Phoenix Training

Posts Tagged ‘Business’

How To Measure Training

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Yellow Tape Measure
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As a relationship manager at Phoenix, I am often consulted (or even challenged!) by clients about how to measure the effects of the training they commission – a perfectly natural wish, because they have generally identified an area to improve in their organisation or business, and they want to be sure that improvement has taken place.

With that in mind, I thought I would put down my own personal thoughts on how training can be evaluated effectively, in order to check that the time & budget being spent on training are producing the desired returns at every level: organisational, departmental, team and individual.

Inevitably there is a balance to be struck when evaluating the benefits of soft-skills training.  On the one hand, the more time and resources invested, particularly up front in benchmarking of criteria, the more reliable the evaluation becomes.  However, on the other hand, there is a point at which the returns on this extra investment are outweighed by other priorities – as there is too great a ‘cost’ in carrying it out.  Remember also that even the most rigorous and ‘scientific’ evaluation will produce results which in the opinion of many commentators are indicative and evidential rather than solidly proven in the soft-skills context – there are simply too many variable factors at work in most organizations for the effects of training to be measurable in terms of a quantifiable number or percentage.  For this reason, I advocate measurement of training through the observation and benchmarking of behaviours above all else, as I believe this is the truest test of whether learning is effective over the mid- to long-term.

With positive cooperation from participants, evaluation processes can even contribute to the fixing and application of new learning, rather than simply measuring it; another reason to evaluate wherever possible.

It may be that the depth and scope of evaluation varies from course to course, depending on the topic or the group; but a workable ‘full’ evaluation would consist of the following:

  1. Benchmarking of participants’ behaviour in relation to the course topic, at some point pre-training.  “Where are they now?”  This can be established through assessment centres, 360-degree feedback, through the Personal Review process, or simply by self-scoring.  Phoenix are able to help with the preparation or implementation of these as required.
  2. What are the objectives for the training, in the light of step 1?  What will success look like (i.e. expressed as behavioural change)?
  3. TRAINING TAKES PLACE
  4. Post-course feedback forms check that participants appreciated the training, and that their initial response to it was positive.  It is important for a culture of learning that training be enjoyable, and that participants return from courses inspired and energised by it, and advocating it to others.
  5. The next step is for line management to de-brief participants, make an initial check that objectives as expressed before the course have been addressed, and to review any new objectives that have been set as a result of the course.
  6. Next, at a period of between 3 to 6 months, behaviours in relation to the course topic should be re-assessed, preferably by the same method as before the training, in order to ascertain that positive change has occurred.  This is the most important stage of all, since it provides the evidence that participants are using what they learned.  In some cases it may be appropriate simply to ask participants to self-report what they are doing differently as time goes by – but in others, something more objective, such as 360s, will be preferable.
  7. Finally, it is important to recognise that even the most high impact training needs to be supported internally, and the right behaviours and practices reinforced positively by line managers and the overall culture of the organisation.  If the prevalent culture is at odds with the training messages, the status quo will erode the changes.  In line with this, it is useful to recognise that the best messages bear repeating, and thus we would recommend that all training be followed up by refresher workshops of a similar nature within a 12-month period.

Tim Holmes – Account Director, Phoenix Training

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Telephone Sales

Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Touch DDB - Our operators are standing by!
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With the ever increasing reliance on email, there is a feeling that sales people are forgetting the basics of actually getting on the phone and selling.  Not too many years ago, sales departments were alive with the general hubbub of chatter and “sales noise”.  Nowadays I find myself walking through sales departments and being struck by a wall of silence, only broken by the click of the keyboard.  The big problem is that email although hugely convenient, does not sell!  The telephone conversation should always make more progress.

What is stopping sales people from using the phone? Firstly, as I mentioned, convenience; it is easier to send an email to a client than phone them and still feel like you are working hard.  First tip:  if you are about to write an email to a client, ask yourself the question “could I phone instead?”  Inevitably the answer will be yes.

Sales people get themselves into to what could be referred to as “avoidance focus” behaviour.  This is where they have got themselves into what is effectively a rut.  Their expectation is low and so their phone calls lack impact and that leads to failure so they start to talk themselves out of making calls because they don’t like the result.  To get out of this rut, the sales person has to start developing “approach focus behaviours”.

