 A number of years ago I had an epiphany (my wife calls it a brain fart) – I was in a job that I enjoyed with a team I really liked but didn’t feel fulfilled. I had been in the organisation for a while, our industry had suffered a significant downturn and we weren’t handling it particularly well, it was an extremely difficult environment. On the other hand, my wife loved her job more than anyone that I know, and I wanted some of that.
In the space of a week 3 major things happened that helped change my direction.
At the retreat my friend mentioned to the facilitator that she hadn’t heard me laugh the whole weekend. We had shared an office a number of years before and had enjoyed many great belly laughs during that time. She asked me where I was up to with my training company, I couldn’t even remember the conversation much less the idea. This made me reflect on where I was heading and became the beginning of a very confronting time in my life that provided the opportunity for me to reset my compass. A couple of lessons from this:
Fast forward 3 years, I now run my own Sales Training & Coaching business, my life’s vision is to live in a world where people love what they do and are proud of who they are. It is still early days and I have had some (read heaps) really tough ones but I know that I am now a better husband, father and friend for living my life on MY purpose, not someone else’s KPIs.
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 This isn’t consistent in every industry, but the challenges of choosing, implementing and managing CRM is a conversation that I have been involved with many times over the last 10 years.
Where did we go wrong? - This one is easy – too many businesses use CRM as a big stick when it should be a communication device. What is wrong with our sales team? - Fit for purpose, sales people love the autonomy of being out on the road and helping people. They are often excellent communicators and negotiators but sometimes do not have writing skills or administrative ability – they are human after all. - Clarity, often CRM is implemented without management sharing with their teams on why they are doing it and what they are looking to achieve, they may not even know themselves. - Cultural acceptance, I have worked in a number or companies where CRM system was not used at all by Senior Management, they had no idea how it worked, what the challenges were nor made any attempt to learn – the hypocrisy was palpable, front line teams tried but the culture could not support it costing them millions of dollars and lost productivity. What is should we do? - Good question, many answers depending on where your company is at. - Objectives, What are you looking to achieve? Why are you not achieving it with your current structure, systems and culture? Share and solve these problems with your teams. - Collaborate, involve the right people in research and testing including (most importantly) front line people who are going to have to use it, day in and day out, not just procurement and the IT department who do it from an office with cable or strong Wi-Fi. - Investment, be careful about the “cost”, in one company I worked with the CRM was “free” with a larger IT platform, most of us have been around long enough to know you get what you pay for, in this case you could not quantify the lost opportunity cost. - Be Realistic by supporting your best sales people with office based administrative support. For a third of their cost the return on the investment will be worth it as you free them up to do what they are good at – finding and developing business. Don’t hamstring by having them do something that drains them of energy, they’ll do it for a while (poorly) but eventually they’ll leave. There is a better way, we just need to be more creative. - Not every organisation needs a CRM program, maybe not now or maybe even ever. If your senior leaders aren’t with the program, spend your money on something else. **Charlie is an expert in developing external sales teams and people, particularly where relationships and solution selling are the key differentiators.  The Stockdale paradox was first coined by Jim Collins in “Good to Great” and refers to Admiral Jim Stockdale who was the highest ranking US military officer who spent time as a POW in the Vietnam War, from 1965 to 1973 and lived to tell his story.
“Retain the faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties AND at the same time Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” A few years ago I became someone’s political pawn without any warning at all - you know the cab and the cardboard box treatment. Humiliated, I arrived home with my wife on the patio and our 3 month old on her hip. She asked “what are you doing here?” all I could say was “I don’t know…….. but I am pretty sure I don’t have a job anymore”. The fear on her face are something that I never want to see again; we had two young children and a mortgage we couldn’t jump over – it was a terrible, terrible experience and at the same time one of the more powerful ones in my life. It was the Stockdale Paradox that got me through this period – I knew I was in the proverbial, I knew I had to drag myself out of it and make sure I never put my family in that situation again. A couple of the learnings from this experience have sustained me:
My story is nothing compared to Admiral Stockdale, not that I am into comparing to make myself feel better but the strength of the human spirit is extraordinary, take the time to have a read of the book or EMAIL me here and I will send you an extract or watch part of it here:  “Getting the right people in the right jobs is a lot more important than strategy” Jack Welch
It doesn’t matter what business you are in, look out your window – people aren’t lining up to work for you; in fact, it is probably the other way around with a recent Gallup poll finding in excess of 75% employees not engaged at work. Why The war for talent has been going on for at 15 – 20 years, maybe longer, and with replacement costs of between 50% - 150% of base salary costs, it bewilders me that managers and leaders aren’t more strategic and deliberate when it comes to finding and keeping staff. The downside is accepted as the status quo, the upside is misunderstood and treated like nirvana, at least by those not willing to put in the effort and play a bigger game. What With so much information out there we all must “sell” our organisations to potential employees before we even know they are looking at us; then when we get them on board we need to ensure we lead them well or they will head off in search of something better, period. How else can we grow if all we do is a provide a turnstile where IP, experience and energy head back out the door or across the road to a competitor. As Sir Richard Branson says “Train your people so they can leave, lead them so they don’t want to”. How A good friend of mine John Clare says “I am always recruiting but only sometimes hiring” – Boom. Life changes, people change, priorities change & the art of good management is to anticipate it – having a couple of go to people who you have been talking for a while can help you avoid gaping holes in your sales team that your competitors will love walking through. Many people say they don’t have time to look for good staff, part of the reason is that they are always managing (poorly) bad ones or not developing the good ones …. Please! A coffee a month with someone from your industry will assist to build good foundations for a relationship that will benefit both of you, perhaps not today, maybe not tomorrow but with time and effort good relationships are always worthwhile. Over to you. **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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