Culture Fit was voted by you as the number 6 Sales Trend for 2010.  What is Culture Fit?  Well the first place you are likely to hear about Culture Fit is when you are recruiting for new staff or being recruited yourself.  For instance, Culture Fit Interviews differ from Behavioural Interviews, in that the Behavioural Interview attempts to find out about the candidate’s behaviour, skills, knowledge and experience.  Culture Fit Interviews generally do not try to determine the individual’s capability, but rather considers the candidate’s ‘cultural fit’ with the organisation, their values and motivators.

Values, motives, codes of conduct and organisational charters are now on the main agenda.  More and more managers, sales people and the broader workforce are making value judgments and career choices based more heavily on values, ethics and work practices, rather than just the roles themselves.  The phrase ‘you hire on skill and fire on fit’ has never been truer, however it’s not just the employer firing on ‘fit’.  Employees and customers are doing the same.  If there is misalignment around core values and codes of conduct, employees and customers are just as likely to fire the organisation and go elsewhere for a better ‘fit’.

Culture Fit is usually considered as an internal organisational matter, however I propose that Culture Fit has now migrated to the main world stage with our organisational and corporate values and conduct being scruitinised on every level by our customers, constituents, members, suppliers, employees and communities.  It is now a brand, sales and customer matter with ethical and moral consequences.  Many of us are asking:

•    What is our purpose for being in business?
•    What are our core values?
•    What is our promise to our customers?
•    Is our promise aligned with our core values and actions?
•    What value do we create for others beyond the product?
•    Are we proud to work here?
•    How do we behave in times of crisis?
•    What do we expect from our suppliers, partners, etc.?
•    How do we want our leaders (business, political, community, etc.) to behave?
•    Who would we be proud to be associated with?

These are just some of the questions that are likely to knock loudly on our collective doors in 2010 and beyond.

Why?  Because organisations everywhere are undergoing breathtaking changes!  Their products are changing.  Their markets are changing.  Their management philosophies are changing.  Their values are changing.  Their focus is changing.  And most importantly, their customers’ views on what is ‘true value’ are changing.

Now, more than ever before the accepted ways of doing business are shifting.  Old institutions are crashing and dying.  Trusted names of yesterday will not live to see the future.  Many have failed to keep pace with changing consumer and community demands, values and needs.  Many business CEOs and their management teams have missed the opportunity and pressing need to account for a quadruple bottom line:

1.    Purpose
2.    People
3.    Profit
4.    Planet

Hanging onto the past, they are blinded by leadership nearsightedness — often acting wildly when their status is threatened.  The current disaster that is BP’s environmental oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is a case in point.  This environmental catastrophe has now blown up beyond all proportions.  Beside the communities and ecosystems severely affected by this tragedy, BP is now fighting for survival, the entire oil industry is under scrutiny for their poor safety and disaster management plans, and the credibility of big business leadership has been severely eroded as we witness blame shifting, self serving game playing, indecision, narcissism and quite frankly, gutless and pathetic attempts to distance themselves from the issue at hand.  Which leadership and business management schools did these CEOs attend?  If this is what they are teaching our leaders we are in big trouble.

For instance, Tony Hayward’s, the CEO of BP, response recently to the oil disaster: “We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused to their lives. There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I’d like my life back” just shows you how vulnerable any organization is to misaligned values, self serving motives, poor choices and weak leadership.

Just imagine saying something similar to an unhappy customer – you would be laughed off the phone.  Tony, you have failed miserably in Customer Service 101 –’ handling difficult situations’ and so have most of your high powered colleagues in this instance.

No wonder these and other organisations are left wondering where their customers and profits are going.  This leaves them weak and vulnerable.  It begs the question ‘Did the dinosaurs hear the asteroid coming?’

One of my trusted mentors, Neville Christie, says that in the 21st Century, the role of the CEO is a dual purpose role:

1) Chief Philosopher, and
2) Chief Salesperson/Storyteller.

There is recognition that a clear promise, code of conduct or charter, and accompanying message to markets and the broader community is critical for organizations of all persuasions, and only the leaders and their employees can bring this to life.  Savvy leaders and organisations will not just ‘talk the talk’; they will ‘walk the talk’ and show the way forward.

