adictoaloshombres: Performance

Showing posts with label Performance. Show all posts

High Performance Mastery: Top 7 Principles For Transforming Your Business From Mediocre To Great

Keywords:

business coaching, leadership, wealth, business success, marketing, million dollars, NLP

Article Body:

In the words of motivational speaker, Les Brown -- "You don't have to be great to get started, but you do have o get started to be great.” Where do you start to transform your business from mediocre to great?

Below are your top 7 essential ingredients for cultivating greatness within your own business:

1. KNOW WHAT YOUR BUSINESS STANDS FOR AND LIVE THOSE VALUES.
More than ever, today, customers don’t just ask “what products do you offer?” They also ask “what values do you stand for?” What values does your business stand for? What practices have you developed to live those values daily?

2. KNOW YOUR COMPELLING "WHY."
Viktor Frankl, the great Austrian psychiatrist, said it best: “Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue ... as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.” For what “transcendent” purpose does your business exist? How does your business make a difference in your customers’ lives?

3. ALWAYS SEEK THE EDGE.
In 1954, Roger Bannister did the seemingly “impossible” and ran the first 4 minute mile. When asked how he did it, he said “It's the ability to take more out of yourself than you've got.'" How can you “take more out of yourself than you’ve got” to achieve the seemingly impossible in your business?

4. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT.
Contrarians are the change agents in the business world. These wealth-building businesses are not simply “executing better” -- they’re radically changing the rules of the success game in their field or industry. Where in your business can you break the rules? How can you set yourself apart from the crowd in your industry?

5. FIND MODELS OF GREATNESS.
Within every industry, every geography, every career path, there are examples of greatness everywhere. Find those people, those businesses that inspire you the most. What is it about them you would like to emulate? What changes can you make today to be like them?

6. KNOW THE END IN MIND.
Great businesses **decide** their future. They are not dictated by it. They know exactly where they want to be, by when, how, and then persist in getting there. What decisions have you made about your business future? What do you need to decide differently in order to have a great outcome?

7. COMMIT TO PERSONAL GREATNESS.
Your business is a direct reflection of where you are at. It only grows as quickly as you do. To build a great business, you must commit to your own personal greatness. How do you define personal greatness for yourself? What changes can you make to unleash your own greatness?

Employee Performance Reviews - Dealing With Disagreements

Most of the time, you have a reasonably good understanding of the areas where disagreements are likely to pop up in the course of the performance review discussion

Keywords:

performance, employee, management, evaluation, review, assessment, online, software

Article Body:

What do you do when an employee disagrees with something you’ve written on their performance review? How can you prepare for this and deal with it effectively?

Start by listening to figure out the source of the disagreement. Is it an issue of fact (you wrote that the employee received a customer satisfaction score of 79 but the employee says that his score was actually 83), or is a matter of judgment (you wrote that the employee’s customer service skills were unsatisfactory; she feels that her skills are terrific)? If the disagreement involves an issue of fact, get the facts and make any corrections necessary. If it’s a matter of judgment, ask the employee for additional evidence. Then determine whether that evidence is weighty enough to cause you to change your mind, revise your judgment, and amend the rating that you assigned on the employee’s performance review.

Most of the time, you have a reasonably good understanding of the areas where disagreements are likely to pop up in the course of the performance review discussion. Before beginning the discussion, re-read the review you wrote and try to spot the areas where you and the individual may not seem eye-to-eye. Then ask yourself, “What am I going to say when George disagrees with my assessment that his performance on the Thompson project just barely met expectations?” If you’ve taken to time to review the appraisal you’ve written for potential hot spots, and given some thought to how you’ll respond, you’re much less likely to be caught off guard.

During the employee performance review discussion, start with your higher ratings and move toward the lower ones. Be prepared to give additional examples besides the ones you’ve included on the formal written appraisal. Refer back to the informal conversations you have had with the individual over the course of the year.

Of course, if you haven’t had on-going, informal performance review discussions with the individual over the course of the appraisal period, then it’s much more likely that disagreements will surface during the review. That’s one more reason for scheduling periodic, “How’s it going?” discussions with each person on your team.

As soon as a disagreement pops up, switch into active listening mode. “Active listening” involves allowing the other person to clarify both the facts and feelings about an issue so there’s nothing left under the surface. For example, using phrases as simple as, “Tell me more . . .” or, “What else can you share with me about that . . . ?” or, “Really . . . ?” can encourage people to talk more about their perceptions. Simply nodding without saying anything encourages people to expand on what they have said. It’s not at all unlikely that the employee, allowed a sufficient chance to think aloud about what you have written, will end up saying, “Yeah, I guess I see what you mean.”

In dealing effectively with employee performance review disagreements, remember what your objective in the discussion is — and what it isn’t. Your objective in a performance review discussion is not to gain agreement. It is to gain understanding. If the employee agrees with you, that’s great. But particularly if your appraisal is a tough-minded assessment of the fact the Charlie’s contribution toward achieving your department’s objectives was only mediocre, you’ll probably never get him to agree. That’s OK. What you want is for him to understand why you evaluated his performance the way you did, even if his personal opinion is different.

Finally, if you have several employee performance reviews to deliver, don’t start with the individual whose performance was the worst and where disagreements are the most likely to arise. Start with the easiest — your best performer — and move toward the more difficult. In this way, you’ll build your skills and become more comfortable with the performance review process. Remember the advice that John Dillinger, the 1930’s public-enemy #1, once provided: “Before you rob your first bank, knock off a couple of gas stations.”