To do this, try these ideas:

1)    Start making calls early in the day and in doing so get some momentum going.  You will feel much more positive about your day generally if you have made twenty five calls by ten o’clock.

2)    Set yourself targets.  Can you call ten potential clients by the end of the day?  Can you find out a new need from your existing client base?  Sales people tend to respond better under pressure.  When the deadline is not upon you, you need to create your own pressure.

3)    If you have a successful call, don’t rest on your laurels and have a celebratory cup of tea, make five more off the back of that success and momentum.

4)    Equally if you make a call that does not get the desired result, do not sit and mull it over and become depressed by you lack of progress.  Analyse the call, try to identify areas or techniques that you could improve and call someone else.

5)    Don’t be put off by an abrupt or rude response.  People react in all sorts of ways for all sorts of reasons.  It is almost always not personal and should not be taken as such.

6)    Turn your email off for a day and concentrate solely on telephone sales.  Email by its nature is not an “urgent” tool.  If people need to get in contact they can call you.  Likewise if people don’t want to respond to you they don’t have to if you send an email.  Admittedly they don’t have to take your call but it is harder to turn down.

7)    Make sure you have an objective for your call.  Think about how you can gain attention quickly.  Do not sound like you have made fifty calls that day (even though you might have)

8)    Variety can help to maintain momentum.  Call different types of clients, present different products (if relevant), mix up your calling pattern to maintain impact.

9)    Back yourself!  Have belief in your ability to make the call and get the result.  Use techniques and objectives to create interest and engagement.

10)   Positive, imaginative and creative telephone sales can be extremely effective, certainly more effective than a stream of emails.  Think about what sort of impression you are making on your client if you phone them and ask them not if they got your proposal but whether they could see how it would benefit them and if they had any questions.  Sales is all about impact, the telephone call does that far more effectively than the email.

Bill Osmond – MD of Phoenix Training

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Un-Real Estate Agent

Thursday, February 18th, 2010
Estate Agent Overload
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As Phoenix continue to grow steadily, having recently taken on another full time trainer, we decided that now would be a good time to review our existing office and training space and explore the possibility of moving into somewhere larger.

The recession has led to a surplus of office space in central London and we thought that there would be a good chance of securing a long term lease at a bargain price.  What’s more, we were sure that London’s lettings agents would be falling over themselves to convince us of the value of their properties and how they would be just ideal for a training company with our particular needs.  Sadly, our experience of the latter could not have been more different.

Now, I know estate agents are an easy target but I can assure you that this isn’t yet another dig at the profession as a whole.  It is however designed to expose the lack of basic sales skills that those we met displayed, and to reinforce how critical it is to have the core skills in place before you can even hope to sell in today’s tough markets.

On arriving at the first potential office, we were left hanging around for 15 minutes before the agent finally arrived.  We’re all late on occasions and there may well have been a good reason, but the very least we could have expected was a call to manage our expectations.  Every week, I’m amazed by sales people who think that it is acceptable to turn up ten, fifteen or even thirty minutes late without so much as a phone call.  It’s not, and in most cases you’ve lost the sale before you’ve even begun.

Nevertheless, we’re still keen buyers so, on this occasion, the agent’s transgression will be forgotten if he can really convince us of how this office space will work for us.  On first inspection, it all looks pretty good – modern, stylish and in a great location – but we just couldn’t visualise where the training room would go, mainly because the whole space was still a shell.  We turn to the expert for inspiration, but he’s actually walked away to the other side of the space to take a mobile phone call, and is merrily chatting away oblivious to us!  The moment is lost.  On finally regaining his attention, his answers lack conviction and we’re left totally unconvinced by the potential of the office.  On reflection, the phone incident, though scarcely believable, was hopefully a never to be repeated mistake; however, from a sales perspective, the lack of expertise was even more worrying and is actually very common indeed.  If you’re going to sell anything – property, software, pharmaceuticals, even training services – you must know all there is to know about your product or service and be able to relate this knowledge to your customer.

