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“What’s the dress code for tomorrow’s meeting?”- A question that I now hear on a regular basis as my sales team prepare to meet with potential clients across the UK.  It’s also a question that I had seldom heard before the start of 2011.

Until recently, we always wore business suits to any meeting, irrespective of what sector the client we were visiting worked in.  Looking back it was inflexible, but it was safe.  “You can’t go wrong with a smart suit” my old boss always used to tell me, and I never even thought that this mantra could be wrong.  Like putting on a school uniform, we therefore donned our smartest suit and boldest tie and headed off without a second thought for what the client might think of our attire.

Demonstrating such inflexibility is strange really, especially when one considers that a key part of Phoenix’s approach is based on understanding our clients and designing solutions that really reflect their culture and values, as well as their learning objectives.   Equally, we put a great emphasis on preparing for every meeting and finding out as much about the potential client’s business and yet no matter what we knew about them, we never thought to change the way we were dressed.

One of my first experiences of ill-matched dress codes arose when a colleague and I turned up at a Computer Games company wearing suits.  Within seconds of meeting our t-shirt wearing hosts, I could detect some clear indifference and there was a distinct feeling that we were ill matched in every way.  No matter what we had to offer from a learning & development perspective, it was a battle we were never going to win.  Needless to say, we didn’t get the business.

Now, the decision on what we should wear is an important part of preparing for any meeting.  Where guidance is needed, we’ll ask the client who are often surprised by the question but are equally very pleased that we’ve taken this level of interest in them.

So while a suit is still a safe option, I’d urge you to take the time to consider who you’re meeting and reflect their culture and values at the earliest opportunity.  Of course, the suit still has a key role and can really make you look the part but dress codes evolve like everything else and you don’t want to be left behind. After all, how often do people wear bowler hats to meetings nowadays?

• Deliver – Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it.

My flooring supplier missed five delivery slots in the space of two weeks; one of the missed slots was promised as a personal delivery by the company owner.

• Get it right! – Make sure you have all the information you need to fulfil the customer’s request.

One of the excuses used by my flooring supplier, after the fifth missed delivery, was that they had the wrong delivery address even though I had confirmed it with them on, at least, four separate occasions

• Take Ownership – Inevitably things sometimes go wrong, take responsibility and personal accountability for putting things right. Do everything you need to do to turn customer dissatisfaction into delight.

If the company I’m referring to had bothered to do anything that they said they were going to do to put things right – I would have simply thought that it was one of those things and been satisfied, they haven’t!

• Communicate – Tell the customer what is happening throughout the process. The value of regular on going contact cannot be underestimated.

The flooring supplier that I used just stopped answering my calls (over 250 of them) deliberately dropping them only replying via email or text message with more broken promises! It got so bad that I was on the verge of contacting a solicitor to investigate how I go about starting legal proceedings to recover my money. Eventually, by text, I was told that the reason the supplier stopped answering my calls was that he was “profoundly embarrassed”. If he had just taken the time to talk to me the situation could have been resolved much sooner.

• Follow up – Find out if the customer is satisfied with the product or service they have received. Ask them what you could do better and what they liked/appreciated about your company. This data is vital in improving the product or service that you offer, differentiating you from your competitors.

Needless to say in my recent experience this has not happened in any way shape or form, except that the partial refund promise has, you’ve guessed it, been broken.

On a final note, think about how many people I’m talking to about my recent terrible experience. Trust me, I’m not just blogging about it, I’m telling anyone who will listen.  Research tells us that the people that I tell will tell between 7 and 10 others about my experience to ensure that they avoid using the same supplier. That’s a lot of feedback and potentially a lot of lost sales.  From a purely commercial perspective how can you afford not to offer customers goodservice?

How do I qualify?

There are a few simple criteria that apply, for a clear straightforward explanation please call Tim, Marina or Edward on 0207 234 0480.

How much is available?

The money available is match funding. So for every £1 you spend, the fund will put in £1, all the way up to £1000 (i.e. £2000 – worth of training)

What training can the grant be used for?

The training can address any aspect of Leadership or Management as long as it can be described as ‘enhancing strategic or people leadership skills with the aim of fostering business growth.’

Phoenix offers several open courses (for details click here) that would be suitable for this grant, or we can provide a tailored solution just for you. Typical topics clients are covering include:

• Creating & Communicating Vision, Values & Organisational Culture
• Setting Ground Rules & Expectations for your People
• Developing an Effective Leadership & Management Style
• Planning & Developing High Performing Teams
• Feedback & Performance Management
• Situational Leadership
  

The fund is finite, so we recommend you get in touch as soon as possible. We’d be delighted to talk you through the opportunity.

