By Hap Cooper
If you are involved in soft skills training of any kind, the odds are good that you've pondered the subject of coaching--probably more than once. I am no exception and the subject came up again this week.
An old colleague of mine, Andrew Barer, used to make a pretty good argument for NOT training managers to coach their people. It wasn't that he didn't think coaching was a good idea--in fact, he was an exceptional coach himself. His take was that the managers who have the ability and inclination to coach already are. And the sizable majority who don't won't coach anyway--so why bother putting them (and yourself) through the agony. It's like the old adage that there are two major drawbacks to trying to teach a pig to dance: 1) It's not possible and therefore extremely frustrating, and 2) It annoys the pig.
Andrew's conclusion was that the coaching itself should be outsourced to professional coaches who have a niche in your particular industry. It made sense, but nobody I ever encountered in the real world ever adopted that approach institutionally. So we went on paying the bills by teaching managers how to coach and watching as nothing ever came of it.
Sometimes the top management team tried to mandate coaching by causing managers to record their coaching sessions on a form and submit them up the chain of command. Nice thought, but there was virtually no value given that the manager was just going through the motions--checking the box.
So, this week I heard a new approach for making coaching happen in the real world that I thought was quite inspired. A brilliant training designer I know named Larry Ledgerwood said that he has been having surprising success by teaching coaching NOT to the managers, but to the employees. They taught the whole course--two days. By showing the employees what they are missing and how valuable it is to their careers, the employees began to demand to be coached on a regular basis. They could also give their managers very specific guidelines around how they wish to be coached.
On top of that, it sparked an interest in peer coaching. It's always a lot easier to give a colleague objective feedback than to give it to yourself.
Larry said the idea has been viral within a couple of clients. Fascinating. How does the idea strike you?.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Inspiration from Real Life: Engaging Your Audience
If you happen to walk down the snack aisle of your local grocery store, you might notice a strange addition to Dorito's offerings--a black bag with big white letters: X-13D. A strange name for a snack chip, eh? As it turns out, it's not actually a name yet. It's the X-13D flavor experiment--"YouMarketing," the consumers' turn to name and market a product. As the Web site informs you, it works like this:
Get it. Taste it. Name it.
But that's just the beginning. Once on the site, you must first register, providing Doritos with important data about who they're engaging and opening the door for getting more "information" from them. But you don't mind the registration too much because you just know that your brilliant snack name is going to make you one of 100 chosen Flavor Masters. If you can adjust the controls of the Clue Generator properly, you'll get more information about the new flavor. And you can even record the dialogue for some pre-recorded video commercials. It's fun and engaging. As a co-creator, you're invested in the product.
I was inspired. I couldn't help but wondering how I might use this same idea to engage learners. Perhaps Doritos had provided me with an interesting and useful model for "YouLearning" or "Educational Co-Creation." Here's how I imagine it could work:
That's just one idea among many possibilities. How does this inspire you?
Gen Y Needs to Learn...?
By Margery Weinstein
Gen Y Needs to Learn...?
I've always been more of a pinball person. I'm a Generation Xer, so I should be a little more hip, but you'd be surprised. Gen Yers, whom I define as those born between 1982 and 1993, love video games and anything high-tech, "the experts" solemnly agree. So, for the purposes of training, you might suppose anything that's online, and involves becoming an avatar-robot, would be just the thing to hook them into training you otherwise expect them to daydream about lunch through.
I'm a little skeptical. People may tend to compartmentalize the pieces of their lives, and what's enjoyed in the leisure of one's home isn't necessarily what's expected in the office--or even wanted. To an X Box fanatic, a multimedia-laden simulation game designed to teach her the layout and operations of the manufacturing floor might not trigger thoughts of work in her brain, even if the content is work-oriented. What I mean is, since they've been playing video games since they were a child for fun, the act of playing an online game may reflexively link in their brains with good times, not good sheet-fed press operations.
