Don’t Switch Off The Life Support System
Don’t Switch Off The Life Support System Just Because It’s Tough Out There!
Your Sales Force is your key revenue generator – invest in it at all costs!
Let us start by stating our belief that the two most valuable assets a company possesses are its brands (or its reputation) and its people. Brands are what differentiate one company from its competitors and it is not unusual in large multinationals for the intangible assets (basically brands and goodwill) to represent the lion’s share of the company’s market value. Often the tangible assets (buildings and factories) represent less than 10% of market capitalization. People are similar to brands in that they play a massive role in shaping and defining a company from its core culture to its perceived ranking as both a provider of goods and services and as an employer. It therefore follows that all companies should focus their investment primarily in the areas of Brands and People and that if a round of belt tightening is required it should be targeted towards other areas of the business. What happens in practice, however, does not necessarily follow this logic. Whilst support for brands usually remains stable even in a downturn the same cannot be said of people. Why is this and is it the right thing to do?
Many companies have reacted to the current tough economic climate by slashing or even cancelling their learning and development budgets in an attempt to balance the books. The justification for this? Well, the value of training is regarded as notoriously difficult to measure particularly over the short-term so companies under pressure to save money often see this line in the P&L as an easy and obvious target. Marketing budgets, on the other hand, tend to avoid the worst of the cost-cutting even if spend might be targeted at different mediums (for example a move from TV to digital media). Lord Leverhulme, the founder of Unilever, may provide us with part of the answer as to why brands continue to be supported in good times and in bad. “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I don’t know which half”.
Interestingly enough Lord Leverhulme’s comments are as applicable to learning and development as they are to brands. A good deal of money invested in trying to build skills and improve performance is also wasted. Sometimes the programme chosen is not the right one or it might be too generic to add real value for delegates. Other times the wrong people are sent on a programme or are sent to keep them motivated rather than to improve their skills. In the worst case, HR departments send people on a course simply to tick a box on their objective list.
Whilst it is understandable in the present environment that companies are cutting back on spend in learning and development we firmly believe that there are some areas which should be prioritized for investment with an eye on both the present and the future. At the very top of this list is the sales force, which is, after all, the front line of the company’s artillery and the group of people in the company with most responsibility for bringing in the business. What is interesting to observe in a country like the UAE at the moment is the fact that for many sales people this is the first “crisis” they have experienced after years of unfettered growth and many do not have a clue as to how to deal with the challenge. A year ago business was quite literally falling into most sales force’s laps and the challenge was finding enough time (and motivation!) to handle it all. Today sales people are required to proactively chase business, and the volume of business available in many sectors is a fraction of what it was in 2008. Faced with all of these new obstacles to overcome we might indeed ask whether it is not folly to respond by slashing investment in learning and development for the sales force. There is a strong case for saying that now of all times is when companies should be ensuring that their front line people have the ammunition to secure a sufficient slice of a smaller cake whilst also making sure that their skills are being nurtured so that they are in pole position to take full advantage when the upturn starts to happen.
So what is the solution? If you accept that ongoing investment in the sales force is essential but are still faced with the need to manage budgets how can you get the best “bang for buck”?
The first key thing is to ensure that you identify the real need and then select the optimum approach. No two companies are alike either in their requirements or in their ways of working so a customized programme will always be more likely to deliver the objectives than an “off the shelf” generic offering. Many people believe that customized equals significantly higher cost but that is often not the case. The second thing is to select a learning and development provider which understands your business and whose facilitators are first and foremost experienced sales and business professionals rather than “professional trainers”. Finally, you need to develop with the learning and development provider a clear view of what the outcome will look like and make sure that the final programme is able to deliver against this.
Whilst not wishing to suggest for one minute that it is easy getting the go-ahead to invest in learning and development when all around you are corporate financial colleagues looking to squeeze every extra pound, dollar or dirham out of you, we do believe it is essential. Most CEOs when asked the question reply that their most important asset is their people, but it is this self same asset which is often the first to suffer when times get tough. By all means refocus the investment in learning and development (indeed you should be assessing the value of these investments during the good times as well) but do not be tempted for the sake of short-term gain to turn off the life support system – your sales force needs to be upskilled and motivated to keep you one step ahead, not dead men walking!
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