEGIC THINKING IN PR: Putting Strategy First
By Paul Smith Strategy must be one of the most overused and misunderstood words in PR. So how do we encourage more strategic thinking in our agencies? First, we must remember that when you boil it down, clients only buy PR for one of two reasons, either: Everything we do in our PR programme must […]
>> How to Put Consultative Selling into a SPIN
By Paul Smith When I ask PR people if they are good at selling, most of them say no. But that simply isn’t true. Most PR people are brilliantly equipped for consultative selling because they are great at asking questions and enjoy talking to people – they just need to apply the SPIN technique. Spin […]
>> PERSUASIVE WRITING: Understanding Your Audience
By Paul Smith There are three things you should think about if you want to your audience to be persuaded by what you have to say: Let’s start with the reader. Just who are they? What’s their demographic, their interests and background? Consider the reason they’re reading: is it for work, pleasure or education, and […]
>> STORYTELLING: Tales Your Audience Will Want to Retell
By Ken Deeks Telling powerful stories has never been more important. Increasingly, audiences – whether that’s employees, clients or prospects – want to be inspired and entertained when learning more about what we do as a business. The best way to do this is through impactful and memorable stories. At the Amber Group, we talk […]
>> Developing an Account Manager Mindset
By Ken Deeks The shift in role from an account executive to account manager in a creative or PR agency is one of the most challenging transitions you can make. It involves a move from the client seeing you as an administrative doer to a strategic consultant. A major thing that underpins this transition, and […]
>> MEDIA TRAINING: How to Handle an Interview
By Ken Deeks Every trainer shares their favourite techniques on how to handle an interview during media training sessions. Here are my top 3: Firstly, you need to focus on the journalist’s audience. Too many spokespeople rely on providing generic content without thinking about the journalist’s readers or viewers. When I worked on the Daily […]
>> PRESENTATION SKILLS: Top Tips for Presenting with Impact
By Richard Baines Presenting is something many of us have to do. If you find it challenging, you’re definitely not alone. When we present, we communicate through three channels: Presentation skills training can help you enhance your delivery and become a more impactful presenter. In the meantime, here are a few tips to get you […]
