Le Leader, le changement, et l’être humain

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Le Leader, le changement, et l’être humain

Je suis née au Québec et j’ai été élevée aux Etats-Unis. Je eu la chance de travailler à travers le Québec, le Canada et les États-Unis. Conseillère stratégique, gestionnaire de projet, gestionnaire de l’amélioration continue, directrice des opérations, et directrice des ventes pour plusieurs organisations internationales. Mon expérience d’adjointe à coordonnatrice, de chargée de projets à gestionnaire de projets, de directrice du marketing à directrice des ventes, de directrice des opérations au service-conseil, j’ai eu la chance d’œuvrer dans un monde d’affaires professionnelles et diversifiées. Première femme à faire partie d’un regroupement nord-américain composé d’hommes d’affaires canadiens et américains pour une entreprise spécialiste en groupe motopropulseur de Québec. Instigatrice et collaboratrice à la mise en œuvre de plusieurs projets marketing et de ventes nationaux. Personne-ressource et lien d’affaires auprès de manufacturiers de grandes renommées internationales. Mes domaines d’expertise :  Gestion de projets • gestion du changement • gestion d’amélioration des processus industriels, dans le transport routier, en technologies d’informations et des soins de la santé • gestion des ventes et marketing • restructuration organisationnelle • plan de communication • plan de formation • développement d’outils de gestion.

Le Leader, le changement, et l’être humain

Le changement semble perpétuel tout autour de nous.  La vie, comme le travail, évolue rapidement en raison des nouvelles technologies et la facilité d’accès aux informations.  Nous sommes dans une ère de questionnement continuel, de renouvellement et d’amélioration.  Je crois avoir appris à vivre assez bien avec le changement.  Je suis motivée par le changement parce que j’y ai, jusqu’à présent, trouvé ma force.  Je suis une personne qui s’adapte facilement à un nouvel environnement. Que ce soit un déménagement, un voyage en pays étranger ou un changement de plan de route; je digère, je réfléchis et puis je réajuste mon tir pour mieux m’adapter à la situation.

Il y a déjà plusieurs années, on m’avait proposé le poste de gestionnaire de projets pour une entreprise spécialiste en groupe motopropulseur.  Imaginez-vous une femme blonde, sans formation adéquate, sans connaissance technique, plongée dans un monde d’hommes, qui vit tout un changement et qui doit vendre le changement ; soit d’implanter de nouvelles façons de faire en gestion de réparation et pour le service à la clientèle. J’ai fait beaucoup d’erreurs, mais j’ai réussi à mener le projet à terme en m’adaptant à chaque obstacle. J’ai dû implanter le projet dans une succursale là où j’étais peu connue, afin de réduire les réticences concernant mon manque d’expérience.

Aujourd’hui, avec le recul, je pourrais l’implanter beaucoup plus rapidement. J’ai appris à mieux planifier et implanter le changement en tenant compte d’un facteur majeur, soit la culture organisationnelle en place et la résistance prévisible à laquelle il faut faire face au cours du processus de changement. La réussite d’un projet dépend non seulement des livrables, du budget, de l’échéancier et de l’équipe, mais également de notre capacité à gérer le changement dans l’entreprise.

On peut tout planifier sur papier : l’équipement, les ressources, les résultats voulus, cependant il ne faut jamais oublier les êtres humains directement impliqués et non impliqués.  Il ne faut pas sous-estimer les défis du changement. Il faut être à l’affut des réactions de toutes personnes de près ou de loin qui devront faire face au changement. N’hésitez pas à consulter tous les groupes de l’entreprise afin d’obtenir leurs avis concernant les projets de changements prévus dans l’entreprise.

Le changement demande du temps. L’individualité à maintenir les conditions existantes pourra être forte. On peut se sentir à l’abri par la familiarité. Nous trouvons du réconfort dans ce que nous savons déjà. Il n’est pas nécessaire de s’adapter à des choses que nous connaissons. Selon Jennifer L. Kunst, PhD. « C’est pourquoi il est si difficile de briser une habitude, même si nous savons que ce n’est pas bon pour nous. Nous pensons que nous avons besoin de ce que nous essayons d’abandonner ».

Il ne faut jamais sauter des étapes ou introduire le changement de force.  Michel Crozier, sociologue français, citait – « on ne peut pas faire changer les individus de façons autoritaires et coercitives ». En tant que leader du changement, il est particulièrement important de comprendre les émotions que les changements peuvent générer chez les personnes concernées. Nous devons faire passer l’être humain avant l’objectif ou le résultat à atteindre, car ce dernier peut parfois sembler plus important que ce que les individus vivent pendant le changement.

Avant d’amorcer un projet de changement, assurez-vous d’inclure une planification pour des périodes de consultation en entreprise avec non seulement la direction, mais aussi avec tous les employés qu’ils soient impliqués de près ou de loin. Vous seriez surpris d’avoir de la rétroaction importante d’employés qui sont loin d’être atteints par ce changement et qui peuvent être favorables au succès du projet.

Selon Daryl Conner, auteur du livre Managing at the Speed of Change, il faut également déterminer si ce changement est mineur ou majeur.  C’est-à-dire « cartographier le portrait humain et examiner les cinq domaines clés : le parrainage, la résistance, la culture (croyances, hypothèses, comportement), l’architecture (soutien en place), et la capacité (ressources intellectuelles, émotionnelles, physiques ou financières) afin de bien planifier et gérer le changement ». Daryl Conner mentionne : « Aujourd’hui, nous constatons de plus en plus que le leadership a mûri dans sa compréhension de la gestion du changement. Les dirigeants reconnaissent que, au moins pour un changement majeur, ils ont besoin de conseils sur la façon de gérer le paysage humain. Ce soutien n’est pas autour de « ce qui » est en train d’être changé autant que « comment » exécuter le changement afin d’atteindre la pleine réalisation du projet.

En lisant de nombreux articles de Conner, je crois aussi qu’en tant que chefs de projet, nous devons faire plus d’introspection. Nous comprenons tous les processus, mais nous devons également comprendre qui sont les personnes qui traversent le changement et les valeurs déjà intégrées dans l’organisation.

