May 2008 newsletter

T&D Should Line Up with Organizational Priorities
Before you launch any type of training program, you should make sure that it lines up with your strategic business plan - or at least with the priorities you have set for your business. T&D is most effective when it is driven by your goals and the needs of your employees.

T&D Should Be Conducted Only After a Needs Analysis
You wouldn't consider building a house without a blueprint. Neither should you consider building a training program without being sure of what you actually need. There are a lot of methods for needs analysis, and you could research those if you are interested, but one of the simplest is to ask a few additional questions as part of your performance appraisal. Ask each employee if there is any area where they would like to receive additional training; any areas that they think the entire staff would benefit from training, or any things they are interested in learning individually. Compare those results to your business priorities and you should have somewhat of a direction for your training plans.

A T&D Example
Imagine that your biggest business priorities for the next year are to raise the level of customer service your staff delivers and to increase sales by 15%. Your needs analysis showed some interesting patterns. Your sales executives all expressed that they felt they could improve their closing skills. Sally, your office manager expressed a frustration at the way that customer follow-up procedures are being carried out and an interest in spearheading some changes in this area. She hoped she could take a course to help her learn how to do that. In addition, two of your production personnel (James and David) identify a concern about the amount of waste in your packaging and are interested in investigating a way to package your product in a more "green" manner. Finally, your performance appraisals have shown you that there is a disconnect between departments and the staff might benefit from some teambuilding.

As you compare your needs analysis with your priorities, you see some distinct connections. Since it's your first year and your budget is limited, you decide to take a moderate approach. Your training and development plan might look something like this:

1. Develop an in-house workshop to help sales executives work on their closing skills. Time investment: 1 day of your time for planning; 1/2 day sales execs to attend workshop; Dollar investment: minimal - materials for the workshop and the equivalent of a 1/2 selling day.
   
2. Send Sally to a one-day customer service seminar; Time investment: 1 day from work for Sally; Dollar investment: $245 for the course
3. Give James and David permission to form a committee to research ideas on greener packaging. Time investment: James and David 5-10 hours to spend on this project; Dollar investment: none
4. Spend two hours once a month doing teambuilding activities; Time investment: 2 hours down time per month for entire staff; Dollar investment: $2000 (bring in special speakers, take them out for lunch, bring in pizza, purchase a teambuilding video, etc.)

For under $2,500 you have just created a T&D plan for your company. Now the hard part is how to make these efforts align with your goals and objectives. In order to do that your staff must be invested in each other, supporting one another, and willing to see the big picture. To facilitate this, you ask Sally to share the results of her customer service seminar at the staff meeting, and ask her to bring forward some recommendations as to how you can all raise your levels of service. Sally's enthusiasm will spur others on to commit to these practices. Similarly, have James and David's committee report their findings to the staff. Brainstorm on whether or not any of these ideas are feasible financially and practically, and implement anything that looks workable. Start tracking the closes your sale staff are making to determine whether they are improving and sales are going up. Share these results with the sales team and possibly the rest of the staff.

Is it possible that these measures just might contribute to your goals of improving customer service and increasing sales? I'd say chances are good. In addition, by building your team on a regular basis you are encouraging trust and creating synergy - and that can only improve productivity and employee loyalty. T&D doesn't have to be a frightening prospect. In fact, if you do it carefully and wisely - you can move closer toward your business goals, while boosting your staff morale and productivity. It's a win/win situation! Even if you can't afford much in your first year, the important thing is to do something - just get started!

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What might this look like when you're sitting in front of a customer? Take this example. You've done your presentation, given all the information, answered all the questions, and are in the process of closing the sale. You may have memorized a sympathetic response for moving the customer through those final objections, but if your cadence is too quick, or you're leaning too far forward, or your tone indicates a slight boredom with your own words, your customer won't feel your empathy. He may even perceive your communication as contradictory, annoying or insincere - and that makes for a sure sales failure.

The trouble is, most of us can't really be objective about our own way of communicating and how we come across to others. We need feedback to make sure we aren't using a tone that indicates boredom, that our body language isn't intimidating, or the opposite - insecure. Most of us have the words down pat - it's the other 93% we need to work on! Here are some ideas to get a handle on how you're doing in the whole process of communication. If you've found yourself in a slump in the sales department - this might be the reason.

