The Power of Habit

I was just reading a book called the Power or Habit by Jack Hodge.  The primary narrative of the book is that we, more than anything else, are defined by what we do, and close to 90% of what we do is determined by habits both good and bad. I am not sure how he determined the 90%, but we all know that our habits are a powerful force in our lives.  However, I would argue that we as managers may underestimate the power of habits in managing and coaching our teams. This make me think back on a conversation I had with one of my past employees a few years ago.  She came into my office to discuss the relevance of my monthly training topic.  Her point was that everyone already understood the best practice we were going to discuss.  It was in her eyes a waste of time.  It was then that the light bulb went off.  I wasn’t training because they didn’t already understand the best practice; I was training because they weren’t doing the best practice.   So in a way, my training was an infomercial on the best practice and a platform to explain my expectations to the … Read More

Establishing a Culture of Performance

Having discussed the internal drivers of sales culture, the next step is to explore what leaders can do to establish a culture of performance. Since culture is largely defined by human behavior and decision making, it’s important to understand there is no one size fits all approach. The variability within the three internal drivers makes that clear. Companies have unique sales strategies, leadership styles, and team compositions. So if there is no one right answer, then how does a company establish a culture of performance versus a culture of adequacy? I believe the key for leaders to build a culture of performance primarily relies on three factors; clarity, communication, and consistency. Clarity Every company has a culture; the question is whether that culture has a clear purpose. This clear purpose is largely defined by executive management and gives their team a roadmap on what is desirable behavior. By not providing clarity, the culture is much more vulnerable to counterproductive or even destructive behavior. Strong leaders understand this threat and respond by providing a clear purpose for their team to embrace and rally around. In the business community the most well established approach for providing a clarity of purpose is the … Read More

Beware the Cassandra Complex

Cassandra was a princess of Troy, who had the gift of prophesy, but who could not persuade anyone because was cursed with a severe credibility gap.   Can you imagine her frustration?  She knows she is right, but lacks the credibility to persuade anyone.  Why should staffing executives be aware of the Cassandra complex?  Because they are responsible for defining the value proposition that the sales team must take to market. Unfortunately, some executives curse their sales people with value propositions they are ill-equipped to credibly represent. A company’s value proposition summarizes the problems a company solves and how they solve them.  It is what makes a company unique, and is the reason buyers will buy.  Value propositions vary greatly and many times a company has more than one.  From diversity to technical specialization the value proposition defines a company in the eyes of the client.  So how does changing the value proposition potentially affect the credibility of the sales force? Many staffing firms are attempting to move up the value chain by providing a greater level of specialization.  From a sales strategy perspective this may make sense, but the danger lies in how effectively the sales team can represent the … Read More

Are You Selling to the Right Accounts?

An effective sales strategy starts with well defined segmentation of your current and target accounts.  However, many companies struggle with defining the right criteria to build an effective account pipeline, which then significantly reduces the productivity of their entire sales process.    This post will discuss three examples of how to qualify the accounts you decide to pursue; the existence of vendor programs, the match with delivery capabilities, and account productivity. Vendor Programs Most fortune 500 buyers have implemented some type of formalized vendor program. The key considerations in pursuing programs are the strength of relationships a staffing company has with corporate decision makers, along with any differentiators a company can illustrate to the account such as industry vertical expertise, diversity status, or technology expertise.   If your organization can manage long term corporate relationships and/or can provide a unique differentiator then pursuing large vendor programs could prove to be fruitful. Selling outside of vendor programs either means avoiding companies that have them or providing services that can capture spend outside of the program.  To avoid vendor programs completely translates to an aggressive prospecting strategy that target mid market companies and buyers that have SoW or some other mechanism to bring in … Read More

Sales Management or Micromanagement?