Selon John Kotter, professeur de leadership à la Harvard Business School, il soutient que de nombreux projets de changement échouent parce que la victoire est déclarée trop tôt. Le vrai changement est profond. Les gains rapides ne sont que le début de ce qui doit être fait pour réaliser un changement à long terme. Dans le modèle de changement en 8 étapes de Kotter, un plan de communication peut nous guider à mieux adresser la résistance au changement.  L’élaboration d’un plan de communication tout au long du processus de changement est considéré comme un atout majeur pour aider à comprendre et partager la motivation de l’entreprise à changer et valider la pertinence de nos actions. Il ne faut surtout pas oublier l’une des phases les plus importantes : un programme de formation pour s’assurer que nos employés se familiarisent avec les changements.

Lorsque nous avons un manque de connaissance relié au projet de changement, nous devons axer nos efforts sur la consultation et la concertation.  Il faut faire la même chose lorsque nous croyons maitriser la matière.  Car pour qu’un projet fonctionne il faut tisser des liens, réunir les différents groupes d’intervenants, valider si nos connaissances sont encore à jour, s’assurer d’avoir cerné qui sont les personnes qui auront à traverser ces changements et comment leurs résistances peuvent impacter le projet ?

Ne jamais oublier que l’être humain fait partie du succès dans tous les aspects de notre vie et de notre travail. Ils doivent toujours être pris en compte à tous les niveaux de la mise en œuvre du changement et être considérés comme la priorité dans tout ce que nous faisons. Soyez à l’affût, avant, pendant et après, des réactions des gens au changement. N’ayez pas d’idée préconçue pour en tirer vos propres conclusions.

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The Leader, The Change, and the Human Being

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The Leader, the Change, and the Human Being

Today we introduce our new guest writer, Louise Duranleau. Her introductory post tonight is on change management with “The Leader, the Change, and the Human Being.” We are pleased to present this brief bio in Louise’s own words: I was born in Quebec and raised in the United States. I have had the opportunity to work throughout Quebec, Canada, and the United States. Strategic advisor, project manager, continuous improvement manager, operations manager, and sales manager for several international organizations. My experience from assistant to coordinator, from project coordinator to project manager, from marketing director to sales director, from operations director to consultant, I had the chance to work in a professional and diversified business world. First woman to be part of a North American group of Canadian and American businessmen for a powertrain specialized company in Quebec City. Instigator and collaborator in the implementation of several national marketing and sales projects. Resource person and business link with internationally renowned manufacturers. My areas of expertise: Project Management • Change Management • Process Improvement Management in the Industrial, Transportation, Information Technology and Health Care fields • Sales and Marketing Management • Organizational Restructuring • Communication Plan • Training programs • Development of Management Tools.

The Leader, the Change, and the Human Being

Change seems perpetual all around us. Life, like work, is changing rapidly due to new technologies and easy access to information. We are in an era of continuous questioning, renewal, and improvement. I have learnt to live with change quite well. I am motivated by change because I have, so far, found my strength in it. I am a person who adapts easily to a new environment. Whether it’s a move, a trip to a foreign country or a change in the route plan; I digest, reflect, and then readjust my aim to better adapt to the situation.

Several years ago, I was offered the position of Project Manager for a powertrain company.   Imagine a blonde woman, without adequate training, without technical knowledge, immersed in a man’s world, who is going through a whole new change and who must sell the change; that is, to implement new ways of doing things in repair management and customer service. I made a lot of mistakes, but I managed to complete the project by adapting to each obstacle. I had to set up the project in a branch where I was not well known, to reduce the resistance concerning my lack of experience.

Today, with hindsight, I could reproduce the implementation much quicker. I learned to better plan and implement the change by considering major factors: organizational culture and foreseeable resistance that must be faced during the process of change. The success of a project depends not only on the deliverables, the budget, the schedule, and the team, but also on our ability to manage change within the company.

We can plan everything on paper: the equipment, the resources, the desired results, but we must never forget the human beings directly involved and not involved. The challenges of change should not be underestimated. We must be alert to the reactions of all those who will have to deal with the change, from near and far. Do not hesitate to consult with all groups in the company to get their input on changes that are planned in the company.

Change takes time. The individuality to maintain existing conditions may be strong. One can feel more comfortable with familiarity. There is no need to adapt to things we already know. According to Jennifer L. Kunst, Ph.D.  “This is why it is so hard to break a habit, even if we know it is not good for us. We believe that we need the very thing we are trying to give up.”

Never skip steps or introduce change with force. Michel Crozier, French sociologist, quoted “one cannot make individuals change in authoritarian and coercive ways”.  As a leader of change, it is especially important to understand what emotions the changes may generate in the individuals concerned. We must put the human being before the objective or result to be achieved, because the latter can sometimes seem more important than what the individuals are experiencing during the change.

Before embarking on a project, be sure to include consultation periods with not only management, but also with all employees involved in any way. You would be surprised to get important feedback from employees who are far from being affected by this change and yet can be supportive of the success of the project.

According to Daryl Conner, author of Managing at the Speed of Change, we must also determine whether the change is minor or major. That is, “mapping the human picture and examining the five key areas: sponsorship, resistance, culture (beliefs, assumptions, behavior), architecture (support in place), and capacity (intellectual, emotional, physical, or financial resources) in order to properly plan and manage change.” “Today, we’re seeing more and more that leadership has matured in its understanding of change management. Leaders are recognizing that, at least for major change, they need a lot of guidance around to deal with the human landscape. This support is not around ‘what’ is being changed as much as ‘how’ to execute change so full realization can be achieved”.

In reading many Conner articles, I also believe that as project managers, we need to do more introspection. We understand all the processes, but we also need to understand who are the people going through the changes and remember the values already embedded in the organization.

According to John Kotter, Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School, he argues that many projects fail because victory is declared too early. In one of Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model; Communication Buy-in guides us to better address resistance to change. Elaborating a communication plan throughout the process of change is considered a major asset to help understand and share the business motivation to change and validate the relevance of our actions. We certainly must not forget one of the most important phases; a training program to ensure that our employees become familiar with our changes.

When we have a lack of knowledge related to the project, we must focus our efforts on consultation and dialogue. We must do the same when we believe we have mastered the subject. For a project to work, you must build relationships and bring the different stakeholder groups together and validate that our knowledge is still current. We need to have a good portrait and understanding of who the people are.

Never forget that the human being is part of the success in every aspect of our life and our work. They should always be considered at every level during the change implementation and be considered the priority in everything we do. Be on the lookout, prior, during, and after, for people’s reactions to change. Please do not have a preconception and make your own conclusions.