Consultants Help Fine Tune Your Business Performance

Keywords:

consulting,business consulting,management consulting,marketing consulting,consulting services

Article Body:

A consultant is a professional who provides expert advice in a particular area of expertise such as IT, management, marketing, or finance etc. Consultants identify companies' marketing or business needs, and they help companies improve their performance and profitability by analyzing existing business problems and developing future strategies. They help determine the most effective marketing and business solutions to your business, as well as the best ways to execute these solutions for the betterment of your business. Consultants generally use formal methodologies to analyze problems or to suggest better ways of completing business tasks. Consultants help execute your business plan and strategies, allowing you to focus on other important business issues and business meetings.

Management and business consulting grew rapidly in the 1980s and 1990s with industry growth rates of 20%. Consulting is highly cyclical and is sensitive to general economic conditions. The consulting industry declined between 2001 to 2003, but has been experiencing some growth since.

Nowadays there are three major types of consulting firms. One type is the larger consulting firm that offers a wide variety of consulting services, ranging from IT consulting to management consulting. Another type is the established management and strategic consulting firms that focus mainly on management consulting that covers any specific industry. Yet another type is the smaller boutique consulting firms with consulting focus and expertise on specific industries or technologies.

The more established consulting firms today include Arthur D. Little, a general management consulting firm; Booz Allen Hamilton was the first consulting firm to serve clients in both the government and the industry; McKinsey & Company, was one of the first pure management consulting firm and currently leads the field. It was also one of the first consulting firms to hire graduates of top MBA schools rather than hiring experienced industry personnel. Boston Consulting Group brought an analytical approach to the study of strategy and management. Bain & Company introduced its focus on shareholder wealth. Traditional accounting companies such as Arthur Andersen and global IT services firms such as IBM also set up consulting departments.

Businesses or companies can engage a business or management consulting firm or an individual business consultant who will draw up suitable business plans and strategies and implement them. Consultants are generally well paid with some business consultants charging $150 per hour, and sometimes even as high as $2,000 per day for their services.

Get Your Performance Appraisal Discussions Off to a Good Start

Here are four suggestions that will make the performance appraisal discussion more relaxed.

Keywords:

employee Performance Evaluation

Article Body:

In a previous article I shared a couple of tips that will reduce the feelings of discomfort that often come when a performance appraisal is discussed — gather your materials in advance, make a list of the key points you need to cover, and pick an appropriate place for the discussion. Here are four more suggestions that will make the performance appraisal discussion more relaxed.

Choose a Convenient Time

When is the best time to hold a performance appraisal discussion? There isn’t any one particular time that is ideal — mornings or afternoons, early or late in the week, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is having enough time. Wise managers set a specific time for a performance review — perhaps 60 minutes — and announce at the beginning of the meeting just how long they have budgeted for the discussion. But they also make sure that the next activity scheduled for after the appraisal discussion is one that is either a low-priority (so that it can be re-scheduled) or highly flexible (like working on a long-range plan). It may turn out that more time is needed to discuss some sensitive items that arise during the discussion. It may also be that the performance appraisal discussion turns into a highly creative brain-storming session that needs to continue beyond the one-hour schedule. Make sure there’s enough time for unexpected events to play out.

Determine the Agenda

How are you going to kick off the performance appraisal discussion? What are the first words you plan to say? Will you review the performance appraisal sheet section by section, or do you want to start with the final rating and move backwards from there? When are you going to go over the employee’s self-appraisal?

Too often these questions are answered simply as “it just happened that way” — the manager gave no thought to the sequence of events that he wanted to follow.

A better approach is to have an agenda for the meeting. The agenda need not be written down (although that’s not a bad idea) but the manager needs to decide in advance how he wants to structure the discussion.

Arrange for Work Coverage

If you don’t have someone to answer your phone and you can’t switch the phone to send all calls directly into voicemail, then make a firm decision to simply ignore any phone calls that come in during the meeting. Steal a “Do Not Disturb” sign from the next hotel room you stay in and put it on the door handle of the room where you’re meeting. Tell your staff and colleagues to follow the “thousand-mile rule” — don’t disturb you with anything unless it’s of the same urgency that they would track you down and interrupt you if you were a thousand miles away.

Give the Individual a Copy of the Performance Appraisal to Read in Advance of the Meeting

Before I became a consultant, I spent fifteen years working for three large corporations: General Electric, United Airlines, and PepsiCo. Each one of those companies had a rigorous performance appraisal system; every one of my bosses took the process seriously.

But each one followed the same clumsy procedure when the day came for my performance appraisal discussion. At the time we had set for the meeting I would walk into his office and he would hand me the appraisal. I would try to read through the multi-page document just as fast as I could while my boss sat behind his desk trying to gauge from my reactions how I was taking it.

What a bumbling way to start the meeting! How can an employee take everything in from 2 minutes of speed reading?

Here’s a far better way to get the meeting off to an efficient, business-like start. An hour or two before the appraisal meeting is scheduled, give the employee the performance appraisal. Say, “Sam, at 3:00 this afternoon we’re going to get together for your performance review. I’d like you to read through the performance appraisal ahead of time so that you’re prepared for our meeting. Feel free to write any questions you have directly on the form, or highlight anything that you want to be sure we talk about. See you then."