Despite our initial experience, we were still in the market for a new office, so headed off to view another couple of options with high hopes.  Both agents were on time which was a good start and both had properties with real potential and yet, once again, simple mistakes were made that resulted in the collapse of the sale.  At the first, we were left abandoned in the office whilst the agent enjoyed some banter with the builders over the road!  With no one to ask about the details, how could we be expected to commit?  Just like our mobile phone friend, they demonstrated an unbelievable lack of interest in us.

The next and final viewing was going well, until the agent admitted that the landlord was not interested in the property as a whole and that he doubted he’d be willing to modernize the 1970’s décor in the common areas.  Now honesty is a real virtue, but by creating a picture of uncertainty and possible conflict with the landlord, he immediately lost us.  Potential customers want assurances and certainty before they commit, not vagueness and ambiguity.

You may think that I’ve exaggerated things here, but I can assure you these experiences are very real indeed and I’m sure they are repeated in sales situations in many different markets.  One final thing that struck me with all three agents, was that not one of them even asked us what we actually did – maybe they already knew, but it is this lack of basic questioning and interest in our business that meant we were never going to commit.    Maybe we just got a bad bunch who have got lazy, simply used to taking orders rather than actually selling, but in the current climate a return to the basics would go a long way to winning more business.

We’ve now given up the search for a new office, instead looking for a larger space at our current Leathermarket site run by Workspace.  What’s more, we’ve recently run some training events for their site managers to make sure that they properly engage with the customers and create a fantastic picture of what the office will look like once they’ve moved in. After all, it’s this image that will create the real desire in the customer to move in.  Simple but effective.

Oliver Osmond – Sales Director, Phoenix Training

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How to be well organised

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Dear Diary

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One of the real secrets of business success is the ability to be well organised. Don’t be fooled by those that say it’s possible to achieve great things in business without being organised. The best leaders and those who leverage the effects of others to best effect are those who are best organised. So here are some top tips to ensure that you are organised to maximize the effect you have in business.

  • Separate tasks by importance and timescale. Those tasks which are both important and urgent should always be done first and before those tasks which are simply important or simply urgent.
  • Use your diary to schedule tasks as well as meetings. Most people just use a diary for meetings but the best use it to also schedule those urgent and important tasks and ensure that they get done.
  • Set clear goals. Without these, how will you know when you have succeeded? The goals should be clear, unambiguous and visible. Take a moment each day to reinforce the goals you have and also to make sure that each task you complete moves you closer to achieving at least one goal. If you take an action that does not move you closer to achieving a goal then ask yourself why you took such action. It’s probable that you have wasted effort.
  • Schedule quiet time. Depending on when you perform your best work, early or late in the day, and ensure that you are in the office before or after most people. This is quiet time which makes it the most valuable time to do important work. There are likely to be no interruptions, phones ringing or emergencies that demand your attention. Use this time wisely.

If you follow the above four points consistently and regularly then you find that you have more time which in turn will mean more opportunity to make a difference to your business.

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What makes a good sales person?

Thursday, February 4th, 2010
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - SEPTEMBER 30: City w...

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Having worked with many sales people over many years, I am often asked, as I was last week, “what makes a good sales person”.  I used to work in the city many years ago, straight after leaving school.  I didn’t do very well and left after about two years.  At my leaving do, one of the senior traders said to me “you’d make a good sales person”.  At the time I didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or as a way of saying, “why on earth did you think you’d be a good stockbroker!!”  His justification for this statement was that he believed I would be able to talk enthusiastically about my products and generally get on well with people.  I guess it was a form of compliment.  I now find his statement interesting because it starts to examine what people think makes a good sales person.  It also shows what people think about sales people.

Generally sales people don’t get a good press in this country.  They are often considered to be a pain.  When introducing my wife (girlfriend at the time) to some of my family years ago, she was asked what she did for a living by my cousin (I think) and she said enthusiastically that she sold advertising for a national newspaper.  “Oh,” he said, “so you are one of those annoying people that phones me all the time trying to sell me something.”  Not a great introduction to that branch of my family!  Also not true on many levels.

