Noise Reduction part 2: Is too much information making you miserable and losing you sales?

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Noise Reduction part 2: Is too much information making you miserable and losing you sales?

May 12, 2010 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, CRM, Sales Planning, Sales Research, Time Management

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

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Noise Reduction part 1

May 5, 2010 in Communication, Sales Research, Social Media, Social Sales

Noise Reduction was voted by you as the number 5 Sales Trend for 2010. About 20 years ago I was told that information was doubling every 5 years; 5 years ago it was every 18 months; 1 year ago it was every 9 minutes, so who knows how fast information is doubling now?

Many business leaders, sales people and many more are reporting information overload. Selecting what to take on board and what to leave behind will be critical for sales and business success in 2010 and beyond. It will also be critical for our own wellbeing.

There is so much to read and process, and so little time to do it well. Many people report feeling that their brains are ‘bursting’ as a result of so much information and wonder how they can process, log, link and manage the information they are exposed to and then use it wisely and purposefully. According to Alvaro Fernandez from SharpBrains over 1,000,000 new books are published every year and more than 100,000,000 scientific papers are released, this coupled with the billions of websites at our googletips.

With all this good information on tap, I am increasingly finding myself feeling incredibly frustrated with the amount of rubbish information I have to wade through every day as well. There seems to be so much ‘noise’ out there competing with the good data.

Not only do businesses have to keep on top of what is the latest market trend, product, or competitor strategy, we are also dealing with the merging of personal information with business information. It appears email remains a major source of information overload, as people struggle to keep up with the rate of incoming messages especially, the filtering out of unsolicited messages such as spam, and ever growing tsunami of personal information keeping us distracted and often disturbed. There is even a syndrome to describe people who give out too much information about themselves. It’s called TMI syndrome (too much information) and it’s coming at us with unprecedented speed via Facebook, Twitter, and especially email.

With this increase in noise we need to assess our Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). SNR is a measure used in science and engineering to quantify how much a signal has been corrupted by noise. In less technical terms, signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise. The higher the ratio, the less obtrusive the background noise is. “Signal-to-noise ratio” is sometimes used informally to refer to the ratio of useful information to false or irrelevant data in a conversation or exchange. For example, in online discussion forums and other online communities, off-topic and spam are regarded as “noise” that interferes with the “signal” of appropriate discussion. For instance, a recent Microsoft security report has said that 97% of all email sent over the Internet is spam and MessageLabs said 81% of all emails sent are unwanted, either way that’s a lot of noise.

The general causes of information overload include:

A rapidly increasing rate of new information being produced
The ease of duplication and transmission of data across the Internet
An increase in the available channels of incoming information (e.g. telephone, email, instant messaging, RSS, etc.)
Large amounts of historical information to dig through
Contradictions and inaccuracies in available information
A low signal-to-noise ratio
Lack of a method for comparing and processing different kinds of information
The pieces of information are unrelated or do not have any overall structure to reveal their relationships

At no other time in history have we had access to so much information however, it poses some interesting questions:

How do we verify what is fact and what is not?
What should we be paying attention to?
What is useful to us, our customers, our businesses and our communities?
How should we process, log, link and manage information to make it work for us?

To cope with this increase in noise some are trying to shut it out while many others are distracted by simply trying to keep on top of it, which is keeping them from doing other important activities. Either way, many are reporting feelings of anxiety at being overwhelmed by and unable to process so much information.

In Noise Reduction part 2, I will explore some strategies we can adopt to help us reduce the ‘noise’. The key will be finding reputable online sites, blogs, references and publications that provide access to information that is backed by evidence and research and is free from sensationalism. 2010 will be about filtering information through your core vision, intention and strategy.

So be prepared to question assumptions. This will help you to make decisions about what to take on board and what to leave behind. Remember, too much information and indecision will paralyse.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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The coming together of sales leaders in Australia

October 1, 2009 in Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Research, Strategy

I recently had the opportunity to attend the inaugural Optimising the Sales Force Conference (http://www.osf2009.com.au), along with over 120 high level sales leaders across Australia. I was privileged to be part of the panel of international and local experts presenting on sales effectiveness where we explored the latest research on sales strategy, leadership, learning and development, sales management, sales people, and current market trends.

