Personnel Development in Sales: Further Education with the Triple-A-Matrix
// By Markus Milz
Whether you call it Point of Sales or rather poetic the place of truth: In sales, company success is the key. If the sales are sold, but this does not necessarily have to be the sales. Find out in which cases what measures help.
Good companies sell even in bad times
Of course, there are successful and less strong sellers and, of course, there are changing market conditions. But quite honestly, functioning companies sell above average even a lot of products and services in bad times. However, if the warehouses are full despite innovative products and highly qualified service staff or consultants are waiting for orders, many companies react reflexively. They start a training marathon for sales and define their reporting in such a way that the salespeople hardly have any air left to go to the customer, make calls with him or make promising promotions.
Not always, but not so rarely, the result of these measures is sobering. Taking into account the immense costs involved in a qualified training of a distribution armada, the question arises of the true reasons for success. Sure, the image of a company as a harmonious and finely tuned organism may be tapped. But this metaphor quickly makes it clear that it can be affected in the body when its viability is compromised. When an organ fails or falls behind its performance, not only this organ is affected but the entire body.
Willing, able, may
These three, so simple-sounding words stand for three very important elements of operational efficiency and entrepreneurial competence:
- Want = willingness to perform
- Can = performance capability
- May be possible
The "willing" is entirely in the hands of the employees, who must be highly motivated, highly committed and focused on the ball. Of course, the employer must ensure that motivation is not artificially impaired.
The "must" lies within the sphere of influence of the managers and the company itself, for example in the form of job descriptions and organizational charts. Sales managers often place high hierarchical hurdles and put thumbscrews where free hand would be a better choice. When companies cut down on active sales time through unnecessary bureaucracy - for example, through oversized reporting or redundant meetings at headquarters that require longer journeys by field staff, they need not be surprised that more is written and met instead of sold.
Responsibility for "ability" is a shared responsibility of both parties. For example, every employee must meet the requirements of his or her job and must always be capable of learning, competent and reliable. Among other things, the manager must recognize these competencies, steer the appropriate tasks and organize adequate further training. The proportion of managerial tasks at the expense of doing so increases with each level that is climbed on the career ladder.
Chefs do not work. They lead
Bosses who "do too much" and do not lead enough are not only insufficiently performing their management tasks. They also demotivate their teams because they feel blocked and patronized. In addition, many managers are too easy to get involved in by allowing employees to delegate tasks back to them. If someone cannot do something, you do it yourself instead of leading the ignorant to light through further training. Those who join or take up leadership should always take heed to the fact that the proportion of technical and methodological skills on the one hand and social and personal skills on the other hand change. In terms of time, executives are more socially and personally at work, while their employees act more professionally and implement methodological things. "More" and "rather" here do not mean exclusively.
So if there is a traffic jam in the sales department, first of all it has to be analyzed not only in the form of hair-clips, but also in the face of the true bottleneck. Nowadays, experienced salespeople are filled to the brim with knowledge that their fifth qualification training simply does not benefit. If you still believe that it is the ability to select the most suitable further training, its people must know very well and should rather individually as a general education. But as already indicated: far more rarely is it the assets of the employees than one suspects. Frequently, either the wanting is frustrated or the need to be restricted unnecessarily. Only a clear position determination makes it possible to find the best and most promising measures.
The Triple-A Matrix
Up to this point, however, the terms "want, ability and must" are still quite empty. They have to be filled with life to get from theory to practice. However, this "life" does not simply mean to provide a description of the content that can hardly or only vaguely be qualified and quantified. So that the terms really come to life and shape the operational processes, a matrix is ??helpful, which allows the greatest possible objectivity in the assessment. The three "A" of the triple A matrix stand for
- Wishing = ambition
- Ability = Ability
- May be = Accountability
What sounds simple at first glance is in reality a very complex mixture of management and staff tasks and the associated instruments and methods. The best practice, the state where everything runs perfectly, is provided with tools that ideally help to maintain this condition or restore it in the case of underachievement. A systematic procedure along the matrix makes it possible to translate rather diffusely formulated tasks into concretely formulated to-dos and to control their solution. So companies know at any time, where they are already successful and where there is still catching up to do.
The deficits to be diagnosed result along the best practices as their negative. But beware: since in almost every human being self-image and external image are a bit apart, the deficit determination might prove to be difficult, particularly in the case of executives. After all, no one likes to give his construction sites - if he can manage them at all. Here the addition of an external and thus objective consultant can be useful.
WANT = AMBITION
Now we come to the first A of our matrix - the will. It should be emphasized that this unwillingness does not necessarily mean that employees refuse to work. If this is the case for some, you have to separate, of course. "Not wanting" means that one partner or both hangers are missing, which maximize the drive or, conversely, there are conditions that limit the motivation. Sometimes this happens barely noticeably because, for example, employees still get 100 percent in a bad working atmosphere - exactly the maximum that is possible in this atmosphere. If the mood were better, it would still be 100 percent, but then relative to the new circumstances. And so they perform 115 percent compared to the previous situation. Miesepeter bosses, who believe that their employees have to be just as good under their knout as with their philanthropic competitor, are extremely wrong. Wanting is also about resources that cannot be tapped without certain measures.
WANT for executives:
If everything is perfect, executives are characterized by:
- the team spirit,
- communicate business objectives and visions,
- motivate their employees and prevent demotion,
- Success appropriate and transparent reward,
- Self-awareness,
- Radiating optimism,
- Make decisions quickly and enforce them
- and inspire the members of their team.
Is sand in gear, are the effective measures:
- Executive coaching,
- Leadership training,
- Motivation workshops,
- Team building events,
- optimized time management that separates "doing" and "leading", as well
- the installation of regular target-finding discussions.
WANT for employees:
Strong employees:
- follow the goals set for them,
- work motivated and committed,
- feel recognized,
- act innovatively,
- are aware of their value and contribution,
- fit seamlessly into the team,
- enjoy the working environment and are
- always ready to change.
Absence of one or more properties are the appropriate measures:
- the establishment of a profit culture,
- a key figure-based monitoring of the employee's contribution to the company's success,
- the implementation of employee activations and
- the implementation of motivation systems and performance-oriented remuneration.
CAN = ABILITY
As mentioned in the introduction, what you can do is leverage, which is where companies are most likely to start when business falter. A combination that not only promises a lot and keeps little, but even aggravates the situation is particularly fatal: expensive training on topics that everyone already knows, coupled with excessive control and extensive reporting. The first one costs unnecessary money and the second motivation. The ability does not increase, but the desire for it - and especially in sales, the sales-active time is additionally curtailed. However, if any deficiencies are properly diagnosed, follow-up assessments can help navigate the jungle of skills and development opportunities.
CAN for leaders
Ideally, executives have the ability:
- Competencies to recognize,
- to promote these competences accordingly,
- methodical feedback,
- Strengthen strengths and weaken...