Salesman

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Why is it that many sales people are viewed as annoying?  I think that the first thing is that they do not sell with the client or potential client in mind.  They are totally fixed on hitting their targets and selling what they want you to buy.  This almost immediately creates a competitive flavour to the conversation.  They try to “get you to buy”.  If a sales person thinks like a buyer they will develop a far stronger relationship.  Why might they want or need to buy from you?  That is the first question a sales person could ask themselves.  Then consider how they can develop a need for the product and match the two together.  Sales people become annoying when they are constantly in contact with a potential buyer selling without considering the needs of the buyer.

It is not only the needs they do not consider.  They do not consider the buyer’s situation.  Are they busy?  Are they stressed? Knowing when to sell is an art, sales people are always told to be persistent but I would add a warning, think about your buyer and think if it is what you would want.

Talking a lot is something associated with ‘good’ sales people.  ‘Having the gift of the gab’, is often the phrase used.  I think learning when to talk is more important.  Talkative sales people are often annoying.  How many times has someone talked and talked and talked, trying to sell you something.  Less is definitely more.  Using information with relevance is one of the keys to successful selling.

Generally, sales people don’t need to talk a lot, they don’t need to be thick skinned, they don’t need to be super enthusiastic and positive.  They need to use some of all of those but they need to know when to use them.  They need to know when to talk and when to listen.  They need to do what they say they will do. Too many over enthusiastic sales people promise much and deliver little.

Some of the best sales people I have ever come across were successful because they did exactly what they said they would do.  They would call back when they said they would, they would send proposals when they said they would, and they generally left such a good impression the client would buy readily from them.  One thing these characters did not do was to over-elaborate matters.  Accuracy and dependability are vital.

So, what makes a good sales person is still a difficult one to answer.  I firmly believe that anyone can learn to sell, personality is one part of sales but is it more important than technique?  I think that a quiet personality can sell as well as a loud “talk the hind legs off a donkey” type character, if not better.  Ultimately the one thing that really makes the difference is the ability to think as the buyer would.  If you can work out what drives the buyer you are able to adapt your selling style to meet that person’s requirements on many levels which will lead to truly successful sales results.

Bill Osmond – MD of Phoenix

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New Year Sales Tips – Bill Osmond

Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Golf, a dexterity sport.
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Going into a new year, it is always a good idea to address the techniques you are using to hit your sales targets.  Many sales people return from the Christmas break full of good intentions but after a few days, momentum is lost and they fall into the same old routine.  Now is the time to assess your existing tactics, be honest and make changes! The following tips are designed to help you rethink your approach and make solid changes and not try to do too much too soon.  At this time of year people try to lose weight, the sensible ones will take it steadily and gradually lose weight , the foolish will try to lose two stone a week and get fed up when it doesn’t happen.

Tip number one: always be prepared to adapt your approach to suit the client and the selling environment.  A sales person must be flexible.  When selling you must try to match not only the client’s needs but also their buying style and manner.

The second tip is “remember sales structure and technique”.  After the first tip this might sound a little bit of a contradiction.  Sales people worry that by using a solid structure they might become robotic in their selling style.  Actually a solid sales structure enables a sales person to be more flexible.  In sport, top performers all have fantastic technique, they have a core of solid skills that enable them to adapt and flex, when necessary.  Golf is a good example of this.  Golfers have all manner of different scenarios to battle with; it is the top technicians that can play effectively out of bunkers, water, trees!  As a sales person’s experience grows they tend to drop their structure and technique and this leads to problems, normally in the form of objections.

The third tip for the New Year is; through questioning, find needs not information.  Information does not help a sales person as much as needs.  Too many sales people question a potential client but do not create or establish needs.  This means that there is no urgency created and the potential client only sees what is being sold as an option not a necessity.  Be brave, focus on problems and needs.

Tip four; after questioning the client, gain agreement that you have indeed not only created but understood their needs.  This agreement is vital because the buyer is accepting that that they have a need that needs a solution.  Too often a sales person will assume what the client needs and sell against that assumption.  Assumptions are created by a sales person thinking that this client will be like the last one they spoke to.  Tip four (b) treat all clients as individuals.

Tip five: use what you find.  Once needs have been created and agreed, sell against them.  Too often sales people present a lot of information about their products or services but do not relate it to the client’s needs.  Always explain how the product will help the client.