In the words of one Senior Leader, “Don’t ask me what I value and stand for; ask the people who work for me.  They’ll tell you what I really stand for and then you’ll know if I am true to my word.” In fact, we can take this one step further. In this increasingly transparent world, we can witness for ourselves what the leaders of businesses, political parties, communities, and other organizations stand for – plain and simple.

Making your philosophy, values, team charter and steps for action crystal clear for everyone to witness will be key when recruiting, training, managing, and leading teams and when we engage with our customers and communities in 2010 and beyond.  Being transparent, honest and engaging in real conversations will need to be top of mind.  Make no bones about it, whether you know it or not and whether you like it or not, you and your organisation are on show like never before and employees, customers and communities alike are asking these questions on a daily basis.    They are checking for ‘culture fit’.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett,   www.barrett.com.au

We are not born with our beliefs or values, they are taught to us.  Our thoughts, feelings, views and opinions about the world are shaped by our experiences of many people and many things.  They are coloured, rightly or wrongly, by our perceptual filters which we learn from others.

‘Watch who you let near your mind’ is a statement that is often quoted in my articles and for good reason.  It takes between 6-8 weeks to unwittingly pick up and adopt another’s views, beliefs and perceptions and own them as your own if we do not question and thoroughly examine the consequences and impact of these beliefs and perceptions on our own thoughts, feelings, behaviours and actions.

Without accurate definitions and critical analysis we could be lead, metaphorically speaking, down the dark alleys and tunnels of misinformation and faulty beliefs which can affect us in many ways.  We see this happen every day where people are lead astray and adopt practices which are life threatening, morally threatening and unhealthy.

One of these dark alleys is the myth about selling being something bad or dishonourable.  For more years than I care to remember selling has been much maligned.  It is an act or career choice that is looked down upon with disdain as something distasteful and dishonourable by too many, often ill informed,  people.  ‘I don’t sell’ or ‘we’re not called sales people here’ or ‘we don’t have to sell’ are some of the statements we hear from organisations who cannot reconcile their beliefs about selling with the actual act of selling.  The irony is that these very same people, despite their predications, rely on the profession and skill of selling for their livelihoods every day yet they are in denial about this important capability in their businesses.  They dance around the topic trying to call it something else all the while people feel a sense of unease about something not being quite right.  There is a misalignment, a dissonance and no one can put their finger on it.  ‘Don’t mention the war’.

We came across one leadership team of a business recently, who could not bring themselves to mention the word selling without feeling as if they had uttered an expletive.  ‘We do not sell, we never want that word mentioned, that is not what we do…’ came across loud and clear.

Their vehemence and disdain for selling was palpable.  Some looked visibly ill.  The energy expended to defend their stance and justify their opinions was a waste in our view.   The customer culture that they had created was one of shame not pride.  It was like everyone knew that selling was part of what they needed to do but no one could admit it.  It was the elephant in the room.

Selling by its definition is the ability to influence another’s decision.  Aren’t we, by default, all involved with selling then?  What human being, by one means or another, doesn’t influence another’s decision in some way every day?  A child cries out for comfort or food, a person offers a helping hand to someone in need, a new idea is born and the creator offers it up for our consideration, a challenge arises and we seek support to understand and address it.  Whether we choose to respond or not to these situations will be influenced by our own views and priorities and how well the other person(s) was able to influence us to engage, participate and collaborate with them.

The issue this leadership team needs to address is their beliefs, perceptions and views of selling and the ethics around why they do what they do, not the act of selling itself.  Perhaps their beliefs and views of selling were born of bad experiences, actual or relayed.  Perhaps they had the mishap of engaging with others whose intentions and actions, via the act of selling, took undue advantage of them at their own expense.  Perhaps they were tricked into believing something that was not in their best interest.  The subprime market scandal is a case in point.

Any action can be tainted with unethical, illegal and dishonourable intentions, actions and behaviours. The act of selling is no different.  Selling, itself, is not a dirty word.  It is the aggression, intimidation, bullying, lies, deception and cheating that people choose to employ in place of ethical selling practices that is the real issue we need to address.

If you want your people to be able to proactively and ethically listen, show interest, find common ground, resolve issues, find solutions, work collaboratively, and influence others to make better, more informed decisions then you want your people to be able to say with pride when asked what they do ‘I am in a sales career, aren’t we all?’.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

With information comes choice and without proper guidelines and filters in place, too much information and too many choices can lead to indecision.  Indecision can then lead to paralysis making us unhappy, unproductive, and at worst, ineffective.  In sales careers, or any role for that matter, too much information and the subsequent indecision is a real killer – in fact, making no decision is far worse than making the wrong decision.

