Not enough companies have learned how to employ sales training as a strategic tool. Those that have are leaders in their industries, offering their shareholders maximum return on investment, are able to quickly adapt to changing market conditions, are respected by their customers, and provide consistent sales performance. The sales people that work for those companies are motivated and stay in their jobs longer.
Quite often sales managers and executives don't have the time and experience to do this correctly. Companies with internal training departments often provide guidance, but sales training is quite different from designing and delivering training to other constituencies within an organisation, such as customer care, engineering, or human resources.
The first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach is always an assessment of the situation. What processes and methods are currently being employed by the company? What has their sales performance been? What percentage of sales people are delivering against plan? What are the biggest obstacles to success? How dynamic or stable is the company's environment? What are the practices and expectations of the buyers? These are only a few considerations.
Designing or adopting a sales methodology is critical. Without that methodology in place, training is a tactical attempt to fix a larger problem. The selling methodology must be developed based upon the company's unique situation--their market, their customers, how those customers buy, the complexity and price levels of the products and services the company offers, competitive pressures, reporting requirements, the participation of partners, the skill level of their current sales people, etc.
The primary objective of creating an individually tailored Organisational Development Programme has to be: To achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every key individual, after all, our people are our most important and indeed expensive resource, it therefore makes sense for us to want to see a full and proper return on that investment.
Specifically, we should seek to achieve optimum performance levels via a process and an all encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, implementing, reviewing and providing continual feedback on performance.
Emphasis is placed on creating an environment in which the 'can do - will do' mentality thrives and becomes the norm - success and achievement are expected and as a consequence are much more likely to happen.
This total approach enables forward thinking organisations who are committed to looking 'outside the square' and who are not afraid to mentally cross bridges that that their competitors have not even identified, to enter the land of "me - first" rather than the land of "me - too". It also offers the opportunity to develop excellence in the performance of the company's teams and build the capabilities necessary to consistently over-achieve short, medium and long term objectives.
In my view, we should never lose sight of the following premise.
Premise 1: Whatever got you where you are to-day will not be sufficient to keep you there.
Premise 2: You can only succeed in business to-day if you understand what you are doing, how you are doing it and why you are doing it.
Premise 3: It is difficult to control external events if you do not have control internally.
Premise 4: Being competitive is an ongoing process not a single event.
I believe it is essential to bring together a number of key factors when aiming for optimum performance levels and the simplified formula would be:
Attitude + Skills + Process (A.S.P.) = Success.
Attitude is fundamental to any achievement because individuals with the right Attitude are far more likely to embrace the essential skills and at the same time recognise the control that Process brings.
Skills are the 'tools of the trade' and have to be developed on an ongoing basis. They also need to be specific, because too much time can be wasted over-burdening employees with inappropriate and irrelevant skills without any identifiable plan for their future requirements.
The implementation of any skills development programme has to be well thought out and logical in it's approach if a proper return on that often considerable investment is to be achieved.
Process brings organisation, efficiency and control, both for the individual and for management. Effective process provides objective analysis and indicators which can be benchmarked and accurately measured.
Many of the largest corporations around the world have created a V.P. Process role to oversee the implementation of process systems including Information Management and Customer Relationship Management.
There is of course a need to build in Knowledge and that can include knowledge of products, industry, market sectors, competitors, business, etc but generally this education is provided extremely competently internally.
However, recognition of the A.S.P formula is only the beginning and in truth, most organisations merely pay lip service to it, preferring to regard any form of ongoing training as a cost rather than an investment, whether that be short, medium or long term. And yet there is substantial evidence to indicate a direct correlation between continuing education and consistently high achievement, increased job satisfaction, enhanced levels of motivation and loyalty.
Our commercial functions, including the sales team, represent our forward line, if they are not scoring regularly we cannot possibly achieve our overall commercial objectives - i.e. nothing happens until somebody sells something and all of that investment in costly accounting systems, new office equipment, expensive I.T systems etc. will count for nothing.
As Sir John Harvey-Jones famously said: "Most companies fail not in their attempts to be innovative or creative. In this country most of them fail because they undervalue the importance of professional selling"
A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop. Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.
The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within the organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.
In Summary:
Dependence on people is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our people are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them. This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded - i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies' databases, and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.
[This is a companion piece to the article entitled "Panama Montecristi Fino Hats" where I discuss the pros and cons of purchasing a fine Panama hat in an unblocked state.]