Tip six: Revise or update your product knowledge. I am always staggered by how little even experienced sales people seem to know about their products or services.  Test yourself, think of as many features of your product or service that you can.  I think that you should be able to come up with at least fifty.  Too often sales people use only a handful of features and this makes it hard to create a tailored presentation that matches exactly the needs of the client.  If it is too general it will probably only match some of the clients needs and this will lead to objections.

Tip seven: set yourself activity targets.  Financial targets tell you how much revenue you need to bring in, activity targets tell you how to get there.  Activity targets could be number of calls to make in a day, how many meetings to attend in a month, how many new clients need to contacted in a month.  I would be confident that if a sales person was hitting their “activity targets” they would almost certainly hit their financial targets.

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Team Building Day – Yapp Brothers – by Marina Wirkner

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I recently had the honour of co-facilitating a Team Building Day with Yapp Brothers Wine Merchants.  Being part of the Sales team here at Phoenix, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to see up close exactly how this type of event is successfully conducted.

yappThe focus of the day was about working more effectively together and increasing trust and communication throughout the team. Following a consultation with two members of the Executive team, an event was designed that would highlight the business challenges that were currently being faced and the positive impact that effective teamwork, communication and collaboration would have on both the results and the engagement and motivation of the whole team

I had heard a lot about team building days previously and I always wondered what they were about and what participants actually learn on a day like this. Even more importantly, I had questioned how what happened on a team building day would link back to the everyday working environment. I have to say though that the whole event really opened my eyes; it was delivered in a really unique style, incorporating high levels of creativity, interaction and challenge!

One of the things that I noticed was that initially the participants were a bit reluctant to put all their trust in each other believingScoop that they were in competition, although that was never in the brief they received. Once they realised that by working together they could achieve more, they began to share information and resources with amazing results.

Through effective communication, collaboration, teamwork and trust, everyone worked more efficiently and tasks were finished far quicker. The difference in the levels of individual and collective motivation, commitment to the task and quality of the results was astounding.

As we started the review of the activity, one of things that I found most interesting was that it was the participants, rather than waiting for the facilitator to do it, that recognised and highlighted many of the things that I have mentioned. Talking openly about what had happened during the activity and the impact that it had on them, they also started to relate many of the examples to work specific situations. Finally, and without much prompting, they also began to plan how they needed to take the ‘learns’ from the activity and apply them back at work to achieve a truly collaborative result.

pyramidHaving observed the event and spoken with the members of the Executive team, it is apparent that the Team Building day is simply the first step towards the embedding of a new set of team behaviours that will improve results even further. The Executive team were quick to recognise that to embed and sustain the change, will require their time and continued focus to make the new behaviours habitual.

Yapp Brothers have begun this process and are already beginning to establish their ground rules. It is these behavioural ground rules that will underpin the vision, values and performance of the company going forward.  Phoenix has and will continue to support this process. Three months later it is clear to everyone that the day was not simply fun but more importantly it has created a real difference in their work environment with the participants consistently still demonstrating the collaborative team behaviours and seeing a tangible difference in motivation and results .

Stick GameOne of the conclusions that I drew from attending the event is that a day out of the office rather than just being fun needs to give people a chance to stop for a moment, step back from their day to day tasks and spend a bit of time re-evaluating their strengths & development areas.  People need to be given the opportunity to ask themselves – what works for me currently or what am I good at? What is more challenging or more difficult?  How can I begin to work or build upon and address these areas? And finally what help, direction or support do I need for others around me?  From a team perspective, a day like this offers the chance for people to get to know each other again even often after working together for years. It can be a real eye opener for people to become more aware of and appreciate others’ strengths. They can then truly start to recognise and implement  their strengths to achieve the maximum individual, collective and business potential.

It was a brilliant day and I’m really looking forward to getting involved in another event soon!Thriller dance 1Thriller dance

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Ongoing Sales Technique Development – Bill Osmond

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

To improve their skills, sales people often attend training courses. As someone who runs a training company this is something to be applauded and encouraged.  In my ideal world sales people would feel the need to attend a training session of some sort every week.  However, financial constraints often put a limit on how many courses a sales person can attend and so sales people end up attending workshops every so often at best, unless their employers are totally committed to a training culture and invest huge amounts of money and time to develop their team.