This was the first time in Australia we have had the opportunity to come together as a profession and share ideas and discuss important matters moving forward. There have, of course, been industry specific forums held for the profession of selling but not one that brought industries of all kinds together to discuss sales specifically. It’s hard to believe but this was the first time this has occurred in Australia and about time to! It was really about driving a better profession. Many people are unaware of just how skillful you need to be to run a sales team or lead a successful sales career.

The conference was full of important information and we also had the privilege of hearing from the elder statesmen of strategic selling 78 year old Bob Miller of Miller Heiman fame, who pulled no punches and reminded us of the foundations of our success. We also heard from Tom Snyder who is world renowned for his expertise in creating high performing sales teams.

Over the next few weeks I thought I would share with you some of the insights and findings from the conference in more depth but here is a summary of the topics we discussed and where our attention was focused. This might give you some insight into where the world of selling is heading.

Everybody is in sales: there was overwhelming agreement that everyone in business is in sales – You are either selling or supporting someone to sell. If your people are disassociating themselves with sales then you need to let them know in no uncertain terms we all live by selling something and they had better get with the program or get out.
New customer behaviours: the economic downturn has changed how customers conduct business and interact with suppliers, while this comes as no surprise there are now new customer behaviours we need to contend with. In particular, the increase in risk aversion was cited as being one of the most contentious issues. This risk adverse approach is leading to indecision by clients meaning that rather than losing to a competitor, nothing happens. So it is critical that sales people are able to work more strategically with clients and challenge them to help them make good decisions moving forward. This requires a more assertive, confident style of sales person.
The Challenger Sales Person: research by The Corporate Executive Board Company reported that we need to find and cultivate the ‘Challenger Sales Person’ who is best suited for these markets moving forward. Some of the key characteristics of these people are that they always have a different view of the world, understand the customer’s business, love to debate, and challenge the customer’s ideas and perspective; in short they are at their best as commercial educators and bringers of new ideas and innovations to help businesses function better.
Coaching, coaching, and more coaching: At least 40-60% of a sales manager’s job should be dedicated to coaching their sales people. Yet it still remains an area that is poorly executed. We were shown excellent case studies which demonstrated the financial return of sales coaching. Many of the case studies indicated that a blend of competent internal sales coaching by sales managers supported by external experts in sales coaching was very advantageous to their sales teams’ performance and productivity.
Role clarity and clear expectations: make sure salespeople and sales managers understand their roles and what is expected of them. Make it explicit and ensure people are adequately skilled to carry out their responsibilities.
Clear the dead wood quickly: sales managers spend too much time with people who produce too few results. Focus your attentions on those people who are already showing they want to do well and are actually doing their job. You have more hope in getting to your better performers to be much better producers than wasting your time on people who will never perform. As Tom Snyder said “Sales managers are guilty of thinking they can ‘save’ these people from themselves” – his advice is “get rid of them now!”
Insight and awareness: despite all the skills, tools, and processes around salespeople and sales managers need to be able to develop their own internal guidance and support systems. The ability to reflect on our own performance, be resilient, show empathy, and work ethically was high on the agenda. Personal insight and making a personal commitment to the corporate objectives is also important for ongoing success.
Connect strategy to activity: your strategy should translate into practical actions people can apply and see results from.
Marketing and sales unite: marketing needs to support sales and sales must support marketing. There is no in between. Hugh McFarlane from MathMarketing stressed the importance of making sure that all touch points and messages are in alignment.
Really connect with your key clients: Bob Miller pressed home the importance of being truly connected to your best clients, however he said you cannot have a strategic relationship that is only one way. Your clients must want it as much as you do and there is mutual agreement on the conditions of the relationship. He stated that most companies are very poor at managing this aspect of their business and it leaves them vulnerable to losing major accounts.
Corporate assets: today’s reality is that in addition to people, property, plant equipment, and IP some of the biggest and most often overlooked assets are companies strategic accounts. They need to be on the agenda of the ‘C’ suite i.e. the CEO, CFO, COO, etc.

