 Since starting my own business a few years ago I have spoken to so many people about “profit” or lack of, many of them are busy but most are not maximising their potential when it comes to generating profit.
The Lucky Country After nearly 50 years of economic prosperity apart from the odd blip (e.g. the recession we had to have) Australia has enjoyed an unprecedented degree of economic stability and earned the envy of much of the world. The way the society (via the press) demean “Profit” is irresponsible, detrimental and disgraceful. Slagging off about the HUGE profits made by companies making no reference to the amount of investment or number of people they employ is wrong but it sells papers, generates uninformed debate and feeds our tall poppy syndrome. Self Fulfilling A lack of investment in the development of frontline teams has created an environment of “cost plus” selling where sales people think 25% is a good trading margin (because overall it is 18%) when 35% or more could have been on the table. This lack of awareness stifles profit growth via selling on price rather than value which it is the top of a very slippery slope. Financial Literacy These challenges for businesses specifically and society more generally has created an opportunity for good businesses to improve their overall financial literacy, not just in a limited number of functions. More effective margin management has a huge impact on the bottom line in addition to improving the intestinal fortitude of frontline sales teams who can then begin to understand how much control they actually have. The reality is that profitable (or healthy) companies give pay rises, increase bonuses, help with mortgages, feed our families and send us on holidays. We all need to get better. **Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators.
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 "Humans are better people when they love what they do."
- Charlie Pidcock At the Sydney Build Conference in March this year I launched my program “Sales Mastery – ©” for individuals, teams and companies and have unpacked this model that sits behind it over the last couple of months in a series articles which you can read again here: i. Awareness
My Sales Mastery Program © is a culmination of my experience, passion and sense of responsibility to right these wrongs and to show sales people a pathway to a personally fulfilling and financially rewarding career. Reality Check Henry Ford famously said “Nothing happens if no one sells anything”; the highest paid people in the world are sales people and something like 60% of CEOs come from a sales background – something is going on here and it is about time we did something about it. Additionally, more than half of the roles advertised on job sites are “sales” jobs and another recent survey showed that less than 40% of businesses thought that universities were preparing students well for the workforce, hello…… someone should really tell them….. Profit is not a dirty word nor should it be – it feeds, houses and educates all of us. Businesses that consistently fill their sales pipeline and who ensure the alignment of production (lead times), constant cash flow and focussed teams can achieve super profits - it is like nirvana. Education getting in the way of Learning My son is in his last year of secondary school and we have spent a great deal of time looking at his options - there are literally hundreds of courses one can study at university, private colleges and TAFE but not one in sales which I find extraordinary given the above and the following quote from the Carnegie Institute “….85% of your financial success comes from your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate and lead, shockingly only 15% is due to your technical knowledge”. Many, many people have told me over the years how sales should have its own qualification but it is SO much more complex than that and most definitely something you are not going to “get” in 3 years from a series of outdated, overpriced text books nor subjects taught by lecturers with very little (if any) real world experience. If at first you don’t succeed… Mahatma Gandhi said “Knowledge gained from experience is far more worthwhile than any gained from a book”, to develop and learn sales people have to fail, a lot, good ones do anyway because they treat these as learnings. Sales Mastery is a life time journey and requires sustained effort, focus and development (personal / professional). The charm and challenge of being a human being is that we are all blessed with strengths and weaknesses – the beauty of my Sales Mastery © is that companies can decide what to focus on depending on their individual or team development areas. Please feel free to contact me should you wish to learn a little more about how Sales Mastery © might work for you and your team. **Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators.  Sales Mastery is a journey for all organisations and individuals; as sad as it is, it is most unlikely and unusual that people will stay at the same place of employment for 5, much less 30 years into the future like @Jack King (which is a wonderful story).
The pace of business these days means mergers / acquisitions, downsizing, rightsizing, buys outs, sell outs, foreclosures, the rise of the independent contractor all contribute to average employee turnover of 2 - 3 years with individuals seeking more meaning – this is direction. Company “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail” Winston Churchill All good companies should have a business plan, great ones build the plans with their teams & get buy in from the get go. At a basic level and as you may be aware, I talk about all organisations as selling ones:
Individual When leaders are able to align their staff with the companies sense of direction and purpose, results can be phenomenal. A recent survey by Gallup indicated that up to 75% of people are not engaged at work which can have a significant and detrimental effect on profitability, workplace safety and morale, you can read more about this here: “Know your Thing”. Developing plans from the ground up ensures buy in early and helps align individuals with a sense of purpose around what they are doing and “Why”. The author Simon Sinek does a great TED talk which is definitely worth watching. No one person should be bigger than the brand or company, not the founding Managing Director of a private company nor the global CEO. The synergies that an organisation experiences when an alignment of an employees (individual) life goals alongside that of the employers (company) is like being in flow. **Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators.  “Be careful what you ask for”
I see, hear and read a great deal about feedback – how to give it, how to receive it and what to do with it, @Georgia Murch wrote a book called “Fixing Feedback”, it is well worthwhile reading. Unfortunately, if someone is going to ask me for feedback I am genetically predisposed to giving it and it astounds me how defensive organisations are even when specifically asking for it (or least they say they do). We are all surveyed (for feedback) almost every time we hire a car, use our bank, stay in a hotel etc. – it is becoming difficult because there are so many ways to gather data, consumers don’t feel listened to and have become desensitised. Having worked in several large companies, I have seen how this feedback is used and being a consumer, I have experienced how ineffective it can be – it is not a pretty picture. I once a bought a computer online and had no end of trouble with it; in trying to resolve the technical issues the company wanted to know what I wanted and what sort of house I lived in – I couldn’t believe it for a couple of reasons. Firstly – astounding on so many levels, not least of which if they wanted to know what sort of house I lived in they could have looked it up on the web and seen it, der……. Secondly – I was quite clear in that all I wanted was what I paid for: a working computer. Thirdly - most contemptibly, these questions were asked by senior managers who were too gutless to deal with it and left it to their front-line teams to try to resolve – leadership, I don’t think so. Someone once told me years ago that poor customer service is the norm, using my own buying experience I tend to agree, this is an opportunity for the rest of us to play a bigger game. As so aptly put by Maya Angelou: “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Boom. **Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators. **  “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” Benjamin Franklin Management cannot always prepare their staff for all the challenges they’ll face but they can and should ensure a culture that builds comfortable and confident sales teams prepared to handle whatever is thrown at them. Internal Company product features and benefits along with the different processes of influencing your customers needs through your organisation. This may seem like common sense to those in the business for a while but as a wise person once said “the person who named it “common sense” stuffed it up for all of us”. There is too much time to lose and wasted effort here to let staff sink or swim, that’s like throwing a brick to someone who is drowning. Anywhere there is money and more than two people there will be politics, those on the pathway to Sales Mastery understand this and use their Self Awareness and Relationship Building Skills to get stuff done inside their business. Commercial knowledge is also critical – there is too much blame and not enough control in organisations over pricing or costs putting pressure on margins and internal relationships. External Customers – ideal customer criteria, best returns, risk v reward, most potential, influencers and decision makers Markets – structure and supply chain of manufacturers, wholesale, trade and retail; relative competitive advantage; sector challenges and opportunities Legislative and economic factors – the need for sales people to step up is now a reality, I love the following from a “Conviction” by Peter Cook, Matt Church and Michael Henderson:  It is crucial for industry to enable their front line sales teams and build their capability ensuring their organisations not only survive but thrive in the face of the new world order.
“Knowledge gained through experience is far superior and many times more useful than bookish knowledge” Mahatma Gandhi |
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