OLYMPIC LESSONS
At the time of writing we are eagerly anticipating the Olympics – by the time of publication, we should be basking in the glory of well won medals, the focus of the world easing, transport links returning to normality and ever closer to financial recovery. It seems there are many lessons we can learn from our athletic colleagues.
The point of this article was inspired by a recent business trip to the Hong Kong and specifically one training session that was on negotiating. My target audience were almost exclusively oriental and well-practiced and skilled at negotiating. Before we set them a case study we asked them to define good and bad behaviours, and they duly produced a comprehensive list of salient points. They were then unleashed to negotiate with each other and few of the behaviours were evident in practice. How can a group of people, who clearly KNOW how to do something, fail so spectacularly in delivering those behaviours in practice?
It made me think about our Olympians. Each of the national athletes would have access to all the theory and training available to that country. They would have had in many cases years of practice and discipline. Then on the day who emerges victorious? Not the best athlete, but the one who delivered on the day.
How alike to our work life is this parallel? We all have salespeople who know what to do, have been on training courses have delivered results consistently and yet fail to close that important deal. Was it that they were outsold by a competitor or did they fail to maximise on all their experience, thereby ‘giving’ the sale to the competitor? It might be time to look at what we are doing with training and the impact that has on results. After all our clients are constantly banging on about ROI and ROO (Return on Objectives) so why do we not insist on the same standards for our own development?
Delegates are sent on training courses often for the wrong reasons. Either because it costs the same to send three as it does ten, or because HR decides it has been x years since the last ‘immunisation’ or because little Johnny thinks the course title is appealing or worthy of attendance. How often have you found yourself on a course as a ‘volunteer’ as opposed to that time you really wanted to change or challenge your behaviours / skill sets?
We need to think more intelligently. The world is changing and just because you had , for example, Presentation Skills training in 2008 doesn’t mean you can acquit yourself professionally in 2012. Death by PowerPoint has put paid to endless narrative on countless slides and pictures have mercifully taken over. Less is definitely more in 2012. That “Art of Successful Selling” course you found so good and attended in 2006 is now outdated. Selling is now generally considered to be more of a science and simply avoiding bad habits and employing good ones will, fact, improve your conversion rate. It is tangible and measurable!
Best practice continues evolving and we all know that refreshing feeling where we attend a conference and emerge with a few gems, a few tactics or strategies that we know will have an impact on our bottom line. We need to take stock of our performance levels and find ways to deliver better results with the same amount of time. The difference between medals or not is measured often in milliseconds – in sales tiny adjustments will deliver huge dividends to our bottom line.