Are you a Micromanager? I conducted an informal survey the other day discussing the roles of sales process within the staffing industry. Most of the respondents responded positively to the need for greater structure within sales organizations in order for sales people to maneuver through an increasingly competitive environment. One respondent caught my eye, primarily because he captured the downside of an overbearing sales process. To quote him: “Too many companies dress their sales team in monkey costumes and suck the passion out of them by having rigid cookie cutter sales programs.” The reason I love this quote is that it captures the frustration that micromanagement can cause within a sales force. What causes that disconnect between management and their team? I believe most sales people see their job as an art that requires the flexibility to be creative to build trust and lasting relationships with the customers. Some managers tend to see sales more as a science, distinct activities leading to predictable results. They are both right. The question is how does management find a balanced sales process to maximize the productivity of their team? That depends on multiple factors unique to each organization including the makeup of the … Read More

Change: Your Future Depends on it

Most companies embrace change when they first enter the market, because change presents opportunities for start-up companies to outmaneuver larger organizations that are less adaptable and more reliant on the status quo.  Anyone who has been part of a quickly growing start-up organization knows the feeling of stealing away market share simply because it’s more in tune with the buyer and more effective at marketing and delivering its solution.  Those companies are drivers of change, not victims of it.    The impact this dynamic is highlighted in the book Creative Destruction by Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan when discussing S&P 500 companies: “If history is a guide, no more than a third of today’s major corporations will survive in an economically important way over the next twenty years.  Those that do not survive will die a Hindu death of transformation, as they are acquired or merged with part of a larger, stronger organization, rather than a Judeo-Christian death, but it will be death nonetheless.  And the demise of these companies will come from a lack of competitive adaptiveness. To be blunt, most of these companies will die or be bought out and absorbed because they are too slow to keep pace with change … Read More

Drivers for Sales Success

Identifying key sales drivers and being able assess the health of those drivers is critical in building and successfully managing a sales force.  There are many staffing executives who believe that most sales issues begin and end with the quality of their sales force.  While the quality of sales personnel is an important factor it is not the only one. By not appreciating the other drivers, managers are vulnerable to making to poor hiring decisions, causing unnecessary turnover and consistent underperformance. The book Building a Winning Sales Force defines these drivers within five different categories.    This blog will discuss those categories and why they all play an important role in the execution of your sales strategy. Definers: A successful sales organization has clearly defined sales roles Definers determine how your sales organization should be structured in terms of size, territories, and specific roles within the sales organization.  Definers are determined by the value proposition you are bringing to the marketplace and buyers you are targeting.  If you do not have your value proposition or buyers clearly defined then you have no sales strategy and therefore no way of knowing what drivers you may need. Shapers: Hiring and developing the right people Now … Read More

The Strategy Focused Organization (Part 2)

Principle Three: Make Strategy Everyone’s Everyday Job Does this sound familiar? A company crafts a strategy. They develop a thorough presentation to communicate the strategy and motivate the team. They call a team meeting and present the strategy. Employees are excited about the new direction seeing a better future ahead. Then the excitement fades, old habits reemerge, and six months later the only thing that has changed is the marketing collateral extolling the virtues of capabilities never realized. Sales sell the same way, recruiting remains reactive, and management wonders where all the inspiration went. In order for your employee to adapt to the company strategy you must focus on three key areas. First, communication is not a onetime event. You must develop an ongoing communication plan that communicates the strategy in a variety of different ways over time. Second, performance goals must be aligned with the strategy, and reviewed regularly on an individual and a team basis. Third, your team’s compensation must be aligned with the strategy in order to drive the right behavior. Addressing those three areas takes a lot of time and planning, but will increase long-term buy in substantially. Principle Four: Make Strategy a Continual Process This … Read More

The Strategy Focused Organization (Part 1)

In 1991 Kaplan and Norton wrote the highly influential book called “The Strategy Focused Organization”. One of the first things they address is the key principles a company must hold in order to create a break through strategy that drives profitable growth. There are five principles overall, today I will write about the first two. Principle one: Translate the Strategy to Operational Terms Successful businesses understand that your operations define your strategy. In order to execute your strategy a company must understand how you must change your operations in order to support it. Many companies make the mistake thinking strategy stops at defining your market position. A company wants to add an offering so they change their collateral and website, tell their sales people to sell it and poof, they are done. Who are the targeted buyers? Can the sales force sell this type of offering? How do you deliver the offering? What are the key performance indicators? These are some of the operational questions that provide important insight on the feasibility of the strategy and what capabilities are required in order to successfully execute. Principle Two: Align the Organization How does a company effectively leverage its strengths? Identifying and … Read More