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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Friday Filosophy v.05.27.2022
Friday Filosophy v.05.27.2022
Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian–British economist and political philosopher. He became known because he strongly defended liberalism and free-market capitalism. He was against too much central control of the economy and society. He thought that forms of government like socialism were not good for the economy, and damaged freedom of the individual. Hayek’s signature work, The Road to Serfdom, refers to the consequences of socialism.
He was one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the 20th century. He was one of the most important members of the Austrian School of economics. He also had many ideas in the fields of jurisprudence and cognitive science. He shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Economics with his rival Gunnar Myrdal. The award was for their work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations; also for their analysis of the inter-dependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena. He also received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. He is thought to be one of the major causes of change from the Keynesian policies of the first part of the 20th century. Instead of governments handling the details of the economy, they went back towards classical liberalism in the 1980s and later. This happened most clearly in the 1980s in the U.S.A. (under Ronald Reagan) and the U.K. (under Margaret Thatcher).
The Time is Now.
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The Blurry Lines of Blame: Psychological Safety in the Workplace…
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:
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
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.
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?
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!
Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.
The May Gordon Report: Hope, Jobs, Change
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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Friday Filosophy v.05.20.2022
Friday Filosophy v.05.20.2022
Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, historian, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University‘s Hoover Institution. He is a National Humanities Medal recipient for innovative scholarship which incorporated history, economics, and political science.
Born in poverty in North Carolina, Sowell grew up in Harlem, New York. Due to financial issues and deteriorated home conditions, he dropped out of Stuyvesant High School and served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War. Upon returning to the United States, Sowell enrolled at Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude in 1958. He earned a master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in 1959, and earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago in 1968.
Sowell has served on the faculties of several universities, including Cornell University, Amherst College, University of California, Los Angeles, and, currently, Stanford University. He has also worked at think tanks such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980, he has worked at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he serves as the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy. Sowell writes primarily from a libertarian perspective, though he dislikes being labelled ideologically. Sowell’s libertarian-leaning philosophy made him particularly influential to the new conservative movement during the Reagan Era, influencing fellow economist Walter Williams and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Sowell was offered a presidential position in the Nixon Administration and as Federal Trade Commissioner by the Ford Administration in 1976, but declined both offers. Similarly, he was offered the position as head of the U.S. Department of Education as Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan, but refused to take the position. Sowell is the author of more than 45 books.
The Time is Now.
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Relationship Selling: Measuring Sales Activities Generates More Sales
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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How Do We Find Our Individual Potential?
How do we find our individual potential?
As many of you know, the primary purpose of our Learning Without Scars business is to help people find their personal potential. That confuses a lot of people. Most of us don’t have any idea of our potential. Early on in civilization it was quite basic and very simple – to have the strength to be able to find and get food. We were hunters and gatherers. If we couldn’t find food, we died. Simple, right?
Today it is much more complicated. Governments are determined not to have people die from lack of food. We have many social programs to ensure that people will have access to the basic requirements of life. Even in these advanced times, we have many who choose to stay off the grid for one reason or another.
In the United States in 2020, about 18% of the population was under 15 years old; 65% from 15 years old to 64 years old; and 17% over 65 years old. I believe that understanding our potential changes with our age. It varies as we get older. One of the definitions of potential causes me some difficulty. It is the “possibility of becoming something more.” Isn’t that always the case? Aren’t we constantly learning things? Another definition is “coming to self-realization that there is more to our lives.” This definition gets rather personal for me. One day, while my father was still alive, we were having a glass of “brown water” and solving the problems of the world, he paused and looked at me and said “I don’t understand you. You are never satisfied.” I responded quickly with the blithe comment “well there is always more, isn’t there?”
And that becomes the challenge of potential. There is always something more.
One of my grandchildren is in High School and we were talking about what he wanted to do with his life. He said, “I don’t know.” It is a terrific answer for someone in High School today. There are so many choices available to us. There are the sciences and the fantastic developments being made within them. The arts and the various media – sculpture and painting – as well various methods to express ourselves visually. Music and literature and drama. Fashion and Makeup. I might add that many of the early school years tend to “stifle” creativity not “encourage” it. How do you start in finding this something “more?”
Well, how about starting with those things that do not turn you on? These are the things that you don’t like to do. In 1998 Sir Ken Robinson led a commission created by the government in the UK – “Commission on creativity, education and the economy.” It turns out he was highly critical of the education system under which he was taught. He regretted the fact that neither the primary school, secondary school nor college enabled people to develop their talents and discover what they really wanted to devote themselves to in their lives. Doesn’t that condition still exist where you live? Where you went to school, or your children and grandchildren are going to school? Where are we supposed to find this magic “thing” to which we want to devote our lives?
This is a difficult undertaking, isn’t it? This pursuit of our potential. How about we look at the other side of the question. What don’t we want to do? What aren’t we very good at in our lives? Sometimes that is easier to identify.
Isn’t there anything common in the items above?
Now let’s make another list.
Write down everything you like or liked to do in the areas below:
Now find the common denominator in these items.
Have you stopped any of these activities you enjoyed?
Now let’s rank the things you liked to do.
Some things should now be standing out. Things should be clearer.