If you've ever walked into one of those stores with big signs reading "Persian Rugs: 50% to 75% Off" and tried to get a handle on the value of these "fine works of art" and "products resulting from months of labor by great artisans" where "knots per square inch" and "quality of the material" were touted as evidence of great value and where the upshot was that this $5,000 rug could be yours for $1,800 (followed by "make me an offer"), then you can understand the potential discomfort in purchasing a Panama hat. Before getting into some of the particulars, I'll begin with my conclusion - If you don't know Panama hats, know your Panama hat seller. Said another way - Flim-flam is too easy and runs amok with these hats so be very careful. Now, here are some things to consider when shopping for a Panama hat:
1. A "Panama" hat is a reference to the straw material that a hat is made from. It is neither a style nor a quality, but rather a hat - in any style and of any quality - made from the plant carludovica palmata, which grows in the coastal lowlands of western South America (not in Panama). Therefore, wide ranges of hat styles in a never-ending range of qualities are rightly sold as "Panama hats". The rub is that a fair price for a Panama hat can be $5 or $5,000.
2. A knowing shopper usually begins by examining the fineness of the weave. These hats are hand woven, primarily in Ecuador, and the straw itself can continually be made thinner, or finer, by dividing the strand of straw in half. Every time the straw width is halved (via fingernail), the amount of work required to weave the hat is multiplied four times. Obviously - on this basis alone - a fair price for this handiwork can be dramatically different from one hat to another.
3. No matter the fineness of the straw, the work of the weaver needs examination. Look for tightly woven consistency in the straw - the fewer the gaps, holes, or bumps, the better. Look for evenness in the weave. The rows should be straight and resemble, what you may know from woolen or cotton fabrics, a small herringbone or diamond pattern.
4. The color of the hat, per se, does not have a large bearing on the price, however there are some important things to consider. In the North American market, one mostly finds Panama either in natural straw or bleached white. (Colored straws are achievable via dying and these hats do turn up in stores.) Many people like the white hats, but the buyer should know that the bleaching process weakens the hat and it will likely not last a long as the unbleached natural straw. In natural straw hats, the more consistent the color is throughout the hat, the better. But remember that this is a natural material and differences in hue (sometimes slightly more gray or more reddish) are to be expected. Each hat is unique.
5. Not all hats advertised as Panama hats are in fact Panama hats. The phrase, "Panama hats", is not regulated. Materials from all over the world, some of which closely resemble carludovica palmata, are sold as "Panama hats". Some of these materials are quite nice and the hats are fairly priced. Others are not. Buyers beware.
Without the experience of comparing one hat to another, much of what is discussed above will have limited service to the novice Panama shopper. When someone comes into one of our Village Hat Shops and wants a quick education with regard to these hats, we simply line up a half-dozen or so hats in various qualities and much of what is discussed above becomes readily apparent. Because, however, each hat is hand woven and unique, quality is therefore always different from one hat to the next. This exercise in relativity is not the last word on value and fair price. Most people need to see many hats and know this fluctuating market well before feeling comfortable with a purchase that may run hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars.
Receiving wedding gifts is always a very exciting part of getting married and it's something that couples agonise over considerably before making any decisions.
First of all, you don't wish to appear greedy. Although many wedding guests expect to receive a wedding list with their wedding invitation, it feels quite pushy on the part of the bride and groom. Well, it certainly did for us when we were sending out our wedding invitations. We actually felt quite uncomfortable about asking people what to buy us at the beginning although this changed considerably once we started thinking about it in more depth.
When you are invited to a wedding, choosing a gift is a very personal thing and gift choices vary considerably from couple to couple, family to family and culture to culture. The eventual decision on what actually gets purchased is ultimately down to the person buying the gift. In some cases, it is nice to have the freedom to choose something personal although in other cases it is nice to have a rough framework to work from so that you have some ideas. The choice is very much dependent upon how well you know the couple. If they are close family members, you may wish to purchase something special that is unique to them. In contrast, maybe you are buying for a couple you don't know very well and in which case a gift list is probably a lifeline.
Many couples these days go for funky wedding gift lists from unique boutiques. Lovely as this idea sounds, the word 'boutique' sounds small and expensive and may therefore put some guests off. You then run the risk of only getting a few gifts from your chosen shop along with 27 toasters. Great news if you're into selling kitchenware on e-bay, not such great news if you really wanted a kettle! It is probably better to choose a wedding list with a well-known and nationwide department store. This is
much more accessible for all your guests, especially if it's a high street department store. Guests who wish to go in-store and purchase a gift for you can do so and those who wish to purchase a gift on-line can do so. This seems a much more sensible solution to cater for all your guests. Equally, you can have a great time going in to the store and choosing the items you would like together. Many stores provide you with a hand-held machine that you can zap each barcode with. This is the best part of setting up a wedding list - but don't expect your partner to let you hold the zapping gun because you probably won't be allowed anywhere near it!