So given that the average sales person is only likely to attend one or two courses per year, what else can the sales person do to develop their skills?  Training often provides momentum, and sales people often return from a course full of enthusiasm and new ideas.  They are keen to put into practice what they have learnt and try to use new ideas.  In short, the course has done its job.  No one or two day course will change behaviours completely but it can start the process.

At the start of most years, many people join gyms and head off to their first workout with great gusto and enthusiasm; they meet an inspirational instructor who talks them through what they need to do in order to get fit.  After the first session they leave, excited and ready to become a fit, healthy, powerful, Adonis!  What happens next? gym-pic-2Most people struggle to put into action what the instructor suggested.  They slip back into bad habits.

As do sales people.  After leaving the course, the temptation to return to what they used to do is strong.  To use what they have learnt, they must adopt a strong mentality.  Same as the gym goer, if the lifestyle around the gym sessions does not change the progress will be slower.  I know that people say that going to the gym means that they can drink as much as they like and eat loads of cream cakes, but that seems to be a “treading water” tactic rather than a progressive tactic.

So my advice for you as a sales person is: go on a sales course, learn some new ideas and techniques, come back raring to go!  Then think about how you will adopt the new ideas and stick to them.  Try to break habits.  Sales people often return to tried and tested methods more through habit than anything else.  People do things in a certain way because they have always done them that way.  A sales person should always evaluate what they are doing.  At the end of each week, write a list of what worked, what didn’t and what you could change.  Try wearing your watch on the opposite wrist to what you are used to, see how it feels.  After a week or so it will feel more comfortable and after a month or so, you will wonder why you ever wore it on the other wrist.  This will remind to try to use something new.  Try a new route to work… basically, try anything that breaks the routine, this will help you to adopt new techniques and give you the mentality to stick to them.

At the end of the month or the quarter, evaluate again.  Ask yourself, honestly, how are you doing?  What did I do this month that was better than last month, different to last month, worse than last month and therefore what can I change for next month?  To get fit, you could go to the gym or run round the park but to get really fit and make permanent changes to your health, your lifestyle will have to change as well.  I know it’s not quite the same thing but you can see the connection, I hope.  Sales people must adapt their approach to make real sustainable changes to their performance.  Constant evaluation, habit changing tactics and the setting of personal objectives are three things that could be done to make ongoing changes.  Einstein’s definition of insanity crops up on many training courses, sometimes not always relevant but I think to most sales people it is applicable:  “when a person does the same thing over  and over and expects to get a different result”.

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We laugh, but have we done it!

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Laughing Donkey
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Whilst running training courses, it is always nice to have a series of anecdotes or stories to highlight key learning points.  For all the models and structures that surround a subject like sales, I often find an actual example of what a sales person has done, works really well.  It is by showing and highlighting what not to do that sales people start to see how techniques and skills can really help them.  Fortunately, sales people in all sorts of environments provide me with an endless stream of examples of “what not to do”.

Possibly one reason as to why these mistakes and errors creep in could be pressure.  As pressure grows on sales people, techniques get pushed aside and sales people start to use what I term “street sales” techniques.  These revolve around getting a sale as quickly as possible. The results can be catastrophic not only for short term business but for long term as well.  However much pressure a sales person feels that they under, they should always use solid techniques to achieve a sale.

It is not just pressure that leads to poor sales technique; over confidence can lead to some terrible mistakes.  Experienced sales people often get into routines and do not change their approach, “because it worked once”.  Poor training is a major factor as to why sales people start using random tactics.  If you are not pointed in the right direction how do you know what to use?

So what do sales people do, that in a training room one can laugh and say knowingly “I would never do that”.  All of these are true and some more disastrous than others but the common denominator being that each sales person had no idea of what they were doing in terms of damage!