Barry Schwartz, professor of social theory at Swarthmore College in the US and author of The Paradox of Choice states “too much choice is paralysing us and making us miserable”.   I can’t help but agree.  At times I feel I am drowning in a tsunami of information and feel increasingly confused as I try to work out what to focus on and what to discard.  I am not alone in these feelings; many people I speak to are also reporting feeling overwhelmed and anxious by all the ‘noise’.  Some are even checking out of mainstream information and news sources and choosing to dramatically reduce their diet of information.

In our haste to keep up, be on top of things, be seen as the one with all the answers, and be ahead of the pack, are we inadvertently creating a climate of confusion, indecision, and unnecessary distress by exposing ourselves and our teams to too much information?  I suggest the answer is ‘Yes’.

For instance, there is a learned behavioural syndrome called ‘Overpreparer’ which can account for 40%+ drop in sales productivity for sales people with Overpreparer tendencies.  It is often caused by  organisations placing undue importance on the need to be overly prepared and knowledgeable. Being prepared takes precedence over getting out and selling.  For instance, in banking and finance where compliance is important, Overpreparing is often systemic creating a culture of indecision and paralysis by analysis where sales people use it as an excuse to not prospect and sell.

Despite feeling out of control we can regain control over how we process, use and manage information.  Having a clear head and removing clutter from our lives is critical if we want to be productive and effective.  As promised in Noise Reduction part 1, here we will explore some strategies that may help us reduce the ‘noise’ and recalibrate our signal-to-ratio (SNR).  So in the spirit of less is more, here are some simple principles we can follow as a guide to effective noise reduction and decision making:

Step 1: Set clear goals

• Clear goals help you determine what to focus on and what information you need to have at hand to help you achieve your goals.
• Clear goals help you prioritise your thinking and actions, assisting you in planning each step of the way.

Step 2: Determine what you need to know

• Put in place filters that will help you determine what information you want to focus on: Does this information help you get closer to the goals that are important to you?
• Work out what is ‘essential’, ‘desirable’ and ‘nice-to-have’, and prioritise in that order.
• Cultivate a scientific mindset – scientists begin by defining a hypothesis then look specifically for data or information that either corroborates or refutes that hypothesis.
• Determine what information and networks your business and your sales people need to be aware of in order to make good decisions (i.e. market trends, competitors, product innovations, changes in legislation, etc.)
• Find out what your clients are interested in reading and hearing.
• Find sites and networks that keep you up to date with the latest trends and are quick and easy to read.
• Make sure your CRM is collecting useful client and market information that is aligned to your goals and can be applied in a meaningful manner (i.e. creating client buying patterns report, etc.), then ignore the rest.

Step 3: Determine effectiveness

• What information (blogs/references/forums/publications/social media sites/networks, etc.) are proving to be useful to you (your customers, your business and your communities)? Why?
• Check why you originally chose this information or network sources and ask if they are still relevant.
• Determine how often you use these information sources.
• Check how you apply these information sources in your job or in your communication with each other and clients/suppliers (tangible outcomes, practical solutions, etc.)
• Verify what is ‘fact’ and what is not.  Is it evidenced based?  Is it supplied by a reputable source that can be validated and checked?
• Check how quickly it takes you to gain a quick and concise understanding of the content.

Step 4: Prioritise and don’t be afraid to limit your options

• Count how many subscriptions you currently have or networks you belong to; check for duplications (i.e. similar blogs, sites or networks offering the same information) and irrelevant sites or networks (not aligned to your goals) then cull.
• Reduce your ‘daily’ alerts to ‘weekly’ alerts.
• Don’t check your emails every time they arrive, make time to check every 15-30 minutes or so.
• Create a new email address exclusively for your subscriptions so your working email is not cluttered up with low priority data.
• Synchronise your bookmarks.
• Create a filing system that allows you to reference your information quickly and easily.
• Link new information to what you already know.  Drawing concept maps is one such way that helps you to build knowledge over time and draw links between ideas and knowledge sources.
• Allocate specific time twice or three times per week to review your subscription information sources rather than being constantly interrupted by incoming alerts.
• If you need to surf the web, make time to do so when it doesn’t interfere with your work priorities.