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In these challenging economic times, the importance of having commercially aware staff has been brought into sharp focus.  When I worked for Virgin Active (many years ago), the CEO would hold a monthly meeting in which he’d share with all his staff the latest facts and figures; milestones passed and targets yet to be achieved.  As someone with a background in sales I always appreciated this, but many of my colleagues would grumble about attending, believing that because they worked in customer service, or marketing they didn’t need to understand how well the company was performing, or what the current EBITDA was.

Unfortunately, this attitude can be found in many organisations, particularly larger ones, and can be hugely damaging.  Sales people lacking in commercial awareness may end up passing on goods or services at a loss to the company, whilst still managing to achieve their own targets.  Customer service reps may habitually give away more value than the company can really afford.  Developers may spend valuable time on a project that their employer will struggle to bring to market, yet all these staff may still wrongly believe they are doing what’s best for their employer; worse still, they maybe unwittingly creating unnecessary work for colleagues in other departments – especially in organisations where ‘siloing’ is the norm.  All this leads to inefficiency, and ultimately affects the bottom line.

Commercial awareness goes beyond just understanding the financial position.  It means ensuring that all staff understand their leadership’s vision and are working together to achieve the same goals.  It means each department engaging the others when making decisions.  It means working smart, for everyone’s benefit.  It means seeing the bigger picture.

Phoenix run a challenging, business specific and highly practical commercial awareness programme.  We can also help leaders and managers communicate their vision more effectively, and think more strategically.  For more information, please get in touch.

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“I’d rather be a boat with a motor than a cork on the water”.  So says the Global HR Director of a FTSE 250 company that I have had the pleasure of meeting on a few occasions.  After the crash of 2008 his company took a battering as some of its core markets declined, and newly arriving into the business he was clear that sales skills and particularly sales proactivity needed sharpening up: they could bob about helplessly on the tide of the global manufacturing market; or they could fire up the engine, set a clear new course and at least drive the business in the right direction, even if market forces made it tough going in the short term.

I’ve been reminded of his maxim lately as I have observed with admiration the joined-up corporate thinking of one of Phoenix’s Sales Academy clients – a business that has engaged with us to help instil a consistent and up-to-date sales approach in its people.  We have worked with this company for several months in the past year, tailoring and delivering workshops in core sales skills, negotiation, objection handling, and other key areas.  Senior management has embraced the project, and directors have involved themselves with enthusiasm in the initial stages, attending the core training personally so that they can understand exactly what the new approach entails, and how it differs from what they had before.

What has really impressed, though, is how they have taken responsibility for their side of our partnership, and come up with a truly interconnected approach to implementation of the learning they have invested in. By implementation I mean what happens internally in an organisation after training.  It’s the process by which learning is embedded into the team or the company once the training delivery is over, and it’s absolutely critical to the success of any training initiative, for without it the learning will not take hold systematically and sustain its effects.

The key people when it comes to implementation of sales training are the line managers who have responsibility for the day-to-day supervision of the sales team.  They need to recognise their paramount role in supporting the learning and providing the environment in which it can take hold – if they do that then this month’s innovation will easily become next month’s habit.  It’s often cited that a new habit forms in roughly 21 days; so you can see how it’s essential to keep the team on-track and practising what they’ve learned daily within that initial period until new best-practice techniques are embedded.

In this company which is currently flying I have been particularly impressed by the Sales Director: as soon as he understood what our expert sales trainers were going to be delivering to his people, he put enormous energy and thought into designing processes that enshrine the new sales methodology at the heart of everything his team does.  For example, he and his Sales Manager take the time each month to listen to half a dozen sales calls made by every one of the team, and evidence is noted on the key elements of the sale (attitude, knowledge, structure, and questioning) and a ’score’ given for each accordingly.  He and his Sales Manager then give feedback and coaching off the back of these observations, in order to keep the sales people focusing on what will make the greatest difference to their results in the long term.  In addition, he has overseen the creation of Product Sheets that lay out information for the sales team to reference, all reflecting the language & structure of the training. Negotiation grids have been created which make clear which variables are preferable to use when striking a deal for each product.  And they are helped and incentivized on a daily basis to apply it, with a newly formulated commission structure that rewards 50% on the right behaviours and not just the results.  As a result he is seeing a powerful consistency of approach which is creating a virtuous circle, with each sales person constantly reminded of best practice by simply hearing their peers around them.

And as expected, this has all had an immediate positive effect on the figures: June 2011 was their best ever month, and the retention team hit over 125% of their target.

