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"How to increase Profits in a Slow Growing Economy, where you are
fighting competition in a market place of falling demand -"-
this has been a topic that has found itself the subject of discussion at many seminars.
Posting an improved Sales Performance is a solution which would immediately appeal to many. The One step at a time method
advocates that every issue involved in the problem solving process be subject to a process of Differentiation, before an integrated
solution is drawn up.
It would indeed be a simplistic argument to attribute the perceived woes of an organisation to Sales
Non - Performance.
Before elaborating on What constitutes a Sales Non-Performance, it is essential to place the problem
in its proper perspective.
· Increased Inventory of Finished Goods.
· Increase in orders not commensurate
with projections.
· Increased competition leading to reduced margins.
· Reduced margins leading to lower profits.
· Fixed
Overheads demanding increased sales
· The Irony of
the Situation:
It is not only the Non-Performers who seem to be suffering. Even the performers are paying
the price for it - because the reduced margins on larger volumes implies reduced revenues, inspite of increased volumes, while
the fixed costs mount up.
Therefore Sales Non - Performance does not mean NOT SELLING.
But Sales Performance today means,
making the money required through increased Sales but, with reduced costs - in other words a HEALTHY BOTTOMLINE.
Paradigm
Shift:
This calls for an entirely different Orientation, an Orientation which might stump not only the Non-Performers but
also the Performing Organisations.
Training for Performance :
Within an organisation too, this paradigm shift in Orientation
will affect the members of the Sales Team , and it is imperative that adequate attention be paid towards, retaining the performers,
motivating them and training them to look at Improved Performances, and inspired performances not merely as a yardstick of
comparative measure among peers but as a necessity to survive and to grow.
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The Training Method Turnaround:
Which brings us to the point
that if performance has become a necessity, then Performance Oriented Training, becomes imperative.
In performance
oriented training inputs the target segments which require Training Inputs can be classified into Five Categories:
· The
Aspirants
· The Beginners
· The Performers
· The Fatigued
· The Recently Promoted.
Here that the entire training has been focussed along the ATTITUDINAL Perspective.
It is assumed that, the Organisation
has the In-house Resources, to impart training along the FUNCTIONAL lines, or can bring in External Resources to provide
training in areas preliminary to Performance.
The key to closing the gap between satisfactory performance & a winning
performance, lies in the attitudinal training -TRAINING PEOPLE TO WIN.
It is therefore imperative that organisations pay
attention to the renewed training requirements so that they can outlast competition sensibly with a healthy Bottomline.
Cross - Functional Skills & Methods:
Technology upgradation of the Sales Team is another important area, because,
the need to reduce cost and increase performance, call for a host Cross-Functional Skills.
What an Organisation needs today
is a Team of Jokers.
The Joker & The Clown & The Artiste:
The difference between a joker and a clown is very
simple to state. Wheras a joker can make the most difficult of jobs look easy, a clown can make the easiest of jobs look difficult.
Remember
the last time that you went to a Circus. There was the Trapeze artist climbing on to the bars, and watching the Artiste perform,
it was not difficult to realise that the artiste's level of Proficiency called for rigorous practice. It was an act of absolute
discipline.
Then clambers up the joker, jumping on to the Bars quite casually, swinging around on the Trapeze apparently
certain to fall down, executes a couple of somersaults, apparently with no control until either he lands on the nets or a
colleague on the Trapeze rescues him. The Joker needs to be as good if not better than the Trapeze Artiste.
After
the Trapeze, he would probably clamber on to the Tightrope, and both he & the Tight Rope Artiste go through an act where
the Joker is the apparent victim of the Artiste's technical supe-riority. To perform in an apparently undisciplined manner
calls for greater skill and discipline.
Visualise it... and you can see the Joker jumping on the tightrope, with
a flimsy umbrella at that, while the artiste shakes the rope, and it appears that he would fall down,... oops ....he's almost
fallen down but he does not. By sheer miracle he is back on the rope and in mock fear somersaults and lands on the floor on
his two feet, apparently accepting the artiste's superiority. But the discerning crowd goes on to give him a Standing Ovation.
The
crowd has come in only to see him perform. It is a pity there aren't many good performers.
Ask them to define training
needs !
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