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Key Performance Indicators

Posted by: Alex    Tags:  ,     Posted date:  May 15, 2012
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KPIs

Remember,  key performance indicators need to be

-       simple to understand

-       the same for everyone, transparent, communicated and understood

-       applicable to all staff

-       applicable to every role

-       capable of being self-reviewed

-       able to provide for development

-       linkable to mission, values and be relevant to an individual

-       measurable, including management & leadership performance





Fishing where the Fish are?

Posted by: Alex    Tags:      Posted date:  May 2, 2012
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Reflections on recent Sales Training experiences

As John Wiseman, former survival instructor in the SAS, writes in the SAS Survival Guide, “think of survival skills as a pyramid, built on the foundation of the will to survive. The next layer of the pyramid is knowledge, it breeds confidence and dispels fears. The third layer is training i.e. mastering skills and maintaining them. To cap the pyramid, add your kit”

So the need for knowledge, skills and to push yourself out of your comfort zone seem to be key factors we needed to hone in on during our sales training activities.

As far as the “sales effort” is concerned I feel we should be looking at two key aspects:

1. Sales force management
2. Territory management

Sales Management

This requires resources to be found to manage the sales force. This will entail the following:
- setting standards
- collecting up to date sales information
- variance analysis of data and corrective action
- field training
- setting objectives for the team and for an individual’s portfolio

Territory Management

“The true definition of a salesperson’s territory is the names of the key people he or she should be contacting”

The absolute necessity of planned training is clear in that:

1. The cost of keeping a salesperson “on the road” continues to escalate rapidly, and the majority of that cost is there whether the person is successful or not.
2. Recruiting replacements is expensive and time-consuming.
3. Selling has become more competitive and to succeed the salesperson needs to be much more professional.
4. If sales are not made then any organisation will not survive.

It also strikes me that the “future belongs only to those who have prepared for it” and that preparation is imperative if we are to fish where the fish are.

The absolute necessity of self marketing is also clear and that is about identifying, anticipating, supplying and ultimately satisfying the needs of decision makers and those who are interested in our products and services.

The experts also know that if they put the product under the noses of enough potential buyers, statistically they have a much greater chance of selling it. Any organisation leaving this to chance would go out of business.

A passive approach to planning is certainly easier, planning requires effort, however, fear is an over-riding factor which imposes self-limiting beliefs and behaviours (again, evident on the courses) on people who are invariably more capable than they think.
Zig Zigler, the American sales trainer, describes the difference between being “a wandering generality or a meaningful specific”.

New ways of working

Fleas are remarkable creatures. If humans could jump as high as fleas, we would be all jumping over skyscrapers. Professional flea trainers will tell you that the first thing they do when training fleas is to put them in a large glass jar. The jar has a lid. The fleas will keep jumping and banging their heads on the under-side of the lid until they finally realise that if they stop short of the lid, it won’t hurt. After a few days the lid is removed by the flea trainer. Interestingly none of the fleas will jump out of the jar, they have been conditioned into believing that if they jump too high, they will get hurt.

“Corporate flea trainers need to develop new training programmes which inspire and provoke their fleas to outperform their jar!”

We need to adopt new ways of thinking in order to meet the challenges of new ways of working.

Our “Art of Persuasion” courses caused delegates to think differently about themselves, consider their self limiting factors, and to use the sales grid to push themselves out of their comfort zones.
It asked them to start to think about their own portfolios, to categorise their customers and prospects according to their preferred selling styles.

Let us know your thoughts?





Training & Development Metrics – “the ROI Dashboard”

Posted by: Alex    Tags:      Posted date:  May 1, 2012
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This article presents some views and some background for those internal Learning & Development specialists seraching for the “holy grail” in terms of their own functions ROI on learning & development.

1500 Hits since we published this article!

Who are the “experts” in learning & development metrics? Who are the valuable contributors in the search for “ultimate evaluation” in learning & development functions?

I offer on my list:

Donald Kirkpatrick – Four level model of training evlauation
Dr Jac Fitzenz – The ROI of Human Capital
Dr Jack Phillips – The ROI Institute
Dr Laurie McBassi – Human Capital Analytics
Robert O Brinkerhoff – The success case evaluation method
Jay Cross – The power of informal learning/e-learning
R.A. Guzzo & B.A. Gannett – Inhibitors to effective task performance

What really matters to the organisation though? I would offer:

1. The efficiency of learning function itself
2. The organisation’s key performance indicators, its benchmarking & its capacity
3. Return on investment
4. Psychological capital

I’d like to look at each of these in turn and in doing so begin to offer some thoughts on what the L & D’s Return on Investment “Dashboard” might contain. Continue Reading…





New In-Company Courses

Posted by: Alex    Tags:      Posted date:  December 5, 2011
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We are pleased to announce the development of 3 new in-company courses.

Theses courses have been designed as a direct result of our client wishing to have “bite-sized” training directly linked to their leadership & management capabilities framework.

The courses are 4 hours in duration. We’ll publish details of them over the next few days. The third and latest to be outlined is:

“Working with Culture & Diversity”

At the end of this workshop you will
be able to:

  • Understand what culture is and the importance of cultural awareness
  • Understand the implications of the 2006 Equality Act
  • Identify with the 3 types of workforce diversity
  • Learn how the manage inclusivity, not diversity
  • Define and promote diversity in their own teams

Content

-       What is culture

-       The Gods of Management

-       Our cultural symbols

-       Understanding diversity and equality

-       Diversity in the workplace

-       Managing Inclusivity

-       Reflecting the communities we serve

-       Action planning

For furtherinformation please e-mail info@profilehrd.com





Is your strategy set to succeed?

Posted by: Alex    Tags:      Posted date:  November 29, 2011
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We have been involved in working with many top teams in organisation’s where they need to decide upon which business models, strategies and “best practice” frameworks are the best for them.

This new service, specifically designed as a facilitated session with the top team, enables them to align their values, vision and plans in order produce an effective implementation plan

This service is provided as an internal planning & implementation workshop for an organisation’s top management team and covers:

  • A 10 point strategic review
  • An action plan following the 10 point review
  • Managing change and the “softer” perspective
  • Key business planning tools explained
  • The work of Kotter, Senge, Mintzberg & Collins
  • The Balanced Scorecard & Dashboards
  • Managing “Emergence”

For further information, e-mail info@profilehrd.com





New In-Company Courses

Posted by: Alex    Tags:      Posted date:  November 29, 2011
No comment


We are pleased to announce the development of 3 new in-company courses.

Theses courses have been designed as a direct result of our client wishing to have “bite-sized” training directly linked to their leadership & management capabilities framework.

The courses are 4 hours in duration. We’ll publish details of them over the next few days. The second to be outlined is:

“Managing Change”

At the end of this workshop you will be able to:

  • able to understand the nature of change
  • able to understand how change impacts on teams and individuals
  • able to understand and apply different approaches to achieving change
  • better able to plan for change
  • able to understand how to help move people through the stages of change

Content

-       ManagingChange capabilities

-      What is change

-     The depth of change

-      What drives change

-       How do I drive change in my team?

-       Conditions for successful implementation

-       People’s reactions to change

-       Communication is the key

-       Action planning

For futher inromation please e-mail: info@profilehrd.com