But there’s another element to this too, and it is that the organisation as a whole has embraced the new approach, and decided to weave it into the DNA of the company: from marketing materials to product discussions to customer service, the language and structure of their new sales method is constantly reflected and reinforced.  Thus, everything is pointed in the same direction, and there is very little friction or dissonance.

The motor’s running, they’ve set a clear direction, and they’re leaving bobbing corks for dead.  Exciting times indeed.

I thought I would share some tips with you I have received from our negotiation specialist.

1. Using silence

Saying nothing can sometimes be as powerful as speaking, providing silence is used at the right time and in the right way.

2. Summarising frequently

By definition, negotiations can often be complex, so never be afraid to summarise.

3. Making notes

This too helps keep negotiations on track.

4. Leaving people feeling good at each step

Negotiation typically builds agreement progressively. Make sure you emphasise that each stage is good – preferably for both parties.

5. Reading between the lines

Remember that negotiation is essentially an adversarial process. Watch out particularly for danger phrases that often mean something other than they seem to, even the very opposite.

• “You’re a reasonable fellow.”  Meaning: “I am”.
• “That’s much fairer for both of us.” Meaning: “Especially for me”.

6. Remaining neutral

Maintain neutrality as much and as long as possible. Negotiation works best as a balancing exercise.

7. Concentrating – all the time

Concentrate. Build in time to think if necessary. Use delaying tactics to stop you getting into difficulty.

8. Keeping your powder dry

Beware of acting precipitately. Try not to make an offer, certainly not a final offer, until everything that needs negotiating is on the table.

9. Beware deadlines

It is said that there has not been a deadline in history that was not negotiable. Timing is a variable.

10. Remembering constraints and variables are interchangeable

Almost anything the other side presents as fixed may be made into a variable. The word fixed is as likely to mean we do not want to negotiate this, as it cannot be used as a variable.

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“Do I need qualifications before I can coach? ”

In this day and age coaching qualifications are becoming increasingly popular. Perhaps people are seeking validation, bolstering their CV or is it merely an extension of our league-tabled, ‘measure everything’ culture? However, reflecting on this recently it struck me that the best coaches will often not even realise they’re doing it.

Imagine you knew absolutely nothing about coaching and began to manage a bright team of systems analysts.  You have a surface level knowledge of the system but that’s about all; these guys are experts and have a hunger for spreadsheets, number crunching and data.  You are credible amongst the team members because of your status and achievements from previous positions so they look to you for guidance.

On day two of the job, one of the senior team members approaches you with an intricate problem, and says “I need your help; I am stuck with a system issue”.  Your initial thoughts are how can I possibly help? But you stay calm and invite them to your desk where you begin to find out what the problem is.  First you ask “What are you trying to do?”  They explain the desired outcome and you ask “How would you normally do it?”  They show you and your curiosity for what they need to do is growing, and you begin then to explore the options using their knowledge.

After a handful of your curious questions to understand the problem, a light bulb moment occurs for them: “I can’t believe I didn’t see that” they say.  Just before they go, you check a few things, you say “talk me through how it will work?” and “What are the risks?” and finally “What are you going to do now?”

They answer your final questions and you are confident that they know exactly what they’re doing.

Job done!

To coach a person they must already have the knowledge and skills to be drawn out.  These are two possible scenarios that you might come across: they have a blind spot or some kind of mental block and need a fresh view of the situation, therefore you can enter a coaching conversation; or they don’t yet have the skills or knowledge and coaching is not appropriate – you will need to look at training, telling them directly or referring them to an expert for help.  Below is a common coaching structure, how does it fit with the above example?

1)    What are they trying to achieve?

2)    Where are we right now, what is the reality?

3)    What are your options – what could you do?

4)    What’s the way forwards?

In summary, coaching is about asking questions in order to raise awareness and whilst having a qualification would be great I have a strong feeling that you have at some point already been effectively coaching. Keep it up…

Quite frankly, I would find anyone prancing around in skimpy spandex leotard rather scary; however, on the flip side, others may find it thoroughly motivating.  If we translate this back in to management, what it is telling us is that when trying to motivate people, one size doesn’t fit all.

How many of you reading this blog would consider yourselves as motivators?

When delivering training I often ask the group what makes a motivator? ‘Enthusiastic’, ‘happy’, ‘lively’, ‘development focused’ and ‘full of energy’ are some of the standard responses.  My answer however would be: knowing the people you are trying to motivate is what makes a motivator.