I hope that this provides you with some valuable information and insights into what is happening in sales today and into the future. I will go into more depth in the ensuing weeks about these and other topics we covered.

Happy selling.

Sue Barrett is Managing Director of BARRETT

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Testing times when recruiting ‘good’ salespeople

August 6, 2009 in Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Research, Sales Talent, Uncategorized

When I consider how I spend my time professionally, I find it is often devoted to demystifying two things:

1. What is ‘good’ selling?
2. The proper use of psychometric assessments, especially in sales recruitment

Having written on the former on many occasions, I would like to dedicate this space to the latter – the proper use of psychometric assessments in sales recruitment.

To put this into perspective, my business has psychometrically assessed 40,000+ people in sales, business development and leadership roles using a variety of purpose built assessments. This has provided us with valuable insight into what assessments work best in sales recruitment. Over the years we have been exposed to many test publishers promoting their various assessments, claiming this and claiming that. We are constantly scanning for new tools.

We have discovered that there is no one single assessment that can measure everything you want to know about a sales person. Some test publishers have made this claim, however upon investigation we have found that they have often compiled several different assessments (measuring different things) into one offering. In doing so, they reduce the number of items measuring each area; therefore limiting the laser effect you need in sales recruitment.

This brings me to the major issue at hand: sales recruitment is one of the most challenging jobs around. It is fraught with ambiguities because of the very nature of trying to assess ‘soft skills’ such as attitudes and actual versus perceived capability. Given this complexity, as a sales recruiter it may be beneficial to partner with a qualified and experienced organisation to support you when using assessments.

There is not one-quick-fix to getting this right. To assist you in your sales recruitment, let’s look at three important questions when it comes to using psychometric assessments:

1. Why use assessments?
2. What assessments should you use?
3. When should you use assessments?

Why use assessments?

While you don’t have to use assessments when recruiting, when used in conjunction with a robust sales recruitment process they can add real value to your decision making. The problem arises when assessments are used in place of a multi-pronged recruitment approach.

Recruitment, especially sales recruitment, can be very time consuming, therefore there is a tendency for people to take short cuts and replace the other steps in the recruitment process with a ‘quick’ psychometric assessment to base their hiring decision on.

This ‘assessment only’ approach is not how psychometric assessments are designed to be applied (reputable test publishers will always tell you this). This approach is not best practice; it does not give you all the answers and could get you into trouble with recruitment and anti- discriminatory laws. In fact, best practice states that assessments should account for no more than 20% of your decision making process in recruitment, especially sales.

The other main issue that arises out of this ‘assessment only’ approach is that the ‘assessment’ can get blamed if the sales person doesn’t work out. Assessing in isolation is the issue here, not the assessment itself.

Psychometric assessments are best used to back up and cross reference the current data you have gathered via other means. Depending upon which assessments you use, they can corroborate what you have already gathered and give you additional information to further investigate areas of concerns.

Tip: Psychometric assessments should compliment a multi-pronged sales recruitment process rather than be the recruitment process in entirety.

What assessments should you use?

I have seen anything from the CLEO quiz, numerology, star signs, and simplistic 4 quadrant models through to purpose built psychometric assessments used in sales recruitment.

Essentially there are thousands of so called ‘psychometric assessments’ out there, many claiming to test for sales effectiveness and predict sales performance.

So what to use?

First of all, it depends on what you want to measure. There are a variety of purpose built assessments which are designed to address the following important questions about a candidate:

•  Will they sell?
•  Why will they sell?
•  How do they sell?
•  How well can they sell?