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Relationship Selling: Nine Tips & Strategies on Handling Incoming Sales Calls

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Relationship Selling: Nine Tips & Strategies on Handling Incoming Sales Calls

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins closes his series on relationship selling with today’s blog post on nine tips and strategies on handling incoming sales calls.

The radio newspaper was invented in 1939. The idea was that a radio transmission would transfer the newspaper to the device in your home, which would then print it out on a nine-foot role of paper, which could then be cut or folded. Each page would take 15 minutes to transmit, which seems slow in our age of instant news access, but in those days was probably considered revolutionary. It didn’t ever really catch on, but it probably had a bearing on later inventions, such as the fax machine.

The telephone has proven to be one of the greatest inventions ever made but I guess it is a lot like the radio newspaper, if it’s not used right, it is just another device. We are in the “let your fingers do the talking” generation. Customers want to save time and money, so they start making calls seeking information before the make a purchase. Salespeople many times don’t handle these incoming calls as true lead. This misjudgment costs the business thousands of dollars every year. They can be as valuable as a walk-in customer if you handle it right.

Common questions customers ask when calling in:

  1. What do you have?
  2. How much do you want for it?
  3. What is your best price?
  4. How much is mine worth?

A salesperson can quickly gather information as well as give it on the call. Many calls I’ve heard had the salesperson answering every question the customer asks without gathering information to help them understand the customers buying patterns. The salesperson can control the call by just asking qualifying questions.

The goal is to give and get information.

It’s important to be of service to the customer, but also to yourself. Giving out your entire inventory list with pricing doesn’t build value, especially if we are talking about used products because there is no way to compare apples to apples. Find out why they called your business, when are they thinking of buying and other qualifying questions. Asking for the customer’s name and contact number is a fundamental goal. It’s all when and how you ask that makes a difference in the customer’s perception of whether you are helping them buy or if you are trying to sell something.

Nine Tips & Strategies on Handling Incoming Sales Call

1.) Take the Customer Out of the Market and Into Your Business

The overall goal of the call is to schedule an appointment with the customer. You want to take the customer out of the market and into your business. That’s where the money is.

In some instances, the customer may be calling from outside your trade territory. That does not mean they aren’t a buyer. And I get it, there are some sales made over the phone. I am more referring to what happens most of the time.

By planning ahead for your response to each of the common customer requests, you can improve your effectiveness and make more money.

2.) Answer With a Warm Friendly Greeting

Ok, I know that sounds so cliché, but have you called into a business and the person answering the phone just woke up? Or you called, and it sounded like you intruded on someone’s day? The tone and inflections you use create impressions about your business to the customer.

A warm, friendly greeting starts a positive impression of you and your business. When it happens, it is noticeable and can stand out among the prospects other calls where they experienced much less. When it’s positive, it’s the best way to engage a customer on the phone. Think back to the last few places you called. What did it sound like? How did the sound of their voice make you feel about wanting to spend your money with that business? Make no mistake about it; it does make a difference.

3.) Thank Them and Introduce Yourself

In today’s market, customers can buy the same product from five different places or, in some cases, order it and have it delivered to their front doorstep. The key is to make yourself and your business indispensable. Be the resource your customer wants to seek out.

Make a professional introduction of yourself to build rapport. Speak slower than you might in person. Over the phone, there are distractions. Use your full name vs. just your first name.

4.) Get the Customer Excited

Now, this doesn’t mean you pull a Tom Cruise on Opera’s chair. It means that you sound like you interested because you are, right? You want to make more money. You want to create more customer goodwill for your business.

Treat this call just like the customer was in front of you.

Thank them for calling and do that with a positive expression. Listen carefully to what they are saying.

If you are distracted for any reason, don’t take the call. Customers can tell when you are not listening to them. Don’t answer the phone when preoccupied with other thoughts or activities. If you can’t concentrate on giving the customer your full attention, let someone else handle it.

5.) Take the Incoming Call Seriously

Take notes, be a professional, and show the type of consideration you would like to have when you call a place of business searching for a product.

Eliminate distractions and noises so the caller can hear you. If you have loud background noise, recognize that to the customer. You know they can hear it, so recognize it.

6.) Qualify- Take Control by Asking Questions

Don’t let the prospect maintain control with constant questions. I can’t express this enough but learn to ask good questions. I’ve witnessed many salespeople taking these incoming calls only to serve the customer but never win themselves. The goal is to give and get information. If you give out your price list or tell them everything you know, what reason do they have to come to see you in person?

Can you seriously appraise their trade-in without looking at it? I know it’s being done, but I also know it’s a stop-gap measure that can easily spiral into more time and energy to make the deal work when you look at the trade-in real life. I’m talking about high valued trades, not a throwaway product.

Use questions and phrases such as: “What’s that worth?” “Anything wrong with it?” “This equipment will sell for…” “What budget or payment range are you looking to stay in?” Use “availability” rather than “inventory.”

Don’t ask questions like what do you want for it, or what do you need for it? It opens you up for negative questions. Every customer will tell you how great their trade-in is even when it’s not.

7.) Take the Customer Out of the Market and Into Your Business

The goal is to take the customer out of the market and into your business. Schedule an appointment so that you can be of service to them. Imagine if you looked ahead on your calendar for the week, and each day you had 3-5 appointments? Sure, not all of them will show up, but if 80% do, you will have a higher closing ratio of appointments vs. just guessing when they will come in.

8.) Get the Name and Phone Number of Every Prospect

What is the “sales goal” of the call? Is it to give the customer all the information they want and make the customer happy, only to get off the phone and not know who you were talking to?

If you ask, you will get, if you don’t, you won’t. The first rule here is to always ask, but know it is how and when you ask, they determine your success.

You may encounter the customer who won’t give you, their name. Now, think for a minute. If you were the customer under these circumstances, why would you not give them your phone number? I realize there are exceptions to this statement, but more times than not, it is because you didn’t earn the right to get their name.

Can you show enough value, “over the phone” to achieve a higher margin because your business demands it? Yea, some sales are made over the phone but more are not.

Maximize every opportunity! Ask for referrals. I’ll talk about this in a future article.

9.) Use Professional Sales Language and Approaches

Be careful about using industry jargon. What are customary descriptions to you may not be to your customer. You also don’t want to “low-ball” a customer. It’s simply another word for lying just spelled differently. Never lie just to get them in the door, but don’t tell them all the truth to keep them out, either. You won’t win a lot of poker hands when you show people your cards!