It's also funny to think about your perception of Gen Yers if the best way to train them you feel is through a game. Are they so childish that their mind can only learn if they think they're playing a game? It's kind of insulting and condescending. I doubt whether the average Gen Yer--or any sane employee for that matter--would be sensitive enough to be offended by such a point, but it occurred to me, anyway, as revealing of our impression of young people today.
When all is said and done, I agree the odds are the younger generation will enjoy high-tech wizardry in place of school marm lectures about not letting the machinery get their fingers, and not putting the wrong kind of paper in the press so the company suffers multi-thousand dollar damages. But techno-flashiness isn't the only way to reach these up-and-comers.
It's shocking--it's slightly frightening--but some of them (there's a chance) have read books.
Gen Y Needs to Learn...?
I've always been more of a pinball person. I'm a Generation Xer, so I should be a little more hip, but you'd be surprised. Gen Yers, whom I define as those born between 1982 and 1993, love video games and anything high-tech, "the experts" solemnly agree. So, for the purposes of training, you might suppose anything that's online, and involves becoming an avatar-robot, would be just the thing to hook them into training you otherwise expect them to daydream about lunch through.
I'm a little skeptical. People may tend to compartmentalize the pieces of their lives, and what's enjoyed in the leisure of one's home isn't necessarily what's expected in the office--or even wanted. To an X Box fanatic, a multimedia-laden simulation game designed to teach her the layout and operations of the manufacturing floor might not trigger thoughts of work in her brain, even if the content is work-oriented. What I mean is, since they've been playing video games since they were a child for fun, the act of playing an online game may reflexively link in their brains with good times, not good sheet-fed press operations.
It's also funny to think about your perception of Gen Yers if the best way to train them you feel is through a game. Are they so childish that their mind can only learn if they think they're playing a game? It's kind of insulting and condescending. I doubt whether the average Gen Yer--or any sane employee for that matter--would be sensitive enough to be offended by such a point, but it occurred to me, anyway, as revealing of our impression of young people today.
When all is said and done, I agree the odds are the younger generation will enjoy high-tech wizardry in place of school marm lectures about not letting the machinery get their fingers, and not putting the wrong kind of paper in the press so the company suffers multi-thousand dollar damages. But techno-flashiness isn't the only way to reach these up-and-comers.
It's shocking--it's slightly frightening--but some of them (there's a chance) have read books.
Digital Divide in Web Use and Learning.......
By Karl Kapp
There was an interesting posting by Business Week called What are People Doing? that clearly shows a difference between what baby boomers are doing on the web and what younger "gamers" are doing on the web.
For example: only 12% of young boomers (41 to 50) and only 7% of older boomers (51 to 61) and only 5% of 62+ people are creating content on the web. Meanwhile, 34% of young teens (12 to 17) and 37% of youth (18 to 21) and 30% of Gen Y (22 to 26) are creating content (check out the chart). There is a trend showing a difference in how the web is used among different ages.
So while everyone dislikes a boring lecture no matter what their age, not everyone creates dynamic, original content on the web...the trend is toward younger people (digital natives) creating web-based content for their use and others.
It would seem natural that they would also be more comfortable learning via technology than Generation X or Boomers and that they would want the design of learning to be more closely associated with the type of technologies they have grown up with (yes this includes video games).
It is not that they can't learn from books (in fact the thickest books of all time aimed at kids are selling like crazy...Harry Potter)...it is that they also see VALUE in learning through games and video game-like interfaces...this is where some boomers do not see any value...why not learn something from a lecture instead of a video game? What is the difference they ask...its the same and...at least in a lecture their is no goofing off, its all serious because learning is serious.
The difference is that boomers tend to see games as Non-Learning...just fun...not serious...where the gamer generation seems to be more comfortable with games as a form of learning. In fact, children have always learned through games...playing "school" teaches proper behavior, playing certain card games teach about numbers. As Tom Crawford quoted Thiagi
Q: Have you encountered any companies or cultures that do not accept game playing?
A: While there are cultural differences, here is an interesting fact: All human beings play games. There is no culture in the world that doesn't play games, other than some middle managers in Chicago who think it's beneath their dignity
But the truth is that kids google information as much as they look it up in a book, the truth is they are creators of content as much as they are consumers, the truth is they network via technology as much as they do face-to-face, the truth is valuable lessons can be learned in a video-game format.