Sam now has some time to read carefully what you have written, at his own pace. He can reflect on the things you’ve said without having to immediately defend or explain himself. He can jot down notes and think of questions he’d like to ask.

If you ask people to complete a self-appraisal, ask for it at the same time that you give them a copy of their appraisal (if you haven’t asked them to send it to you earlier so you can use it as an information-source in completing the official performance appraisal.) You too will be more relaxed and better prepared by being able to read, in an unpressured way, what the individual has written about herself.

One caution, however. If the person you’re reviewing is a marginal performer with a bad rating, wait until the beginning of the meeting to hand over the performance appraisal. This increases your control of the situation.

Must performance appraisal discussions be uncomfortable exchanges? No. Following these small suggestions will help produce appraisal discussions that turn out to be productive learning events and true team-building experiences.

Get Your Performance Appraisal Discussions Off To A Good Start (Part 1)

Keywords:

performance, employee, management, evaluation, review, assessment, online, software

Article Body:

Too often, participants in performance appraisal meetings seem awkward and uncomfortable. To some extent, that’s unavoidable — it’s always a bit awkward for one person to deliver a formal assessment of the quality of work performed by another.

But following some simple suggestions can eliminate a lot of the awkwardness in performance appraisal meetings. Here are a couple of tips that will help put both players at ease. (In Part 2 of this article, I’ll provide some additional suggestions.)

Gather Your Appraisal Information and Materials in Advance

The most important item you need to have is a copy of the individual’s performance appraisal. That’s obvious. But that’s not all.

At the beginning of the year you and the individual probably had a performance planning meeting. Ideally, the individual would have taken notes on a blank copy of the appraisal form and made a copy for you. That document should have all of the key items that you discussed during the meeting. Be sure you have a copy of that planning document in case a question about the original goals comes up.

You’ll also need information about the individual’s performance, particularly if there are some areas where the performance varied significantly from your expectations. Whether the variation was in a positive or negative direction, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate why you assigned the rating that you did. If the assessment is that the individual’s performance was less than you desired, then it’s critically important that you have all of the evidence you used in order to come to that “Unsatisfactory” or “Need Improvement” performance appraisal rating. There’s a magic phrase to use here. That phrase is, “For example . . .” Make sure you’ve got plenty of examples that support a less-than-satisfactory evaluation.

You may want to have a copy of the individual’s development plan. You may want to have copies of weekly reports that the individual submitted that described progress against the goals that were set. You can’t make a mistake by having too much support material. It will prevent the embarrassment of being unable to find anything of substance to justify the rating you gave.

Make a List
What are the key points that you want to cover during the discussion? In addition to having a copy of the performance appraisal, write down a list of the most important items you want to discuss. It’s easy to refer to them during the meeting to make sure that everything that needs to be discussed gets covered.

Pick an Appropriate Place
Probably most performance appraisal discussions take place in the manager’s office, with the manager behind the desk and the appraisee sitting directly in front of it.

Is that the best place to hold the discussion? It may well be, particularly if the performance appraisal is not very good and the manager wants to trot out all of the power and authority available to make the subordinate understand that immediate change is necessary. But too often the authoritarian, boss-behind-the-desk arrangement serves to emphasize the power relationship at a time when a more collegial approach might be more effective.

More important than the actual location where the discussion ends up taking place is the decision-making process the manager engages in to determine that location. Too often, managers conduct the performance appraisal discussion behind their desks by default — they haven’t given any thought to the matter and just let it happen in the place where they are most comfortable.

There are several other alternatives possible. The manager’s office might not offer complete privacy, particularly if walls are thin or it’s a cubicle arrangement. In this case a conference room or the temporarily vacant office of an out-of town senior manager might be pressed into service. If the performance appraisal contains good news and the two participants in the appraisal drama are old colleagues, it might best be conducted over a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. And if it is conducted in the manager’s office, just a little furniture rearrangement might reduce the hierarchical nature of the discussion.

If the performance appraisal does indeed contain bad news, and particularly if the manager believes that it will take a dramatic gesture to bring home the message of “Change or else!”, the appraiser’s boss’s office might be a good location. Having your boss give you your performance appraisal in her boss’s office — with her boss sitting in as an observer / reinforcer — certainly communicates the seriousness of the message being delivered.

But beware the unusual location. The district sales manager who gives one of her sales reps his annual performance appraisal while the two of them are in the car, driving down the highway on route to a new prospect’s office, is exercising bad judgment. So too is any manager who selects a location significantly away from a business setting, unless the necessity for conducting the performance review at that time, in that location, is obvious to both players.

These are some small suggestions that will help to reduce the awkwardness that always seems to surround the performance appraisal discussion. In Part 2, I’ll provide a couple more tips that will help put both players at ease.

Employee Development: Motivate Employee Participation in Professional Development Opportunities and Improve Performance

An employee development and training program is not something to be checked off on a checklist. The strongest organizations make employee development an integral part of their culture and strategies for success. Learn how to increase your performance by motivating the seemingly unmotivated.

Keywords:

employee training and development, training and development, employee development, professsional development, employee training, motivation

Article Body:

When companies think of employee development, they often search for training programs, educational seminars, coaching or the latest book that might offer ideas on what employees can do to sharpen skills or strengthen expertise. However, none of these programs will be effective if the organization lacks one critical success factor: individual motivation. An individual has to want to develop himself before any employee training and development program can be successful.