You are a professional, so talk and act like one. Prepare questions ahead of time, so you know how to navigate a call like this vs. winging it. Good questions lead to a close.

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Positioning: Who Are You For?

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Positioning: Who Are You For?

 

Guest blogger Alex Kraft discusses positioning in today’s blog, with the important question of who you are positioning yourself for? Who is your message meant to target? Are you a partner to your customers?

When you work for an established company, there are certain things that get taken for granted. Customers in the market know your brand and they’ve experienced your products. Opinions are formed based on experience. For young companies, the art of positioning becomes incredibly important.

Wikipedia defines ‘positioning’ as ‘the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors”. How do potential customers perceive your product when they haven’t experienced it and it’s not established? What I’ve learned over the past 18 months is: words matter. It’s remarkable how certain words trigger different responses and can create opportunities or worse, close doors in your face.

One of the major challenges with positioning is that everyone seems to use the same words, regardless of whether they are accurate or not. As I’ve written before on this site, Heave in its simplest form allows dealers/sales reps to quote contractors equipment (for rent or sale) easily on their mobile device. I’m very proud of what we’ve built so far and couldn’t wait to tell the industry….so terms like ‘platform’, ‘marketplace’, ‘e-commerce’, found their way into our positioning. The problem is that every tech company says that they are a platform/marketplace/e-commerce solution. The result is that you get drowned out amongst the crowd and no one remembers anything. Even worse, a customer will just assume your product is the same as one that they’ve maybe had a poor experience with, because of that similar description (without even trying it!).

For equipment dealers, it’s similar. Pick a dealer, any dealer. Don’t tell me who they are, let me guess: do they have the ’best’ or ‘quality equipment’, with ‘THE BEST SERVICE’? Are they ‘customer first’?

Are they a ‘partner’? I remember when I started as a Volvo salesman and attended a factory training session. Naturally I wanted to learn the areas where we had a competitive advantage, something tangible. One thing that I left armed with was Volvo’s superior fuel economy compared to the competition. Unfortunately for me, I was flipping through a Construction Equipment Guide the next week and I see ads for Case promising the ‘best fuel economy in the industry’, same as CAT, Deere, and Komatsu. Now Volvo is just another brand promising the same thing as everyone else. I had to go back to telling customers we just had the ‘best service’….

With Heave, we created something new and started with a blank slate. I became frustrated early on as we met people in the industry. ‘Why don’t they get it?’, I would ask one of my partners. It seemed so simple to me, but I lived it every waking moment. The more I read and researched other companies, the more I came to understand how important positioning is, and how it can set companies apart. I didn’t realize the skill involved in articulating an idea concisely with an economy of words. Once I had an appreciation for the nuance involved, we began tweaking our positioning. As we met with clients you could tell that it was resonating more, and we were getting closer. The final ‘aha’ moment for me was something that I believe every dealer/OEM can also learn from.

Positioning goes together with identifying a target market. A mistake that I know well is not recognizing your ideal customer. In the early days of Heave, I was afraid that if there were 100 potential customers, we needed to appeal to all 100. We couldn’t afford to have a smaller potential pool of customers I thought. Thankfully, I came across a sales trainer named Josh Braun. Josh’s content opened my eyes to how successful salespeople don’t try to sell or pitch to everyone; they focus their efforts on those who fit the solution. It finally clicked for me. Heave is not for the 15-20- year veteran salesperson who has the same 15 accounts for the past 10 years. Heave is for the younger, inexperienced, hungry sales reps who are new(er) to a territory and building their book of business. Have you ever noticed that those who say that “it’s a relationship business” are the ones who’ve had the relationships for 20 years? That saying is code for “this is MY customer, go find someone else!”  This exercise was incredibly liberating for our team because it brought clarity to our mission and removed a ton of pressure. Now we weren’t wasting time talking to those who weren’t a good fit for our product. Do I believe that Heave could help that 15-year veteran salesperson? Of course, but why push a boulder uphill? Go talk to the 50,000 equipment salespeople in the US who are tired of cold calling offices and jobsites, that keep showing up and never get past the gatekeeper. Their manager offers solace by telling them, “Don’t worry, it’s just part of it.  It took me 24 months to get my first crack at quoting Contracting. Now they buy 5 machines per year from us.” That is our ideal user and our positioning followed. Now we were speaking directly to them.

While equipment dealers aren’t starting with a blank slate, there is opportunity to stand out since everyone has been using the same terms since the 1960s. Don’t make the mistake of just copying the competition. You don’t have the same resources as the competition, and you don’t get credit for the ideas if you just are copying what someone else does. Who are the customers that your competition doesn’t serve? Maybe this fresh positioning could be tied to embracing the technology driven changes occurring in the industry? Maybe your positioning can be focused more on certain products or customer segments? On second thought, consistency is your friend, and you can’t go wrong with ‘We take customers to lunch, sign paper contracts, and we stock a lot of parts.”

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The Blurry Lines of Blame: Psychological Safety in the Workplace…

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The Blurry Lines of Blame: Psychological Safety in the Workplace…

Guest writer Sonya Law is here to enlighten us again from the world of Human Resources with her latest blog post, “The Blurry Lines of Blame: Psychological Safety in the Workplace…”

“Be the leader that you wish you had, when we become a leader, it is important to remember the IMPACT that we have on others with our words and actions…” Sonya Law

Psychologically Safe workplaces take Ownership

We know that sinking feeling as a leader when something goes wrong in a team, or a mistake is made, especially when the impact on the business is significant.  In that moment it’s easy to assign the blame to someone, in order to direct the spotlight away from ourselves.  

However, this does not provide a psychologically safe environment for employees.  When we immediately pull the blame lever, it makes the employee feel small and powerless, its disempowering. 

Good leaders know about the blurry lines of blame. The better approach is to:

  1. Focus on the problem not the person
  2. Root cause the problem 
  3. Implement process improvements
  4. To stop the problem from reoccurring
  5. Involve the team who are responsible 
  6. EMPOWER the team to be part of the solution
  7. Transfer ownership to the team in a positive way.

The reason that blame is such a slippery slope is that it’s a toxic emotion.  We all have at some stage in our careers been on the receiving end of someone’s negativity.  The risk to the business is the employee feeling disempowered, disengaged and leaves the business adding to the staff turnover.  