To ignore those tendencies or differences does a serious disservice to those we Generation Xers and Boomers are trying to train (so they can fit into the boomer dominated hierarchal structure...which, by the way, is crumbling under an information dominated world, that is non-hierarchal.)
As the world changes from when we have grown up...from the static one-way communication of television to the dynamic two-way content creation of the web, our training programs must also change. We cannot keep doing the same trainings and expect to get the same results...it will not work and our trainees will just sit in class and check their email during our dynamic lectures on safety.
Sales Management Mastery
Turn Your Sales Effort Into a Rocket Ship of Results
By Chet Holmes
There's a war in today's business world—it's called "sales." And, if you want to win the war and get more market share, you must get yourself some true warriors. You need top producers.
It's the top producers respond perfectly to rejection by becoming more effective. They become more aggressive when someone is brushing them off. They're more persuasive if someone isn't buying. Top Performers know that the sales process is a science. They understand that they must operate like scientists, constantly moving toward the sale.
If you want to achieve maximum productivity and double your sales in less than 12 to 15 months, you must think like a scientist. So start drilling down like a scientist each and every aspect of your sales process.
Here are some top ideas to help you create your step-by-step battle plan for sales success:
1. Prospecting Stage
• Do you have minimum standards for the types of accounts your salespeople should go after? Does every rep have some "dream clients" they chase constantly and relentlessly? What is the minimal size accounts should your reps be going after?
• What will be your sales reps first approach? The second? The third? What do you say if you get the prospect on the phone right away? What are your procedures for getting around gatekeepers and assistants?
• Did you establish the minimum number of accounts your team will go after (per rep)? How much time each day is going to be dedicated to this effort? Did you set a minimum amount of rejections your team will face per client?
Make sure you include in your battle plan what your sales reps should do after each rejection and how this process is going to be monitored. If you don't set standards here, 52 percent of all salespeople will give up after a single rejection. Yet studies show it takes 8.4 rejections today to get the client to at least meet you.
2. The sales call
• What are your sales reps going to present? What are the top five strategic objectives you want to achieve from every interaction with every buyer? What and how many questions are they going to ask? How will your reps own personal credibility?
The sales call is a terrific strategy but 99.9 percent of companies never address this on purpose. Have you seriously sat down and talked about the sales call and planned out each aspect? Did
you practice it, role-play it and polish it to a fine luster? Are you leaving nothing to chance?
Think of sales like a war: You need to plan every step. Marketing with direct mail, advertising, trade shows and Internet Marketing are like your long range bombing. They soften the market and make it more receptive.
Your salespeople are your foot soldiers. When they get into hand-do-hand combat, how well do you want them trained? By perfecting every aspect of the sales phone call, your clients will be able to win sales over your competitors.
3. The actual pitch for the product or service.
• What's your pre-emptive strategy to block competitors? What's going to motivate your prospects to buy right now?
Pretend you had to present to all your prospects all at once, what kind of experience would that be? Are you ready right now? If not, your sales process is sloppy.
Sorry, but it's true. You need to plan out the sales opportunities to the letter to the extent that your reps would know exactly what to say if you put them in a room with all their prospects at once. Figure it out, then role-play it.
4. The offer
• Can you offer something for free that gets you deep into your clients' world? Can you offer a free audit related to your type of product or service? Can you sweeten the inducement to buy with a bonus or free gift?
Creating a compelling offer is an art form. Role-play your offer again and again until the reps do it with ease and complete comfort.
5. The follow up
• How will you recognize and plan your objectives after a sales interaction? Do you want to get referrals? Do you want to keep the client coming back again and again?
• How are you going to build a bond? Did you get emails addresses? Can you open a relationship that is so worth having they can’t say no? What's follow up step one, step two, step three and so on?
By continuing the bonding process, your res wil find opportunities to network and win future sales.