Quite often sales managers and executives don't have the time and experience to do this correctly. Companies with internal training departments often provide guidance, but sales training is quite different from designing and delivering training to other constituencies within an organisation, such as customer care, engineering, or human resources.
The first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach is always an assessment of the situation. What processes and methods are currently being employed by the company? What has their sales performance been? What percentage of sales people are delivering against plan? What are the biggest obstacles to success? How dynamic or stable is the company's environment? What are the practices and expectations of the buyers? These are only a few considerations.
Designing or adopting a sales methodology is critical. Without that methodology in place, training is a tactical attempt to fix a larger problem. The selling methodology must be developed based upon the company's unique situation--their market, their customers, how those customers buy, the complexity and price levels of the products and services the company offers, competitive pressures, reporting requirements, the participation of partners, the skill level of their current sales people, etc.
The primary objective of creating an individually tailored Organisational Development Programme has to be: To achieve consistently superior results through the performance of every key individual, after all, our people are our most important and indeed expensive resource, it therefore makes sense for us to want to see a full and proper return on that investment.
Specifically, we should seek to achieve optimum performance levels via a process and an all encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, implementing, reviewing and providing continual feedback on performance.
Emphasis is placed on creating an environment in which the 'can do - will do' mentality thrives and becomes the norm - success and achievement are expected and as a consequence are much more likely to happen.
In my view, we should never lose sight of the following premise.
Premise 1: Whatever got you where you are to-day will not be sufficient to keep you there.
Premise 2: You can only succeed in business to-day if you understand what you are doing, how you are doing it and why you are doing it.
Premise 3: It is difficult to control external events if you do not have control internally.
Premise 4: Being competitive is an ongoing process not a single event.
I believe it is essential to bring together a number of key factors when aiming for optimum performance levels and the simplified formula would be:
Attitude + Skills + Process (A.S.P.) = Success.
Attitude is fundamental to any achievement because individuals with the right Attitude are far more likely to embrace the essential skills and at the same time recognise the control that Process brings.
Skills are the 'tools of the trade' and have to be developed on an ongoing basis. They also need to be specific, because too much time can be wasted over-burdening employees with inappropriate and irrelevant skills without any identifiable plan for their future requirements.
The implementation of any skills development programme has to be well thought out and logical in it's approach if a proper return on that often considerable investment is to be achieved.
Process brings organisation, efficiency and control, both for the individual and for management. Effective process provides objective analysis and indicators which can be benchmarked and accurately measured.
Many of the largest corporations around the world have created a V.P. Process role to oversee the implementation of process systems including Information Management and Customer Relationship Management.
There is of course a need to build in Knowledge and that can include knowledge of products, industry, market sectors, competitors, business, etc but generally this education is provided extremely competently internally.
However, recognition of the A.S.P formula is only the beginning and in truth, most organisations merely pay lip service to it, preferring to regard any form of ongoing training as a cost rather than an investment, whether that be short, medium or long term. And yet there is substantial evidence to indicate a direct correlation between continuing education and consistently high achievement, increased job satisfaction, enhanced levels of motivation and loyalty.
Our commercial functions, including the sales team, represent our forward line, if they are not scoring regularly we cannot possibly achieve our overall commercial objectives - i.e. nothing happens until somebody sells something and all of that investment in costly accounting systems, new office equipment, expensive I.T systems etc. will count for nothing.
As Sir John Harvey-Jones famously said: "Most companies fail not in their attempts to be innovative or creative. In this country most of them fail because they undervalue the importance of professional selling"
A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop. Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.
The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within the organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.
In Summary:
Dependence on people is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our people are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them. This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded - i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies' databases, and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.
[This is a companion piece to the article entitled "Panama Montecristi Fino Hats" where I discuss the pros and cons of purchasing a fine Panama hat in an unblocked state.]