It’s not about minimizing accountability it’s about taking a more considered, thoughtful and collaborative approach that produces better outcomes for the business.  When we tackle problems together, we ALL grow.

Positive, Innovative Cultures thrive

It also serves to provide a psychologically safe environment for employees and positive culture in which to thrive.  At a time when there is a talent shortage, it’s important part of the retention strategy that we are supporting employees to feel safe at work.

More importantly when you empower employees to be part of the solution it promotes innovation in the business.  

When we take this role as leader as coach and to role model positive behaviors around making mistakes it leads to improvement in critical thinking and problem solving.  Which are key business skills as we face an uncertain world and business environments. 

Happy employees are productive, open to learning and change

Happy employees are also more productive and likely to take on more complex work or stretch projects and set more challenging goals, when it feels safe to make mistakes.  They tend to be more open to learning new skills.  Leaders and businesses who role model a growth mindset and a curious mind, will have the competitive advantage when it comes to people, product, service and technology and respond better to change.  

Agile businesses position themselves well for Growth 

It’s important that businesses are agile, the ability to adapt and change leads to Growth in any business.  A leader who understands this will be able to attract top talent and have a collaborative work environment where the work gets done but they can also have fun and celebrate the wins along the way.

It leads to better outcomes for the business when you take care of people and take them along on the journey and GROW together.

“View every problem as an opportunity to GROW” Bill Marriott.

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Relationship Selling Metrics: Face-to-Face & Write-Ups

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Relationship Selling Metrics: Face-to-Face & Write-Ups

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins continues his series on Relationship Selling Metrics by looking at the numbers in face-to-face sales and also in your tracking of your sales with write-ups, and a careful system of staying organized.

Operating a business requires a basic understanding of financial management. Knowing the numbers is important in making good decisions. If your expenses are too high or sales are dropping off you make changes. Do you know how many customers your sales team talks to every week? Many organizations don’t know the answer and are leaving thousands of dollars on the table for a competitor to get.

Ok, let me do a reality check. There are issues with starting to measure a sales team’s effectiveness. Typically, the measurements start with sales volume and other financial metrics. Make no mistake about it; I am a proponent of these. The challenge is to identify where the sales process can be improved before the close of the sale. When you can enhance salespeople’s actions from the start to the end of the sale, the closing ratio goes up significantly.

By now in your business life cycle, you have some sort of a CRM in place. Various tools on the market are either simple or as complex as you want. Getting your sales team to log each sales action properly is yet another challenge and a whole article all to itself. So, with my disclaimers in place, let’s explore.

Measuring a salesperson’s success by the total revenue they generate is only one part of the equation. If a salesperson is selling 5 million a year, but leaving 5 million on the table, really, how good are they?

First, to be successful in sales, you have to talk to a lot of people. You also have to give a price to make a sale. Simple, right? Here is my rationale for a few sales performance metrics to get us started. Each CRM, as well as your organization, may call them something different, so please read between the lines if you will.

  • Face-to-Face Contacts- This category measures how many face-to-face contacts a salesperson encounters on a day, week, and month. This could be a new prospect who has never been to your store or a previous owner who’s bought from you before or even a referral.
  • Sold- Meaning the product is sold and delivered. Paperwork is done, financing is approved, and the checks have cleared.
  • Write Up- Meaning that the salesperson quoted a price and then wrote the order. This doesn’t mean it’s closed, just that a written order was initiated.

Sample Questions About Performance

What percent of Face-to-face to Sold do you think is a good number? 

In the article, Relationship Selling- How to Measure Sales Success, I outline the basics of measuring the types of customers most businesses have. The average closing ratio, many say is 20%. I think that’s a weak number and here’s why.

Long-standing businesses have repeat customers. What if your sales team has 100 Face-to-Face contacts in a month that are repeat customers? Do you think closing 20% is acceptable? I don’t. The salespersons selling process needs to be revised because they cost the business thousands of dollars. Factor in your marketing investment to get an ROI that’s not impressive.

Take each “unit” the salesperson sells and divide that by the total number of face-to-face contacts in a given time period. If you establish a salesperson has a 20% closing ratio, what if they could improve that 5%? A 5% increase would increase the “unit” sales. This is a “natural” increase to make more sales. It doesn’t cost you anything if you help your salesperson improve their effectiveness.

Your business should be closing at least 40% to 60% of your repeat customers. Without measuring, you have wishful thinking. 

What percent of Write-Ups to Face-to-Face contacts is a good number for an experienced salesperson?

Typically, a salesperson will share a price with a customer before they even qualify what the customer wants. This is generally because that’s one of the first questions a customer asks, “How much is it?” Salespeople feel obligated to answer every question vs. learning to control the sale through questions.

The rule of high volume and high margin sales is never price before you establish value. 

A salesperson who verbally prices, especially if they don’t establish value before pricing, will have a lower closing ratio compared to a salesperson who makes written quotes every time they price. Increase the number of professional write-ups, and you will close more sales. 

80% of all pricing should be in writing. 

How effective is an experienced salesperson that sells 30% of their previous customers? 

Let’s say you are measuring the type of customers your sales team is talking with. You know the % of each category. Every time a salesperson prices a customer and a sale is not made right then, the customer leaves the business.

Statistically, I know that most salespeople are not good with follow up. Nearly 7 out of 10 don’t follow up within 24 hours after they price a customer who doesn’t immediately buy. Part of this is because sales managers often focus their team in the wrong direction due to various financial or inventory pressures. The other part is they lack a system as well as the verbal strategies to service the customer. Many salespeople are great at selling the sales manager on why they shouldn’t call back, or they wait on the customer to “get back to them” as they artificially promised.

If this experienced salesperson is only selling 3 out of 10 customers, what is happening to the other 7? If you have a sales team of 10 with a 30% ratio, look how much is being lost due to an inefficient sales process.

Measuring allows you to know the realities of how to improve your sales team’s behaviors and maximize your marketing budget. 

Measuring tells you exactly where to influence the behaviors of your salesperson and sales team. 

Learning to be Effective Starts with Performance Sales Metrics

Talking to a measured number of prospects in a given period of time is just part of being successful in sales. There are only so many selling hours in a day, week, and month. Learning how to be effective with each contact starts the journey of successful time management.