Some say they’re 'too busy.' Some say they’re 'already developed.' Some blame the boss. Some like burying their heads in the sand, afraid of what they might learn about themselves.

What can you do to help your employees achieve best performance?

Here are some tips to help motivate the seemingly unmotivated and increase your organization’s overall performance.

1. Target the highly motivated and strong performers.

All organizations have individuals who are highly motivated. They stand out more easily. They typically like challenges and welcome growth opportunities for themselves. Engage them in activities to help them get even better. The improved performance of the highly motivated will help raise the bar for your entire organization. Those who are less motivated will have to step up the pace.

2. Focus on the future.

Rather than concentrate on performance areas that aren’t working for an individual, talk about possibilities for the future. It’s easier to become energized about new possibilities than dwelling on weaknesses. Determine the positive outcome that will occur if a change/improvement is made. For example, you might say, "We can reach more buyers if you can speak more frequently to groups. What can you do to hone your presentation skills to help secure more business?" Help employees keep their eye on the goal, not their ego.

3. Open dialogue about desire.

Discussions about development should be positive and ongoing -- not limited to annual performance reviews. Let the individual lead. Rather than saying, "Here are areas you need to develop," ask "What would help you build on your strengths or increase your effectiveness?" When a particular approach has been identified, ask for commitment to follow-through. Create a culture where ongoing development is expected, encouraged and rewarded at all levels.

4. Start at the top.

Executives should model the commitment to growth and development that they want to see throughout the organization. After all, many problems disguised as employee development issues actually reflect leadership deficiencies of the firm or organization.

Consider using assessments of some kind to help employees gain a more objective perspective about them. Assessments can be helpful or destructive depending on how they are used. In the end, it’s all about achieving what both the employees and what the organization wants. Be clear about what’s most important to both.

An employee development and training program is not something to be checked off on a checklist. The strongest organizations make employee development an integral part of their culture and strategies for success. They constantly seek new and innovate ways to engage their people in development opportunities to achieve best results.

Employee Performance Management

Keywords:

Employee Performance Management, Manufacturing Performance Management, Marketing Performance Management, Performance Management

Article Body:

Fixation of compensation or wage rates for different categories of employees in a company is an important task of management. The employees are not only concerned with the wages received but also concerned with the level wages received by same level of employees in similar organizations. Hence wage structure may be considered very important. The relative wage-rules must be fixed carefully, because they have implications for promotion, transfer, seniority and other important personnel matters.

Wage plan should possess certain fundamental characteristics if the long term interests of the worker, management and the consumer are to be served. The wage plan must be linked with the productivity of the workers. Unless higher pay scales of workers are linked in some way to the productivity of workers, a wage plan will not be fair either to the management or to the consumers.

Basic wage for each job classification should be related to skill job requirements of job. Due consideration should be given to such factors as skill, length of time required in learning, versatility required and working conditions. In all fairness to management, the plan should usually result in a reduction of unit cost of manufacture, making possible lower prices and higher profits.

In all fairness to the consumers a share of higher efficiency should be passed on to them by way of lower price. This will be possible when there is reduction in cost due to higher efficiency. Thus the wage plan must ensure that all participate share the gains of higher productivity. The wage plan should include an incentive system for the efficient workers. The system should ensure higher pay to the workers who perform work at higher level of efficiency. The wage plan should guarantee minimum wage to protect the interest of workers against conditions over which they have no control.

Get Your Performance Appraisal Discussions Off to a Good Start Part 1

Following some simple suggestions can eliminate a lot of the awkwardness in performance appraisal meetings.

Keywords:

performance, employee, management, evaluation, review, assessment, online, software

Article Body:

Too often, participants in performance appraisal meetings seem awkward and uncomfortable. To some extent, that’s unavoidable — it’s always a bit awkward for one person to deliver a formal assessment of the quality of work performed by another.

But following some simple suggestions can eliminate a lot of the awkwardness in performance appraisal meetings. Here are a couple of tips that will help put both players at ease. (In Part 2 of this article, I’ll provide some additional suggestions.)

Gather Your Appraisal Information and Materials in Advance
The most important item you need to have is a copy of the individual’s performance appraisal. That’s obvious. But that’s not all.
At the beginning of the year you and the individual probably had a performance planning meeting. Ideally, the individual would have taken notes on a blank copy of the appraisal form and made a copy for you. That document should have all of the key items that you discussed during the meeting. Be sure you have a copy of that planning document in case a question about the original goals comes up.

You’ll also need information about the individual’s performance, particularly if there are some areas where the performance varied significantly from your expectations. Whether the variation was in a positive or negative direction, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate why you assigned the rating that you did. If the assessment is that the individual’s performance was less than you desired, then it’s critically important that you have all of the evidence you used in order to come to that “Unsatisfactory” or “Need Improvement” performance appraisal rating. There’s a magic phrase to use here. That phrase is, “For example . . .” Make sure you’ve got plenty of examples that support a less-than-satisfactory evaluation.

You may want to have a copy of the individual’s development plan. You may want to have copies of weekly reports that the individual submitted that described progress against the goals that were set. You can’t make a mistake by having too much support material. It will prevent the embarrassment of being unable to find anything of substance to justify the rating you gave.