That being said, it's the procedures, role-playing, constant training and working on the sales process—and not just in it—can help even regular salespeople perform like top producers. Remember—if you're not leading, you can't close.
By Chet Holmes
There's a war in today's business world—it's called "sales." And, if you want to win the war and get more market share, you must get yourself some true warriors. You need top producers.
It's the top producers respond perfectly to rejection by becoming more effective. They become more aggressive when someone is brushing them off. They're more persuasive if someone isn't buying. Top Performers know that the sales process is a science. They understand that they must operate like scientists, constantly moving toward the sale.
If you want to achieve maximum productivity and double your sales in less than 12 to 15 months, you must think like a scientist. So start drilling down like a scientist each and every aspect of your sales process.
Here are some top ideas to help you create your step-by-step battle plan for sales success:
1. Prospecting Stage
• Do you have minimum standards for the types of accounts your salespeople should go after? Does every rep have some "dream clients" they chase constantly and relentlessly? What is the minimal size accounts should your reps be going after?
• What will be your sales reps first approach? The second? The third? What do you say if you get the prospect on the phone right away? What are your procedures for getting around gatekeepers and assistants?
• Did you establish the minimum number of accounts your team will go after (per rep)? How much time each day is going to be dedicated to this effort? Did you set a minimum amount of rejections your team will face per client?
Make sure you include in your battle plan what your sales reps should do after each rejection and how this process is going to be monitored. If you don't set standards here, 52 percent of all salespeople will give up after a single rejection. Yet studies show it takes 8.4 rejections today to get the client to at least meet you.
2. The sales call
• What are your sales reps going to present? What are the top five strategic objectives you want to achieve from every interaction with every buyer? What and how many questions are they going to ask? How will your reps own personal credibility?
The sales call is a terrific strategy but 99.9 percent of companies never address this on purpose. Have you seriously sat down and talked about the sales call and planned out each aspect? Did
you practice it, role-play it and polish it to a fine luster? Are you leaving nothing to chance?
Think of sales like a war: You need to plan every step. Marketing with direct mail, advertising, trade shows and Internet Marketing are like your long range bombing. They soften the market and make it more receptive.
Your salespeople are your foot soldiers. When they get into hand-do-hand combat, how well do you want them trained? By perfecting every aspect of the sales phone call, your clients will be able to win sales over your competitors.
3. The actual pitch for the product or service.
• What's your pre-emptive strategy to block competitors? What's going to motivate your prospects to buy right now?
Pretend you had to present to all your prospects all at once, what kind of experience would that be? Are you ready right now? If not, your sales process is sloppy.
Sorry, but it's true. You need to plan out the sales opportunities to the letter to the extent that your reps would know exactly what to say if you put them in a room with all their prospects at once. Figure it out, then role-play it.
4. The offer
• Can you offer something for free that gets you deep into your clients' world? Can you offer a free audit related to your type of product or service? Can you sweeten the inducement to buy with a bonus or free gift?
Creating a compelling offer is an art form. Role-play your offer again and again until the reps do it with ease and complete comfort.
5. The follow up
• How will you recognize and plan your objectives after a sales interaction? Do you want to get referrals? Do you want to keep the client coming back again and again?
• How are you going to build a bond? Did you get emails addresses? Can you open a relationship that is so worth having they can’t say no? What's follow up step one, step two, step three and so on?
By continuing the bonding process, your res wil find opportunities to network and win future sales.
That being said, it's the procedures, role-playing, constant training and working on the sales process—and not just in it—can help even regular salespeople perform like top producers. Remember—if you're not leading, you can't close.
Case Study: Training for the End Goal.
How WaterColor Inn became a four-diamond hotel
By Rebecca Aronauer
Sometimes it helps to have a goal. The goal of the WaterColor Inn, a hotel in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., was to achieve a four-diamond AAA rating. Stephen Hilliard, the Watersound, Fla.–based vice president of resort and club operations for St. Joe, the hotel's parent company, believed the hotel itself was worthy of the distinction, but its customer service was letting it down. "We have a fantastic resort," he says. "But our team wasn't delivering on the promise of the product."