By establishing value and knowing how to communicate that to a prospect, the closing ratio goes up dramatically, but so do the margins. A sales-driven organization takes time, energy, and the correct vision to have a highly competent team.

What are the performance sales metrics for your sales team? 

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Do You Really Need PRODUCT SUPPORT PSSRs, or CSAs?

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Do You Really Need Product Support PSSRs, or CSAs?

Guest writer Bill Pyles shares all the ways we really do need Product Support SRs or CSAs.

Most larger equipment dealerships have a robust PSSR (Product Support Sales & Service Rep), CSR (Customer Support Representative) or CSA (Customer Support Advisor) that has been in the making for years. This group of Product Support men and women are an integral, value-added, sales and profit generating part of the entire dealer organization.

But maybe you’re a smaller dealer and looking to get to the next tier of the Product Support ladder. 

This blog is for you!

The CSA acronym is my personal favorite as I truly believe the words customer support advisor best describes the position. The CSA is the direct link between the dealer and everything Product Support related. A well-trained CSA offers the options that meets the financial and equipment requirements of the customer. Should a failed engine be repaired, rebuilt, or replaced? Is the machine a production machine or a backup? Is the machine scheduled to be sold out of the fleet within the next six months? While the machine is down, are there any other critical areas of the machine that need inspected and repaired before going to failure? Customers get very angry when a leaking final drive went to complete failure, resulting in a machine down situation just after leaving your shop.

If your dealership sells and services tracked type equipment (excavators, dozers and tracked loaders) I know your aware the largest cost of ownership is the undercarriage. The undercarriage is a system into itself. Your CSA should have a complete understanding of the undercarriage system. A simple proper track adjusting discussion with the customer demonstrates a knowledge that will save him dollars and downtime. Getting a customer maximum undercarriage life will save thousands of dollars over the life of the machine. 

You’ll also need a good machine population file. It’s tough to forecast sales not knowing your opportunity. A good machine population file will identify the aging, location, and hours on the equipment. By the way a good population file is beneficial to sales, many machines are removed from the fleet after so years and hours. New sales opportunities!

Typically, the 80/20 rule is the typical CSA customer list. The top 20 customers assigned to a CSA typically take of 80 percent of their time and resources. Dealers will need to develop the unassigned fleet customers and the “middle segment”, customers who have your equipment but do not purchase any parts or services.

You’ll need an annual CSA meeting to discuss trends, sales forecast, changes in the market and to celebrate over and above accomplishments (just picture your last whole goods sales meeting).  Is the GM or dealer principle attending? The GM and or dealer principle must make an appearance to show support and comment on the current business environment and congratulate the high performing CSA’s. A well-developed CSA program will give you much to celebrate!

But who does the CSA report to? The dealer principle? 

I once worked for a regional vice president who upon returning from an executive meeting was convinced, we should terminate the CSA program, all of it, today, now.

This executive meeting was held during one of the severe cyclic downturns in heavy equipment sales. Dealers were struggling to survive and expense control was job one. Elimination of the CSA program would save accelerating expense dollars. His rational was simple, if severely flawed. We have a good product and if a customer experiences a failure, he will simply pick up the phone and call us. And with our new snazzy web site, the customer will simply log on and make arrangements for needed parts and or service. After thinking this over maybe for 60 seconds I countered with the elimination of the whole goods salesmen using the exact same logic; we sell good equipment and if a customer needs a new machine or a long-term rental, he will simply pick up the phone and call us. Fortunately, neither plan was put into action, we survived the downturn and came out stronger on the other end.

The sales manager? Maybe not a good choice as the sales manager has enough on his plate with inventory, inventory aging, salesmen, OEM programs, order windows, financing and fleet deals. A CSA reporting to the sales manager may turn into a delivery driver for a bucket, gathering hours for a trade in or running out docs to be signed.

The parts manager? Maybe not a good idea as most part managers are outstanding at managing their inventory, over the counter fill, stock orders, counter activity but not managing a parts and service sales person.

The service manager? Not here either. Service managers have many balls in the air dealing with shop service, field service, training, warranty, the pothole in the parking lot (a little sarcasm) OEM’s and technicians. Not much time to manage a CSA. 

A CSA without a direct supervisor soon becomes a “floater” or Product Support orphan employee.

A better solution would be a Product Support Sales Manager or a position with a similar title. This person would have 100% accountability for a successful CSA program. He or she would work closely with parts and service management in writing CSA goals that are in alignment with company goals. The Product Support Sales Manager would do the CSA’s bi-annual and annual performance reviews as well administer incentive plans and salary increases, create annual sales forecasts and work closely with the OEM representatives regarding OEM Product Support programs.

A Product Support Sales Manager is the mentor, manager, and coach in developing a CSA. CSA’s must have a career plan with defined goals in sales and service activity. I worked at a dealer who had an outstanding Product Support Sales Manager, super high energy. I truly believed this man could inspire CSA’s to sell snow plows in Miami Florida! 

A CSA MUST participate in technical training for the products the dealer represents as well as management level training in negotiating skills and people skills. A successful CSA will have a basic understanding of oil sampling, why on time PM’s are important and an excellent understanding of repair, rebuild or replace options. These skills development can be better managed by a qualified Product Support Manager who reports directly to the dealer principle.

CSA Vehicle: Car or Pickup Truck.

I’ve had responsibility for CSA’s and have experience with both the CSA company vehicle being a car or truck; pros and cons for both. If you give your CSA a car allowance and he or she uses their personal vehicle, you’ll soon find the car parked and a company truck “borrowed” for the day to run out some rebuild pumps and a cylinder or two. Car allowance or not, the CSA will be reluctant to damage or have spilled oil in the trunk or floor. In my opinion a pickup truck sporting the dealer’s name and logo is your best choice. Graphics today look sharp on the job site and rolling down the highway. And when on site, if there is something that the CSA can help out by running something back to the shop, it will not be a problem. However, you’ll want to avoid your newly minted CSA into becoming a parts runner. I do suggest that when a CSA plans his day, he or she will check with will call to see if there are some parts he can bring out and check the service WIP (Work In Process) to see if the customers he’s calling on today have any equipment in the shop and get the status, the customer will ask, be prepared!

CSA Salary & Expenses

CSA salary and expenses are usually split 50/50 between the parts and service departments. I’ve heard arguments that a CSA will sell more parts than service and parts should pay more of the percentage. Most CSA programs are salary and commission based. Another responsibility of the Product Support Sales Manager.