Step 5: Find some quiet time

• Allow your mind and your senses to rest and switch off.  Being overly anxious narrows your focus and limits your ability to sort through and process information effectively.
• As strange and boring as this may sound, find time to do mundane tasks that do not require you to process complex information.
• Do some regular exercise like yoga or go for a run to get in touch with your body, breath, heart and nature.
• Meditation requires effort to achieve single pointed focus, however the daily practice of meditation quiets the busy mind and gives you the space you need to recharge and recover from information overload.

As you can see, even discussing reducing noise creates noise, and the signal-to-ratio spiral continues… Without running away to live in a cave, my best suggestion is to take on board a couple of things; stop reading about reducing noise and get out there and sell.  By staying focused on a few keys things and taking action we might just find that the noise fades into a faint, background murmur and we are happier and more productive as a result.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

Many of us actively recoil when we see the words ‘Psychometric Assessments’. This may be due to fear of the unknown, seeing them as ‘tests’ or just tedious questionnaires. While you would not be alone in this, we on the other hand are advocates (of the right Assessments). At Barrett, we spend much of our time demystifying what Assessments actually are and how businesses can benefit from using them. So even if you have been brave enough to use Assessments, most people do not know how to get the most out of them. Often the Assessment process is seen as an isolated event with the final report being put on the shelf or in a draw out of sight and out of mind. The fault does not lie with the recipients of these Assessments; rather it lies with the accepted ‘report and feedback’ model which has been around for years. The sad thing is that many people are not given the opportunity to explore the rich veins of personal information, insight and awareness that Assessments can provide.

Still feeling a little uncomfortable with Assessments? Perhaps a brief overview of what they are will help. In the workplace context, there are many different types of Psychometric Assessments that can be used for both selection and development. They are usually designed by psychologists and provide additional information that helps the employer to form an overall profile of candidates or employees. This can be used to predict how they will function in their workplace or highlight areas for development and potential job preferences.

Our view on Assessments is that they should be meaningful for both the employer and the employee. In order to make the most of any Assessment we need to link the information to something meaningful and purposeful: links to key goals and objectives, role profile, business culture, and so on. As an individual we can integrate learnings into our career path and personal journey to continue our evolution. Without these links has the Assessment been worthwhile?

As you may have guessed I have taken my fair share of Assessments. I was most fortunate to have my first experience with Psychometric Assessments when I was 16 years old. My parents had the foresight to provide this opportunity to help me understand my potential and career preferences. I recently found the report which provided feedback on my aptitudes and abilities, personality style, personal preferences, and motives and values. Some 30+ years later this information still rings true, however I did notice that there was no action plan, specific guidelines, or suggestions. So the report rema ined simply that, a report that had been gathering dust.

In 1988 I had a very different experience when I completed another Assessment focusing on my sales attitudes, behaviours, and fears. When I received this report it was accompanied by a development program and plan– a life and career changing moment for me. Finally something I could action and use to make fundamental changes. I will always remember that experience as it greatly influenced my career path and where I am today. Of course at that moment, I didn’t realise that I would become an experienced and knowledgeable user of that very Sales Assessment.

Testament to our passion and experience, over the past 15 years Barrett has processed over 60,000 Assessments (personality, values and motives, sales behaviours, leadership derailers, leadership styles, aptitudes, and abilities). These Assessments have been used for a variety of purposes including recruitment and selection, individual awareness, insight and development, and the mapping of team dynamics, culture, and values. This has kept us busy with over 4,000 Assessments processed every year!

Our aim is for people and businesses to get the most out of their Assessment experiences. Assessments can support you in making better choices and decisions with career, life, and business. We have carefully selected Assessments that you can use across your business for selection and development, ensuring that you find the right people and once they are in the role they do the right things.

Making the link from selection to development is where Assessments can really shine. Some examples of how we work with businesses to make the most out of Assessments are:

• Create personal action and development plans
• Support Managers with coaching guides and resources
• Find the right people with matched behavioural interview guides and questions
• Team profiling and benchmarking top performers
• Motives and values mapping
• Training recommendations and workshops
• Re-testing sales fitness (SPQ*GOLD) 1-year on to get a ‘before and after shot’

If you started out unsure about Assessments, hopefully you are more comfortable now and, perhaps, even wondering how Assessments might benefit you or the business. If we are preaching to converted, but you would like to know how to get the most out of your Assessments speak to us about the various applications from selection through to development.