If you've ever walked into one of those stores with big signs reading "Persian Rugs: 50% to 75% Off" and tried to get a handle on the value of these "fine works of art" and "products resulting from months of labor by great artisans" where "knots per square inch" and "quality of the material" were touted as evidence of great value and where the upshot was that this $5,000 rug could be yours for $1,800 (followed by "make me an offer"), then you can understand the potential discomfort in purchasing a Panama hat. Before getting into some of the particulars, I'll begin with my conclusion - If you don't know Panama hats, know your Panama hat seller. Said another way - Flim-flam is too easy and runs amok with these hats so be very careful. Now, here are some things to consider when shopping for a Panama hat:
1. A "Panama" hat is a reference to the straw material that a hat is made from. It is neither a style nor a quality, but rather a hat - in any style and of any quality - made from the plant carludovica palmata, which grows in the coastal lowlands of western South America (not in Panama). Therefore, wide ranges of hat styles in a never-ending range of qualities are rightly sold as "Panama hats". The rub is that a fair price for a Panama hat can be $5 or $5,000.
2. A knowing shopper usually begins by examining the fineness of the weave. These hats are hand woven, primarily in Ecuador, and the straw itself can continually be made thinner, or finer, by dividing the strand of straw in half. Every time the straw width is halved (via fingernail), the amount of work required to weave the hat is multiplied four times. Obviously - on this basis alone - a fair price for this handiwork can be dramatically different from one hat to another.
3. No matter the fineness of the straw, the work of the weaver needs examination. Look for tightly woven consistency in the straw - the fewer the gaps, holes, or bumps, the better. Look for evenness in the weave. The rows should be straight and resemble, what you may know from woolen or cotton fabrics, a small herringbone or diamond pattern.
4. The color of the hat, per se, does not have a large bearing on the price, however there are some important things to consider. In the North American market, one mostly finds Panama either in natural straw or bleached white. (Colored straws are achievable via dying and these hats do turn up in stores.) Many people like the white hats, but the buyer should know that the bleaching process weakens the hat and it will likely not last a long as the unbleached natural straw. In natural straw hats, the more consistent the color is throughout the hat, the better. But remember that this is a natural material and differences in hue (sometimes slightly more gray or more reddish) are to be expected. Each hat is unique.
5. Not all hats advertised as Panama hats are in fact Panama hats. The phrase, "Panama hats", is not regulated. Materials from all over the world, some of which closely resemble carludovica palmata, are sold as "Panama hats". Some of these materials are quite nice and the hats are fairly priced. Others are not. Buyers beware.
Without the experience of comparing one hat to another, much of what is discussed above will have limited service to the novice Panama shopper. When someone comes into one of our Village Hat Shops and wants a quick education with regard to these hats, we simply line up a half-dozen or so hats in various qualities and much of what is discussed above becomes readily apparent. Because, however, each hat is hand woven and unique, quality is therefore always different from one hat to the next. This exercise in relativity is not the last word on value and fair price. Most people need to see many hats and know this fluctuating market well before feeling comfortable with a purchase that may run hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars.
Receiving wedding gifts is always a very exciting part of getting married and it's something that couples agonise over considerably before making any decisions.
First of all, you don't wish to appear greedy. Although many wedding guests expect to receive a wedding list with their wedding invitation, it feels quite pushy on the part of the bride and groom. Well, it certainly did for us when we were sending out our wedding invitations. We actually felt quite uncomfortable about asking people what to buy us at the beginning although this changed considerably once we started thinking about it in more depth.
When you are invited to a wedding, choosing a gift is a very personal thing and gift choices vary considerably from couple to couple, family to family and culture to culture. The eventual decision on what actually gets purchased is ultimately down to the person buying the gift. In some cases, it is nice to have the freedom to choose something personal although in other cases it is nice to have a rough framework to work from so that you have some ideas. The choice is very much dependent upon how well you know the couple. If they are close family members, you may wish to purchase something special that is unique to them. In contrast, maybe you are buying for a couple you don't know very well and in which case a gift list is probably a lifeline.
Many couples these days go for funky wedding gift lists from unique boutiques. Lovely as this idea sounds, the word 'boutique' sounds small and expensive and may therefore put some guests off. You then run the risk of only getting a few gifts from your chosen shop along with 27 toasters. Great news if you're into selling kitchenware on e-bay, not such great news if you really wanted a kettle! It is probably better to choose a wedding list with a well-known and nationwide department store. This is
much more accessible for all your guests, especially if it's a high street department store. Guests who wish to go in-store and purchase a gift for you can do so and those who wish to purchase a gift on-line can do so. This seems a much more sensible solution to cater for all your guests. Equally, you can have a great time going in to the store and choosing the items you would like together. Many stores provide you with a hand-held machine that you can zap each barcode with. This is the best part of setting up a wedding list - but don't expect your partner to let you hold the zapping gun because you probably won't be allowed anywhere near it!
