Elearning! Magazine: Building Smarter Companies via Learning & Workplace Technologies.
Issue link: http://elmezine.epubxp.com/i/134584
Innovation in Sales Transformation GROWTH IS NOT ONLY ABOUT HOW YOU SELL; IT'S ALSO ABOUT THE SYSTEM THAT MAXIMIZES YOUR SELLING RESOURCES. BY TONY ROBBINS AND WALTER ROGERS It's Monday morning in July of 1996. Two events are unfolding simultaneously that will have a decade-long impact on the efectiveness of front-line sales management. It would be nearly 20 years before companies would realize the impact of the events that took place on that day. Te frst event began at 7:30 a.m. at a local sales ofce. Te front-line sales manager had his team assembled and was leading them through a team goals review meeting full of best practices and market intelligence sharing. Te second event unfolded 1,000 miles away in the Chicago corporate ofce. Te SVP of the Sales Department was meeting with the CFO and a team of consultants about the ability to deploy sales automation technology and move the sales force to hoteling/home ofces in order to minimize real estate costs. So sales ofces began to close. Sales reporting began to arrive by mail, rarely on time and rarely accurate. Team meetings gave way to conference calls, and the very managers that excelled at hosting live meetings struggled. Salespeople were distracted and disconnected. Best-practice sharing screeched to a halt. Te new technology wasn't as advertised. But the economy was still strong and few noticed. Fast forward to today. Te modern sales manager has never known the patterned tradition of in-person district sales meetings on Monday morning, one-on-one leader meetings, and shared best practices. Many modern sales managers grew up with no ofces, no tangible connection to their teams, and no models to follow. Tey made their own paths to success. During the longest expansion of our time, nobody thought much of it. But when the U.S. and world headed into the deepest recession since the 1930s, the missing disciplines were exposed. Now, companies across all industries are recognizing the critical need for more efective front-line sales leaders. Tey are looking for answers, some of which lef them 20 years ago. Te truth is that there's never been a better time to be in sales. Te newest cloud technology fulflls the promise made in the 1990s when sales ofces closed. Better yet, it has the ability to not only bring back the best practices lost but to exponentially improve on them. —excerpt from "Pathways to Growth" by Chris Ahern, senior advisor at PTG Operations 24 June / July 2013 Elearning!