And, remember everybody lives by selling something..

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

‘Walk a mile in my shoes’ is a song written by Joe South and made famous by Elvis Presley.  The song is very much about challenging closed mindedness, respecting and honouring differences, and learning how to get along with each other.  However, I propose that it also has a lot to say to sales and marketing people.  For instance, the first verse sets it up well:

If I could be you and you could be me for just one hour
If we could find a way to get inside each other’s mind
If you could see you through my eyes instead of your ego
I believe you’d be surprised to see that you’d been blind

Many a customer’s ire has been roused when a sales person shows up and fails to find out what a customer’s priorities are.  Instead, launching into a self absorbed diatribe of product information and self aggrandisement leaving the customer completely out of the picture.

Another stanza points out some of the major issues with being internally focused, refusing to acknowledge and see others as they are.

Well, your whole world you see around you is just a reflection
And the law of common says you’re gonna reap just what you sow

This stanza reminds me of my common catch cry ‘who’s your brochure written for anyway?’  Many companies still fail to produce sales and marketing materials that their customers and prospects can relate to, instead producing material that is too internally focused.

Being “other” aware, tuning into what another person needs, likes or wants is vital to a successful sales career.  And it’s more than just asking a series of pre formed questions, writing down information and regurgitating it back without empathy or genuine understanding.

As Geshe Michael Roach, the author of The Diamond Cutter: The Buddha on Strategies for Managing Your Business and Your Life points out, the current western way of thinking, especially business and corporate incentives, has been very centred around what’s in it for the individual – ‘how am I going to benefit from this?’, ‘what will I get if I do this?’ and ‘how much will I make if I get this client on board, or deal over the line?’

Geshe Michael asks “When did you hear or read about two sales executives or two corporate executives splitting their bonuses because they did a good job together?  This individual focus causes us to concentrate on ourselves, at the expense of paying attention to others.”

‘I’ has been the centre of our business models for a very long time, however I am proposing that in order to be a highly evolved sales person we need to shift to a ‘we’ focus.  From ‘I’ to ‘we’ means including the ‘other’ in our thoughts, intentions and actions, and being able to see the world from another’s perspective even if we do not like or hold the same views or values ourselves.

Geshe Michael states “People have an instinct when they know you do not care that much about what they like or need and they have an instinct for the opposite as well.”

This statement begs some questions:

• How well do I really understand another person and see the world from their perspective?
• How well am I able to determine another person’s level of understanding about complex areas such as work, business, life, values, culture, etc.?
• How quickly am I able to become aware of how another person thinks or feels?

The practice of exchanging ourselves with others takes us out of our exclusive focus on ourselves and starts us off on the process of being sensitive to others.  It has a profound effect on work flow, performance and, most importantly, sustainable relationships.

There is a Buddhist practice called the Jampa Method which is outlined in more detail in The Diamond Cutter.  It involves exchanging yourself for another – what you do is to pretend to put your mind in their body and then open your eyes and look at you from their perspective.  You get to see or hear what it is that they (you in their body) would like from you (you).  This step is called switching bodies.  It is a little deeper and more difficult than just watching the people around you to see what they like or dislike.

When I practice this I ask myself “What does the other person need or want me to say and give to them?”  It creates a much deeper level of listening than I have ever experienced before and I find that I can really tune into the other person with greater clarity and connect with them on a deeper level.  It may seem a bit artificial at first but anything new does. I am work in progress as this method requires conscious effort and focused attention, however it can become second nature after regular practice and can make a profound difference to all relationships, personal and professional.

Therefore as I am writing this piece I am thinking about how I, the author, can stand in your shoes.  I am imagining myself as someone reading this thinking – “What about my customers, when are they going to stand in my shoes?”

It is a common response we hear from many sales people that they would just like their customer to know how they feel too.  This response highlights the importance of how we choose our actions and emotions rather than simply responding to those of others and that someone has to start the process first.

The choice is yours:

1. Do you choose Inaction? (which means you wait for your customers to make the first move) OR
2. Do you choose Action? (where you take the lead)

So in the spirit of ‘walking a mile in each others’ shoes’ maybe we could all as customers and sales people, or simply as human beings try this approach and see what happens.

Walk a mile in my shoes, walk a mile in my shoes
Yeah, before you abuse, criticize and accuse
Walk a mile in my shoes

Thank you very much!

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au