Now comes a big question. I think it will have become clearer to you. You know better now some of the things you want to do. So, let’s ask that magic question? What have you always wanted to do but were afraid to start doing it? Do you think it is time to start doing it? That is the beginning of your potential. The possibility of becoming something more. Are you ready to get started?
The Time is Now.
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Preparing for ERP Vendor Selection
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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Digital for Data’s Sake
Digital for Data’s Sake
Our new guest writer today is Sara Hanks, sharing her knowledge about going digital for data’s sake. In her own words, Sara introduces herself: My career launched 22 years ago as a mechanical engineer but shifted quickly into continuous improvement when I became a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Early on, I learned the value that could be extracted from data and the importance of digitally collecting that data. After several years in manufacturing, I transitioned to leading programs and teams to do Digital Transformation. Eventually, I was promoted to the Senior Director of Data Analytics, leading a team of data scientists, gaining firsthand experience with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Currently, I am the Director of Continuous Improvement at Wabtec Corporation, a supplier in the Rail and Mining Equipment industries.
I enjoy bringing joy into the workforce by solving a problem, creating user friendly digital products, or providing easy access to data. In 2020, I launched Leverage 4 Data to provide a platform to do all three – create a solution to digitize workflows with an intuitive user interface and accessible data.
Digital for Data’s Sake
Digital transformation has been a buzzword that has been talked about for years, yet many people struggle with what it means. Often, when asked about digital transformation, more jargon appears, and we are swimming in a sea of acronyms and terms like CRM, ERP, and Digital Twin. What exactly is a digital twin? I am not going to go into that here, but I will talk about digitization. I like to simplify the concept by talking in terms of the business processes. Digitization is taking an existing business process and transitioning it into the online digital world to drive value. Improving the customer experience or implementing technology to retain younger talent are some of the benefits to digitizing processes. However, my favorite outcome of digitizing a key process is the creation of data.
Focusing efforts to extract value from the data can be daunting. Here are four examples of how data from a digitization can improve operations, costs and even culture.
Creating KPIs to Measure Performance
Recently, I had a dental procedure done. When I arrived and was checked in, I noticed that the receptionist looked at a paper logbook to verify my name. The same logbook was used to make my next appointment. I was shocked! They lacked a system to track a major part of their business, managing appointments. How could they know who failed to show up or how often people canceled? What about tracking how long the actual appointment took vs. the scheduled time to make sure procedures were planned well. It is difficult to improve what you don’t measure.
The easiest place to measure the effectiveness of a process is with a time-based metric and a quality metric.
Improve Operations with Insights
I’ve seen plenty of operating rhythms that reviewed KPI scorecards. Bringing a scorecard with red on it to the leadership team, was sure to be met with scolding. What I found surprising was how little the leaders asked questions when the KPI was green. Wouldn’t that be insightful? I like to understand why the red exists, as well as the green metrics. This is where dashboards and visualizations can help. Visualizing the operational data in a dashboard is one of the simplest, yet impactful ways to use the data to improve operations.
My teams have made some amazing analytics dashboards and visualizations. One dashboard built allowed the service teams to visualize the best performing shops against the worst. The user could drill into why product needed service to see which workorders impacted quality. Nobody used it, even though I thought they provided a ton of value. The biggest pitfall was not connecting them to the existing KPIs.
Now when I approach dashboard development, I start with the KPIs. Perhaps they are KPIs created to measure time and quality, or they are something else that is already adopted. With a cross functional team, we brainstorm all the possible data points that could impact that metric. A visualization is built to provide an exploratory experience to drill into the data in a consumable way. I recommend bringing the visualization into the operating rhythms and use the dashboard to answer questions in the meeting. A scolding leader is likely to become intrigued.
Reduce Stress
Another use of data from a digital system is never talked about but is probably relatable. We’ve all been there. It’s 4:30 on Friday afternoon and you receive a call from a customer or your boss. They are upset about something, and you need to find answers. The panic sets in and you start to put together the story to provide an answer. This usually involves digging through papers, email and perhaps phone calls to colleagues to find information. Data retrieval is difficult. I remember one issue took 19 hours of rummaging through paperwork over a 3-week span to identify which parts were impacted by a quality issue. When the process exists in a digital system, and the critical data is captured, answering the mail becomes much easier. The stress in these situations is reduced, making it much easier to enjoy the weekend. While the ROI is not clear, spending time fighting fires is certainly non-value add. Extinguishing them quickly is a win.
Increase Revenue from the Data
Finally, the operational data collected in your digitized processes is to identify revenue opportunities. For example, the historic services data can be used to predict future service events. Offers could be targeted to those customers to provide those services. The historic service data could be used to cross sell during a maintenance event as well. For equipment that is serviced on a regular basis, are there probable breakdowns between planned events? Additional preventive services or upgrades could be offered at a discount during the maintenance as an alternative to fixing a failure. Could the customer buying patterns identified by the dealers be useful to the OEMs, providing leverage for the dealer?
Netflix transformed the movie renting experience by making it more convenient, i.e., going digital, but their revenue gains were from using the data to provide binge worthy shows and keep people on their platform. Imagine the possibilities for equipment dealerships.
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