But keep in mind, a dealer’s best margin comes from labor sales. It’s the responsibility of the Product Support Sales Manager to steer the CSA into higher labor sales. If a customer needs a reman engine and the CSA provides a quote for the reman engine, the labor to do the remove and install must be included. I think Michael Jordan once said he missed every shot he did not take. The same applies here; don’t quote the labor and you surely will not get it. Your competitors may be quoting the same reman engine AND the labor. The customer likes the turnkey repair and asks your competitor when they can start. Always provide a professional estimate/quote and follow up with the customer. Add value and close the deal!

Customer Support ADVISOR

When I was a newly minted Product Support Sales Manager, I thoroughly enjoyed customer visits and scheduled customer meetings. I’d wait for an opportunity to ask the customer if a recent issue, wrong parts, late service call, etc. he brought up was discussed with his CSA (I did not use the CSA’s name). If the customer replied “oh you mean the guy who measures our tracks” then we’ve failed to make the ADVISOR relationship with the customer. A good gap we need to close. CSA’s need to listen when the customer talks and suggest solutions to equipment problems. I know we’re providing value when the customer asks the CSA “what do you think?” When the customer says those words, the rest is up to you to deliver the outstanding Product Support that makes you the “go-to” dealer!

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The May Gordon Report: Hope, Jobs, Change

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The May Gordon Report: Hope, Jobs, Change

Guest writer Edward E. Gordon has returned with his report for the month of May: Hope, Jobs, Change.

What are the major roadblocks to changing the ways the United States develops its workforce? We recently sought some answers from other workforce development leaders who also seek major improvements in our education-to-employment systems. There is general agreement that there are new education and training programs that improve adult and student learning, but there are significant obstacles to effectively and comprehensively implementing them.

 Over the past 30 years regional public-private partnership hubs have been formed that integrate the wide variety of community resources needed to address skills-jobs disconnects and today’s vacant jobs crisis. But these pathways to a better educated workforce have only been supported by a comparative handful of enlightened community and business leaders. Why haven’t they been widely adopted throughout the United States?

 Storrs Hall in his book, Where Is My Flying Car, gives several cogent explanations of why people in general are very resistant to systemic change. When their money, power, or prestige are at risk, systemic change issues are often turned into personal turf wars. Hall calls this the “Machiavelli Effect.” As Machiavelli stated in his controversial 1532 treatise, The Prince, innovators are often opposed by “all those who have done well under the old conditions.”

 Hall asserts that bureaucracies today pose major obstacles to implementing systemic change. There are well-entrenched bureaucracies in business, education, unions, and government. He finds that bureaucrats often block changes because of a “failure of imagination.” They believe in their superior expertise. They automatically rule out the potential of untried but worthwhile solutions.

 Hall also contends that bureaucracies stifle change due to a “failure of nerve.” Solutions to current challenges gain significant support. Only the details of implementing them need to be worked out. But nothing ever happens! Bureaucrats succumb to the fear that the results of his process will be so good that their leadership will be threatened.

 Bureaucracies are powerful because they are able to use resource starvation and regulations to suppress systemic change. Furthermore, America today is split into warring factions that resist working together to combat threats to our prosperity and way of life. In its history the United States has faced formidable challenges and forged innovative solutions that moved the nation forward. What can we learn from the past?

 After travelling across the United States in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote Democracy in America in which he concluded that civic activism was America’s greatest strength. As the United States expanded in territory and population during the 19th and early 20th centuries, ordinary citizens banded together to form local governments and organizations to solve common problems and meet local needs. 

 Tax-supported public education is among the most prominent advancements resulting from civic activism. By 1918 spurred by the Progressive movement, all the then states in the United States had enacted this reform. The United States became the first nation in history to attempt to offer a basic education to everyone. The system was far from perfect, but for most of the 20th century it worked well for most citizens. But the technological demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have made this education-to-employment system obsolete.

 Why do we need a revival of civic activism today? There are at least 1.8 job openings for every unemployed worker. U.S. inflation has reached a 40 year high of 8.5 percent. Companies across all business sectors cannot find workers with the requisite skills to fill up to 13 million vacant jobs, thus threatening significant wage inflation. Unless significant efforts are begun to bridge the talent gap between current educational preparation and the rising skill needs of local/regional businesses, we believe that by 2030 the U.S. labor market will be in an even deeper crisis, perhaps triggering a popular backlash that could destabilize our nation.

 We contend that America’s participatory democracy offers viable solutions to this grave employment crisis. During the Progressive Era a broad spectrum of voluntary organizations were formed. Many of them focused on civic improvement, such as Chambers of Commerce and Rotary Clubs. Today they and other groups and agencies such as Workforce Development Boards, regional economic development organizations, sectoral business alliances, community colleges, K-12 educational agencies, parent organizations, and unions are serving as catalysts for initiating broader public-private partnerships to update regional education-to-employment systems. Your advocacy and support for such efforts in your communities are vitally important for their success.

 For a more comprehensive analysis of the causes and solutions for the current skills-jobs mismatch, see Job Shock: Moving Beyond the COVID-19 Employment Meltdown to a New Skilled Talent Decade

 

Edward E. Gordon is the president and founder of Imperial Consulting Corporation.

 We invite to submit your questions or comments by email or calling us in Chicago at 312.664.5196.

Thank you for your continued interest in our publication.

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Relationship Selling: Measuring Sales Activities Generates More Sales

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Relationship Selling: Measuring Sales Activities Generates More Sales

Guest writer Floyd Jerkins continues his series on Relationship Selling with this week’s blog post: Measuring Sales Activities Generates More Sales.

Whether you have two or 200 salespeople, just talking to more people isn’t the best way to improve closing ratios. Measuring their sales activities generates more sales and allows you to know exactly where they need coaching.

Are You Using a Sales System?

Before we get too deep, let’s make sure you and I are on the same page. I believe you have to be using a sales process and a sales system. The key is to know where you are at in the sales cycle and to know where the customer is at in the buying cycle. Without utilizing these tools, you guess and wonder let alone waste valuable time.

Stop here and check out a couple previous articles of mine on the Steps to the Sale and Relationship Selling: Face to Face & Write Ups, and How to Measure Sales Success. It doesn’t matter that you are using different terms. What is vital is that you are working a sales process with your team and that each salesperson logs into a CRM.