  • A sales person once phoned me and asked to speak to Mr. Osborne, I politely told them it was Mr. Osmond, he said Osbourne, I said again, no Osmond, O.S.M.O.N.D, to which he replied, “yea, whatever”. That was an obvious example of someone thinking I just want to sell to you, so his brain is moving quickly to where he wants to be. Unfortunately he has let the cat out of the bag and verbalised that feeling. Lesson: get the customers name right and take your time. He now has no chance of ever selling anything to me.
  • I walked into a car showroom and told the guy I needed a bigger car because we had twins and needed more space. To cut a long story short, he showed me a Ford Galaxy and sat me in the front seat. He then proudly demonstrated the front and back parking sensors, returning to me, pronouncing that parking sensors are now standard on Galaxy’s. As a sales trainer, I felt like saying to him, “what in my conversation has led to think that I need help with my parking?” Lesson: don’t tell someone what you think is good about your product. Tell me what will help me. All I needed to know was whether my double buggy would fit in the car.
  • I was buying a digital camera for my office recently and asked the assistant for a camera that was light weight and easy to use. He got me a camera off the shelf, which fitted the bill perfectly. As I was just about to say that all seemed fine and could I buy it, he told that “the other excellent thing about this camera was that it had sepia mode and sports mode”. Now I was starting to think that I was about to pay for things that I simply did not need. Lesson: do not over sell, tell the customer only features that can be of benefit to them.
  • When I walked in a clothes shop, with two of my children, I was somewhat surprised by an assistant who greeted me with the phrase “Alright big fella” Quite an extreme example, but over-familiarity with a customer does not sell. I wanted to know where the jeans were. He thinks he’s getting on well with me. Lesson: earn the right to be familiar, by being solid and professional, you can develop a business relationship before you are their best mate.

Some are more extreme than others but these examples show how easy it is for sales people to slip into bad habits, thinking they are increasing the likelihood of making a sale.  Beware!

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On-boarding – lessons from a new hire!

Monday, December 7th, 2009

By Lawrence White – [New] Senior Learning Consultant at Phoenix Training and Development

lawrence-white-imageWell, my last few weeks have felt like a real rollercoaster ride.  Eight weeks ago I was happily leading a successful team of sales managers, delivering financial solutions to the mass affluent market in Yorkshire.  Today, I’m sat in my new London office with my new colleagues enjoying excitement and challenge in equal measure and looking forward to a new chapter in my life, returning to a dedicated role in people development.  When asked if I’d like to contribute something to the blog my thoughts went back to a previous role – that of Induction Delivery Manager looking after the needs of around 3000 new hires for a large corporate. In particular my thoughts turn to two key areas.

Firstly, close attention to the emotional journey any new-hire is likely to go through is crucial to their success.  The on-boarding process needs to recognise that journey and help the new-hire celebrate and retain the emotional and motivational ‘highs’.  It also needs to anticipate and recognise the potential lows and help the new-hire deal with the associated emotional impact.  Having now been both recruiter and ‘recruited’ the experiences have, once again, put the different perspectives into sharp focus.  One thing is undoubted, both the hiring manager and the new starter have a common interest at the outset – success.  The question is what does ’success’ look like for both and are they similar?

The challenge this throws squarely in front of the hiring manager – ‘how do you have a generic on-boarding process that caters for the needs of individuals?’.  It boils down to one thing – know your people.  Not just your new-hire but those people you already have that are likely to be the key influencers in the individual’s early development.  Checking in regularly with you new-hire is crucial.  You need to pulse check motivation.  As managers we often correlate motivation with productivity.  What’s missed is the link – development.  In order to be more productive I need to develop.  A strong belief I have brought with me to Phoenix is that, in order to develop, individuals have to have to want to learn.  For new hires or ‘old hands’ or indeed anywhere in between, the effective manager will know how to motivate the individual.

This brings me to the second part of successful on-boarding of the ‘new-hire’.  That of being aligned with the company vision, goals and values.  I spent my first day in the training room with Bill (MD and trainer) observing Phoenix’s Essential Management open course here in London.  It re-affirmed the pre-hire belief that my own values and beliefs were aligned with that of my new employer.  Imagine if they weren’t!  And it’s not just being ‘told’ the company values – as a new hire it’s vital to see those values coming through in the behaviour of leaders, managers, peers and teams.  Again this confers a responsibility on the manager to explore the individual’s values and ensuring that those of the company are communicated in a way that demonstrates that ‘you’ve made the right choice’.

Having had my confirmations that I’ve made the right choice I’m now on the lookout for lots of work – ah, the power of motivation!

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