Make a List
What are the key points that you want to cover during the discussion? In addition to having a copy of the performance appraisal, write down a list of the most important items you want to discuss. It’s easy to refer to them during the meeting to make sure that everything that needs to be discussed gets covered.

Pick an Appropriate Place
Probably most performance appraisal discussions take place in the manager’s office, with the manager behind the desk and the appraisee sitting directly in front of it.

Is that the best place to hold the discussion? It may well be, particularly if the performance appraisal is not very good and the manager wants to trot out all of the power and authority available to make the subordinate understand that immediate change is necessary. But too often the authoritarian, boss-behind-the-desk arrangement serves to emphasize the power relationship at a time when a more collegial approach might be more effective.

More important than the actual location where the discussion ends up taking place is the decision-making process the manager engages in to determine that location. Too often, managers conduct the performance appraisal discussion behind their desks by default — they haven’t given any thought to the matter and just let it happen in the place where they are most comfortable.

There are several other alternatives possible. The manager’s office might not offer complete privacy, particularly if walls are thin or it’s a cubicle arrangement. In this case a conference room or the temporarily vacant office of an out-of town senior manager might be pressed into service. If the performance appraisal contains good news and the two participants in the appraisal drama are old colleagues, it might best be conducted over a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. And if it is conducted in the manager’s office, just a little furniture rearrangement might reduce the hierarchical nature of the discussion.
If the performance appraisal does indeed contain bad news, and particularly if the manager believes that it will take a dramatic gesture to bring home the message of “Change or else!”, the appraiser’s boss’s office might be a good location. Having your boss give you your performance appraisal in her boss’s office — with her boss sitting in as an observer / reinforcer — certainly communicates the seriousness of the message being delivered.

But beware the unusual location. The district sales manager who gives one of her sales reps his annual performance appraisal while the two of them are in the car, driving down the highway on route to a new prospect’s office, is exercising bad judgment. So too is any manager who selects a location significantly away from a business setting, unless the necessity for conducting the performance review at that time, in that location, is obvious to both players.

These are some small suggestions that will help to reduce the awkwardness that always seems to surround the performance appraisal discussion. In Part 2, I’ll provide a couple more tips that will help put both players at ease.

Does Your Sales Training Program Address Your Sales Performance Issues? Part 1

Here’s a Proven Method to Target ‘Sales Skill Training’ to Resolve Sales Performance Issues

Keywords:

SALES PROSPECTING,SALES LEADERSHIP,SALES TRAINING,SALES PERFORMANCE,SALES MANAGEMENT TRAINING,CORPORATE SALES TRAINING,SALES TRAINING PROGRAM,TRAIN THE TRAINER,SALES SKILL TRAINING,PHONE SALES TRAININ

Article Body:

Sales training programs encompass a variety of necessary components; things like company policies, sales paperwork, CRM/sales force automation orientation, sales processes, company services, sales skill training and product features and benefits.
But when I ask Sales executives and Sales trainers how their current sales training program is aligned with their sales performance issues I get the look of “No speak English’.

Let’s first categorize ‘Sales performance issues’. There are (4) distinct sales performance silos that will effect the overall outcome of any sales team, year in and year out. They are:

• % of Sales reps to Quota
• Average New-hire Ramp-to-Quota in months
• Sales Employee Turnover rate
• Time spent versus Result achieved

This is a good place to start in determining what sales skill training to implement to achieve a measurable return on investment. But here’s what will set you apart when you walk the request up to the front office. Start out with the NUMBERS.
That’s right. Take a diagnostic view of your current sales performance silos, one by one.

Let’s look at a real sales performance issue example of ‘Average New-hire Ramp-to-Quota’. I recently conducted a ‘Sales Performance Improvement Blueprint’ web-cast for this sales organization.
The company was hiring 155 sales reps per year. The ultimate objective of any new-hire sales training program is to ramp the new sales rep to Quota. Simply, give them everything they need to effectively reach their monthly sales goal.

So how was this company doing? They were obtaining this ultimate sales training program objective in 7 months. So how does one determine if that training outcome is a ‘Sales Performance Issue’? Let’s take a look.

Step 1: ‘Run the Numbers’ for any realistic ROI opportunity

• Each new-hire rep had an ultimate quota of $3500
• Sales Cycle was 17 days
• Average customer term agreement of 36 months
• Average 'Sub-Quota' revenue per month during ramp of $1300 (This number reflects the average monthly revenue a new-hire achieves before they achieve quota attainment)

Step 2: ‘Run the Numbers’ hypothetically for a ‘Specific’ improvement

In this case, I showed the sales management team what return on investment they would get by helping just 1 sales rep achieve full sales quota in 6 months versus 7 months. Based on their numbers my diagnostic X2 Evaluator™ system showed them a ROI of $79,200 just by trimming off 30 days. If they did that for all 155 of their annual new-hires, they could realize $12,276,000.
And that got their attention. So, is it now a worthy sales performance issue to attach pin-point sales training to? Not quite yet.

Step 3: ‘Run the Numbers’ for a ‘Reality Check’

The most successful businesses — and certainly, sales departments — have identified their Key Performance Indicators (KPI); individual gateways that directly effect the outcome of a particular process. Then they measure the competency ratios in line with them.