Do your sales presentation in front of a brutally honest friend. Ask someone whom you trust to be honest with you to listen and give you feedback about those things you may not notice. What does your body language say? What are you communicating with your tone of voice? Is there an inconsistency between what words you are using and how the rest of you is communicating? Are you too forceful, too timid, too confusing, too talkative, not talkative enough, etc. Do you have physical habits that are distracting (pen tapping, gum chewing, doodling while people are talking). All these things can give the impression that you're not really interested in what's being said. Take the feedback from your friend and work on those things that are a turnoff for customers.

Ask your customers for feedback. This may seem weird at first - and you need to do it right or you may come across as an egocentric attention-seeker. The best way to get their feedback is to ask them right at the beginning of the presentation whether they'd be willing to fill out a brief evaluation form after you've made the presentation. That way, regardless of whether they buy from you or not, they'll know its coming. Ask them to be honest - tell them you are always looking for ways to improve and you value their feedback. Then, give them a brief (no more than 3 or 4 questions) questionnaire that they can leave with you. Ask them questions like - Did you feel you were listened to and that your needs were important? Did you feel any undue pressure to purchase, and if so, what specifically made you feel pressured? Do you feel you received enough information to make a purchasing decision? Do you feel we were interested in your needs and in finding the right product for you? Is there anything we could have done differently in our sales presentation? Simple questions like this will give you some great information and help you determine whether something is going wrong during your sales visits.

Ask your competitors or your suppliers what they have heard about you. This one is tough - because you may not like what you hear. Granted, you'd have to have a pretty good relationship with these folks and have built trust and integrity with them in order for this to work, but it can be an informative process. Ask them if they've heard customer comments about you or your business. Ask them what other suppliers are saying about you. Ask if they have a general sense of what people think about your business (or you!). This takes a bit of courage, but the information can be very helpful. Think about it this way - the worse the feedback, the greater your opportunity to make things better!

Think about all parts of communication when you enter the sales process. It's not just repeating a memorized speech about how great your products are. It's not even asking all the right questions. Someone once told me that people may forget what you said, but they never forget how you made them feel. Nowhere is this more true than in the sales process. People know when you don't care. They know when you're more anxious to make the sale than to hear what they need. And "feel" is more of the sales decision than information. Do a communication-check and make the changes necessary to line up your words with your tone and body language for a fluid, honest, engaging sales process, and you'll watch your sales begin to climb.

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1. Assign duties to the person best suited for the project. Your super outgoing, social sales executive may not be the best person to delegate your detailed spreadsheet project to; on the other hand, your shy, detail-oriented office manager may not be the person to put in charge of entertainment for your customer-service event. Select someone who has the skills and disposition to do the kind of job you are delegating.
2. Make your instructions as clear as possible and provide all the needed resources and information. When you take on a project you have a copious amount of information anddetails in your head. You draw on these details when you're working, but someone who is taking on a project for the first time won't have all that information at their fingertips. So in order to give them the best chance for success, be very clear with your directions. Write them down - step by step. If additional information will be required, provide it to them, or at least let them know where they can find it quickly.
3. Measure the project from afar, but give your subordinate full authority over it. In order for themto feel confident to do the task - they need to have authority to do what you've asked them to do. Once you've delegated a project, resist the urge to micromanage it back on to your desk. The person doing the work for you may not do it the same way, but what if they come up with a better way? They may not do it as quickly, but what if the things they learn by taking their time contribute to a greater skill set down the road? They may even make mistakes, but what if by learning from those mistakes they become even more valuable to you? This doesn't mean you can't intervene if you see them heading towards a cliff, but gentle guidance will go farther than grabbing the controls. Also, let them know you are open to hearing from them if they need help. An open-door policy and genuine interest in their progress will ensure that you're kept abreast of developments, as well as being given the opportunity to coach and guide along the way.
4. Coach your staff to great performance. This is your opportunity to really contribute to someone else's success AND get some work off your plate in the process. A good coach knows when to challenge and when to encourage. When to offer words of advice and when to stand back and let them figure it out themselves. The goal of delegation is two-fold. The obvious one is to help you manage your workload, but the second is to create more capable people in your company whom you can count on to continually take more responsibility. The better you are at coaching your staff through those delegated tasks; the better performers they become - the better off your business will be!

The next time your papers topple out of your inbox - or you're stuffing work into your briefcase to take home with you, stop and step back. Look at whether any of those projects really can be given to someone else who might learn a great deal from the experience, while you enjoy dinner with your family! You'll both benefit. They will thrive in knowing you have trusted them with this task and will work hard to do a good job. And you'll be able to let go of some stress. As Steven Covey says, that's thinking WIN/WIN!

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