Measuring Effectiveness is the Key to Increasing Sales

Why are salespeople having problems closing sales? Measuring what their sales activities are between the time they first talk with a customer until they price or close the deal will tell you where adjustments can be made.

Will most strategies work with all the customers all the time? Heavens no. Will they work with most of the customers, most of the time? Yes. Sure, the market is tough, prices are high, and the world is turning over and over, so we want to use real-time behavioral analysis to chart a path to more success.

Through analysis for example, you see they are shortchanging the qualifying process. They are getting into the close and realize they don’t know how much down payment the customer has, or that they had a trade-in, or they are not the decision-maker or myriad other things that can derail the close based on your kind of product and business. How are they building value of your product and your business if they don’t know this early on in the sales process?

Building value happens throughout the sales process, not just in the close.

If it all comes down to price, then just post your best price by a kiosk and fire all your salespeople. You improve a salespersons effectiveness not by talking to more customers but by doing a better job with those they work with.

What if you were able to improve your salespeople’s closing ratio from 10% to 15%, how much more money will you make?

Learning to ask better questions isn’t normal for many salespeople. Letting the customer control the tempo of the discussions happens. A good salesperson knows how to navigate the conversation to get out of it what they want, vs. just giving the customer what they want. Asking for the order too prematurely or pricing too quickly delays the buying process for the customer, takes more time to make the sale, and typically makes less margin.

An Exercise to Learn By

If your salespeople are closing deals at anything under 25%, then they are not exempt from a sales manager closely monitoring their sales behaviors. I’d want to see, feel and touch what’s happening in real-time.

Exercise Preparation

My goal here is for you to outline a complete customer profile to use in a roleplay. I’m not saying be an easy customer, but be realistic. Be the kind of customer that your salesperson encounters most of the time.

Include what the customer is looking for and why. List how they plan to pay for it and why they are shopping at your business, if they are married or not, and anything else that describes their buying motivations. List what they like the most and least about what they currently own and how much they paid for it. Did they finance it or pay cash?

Roleplay

Roleplay with your salesperson using the outline as your guide. Start with the introduction between the customer and the salesperson. Have the salesperson show you how they handle the first few steps to the sale. See how “effective” your salesperson is at finding out all that information in a casual, professional and sales focused manner.

Results

If your salesperson doesn’t like roleplaying because it’s not real, ok, you have a problem. If they do the roleplay but then make comments like, well, in a real situation, I wouldn’t say it like that. 

You have a problem.

The start of the sale should make the customer feel at ease. Does the salesperson make a good introduction? The next step in the sales process is discovering or qualifying the customer. This is where they ask several questions and learn how to build value in your products and services that matter to the customer. Do they handle this well or shortchange the process?

A Coach Calls the Plays

In any professional sport team, the coach calls a play. They know the stats how each player performs and under certain conditions make changes. When a sales manager measures sales activities they know the stats of how each player performs. They know what plays to call and it reaps more sales.

Sales teams who are only measured by total units sold or just dollar volume, are leaving thousands of sales and dollars on the table. Measuring their sales activities generates more sales and allows you to know exactly where they need coaching.

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Preparing for ERP Vendor Selection

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Preparing for ERP Vendor Selection

Our new guest writer Joseph Albright writes his debut post for Learning Without Scars with “Preparing for ERP Vendor Selection.” Joseph Albright has over 25 years of project management and procurement experience working with equipment manufacturing facilities and dealerships around the world in training, supporting, and implementing ERP systems in the areas of Finance, Sales, Purchasing, and Rental. In addition, he has led numerous teams and projects in cost reduction and spend analysis initiatives totaling tens of millions of dollars in annual savings. Joseph’s main passion is working directly with customers and adding value to their organizations.

“Do you know what you want?” “Do you know what you need?” These seem like pretty simple questions to answer yet when talking to a potential ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) provider they can be pretty hard questions. Some responses range from a straightforward “Yes” (followed by a list of requirements) to “I think so, but we’re not entirely sure” to “Not really, can you help”. All of these, including the first one, have inherent consequences that are not always good and choosing an ERP system provider is too large an investment to not be certain about the answers to those questions.

Choosing to invest in an ERP is a large investment. It can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $2,000,000 depending on the complexity of the system, what parts of it are going to be implemented, and the number of users that will be using it. That’s just for implementation and does not count ongoing license and maintenance/subscription fees. Typically, it will provide for Purchasing, Sales, Inventory Management, Financial Management, and Reporting. Additional features such as CRM, HR, Manufacturing, Parts and Service Sales, and Rental can also be implemented as well as many more cross-functional features. The cross-functional and data analytics features can bring huge benefits to an organization but will also require cross-functional resources which significantly add to the cost of implementation. Not knowing precisely what the requirements are for implementing such a system will only add more cost and delay any return on the investment. Be sure to have a predetermined budget that includes not only external costs but internal costs as well and has been agreed to by all internal stakeholders.

So, what needs to be known? How best to answer those two key questions? Well, the very first thing to determine is how is the business currently being run. What are the current processes in each functional area and what pain is being experienced within those processes? Document and map out these processes and determine the gaps between the way things are currently being done and the way they should be done. These gaps are most likely causing the pain. Determine whether these gaps can be resolved by simply changing processes. If not, they become potential Functional Requirements for an ERP system to resolve. 

Once all of the cross-functional gaps have been identified, the list, along with any other requirements, can become part of the Vendor Selection Scorecard.  This scorecard should be reviewed, prioritized, and weighted by a team of cross-functional stakeholders who will also become the stakeholders during the ERP implementation. Finally, be sure to include the IT Department or IT provider in both creating the scorecard and in discussions with the ERP vendor candidates to discuss any technical requirements as well. The scorecard becomes the criteria for identifying those ERP solution providers that seem to be best able to meet those criteria and can further be used to create the RFP to send to the selected vendors. It is good to have five to ten potential vendors to choose from initially if at all possible. 

Following this process enables a company to come to the table prepared to discuss and agree on requirements, scope, budget, timeline, and required resources. Companies who have not done their due diligence in terms of documenting processes and gaps tend to rely heavily on the vendors themselves to suggest the best solutions.  While in theory potential providers should have the knowledge and integrity to do so, even with the best intentions things get missed and the system fails to provide the desired outcome.

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