A good KPI example in the sales process might be how many times you advance the first sales appointment to the next phase, whether that’s a demonstration, a site visit, a survey or a proposal. Another KPI is how many times you gain a new customer once the first gateway is passed. And when you do gain a new customer, what’s the average revenue you achieve? And how long does it take to gain a new customer on average; i.e. sales cycle?
How about how long it takes you to gain 1 new sales appointment, defined by sales prospect ‘conversation’? And as a by-product of all this, how many new appointments are needed each week?

We ran these numbers in the X2 Evaluator™ system to see ‘if and where’ there were some leaks in the ‘KPI ship’. And here’s what we discovered; not a leak, but a big ‘ole fire hose.

Two ‘KPI issues’ were apparent. First, why does the ramp-to-quota for a new-hire take 7 months when the average sales cycle is 17 days? Second, they were only setting 3 new appointments per week when they needed to set 6, based on their other KPIs. So their sales appointment ‘activity barometer’ was only running at 50%. And that will dictate a longer ramp-to-quota.
Dig a bit deeper in the X2 Evaluator™ system and out popped a 6% conversation-to-appointment ratio; they had to conduct 15 prospect conversations to get 1 new appointment.

OK, back to the ‘Reality Check’. Is it realistic to focus on reducing the new-hire ramp-to-quota from 7 months to 6 months for a sales training ROI of $12,276,000 or $79,200 per rep?
You bet it is. These folks needed to address the front-end of their sales process; setting targeted sales appointments. To do that, they needed (1) establish an activity standard to reach quota by month six and (2) develop a sales prospecting methodology and supporting X2 Evaluator™ system to spend less time in achieving it.
Then they needed to plug their sales prospecting ‘system’ into their current sales training program and work to a weekly sales appointment activity goal to assure a monthly revenue result by month 6.

Step 4: Set the Goal and ‘Train to It’

A sales training ROI goal of $12,276,000 or $79,200 per rep is for sure a worthy one. And the diagnostic system showed us they would meet this goal just by setting 3 additional sales appointment per week per rep; 6 appointments versus 3.

Actually, I lied. The X2 Evaluator system showed an even brighter picture if the sales appointment activity standard of 6 new appointments per week was met. If they could support their new-hires with a sales prospecting system that could help them achieve 6 new sales appointments per week, they would actually cut their new-hire Ramp-to-Quota by 4 months; from the current 7 months down to 3 months.
And that sales training ROI would be $316,800 per rep or a whopping $49,104,000.

One of the reasons why sales training fails is a failure to define a useful objective. In this case, our diagnostic method has defined a single useful objective for them to train to. And this same diagnostic method can be utilized if you have a ‘Sales Performance Issue’ of an unacceptable percentage of Sales reps reaching Quota each month.

In Part 2, we will take a look at (2) other sales performance issues, ‘Sales Employee Turnover rate’ and ‘Time spent versus Result achieved’ with this same sales management team and see what our diagnostic method to sales performance improvement and ROI turns up.

Does Your Sales Training Program Address Your Sales Performance Issues? Part 2

Here’s a Proven Method to Target ‘Sales Skill Training’ to Resolve Sales Performance Issues

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In Part 1, we went over the steps to uncover sales performance issues and decide which are applicable at a high priority for pin-point sales skill training. We first documented the main sales performance issues. There are (4) distinct sales performance silos that will effect the overall outcome of any sales team, year in and year out. They are:

• % of Sales reps to Quota
• Average New-hire Ramp-to-Quota in months
• Sales Employee Turnover rate
• Time spent versus Result achieved

Next we, listed (4) steps to find out if you have any sales performance issues in each individual sales performance silo and if so to what degree. They were:

Step 1: ‘Run the Numbers’ for any realistic ROI opportunity
Step 2: ‘Run the Numbers’ hypothetically for a ‘Specific’ improvement
Step 3: ‘Run the Numbers’ for a ‘Reality Check’
Step 4: Set the Goal and ‘Train to It’

In our first example, we looked at a sales organization’s performance silo of ‘New-hire Ramp-to-Quota and determined (1) a sales performance issue and (2) a worthy sales training objective and (3) a realistic sales training return on investment.

Let’s take that same sales force and utilizing our (4) step process look at the remaining two Sales performance issues; ‘Sales Employee Turnover rate’ and ‘Time spent versus Result achieved’ to see what the X2 Evaluator™ system turns up.

Step 1: ‘Run the Numbers’ for any realistic ROI opportunity

Our example sales force has 350 sales reps that are responsible for securing new business each month. They currently have a sales employee turnover rate of 45%, or 155 reps per year. I’ve found in the sales industries I partner with, my clients average between 30%-70% sales employee turnover per year, so these folks are right in norm.
But the ‘norm’ doesn’t have to be the ‘Future’.

Here’s another important point. In the sales arena, 95% of sales employee turnover is due to Low 1st appointment activity. And in our example sales force, it was nearly 100%. Simply, if you’re not creating enough sales appointments each month, you either go out the door or you are ‘Shown the door’.
Now let’s run the numbers to see exactly what this sales employee turnover is costing them and attach a weight of priority to consider ‘pin-point’ sales performance training.