So St. Joe took action and hired Signature Worldwide, a customer service training company based in Dublin, Ohio. Most of WaterColor Inn's employees did not have any hospitality experience, so Signature helped them with the basics, such as making eye contact, using the guest's name on a regular basis and asking follow-up questions. Everyone on staff went through the same customer-service training, and in December of last year WaterColor Inn was awarded a four-diamond rating from AAA.
Having the goal in mind enhanced Signature's program. Even for a training consultant, "improving customer service" is a vague request. Knowing the hotel wanted AAA recognition "gave Signature a very clear path in terms of the skill sets [the hotel staff] needed to understand," Hilliard says. The hotel also had more employee buy-in, since everyone on staff knew the objective of the training and could understand its importance. Hilliard says, "Having a specific goal, instead of 'We want to provide great service'—whatever that means—made a big difference."
By Rebecca Aronauer
Sometimes it helps to have a goal. The goal of the WaterColor Inn, a hotel in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., was to achieve a four-diamond AAA rating. Stephen Hilliard, the Watersound, Fla.–based vice president of resort and club operations for St. Joe, the hotel's parent company, believed the hotel itself was worthy of the distinction, but its customer service was letting it down. "We have a fantastic resort," he says. "But our team wasn't delivering on the promise of the product."
So St. Joe took action and hired Signature Worldwide, a customer service training company based in Dublin, Ohio. Most of WaterColor Inn's employees did not have any hospitality experience, so Signature helped them with the basics, such as making eye contact, using the guest's name on a regular basis and asking follow-up questions. Everyone on staff went through the same customer-service training, and in December of last year WaterColor Inn was awarded a four-diamond rating from AAA.
Having the goal in mind enhanced Signature's program. Even for a training consultant, "improving customer service" is a vague request. Knowing the hotel wanted AAA recognition "gave Signature a very clear path in terms of the skill sets [the hotel staff] needed to understand," Hilliard says. The hotel also had more employee buy-in, since everyone on staff knew the objective of the training and could understand its importance. Hilliard says, "Having a specific goal, instead of 'We want to provide great service'—whatever that means—made a big difference."
Outsourcing Sorted Out
It's cheap, efficient, and, unfortunately, steep- ed in controversy. But whatever your personal feelings about it, outsourcing is a reality you'll probably soon be dealing with in your training department—if you aren't already. To make sure you handle it right, we picked the brain of Debbie Friedman, author of "De-mystifying Outsourcing: The Trainer's Guide to Working With Vendors and Consultants."
When to do it? "When you want to expand the capability of your department, or what you're trying to do," says Friedman of when to outsource training functions. "Also, when you need additional expertise, or sometimes you're outsourcing just when you need additional resources to meet your objectives."
Sometimes you outsource training functions when you have a politically sensitive job, for example, that's better to have somebody from outside the organization handle.
When you don't outsource? If you're launching a new product, and need training to support the accompanying marketing campaign, hiring an outsider is risky," says Friedman. To give them a greater chance of succeeding, fully brief them on your organizational dynamics, and the industry-specific language or jargon used by your learners. To make sure such confusion isn't an issue, it's a good idea to select an outsource partner with experience training inside your field.
And, of course, your potential outsource partners have to be able to do specifically what you need them to. If it's a change initiative, Friedman says to ask yourself, "Do they really understand the dynamics of change, and will they be able to partner with us to be successful?"
Better Business with Videocasting
By Greg Pulier
In a world of information overload, sales and marketing managers are up against a deluge of competing information when attempting to communicate effectively with their teams. So how can you communicate better and faster? And how can you ensure the messages you send will be heard and absorbed? The answer is video podcasting—or videocasts—right from your desktop.
Desktop-created videocasts are rapidly emerging as a powerful way for managers to consistently keep in touch with both internal and external audiences. Whether distributing critical training information or creating sales presentations, video is an efficient and effective communications method that can be used without stretching budgets with costly travel.
