Assessing the Sales Force

Do you know what skills your sales force have and perhaps what they are lacking?
One area of consultancy that seems to be a growing requirement even in recessionary times is that of Sales Force assessment. I have had a number of clients requiring this support over the past 18 months and it has given me the opportunity to trial a number of products on the market place and identify what to use and when for maximum success. This blog discusses some of the products that I have used and where they have brought the best results in my experience, I have kept it brief so you can contact me for more info but clearly it is based on my own opinion and may not represent the views of any proprietors!

Psychometric evaluation:

Can you measure sales ability on paper? You can get close to it if you find the right tool. I recently used a suite of psychometric assessments called the Fit4 series specifically designed for sales by Sales Assessment.com http://www.salesassessment.com/ .They developed them in conjunction with Saville and Holdsworth http://www.shl.com/, the well known psychology house so the profiles are rigorous and robust. My experience with these are that they are highly credible and well received by participants and the best results can be achieved using these in conjunction with behavioural assessment of sales skill which I will discuss later.

Top tips:

• Use the helpful in-house team to make absolutely sure you have selected the right profile
• Warn people to set aside up to 3 hours to complete the tests
• Invest in proper feedback and development plans as a result to get the most out of the investment

Skills Assessment

This is where the sales person is observed 'in action' and given feedback on strengths and development areas. I have extensive experience of the critical hour assessment tools that Silent Edge provide http://www.silentedge.co.uk/  and they are developing a really powerful presence in the market place. In my experience this is a good solution for organisations with a large sales force (and budget) and who can provide very strong internal sponsorship from HR or L&D to drive the process through and maintain momentum. It then takes 12-18 months to get this process fully embedded but after that the potential for ROI is high.

For those that want quicker results and with 80 sales people or less, a pragmatic approach that I have developed is to run bespoke Sales Skill Assessment through simulation in house using actors http://www.advancechange.com/ - benchmarking.  As a psychologist experienced in running all types of assessment centre, I have been able to refine a sales competency framework which can be used to objectively measure sales performance within this simulated environment.  This results in a full report that highlights the strengths and any gaps and can be used with an individual to coach for high performance and at an organisational level providing a training needs analysis.

Top tips for Skills Assessment

• Choose the right approach for your size of business
• Ensure proper sponsorship and drive for momentum
• Consider whether you want a benchmark followed by development plans (simulation) or a longer term investment (Silent Edge)

My recommendation?

Obviously it does depend on the specific requirement of the business, however the most effective solution for my clients has been a combination of the psychometric assessment and the bespoke in-house skill assessment followed by 121 feedback, development plans and addressing any skills gaps that have been uncovered. Value, is visible immediately after the coaching and feedback and ROI can start to appear within 3 months when rolled out effectively

Common to all of these and surprsingly uncommon in practice is the importance of good communication around the role out, positioning the assessment positively and following up with development plans and actions in the shortest time possible post assessment. This removes the natural fear of the consequences of being assessed and encourages sales people to address any development areas positively.

What really engages people?

Just out a CIPD study about the locus of engagement by the Kingston (Link below)

As we all know, engagement is not some fluffy term thought up by HR gurus but in fact a real tough, measurable way of increasing the productivity and profitability of a company. Some interesting findings and again just reinforcing the huge importance of effective line managers working within a best practice performance management framework.

• The most important factor: engagement – with the job: variety, autonomy and meaningfulness, all of these can and should be directly affected by a creative line manager
• Next, engagement with line manager and colleagues – high: ability to voice concerns and working with good colleagues; managers need to step out of personal task focus and remember that being available for individuals and teams and getting their results done through others is a more effective way forward
• Thirdly: Engagement with the organisation  this was a moderate factor,  being well treated and company reputation were positives, but for some money was seen as important. does this meant that performance related pay is engaging? 

Not sure that this study shows us anything new but it certainly does reinforce the critical importance for companies who want to get ahead in this down turn to get managers engaging their people

 

 

 

Consortium...http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/Locus%20of%20Engagement.pdf

 

 

 

Austerity mentality and the risk to Gen Y effectiveness

The more time I spend working with line managers, especially since the "austerity mentality" kicked in, the greater my concern that the progress in terms of engagement and sustainable best practice management behaviours has been lost to the real detriment of potential Gen Y productivity.

Peter Drucker in his 1999 book ‘Management Challenges for the 21st Century identifies 6 requirements for knowledge worker productivity and they are the tip of the iceberg for Generation Y requirements, yet less and less common as many managers forget the primary purpose of their role - to deliver high performance through their staff.

I have expanded Drucker's work in the model below to provide a clear framework for organisations and managers that are serious about getting the best out of this very different workforce demographic.