Here are the numbers relevant to costs:

• Average Salary: $30,000
• Recruiting Costs: $ 2,000
• Training Costs: $ 3,500
• Monthly Sales Quota: $ 3,500

In sum, this sales management team is looking eye to eye to a total of $4,512,200 going out the door each year, a combination of revenue ramp up costs on the front end, revenue production loss on the back end, salaries and benefits, then again revenue ramp up costs and salary for the replacement new hire. It’s a vicious circle.
And once again that total ‘Penalty cost’ number is an attention getter.
Simply put, each sales rep going out the door, due to low sales appointment activity, is costing the company $29,300 of lost revenue.

Does that portray a legitimate sales training Return on investment opportunity? Well, in less you need to invest $29,300 per sales rep in the training of choice to remedy the sales performance issue… it certainly does.

Step 2: ‘Run the Numbers’ hypothetically for a 50% improvement

In this case, I showed the sales management team what return on investment they would get by retaining just half of the sales reps going out the door due to low sales appointment activity.
Using their numbers my diagnostic system showed them a ROI of $2,256,100 just by reducing their sales employee turnover due to low sales appointment activity from 44% down to 22%. That’s keeping 77 sales reps from going out the door and adding to the sales productivity pool.

Step 3: ‘Run the Numbers’ for a Reality Check

Remember in Part 1 of ‘Does Your Sales Training Program Address Your Sales Performance Issues?’ we ran this sales force team’s key sales performance indicator numbers in the X2 system to see ‘if and where’ there were leaks in the ‘KPI ship’. And we discovered not a leak, but a big ‘ole fire hose.

Two ‘KPI issues’ were apparent. First, their ramp-to-quota for a new-hire took 7 months when the average sales cycle is 17 days? Second, they were only setting 3 new appointments per week when they needed to set 6, based on their other KPIs and a subsequent sales appointment activity number.
Thus, their sales appointment ‘activity barometer’ was only running at 50%. And that we determined dictates a longer ramp-to-quota.

Then we dug a bit deeper in the X2 system and out popped a 6% conversation-to-appointment ratio; they had to conduct 15 prospect conversations to get 1 new appointment.

We then asked the ‘Reality Check’ question. Is it realistic to focus on reducing the sales rep turnover due to low sales appointment activity in half, from 44% to 22% for a sales training ROI of $2,256,100 or $29,300 per rep?

And we answered ‘yes’ if they addressed the front-end of their sales process; setting targeted sales appointments. Again as before, they needed to (1) establish an activity standard to reach quota based off of individual KPIs and (2) develop a sales prospecting methodology and supporting system to spend less time in achieving it.

Because most sales employee turnover happens in the new hire ramp-to-quota issue silo, the same pin-point sales skill training initiative kills two birds with one stone.

And if you add those (2) ‘sales training initiatives birds’ up, it points to $14,532,100 of realistic revenue recovery.

Step 4: Set the Goal and ‘Train to It’

Reducing sales employee turnover due to low sales appointment activity now appears to be a worthy one. It makes good business sense for this sales organization. And if we measure our results, we will probably add some more revenue back on the table with additional reps not going out the door… to the tune of $29,300 per rep.

As in Part 1, our sales training goal in this case is to spend the least amount of time to get the desired number of sales appointments each week to assure our monthly success.
Now as a side bonus, let’s take a look at our last sales performance issue silo, ‘Time spent versus Result achieved’, and see what, if anything, we can address related to our pin-point sales training initiative.

“Time is money”. What’s your ‘Hourly rate’? If you’re a sales rep with a W-2 goal of $100,000 your hourly rate is approximately $51 dollars an hour. Here’s an interesting statistic. My clients spend an average of 50% of their time on the very front-end of their sales process; sales prospecting for new opportunities to initiate their sales process. This sales management team gave me an average prospecting time of 45% to plug into the Evaluator™ system.
And here’s what it showed.

The sales reps were spending an average of 20 hours per week on sales prospecting and sales appointment generation. But they were only running at 50% on their ‘Activity Barometer’ and needed to generate 50% more sales appointment activity; going from 3 new appointments per week to 6.
At their current sales prospecting efficiency rate of 6% (15 Prospect conversations to get 1 appointment) they would need to dedicate 33 hours per week to sales prospecting and sales appointment generation. And we know that’s not realistic.

But if they set a sales training objective of moving that appointment conversion ratio to 50%, they would not only meet their sales appointment activity number but save 26 hours per week, for a time recovery of 79%, from 33 hours per week to 7. And 26 hours times $51 per hour recovers $1326 ‘Hourly Rate’ money, allowing sales reps to increase capacity and pursue higher-value, solutions-based selling opportunities.

Once again with our last (2) sales performance issue silos we determined (1) a sales performance issue and (2) a worthy sales training objective and (3) a realistic sales training return on investment.

Ask any CFO what their first impression is when they hear the words ‘Sales Training’ and they might communicate back their ‘Real world’ vocabulary of ‘un-accountable’ and ‘un-measurable’. Simply put, they know they’re wasting at least half their sales training budget dollars; the problem is they don’t know which half.

As a sales management leader, methodically discovering sales issues first and then running ‘Quantitative’ sales performance numbers to check for feasibility, worthiness, and return on sales training investment will differentiate you from the pack. And you’ll stand an excellent chance of getting the result you want.

In this case, giving sales reps a skill-set to set 1 ‘Top-down’ business appointment in 2 conversations will allow participants to set the required amount of targeted business appointments to assure their monthly revenue goals. So less people will leave, they’ll make more money and spend less time and you will recover measurable dollars; something you can actually put your finger on.