Traditionally, webcasting has been viewed as an expensive and complex process that is best left to media departments and technical professionals. But today new software tools are available to help business professionals easily create video presentations—complete with PowerPoint slides and screen captures—right from their own desktops. These tools allow managers to cut through the clutter and deliver key messages to peers, prospects and partners in impressive, motivating and influential ways.
Any business user can have the power of a media studio right at their desktop with a simple software download. And using self-service videocasting software doesn't require training or support. With just a smile into the webcam and a few point and clicks, a dynamic and interactive video presentation can be created. Videocasts can be watched on either the web, by clicking through a link or at the viewer's convenience on an iPod or other mobile device.
The best part about many of these new desktop communication applications is that they let managers statistically track exactly how the videocast is viewed, if it generates leads and helps aid in effective follow-through. For example, a sales person can meet with a prospect in the morning and by the afternoon follow up with a personal podcast which took only a few minutes to create; or a manager can record a quick demo that explains the benefits of new product features and then efficiently push the podcast to the team. In both cases, the creator can observe how many people are watching, who those people are and how long they paid attention—an almost immediate return on investment.
Videocasts can also improve channel communication as many sales staffs are lean and count on channel partners to develop business. When the channel is informed and excited about a product or service, they can better retain important selling points and more effectively sell the product. In addition, videocasts allow individuals to share pitches, tips and best practices with each other, whether on a team of ten or a team of thousands, spreading the word and educating the field with the click of a button on a global scale in literally minutes. The understanding of a product can greatly improve with visual and audio to go along with PowerPoint slides and it helps to differentiate it from the competition.
Surely there is still need for live high-end webcasting, but the growing demand for tools that can help in everyday business life has been answered. Adding video to your arsenal of communications tools offers a variety of benefits that translate into real cost savings and revenue generation. All you have to do is simply give it a try and see for yourself.
In a world of information overload, sales and marketing managers are up against a deluge of competing information when attempting to communicate effectively with their teams. So how can you communicate better and faster? And how can you ensure the messages you send will be heard and absorbed? The answer is video podcasting—or videocasts—right from your desktop.
Desktop-created videocasts are rapidly emerging as a powerful way for managers to consistently keep in touch with both internal and external audiences. Whether distributing critical training information or creating sales presentations, video is an efficient and effective communications method that can be used without stretching budgets with costly travel.
Traditionally, webcasting has been viewed as an expensive and complex process that is best left to media departments and technical professionals. But today new software tools are available to help business professionals easily create video presentations—complete with PowerPoint slides and screen captures—right from their own desktops. These tools allow managers to cut through the clutter and deliver key messages to peers, prospects and partners in impressive, motivating and influential ways.
Any business user can have the power of a media studio right at their desktop with a simple software download. And using self-service videocasting software doesn't require training or support. With just a smile into the webcam and a few point and clicks, a dynamic and interactive video presentation can be created. Videocasts can be watched on either the web, by clicking through a link or at the viewer's convenience on an iPod or other mobile device.
The best part about many of these new desktop communication applications is that they let managers statistically track exactly how the videocast is viewed, if it generates leads and helps aid in effective follow-through. For example, a sales person can meet with a prospect in the morning and by the afternoon follow up with a personal podcast which took only a few minutes to create; or a manager can record a quick demo that explains the benefits of new product features and then efficiently push the podcast to the team. In both cases, the creator can observe how many people are watching, who those people are and how long they paid attention—an almost immediate return on investment.
Videocasts can also improve channel communication as many sales staffs are lean and count on channel partners to develop business. When the channel is informed and excited about a product or service, they can better retain important selling points and more effectively sell the product. In addition, videocasts allow individuals to share pitches, tips and best practices with each other, whether on a team of ten or a team of thousands, spreading the word and educating the field with the click of a button on a global scale in literally minutes. The understanding of a product can greatly improve with visual and audio to go along with PowerPoint slides and it helps to differentiate it from the competition.
Surely there is still need for live high-end webcasting, but the growing demand for tools that can help in everyday business life has been answered. Adding video to your arsenal of communications tools offers a variety of benefits that translate into real cost savings and revenue generation. All you have to do is simply give it a try and see for yourself.
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