8 principles that drive Gen Y productivity

1. Task clarification/clear goals – with two way involvement when goals are being established

2. Empowerment & self management – requires a consultative and coaching management style with regular feedback to ensure learning, growth and focus is retained

3. Opportunity to innovate – requires the freedom and ability to take risks coupled low blame culture and support and guided reflection to learn from mistakes

4. Continuous learning and development – As well as investment in L&D, this requires managers to develop coaching skills to make this an active rather than a passive activity.

5. Focus on quality and quantity – less emphasis on visibility and doing the hours, more on achieving the goal in the right way. Requires clear objectives and regular progress checks.

6. A requirement to be treated as an "asset" rather than a "cost." – In times of recession, with reduced ‘perks’ the onus again is on the manager’s ability to make the individual feel valued by taking a genuine interest

7. An active desire to work for the organisation - also termed as ‘engagement’ and driven strongly by the relationship with the line manager and their ability to communicate the importance of the individual's role within the organisation

8. Recognition and feedback – particularly positive, definitely constructive and frequent, again counter to the culture that most babyboomer or Gen X managers have been used to.

It is clear from these principles that the line manager’s role is absolutely imperative in achieving full productivity from the knowledge worker, yet so few managers seem aware or inclined to take on this primary responsibility. Are they being channelled in the wrong direction from above? Are we still really thinking that best practice people management is soft and fluffy and a nice to have?  My concern is that our ability to grow out of the recession could be severely hampered by this blinkered and retrograde practise.

Overcoming dysfunctional teams

Building an effective team is so much more than a nice thing to do, nowadays it can be mission critical as increasing numbers of businesses have to sell or deliver solutions through third parties rather than directly to the customer. Add in the move towards  matrix management and this can be a real recipe for disaster for all parties.  As with so many things, though this can be avoided by effective team set up at the start.

I was recently asked to help a team that was dysfunctional by their own admission and relationships were almost irreverocabily damaged. This was at crisis point between the two companies and was jeopardising the entire customer contract. A series of interviews, facilitated intervention and effective use of a neuroscience based profiling tool PRISM proved to be enlightening and pulled this team back from the brink. I take my hat off to the overall sponsor who although removed from the project directly, recognised the problem and was prepared to take ownership for resolving it, even when that involved paying for an external and objective party to intervene such as myself.

Key learning:-

• Profile the team and raise awareness of personality preferences and plug gaps at the start
• Ensure the leader/programme director sets up clear goals, objectives and accountabilities with all parties buying in, ideally 2 days facilitated at the start of the project
• Don't assume that two different companies follow the same processes e.g. One may not schedule scarce resource without an authorised project plan and the other may not sign off a project plan until it is perfect - end result, missed deadlines and blame throwing
• Schedule regular reviews on how the team is performing against its goals, objectives and desire behaviours - every 3-6 months

The potential for savings in time, money and customer satisfaction are huge

Minimising bias in performance appraisal

We shouldn’t shy away from appraising employees for fear of being seen as biased to coin the well known gallup question ” I know what is expected of me at work” It is essential for employees to have clarity for them to perform – too many managers assume that both parties share the same clear picture of what good performance looks like!


The balanced scorecard is a great place to start and as many will know, SMART objectives should fit within this structure. Rule of thumb no more than 8 objectives at any one time – it removes focus, there may be sub objectives/milestones.

However good objectives are only the tip of the iceberg as it is all down to regular review, dialogue and coaching from the line manager to deliver performance against it.



With respect specifically to objecitvity, SMART (consider random audit to improve “smartness”) helps. A competency framework with proper definitions offers “objectivity” about “subjective” issues and finally facilitated round tables or calibration sessions are the only way really at an organisational level to reduce bias and increase fairness. This can be a cultural issue and managers need support and guidance to develop their anti-bias radar!

A major high street retailer was facing rising grievance and tribunal costs on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Problems with enforcing paper-based Health & Safety training and compliance procedures left the company exposed, as evidence to defend against claims was lacking. This is an increasing challenge for all businesses as their paper based performance management systems are erratic and unlikely to be found compliant in an audit. 

Automated performance management increases the effectiveness of this key people management process leading to increased productivity, employee morale and compliance

Measure your Employee Experience to predict next years results!

Businesses that are serious about beating the competitition need to stop burying their heads in the sand and recognise that the Employee Experience that their business offers directly correlates with their business results. The evidence is overwhelming but I consider Allan Schweyer's of the Human Capital Institute's findings in "The Economics of Engagement" worth taking action over:

"Employee engagement data is today broadly accepted as a leading indicator of performance whereas financial data is a lagging indicator"  So you can use your Employee Experience scores as an early warning system so that you an take action to prevent a slide or more positively you can be confident that the action you take this year to improve your Employee Experience will pull you ahead of the competition next year.

But if you are doing nothing and they are working on their Employee Experience, you know the rest...!

For help measuring engagement in your organisation using our Employee Experience Survey contact me directly