Employee Performance Reviews — Dealing With Disagreements

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performance, employee, management, evaluation, review, assessment, online, software

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Customer Acquisition Specialists and Performance Based Marketing

TheMediaCrew is a leading performance-based marketing company with enabling technology that connects marketers to consumers through a comprehensive set of email marketing and online media services

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email marketing, lead generation, performance based marketing, banner advertising, contextual marketing, affiliate marketing

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TheMediaCrew is a leading performance-based marketing company with enabling technology that connects marketers to consumers through a comprehensive set of email marketing and online media services. Their expertise resides in online marketing, customer acquisition, email delivery, lead generation, banner advertising and affiliate marketing. The mission of this company is to help individuals or companies to conduct a successful marketing campaigns reaching responsive customers, using the power of contextual marketing.

Is a world leader in performance based marketing specializing in verified opt-in email marketing and online advertising solutions. TheMediaCrew, founded in 1999, has evolved as a leading full service online advertising agency. They also power premier online affiliate marketing networks and provides full service lead generation, banner advertising, agency specializing in customer retention and performance based marketing.

Coregistration leads and co-registration services have been a well kept secret for too long. They use also contextual advertising which is in many ways the latest online advertising technological advance and allows a company to place advertisements in major websites and portals that are carrying relevant content for their product or service.

They created a proven formula to help grow businesses. Harnessing cutting edge technologies, proven online marketing solutions, personalized customer service, and complete campaign customization including email marketing or lead generation in order to help create the right online marketing campaign for you.

Through superior technology and unmatched customer service, they participate in the growth of their clients businesses and help them ensure the satisfaction of their customers. Backed by an unwavering commitment to client success hundreds of companies have chosen TheMediaCrew.com to help build revenue streams, consumer confidence, long-term trust and loyalty.

Dedicated and experienced professionals are committed to the success of clients online marketing campaigns. They jump into your business to understand your needs and goals. They offer several scalable online marketing solutions which will give your business the highest possible ROI.

Deloitte Record Financial Performance in 2007

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu reported that aggregate member firm revenues increased to US$23.1 billion which recorded a growth of 15.5 percent in U.S.dollars and 12.6 percent in local currencies. This marks Deloitte's fifth consecutive year of member firm double-digit revenue growth from ongoing operations. The revenues of Deloitte were found in the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Worldwide Member Firms 2007 Review, Milestones on the Journey, released in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Deloitte Record Financial Performance in 2007 - November 2007

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James H. Quigley, global CEO Deloitte said that they are really happy with their performance which reveals their commitment to customer service excellence. He further said, "The results validate Deloitte's strategy to offer the breadth of services and deep competencies to assist our clients' with their increasingly complex issues-a range of capabilities unmatched by our competitors."

Financial advisory services augmented by 25.2 percent to US$1.89 billion, consulting services increased 16.5 percent to US$5.19 billion, tax services grew 16.5 percent to US$4.98 billion and audit services grew by 13.1 percent to US$11.08 billion. The Americas region grew by 11.9 percent to $11.49 billion and the Europe-Mideast-Africa region grew 12.6 percent to US$9.18 billion.

The Global CEO remains positive regarding the future success of Deloitte. He said that Deloitte has become much stronger than before to face new challenges, and help the customers overcome hardship. He further said that they will continue to invest in their people and new products and services.

Mr. Quigley emphasized recruitment and retention as a major driver for sustaining the growth of Deloitte. He said that he wants Deloitte to be the foremost preference of the talented people, whether they are graduates or come from any of the major countries such as China, Germany, Canada, Finland or New Zealand. Mr. Quigley said, "My goal is for Deloitte to be globally recognized for providing the challenging work environment, continuous learning opportunities and inclusive culture to help people achieve personal and career satisfaction."

Employee Benefits Driving Corporate Performance -- A White Paper

Strategies to improve employee morale and productivity with unsubsidized employee benefits.

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management,employee benefits,human resources,employee discounts,intranet,corporate perks,employee

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In today’s economy, companies of all sizes are facing a number of challenges that require urgent action. Health care costs are rising, pension obligations are growing and top talent is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit in the rebounding job market. Among the most significant business trends, competitive pressure on American workers is increasing at a rapid pace as offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) becomes more effective in performing traditional American jobs at much lower costs. The fundamental challenge for human resources managers is to re-invent employee benefit programs to deliver higher performance at a lower cost.

The process of re-inventing employee benefit programs begins by developing a portfolio of employee benefits that maximizes total economic value for employees, while minimizing employer investment. In other words, there are a number of very attractive and financially rewarding benefits that employers could provide their employees. One of the most effective, yet highly underutilized, benefits is the employee discount program.

Few employers offer their employees an employee discount program, even though it’s economic value to employees is very significant, while it’s cost is very low. These programs are either developed and maintained by internal human resources staff, or outsourced to managed employee discount programs (such as www.EmployeeHelper.com). Based on case studies conducted by EmployeeHelper.com, companies that have deployed managed employee discount programs with a wide variety of negotiated discounts, the net effect for employees can be equal to a compensation increase of over 5%.

Considering the fact that employee discount programs are basically free for employees and their employees, the use of this program is expected to grow significantly across the marketplace. In an economy where competitive advantage is becoming increasingly tied to human capital, enhancements to employee benefits represent a growth opportunity for all business.

Please visit http://www.employeehelper.com for more information about employee discount programs.