Training isn't always the answer
One of my first independent projects involved a telemarketing center for a new financial services company. Sales conversions had dropped steadily after the first half year of operations and the company's president was sure it was a matter of training. The staff needed additional training in sales jujitsu or some other telemarketing techniques and they needed it quickly. Luckily for him, he talked to me first.
I did an analysis of their telemarketing sales trends since the firm's beginning and interviewed the center manager and the 6 marketers then on staff. Conversions on products that were familiar had been more or less ratio-steady, but the telemarketers were facing an ever increasing and complex bundle of products. Confusion over the new products was causing them to lose credibility with their prospects. Traininng wasn't the issue at all ... knowledge management was. With his limited number of telemarketers there was no way the president could afford to take them offline for orientation to every new product. The staff received an information packet on new offering and were expected to learn it on-the-fly as it were. The tool that could help them address the problem - the computer in front of them - was dedicated to gathering client information and taking orders if possible. I explored knowledge management software options with the president and we installed a system on his intranet that could do everything it was currently doing and also be an at-the-fingers catalogue of product information. The telemarketers received an hour of training on the new software, another two hours of role-plays designed to cement the training - three hours total - and were sent back out to their desks.
The result? Within 2 months sales were booming - up by 240%. Staff were more confident and polished on the phone, conversions on new products were as strong as those on the mainstays. Sometimes it's not a matter of training.
Imagine a well-known brand name company with a great line of high margin consumer products. Now imagine them losing sales and marketshare steadily for almost a decade. Why?
Looking into the matter revealed that staff had become disenchanted. A string of very short-term presidents and C-level executives, each with a different set of ideas and leadership styles had created a feeling that the people in charge weren't really interested in the company and its people. Also, since no leader had stayed for a significant period, the company had got into the habit of paying out bonuses and raises regardless of performance ... an inadvertent seniority system. The answer to this malaise? A new and determined President was the start - my help in turning the culture around was the second step. Through a series of communications and new long term policies, we convinced staff that this new guy was there to stay. The we set about using the ENDURE* communication system to achieve two important things. The first was to introduce the new strategy and create a more realistic, relevant understanding of the organization's financial and business situation. This enabled the staff to understand the revamping of the raise and bonus system to a strongly performance based one.
The second thing was to start creating an image of the "company tribe" (we didn't actually use that word, but that was the underlying concept). We set up a series of video releases highlighting employee actions (and the thoughts behind them) that were consistent with the new strategy and desired company image. These images were very positive socially and rationally, and soon the employees had adopted a lot of the thoughts and actions as consistent with what a "this Company person" was and what they were while on the job. Within a month, the office atmosphere was objectively and subjectly much improved - friendlier and more energetic. Within 18 months, the company had gone from years of loss to achieving a very challenging stretch goal in terms of market share and sales, recaputuring the dominant slot in their category.
More to come ...
*copyright 2009: Glenn Francis