As human beings we all have our own distinctive motivational drivers, they are often drivers that on a surface level are not easy to spot.  For example, if I am motivated by playing team sport, what is it that I might find motivational: the team work, the competitiveness or the challenge?  If I am motivated by doing the filing, what is it that motivates me, the consistency and repetitiveness of the work, the satisfaction of the resultant order, or the recognition I get from doing it well?  These examples illustrate just how easy it can be to make the wrong assumption – finding out what drives people is in itself a challenge.

Your best chance of being a motivator is to know your people, understand what floats their boat and why.  Then create an environment and provide the conditions that stimulate desire for them to work towards the goal.

Recognise, challenge, delegate, develop, praise, train and as a leader your people will respect you, and both your team and you will reap the benefits of high performance and happy employees.

And whatever you do, don’t wear a spandex leotard into my office, it won’t work!

are often targeted as the reason why they are not achieving great results.  This creates a knock on effect – the managers continue to put pressure on the sales team to “close, close, close”.  The result of this pressure means that the sales person focuses on what they believe to be a closing technique.  The famous sales mantra from the days of power selling springs to mind “always be closing”.  I wonder if there is any logic telling sales people to do this or is it simply an attempt effect their mentality and develop an aggressive manner when selling, only concerned with getting a result.

I suppose every sales person should be concerned with getting the result they set out to achieve.  However the problem with only worrying about closing is that the rest of your sales technique and structure will probably suffer.  Where I do agree with the “always be closing” mantra is in as much that you should always be doing something to help you close the sale.  One analogy that we discussed during the workshops was that closing should be like the closing of the barn door once you have the cow in the barn.  The point being that closing the door should be a simple task once the cow has wondered happily into the barn, because they have wanted to.  The sales person must get the client to want the product/service that they are selling and then close behind them.  If you try to close when the cow is halfway through the door it can be a tricky process!!

So what will help you close the sale comfortably?  Firstly, have an objective.  Never go into a call or meeting with a see how it goes attitude, it makes it incredibly difficult to gain an advance or a close.  Secondly, use questions to develop a need to sell against.  Questions, when used effectively will help change the clients view of the issues and problems they are facing, heightening needs means that the client is more likely to look for a solution.  (the cow starts to move).  Thirdly, gain agreement from the client that they do have needs and recognise them.  Fourthly, when demonstrating how the product or service will help the client, make sure you gain agreement from the client that they do recognise this and are not simply nodding politely.  Finally make a clear suggestion as to what they should buy and ask for the business.  Do not ask “is that the sort of thing you’d be interested in?” or “how does that sound?” or any variation of the above.  You should have demonstrated exactly how it would help them and therefore it is question how much they should buy not whether they will buy or whether they like it!

So, always be doing something to help you close, listen for buying signals and respond quickly, using those opportunities to gain agreement and close.  Always seek to gain an advance from each call or meeting.  All of your closing should revolve around progress.  Good closing skills require all the key elements of sales structure to be used: good introduction, good questioning and need development, good use of the products features and therefore benefits and then an awareness of when to close and a confidence to do so.

There is little doubt that to develop & design a comprehensive programme is more time consuming than when working on a one off event. However, by spending genuine quality time in accurately understanding and identifying your training requirements you will almost always guarantee higher returns for the business.

To get a clear understanding of your company’s behavioural and cultural background and the challenges you are currently facing, we recommend that the Learning consultant actually spends most of their development time on site – “embedded” if you like – so that they are almost viewed as part of your organisation. This not only helps them to see at first hand where the challenges are, but also goes a long way to achieving participant buy in.  In our experience, participants are much more likely to respond positively to the training if they feel their input is valued and they are familiar with the trainer and his or her way of working.  If you’re going to pay for development work – make sure you can see or hear what you’re getting!

Once delivery begins, any effective ongoing programme should ensure a much more sustainable learning experience. We recommend that each module is delivered every 4-6 weeks, which allows enough time to put into practice what has been learnt back at work whilst still being close enough to keep the momentum and motivation going. We also encourage participants to keep a learning diary in between modules which helps them remain focused, as well as providing great points for review (successes and failures) at the next session.

Before committing to such a major investment, it’s always worth considering how will you actually support the programme internally? One way of doing this really effectively is by conducting a Senior Management Master Class before the programme actually begins.  This will not only provide this key group with an overview of the tools & techniques used on the programme but will also provide them with some clear guidelines on what they can do before, during and after each event to help their colleagues get the most out of it.  In our experience, doing it in this way makes a massive difference.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that we’ll also support you at every stage, ensuring that you get exactly the results you were aiming for.  It takes a bit more planning, but for the right type of organisation, a management or leadership development programme can deliver the most effective learning experience.