In our work we use a range assessments which have been purpose built to measure different areas including:

•  Personality
•  Motives and Values
•  Prospecting fitness- sales hesitation and call reluctance
•  Leadership potential
•  Cognitive Abilities – i.e. abstract, numeracy, and verbal reasoning, etc.
•  Coping strategies under pressure
•  Emotional Resilience and Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Tip: Depending on the level and complexity of the sales roles you should match the psychometric assessments to the required competencies and areas of capability.

When should you use assessments?

As assessments should not be used as the sole determinant, it is often advised to use them after the first interview but prior to the second interview and reference checking. This is recommended so that the assessment results can be used to verify and check gathered candidate information and then incorporating the results into interview questions and reference checks.

While there are some assessments you can use prior to the first interview or even at the resume submission point, the decision to assess earlier is often based on costs to the business. Obviously, it would be great to test everyone who applies, however this would not be economically viable or recommended in most recruitment situations.

Tip: Use the insight gained through assessments for the second interview questions and reference checks.

Conclusion

Whether you currently use assessments or are considering (recommended) incorporating them, the important point is:

Providing structure and using a multi- pronged approach are the two techniques most likely to help improve the reliability of your sales recruitment process and placements.

Remembering that sales recruitment is one of the most challenging jobs around; the average increase in output resulting from improved selection is approximately 2.5 times greater in sales jobs than in low-complexity, non-sales jobs. This is why is can also be important to partner with an organisation who has a sound understanding and working knowledge of recruitment and assessments.

I wish you happy and successful selling and sales recruitment.

Sue Barrett is Managing Director of BARRETT Pty Ltd. For more information please go to www.barrett.com.au.

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Same, Same but Different

November 1, 2007 in Sales Research

I came across some research on sales motivation which seems to shed some further light on why it is important to use programs which are culturally specific to your sales peoples motivations and values.

A major study of sales motivation presented at the annual convention of the Society for Marketing Advances has revealed significant cultural differences driving sales success. It has helped explain why some of the better made-in-the-USA sales management practices aren’t more effective in other nations. The answers may lie in what really provides motivation for salespeople.

The study (coauthored by Dr. John F. Tanner, III, associate professor of Marketing at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business & George Dudley, Behavioral Sciences Research Press) asked almost 41,000 people across nine nations what they hope to obtain from their sales careers. Motivations assessed included:

opportunities to use talents
make money, work creatively
obtain status
interact with people
be self-managed
progress into management
freedom from routine
opportunities to be of service to others.

The nations studied include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, U.K. and USA. The study used the Sales Preference Questionnaire (SPQ®), to obtain data. The SPQ® assessed sales prospecting call reluctance. The study revealed the following:

“Sales motivation in the US is more money-motivated than in other nations, but there are other more complex motivations at work. 33% of US salespeople and 36% of the salespeople in the U.K. say they work primarily to earn substantial incomes. This compares to only 9% in Norway and 11% in New Zealand, where “lifestyle” considerations such as opportunities to use their abilities and freedom from routine are considered more important.

In fact, successful US salespeople often shun advancement into management, because they can usually make much more money in sales. That further distinguishes US salespeople from those of other nations, where sales is frequently viewed as a temporary step on the way to management.

Over 12% of Australian salespeople actually seek a career in management. For the majority of Australian salespeople, opportunities to use their abilities and freedom from routine are more important motivators than making money, a preference shared by salespeople in New Zealand. However, only 17% of the salespeople in Singapore are similarly motivated. Like their US counterparts, Singaporean salespeople sell primarily to make money.

US salespeople are more money-motivated than salespeople in other countries. But, they are also more service oriented. 14% of American salespeople say being of service to others is their primary motivation. Among the countries studied salespeople in only one other country, New Zealand (11.5%), even approach that level.”

What do these differences portend?

Knowing what makes salespeople tick is critical for finding and keeping top producers.
The implications are serious and far-reaching, especially when it comes to multinational sales management practices.
American sales management and training and procedures adhere to US presupposed values and perceptions, and may not be optimal, or even suitable, for other countries.
It is often better to access country and culturally specific training for your sales people.

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