Doing More With Less
This is a bottom-line environment. Decreasing the downtime of revenue producing employees is a major concern. Efficiency, effectiveness, productivity gains, lowering expenses and increasing ROI are words we are all hearing more of these days. Yet "Sales and Marketing Management" magazine says that less than half of today's sales forces have ever sold during the type of economic market we are currently facing. Investment Aside from the obvious investment in training, sales professionals are provided with tools to help them become and remain competitive in their sales efforts. These include technology tools such as cell phones, beepers, laptops and now wireless PDAs. All at an additional investment. But technology is simply an accelerator. Understanding and applying organizing principles is what helps propel staff into increased productivity. Understanding organizing principles and processes Learning key organizing principles is one of the most important elements to success. It involves understanding the big picture while executing the small detail. It's synergistic. Yet all too often my clients think that getting or giving staff just one more tool is the key. The magic pill. Principle-based organizing teaches the big picture and how it works to your advantage. Once this is understood, applying the process' becomes more meaningful and easier. The tools, in turn, accelerate the process. Does staff know the basis of all time management programs? Do they know their paper management style? If the answers to these questions are understood and the principles applied, then tools can be used to speed things along. Learning the formula 'Organizing 101' isn't a course most of us have taken. From the time a child starts school to the day they become a contributing adult in a working environment, they struggle first to understand how to get organized and then how to remain that way. They clearly see the benefits, but chances are they have never had the training, knowledge or role models to help them. S2P2M2 is a formula I share with clients in order to help them remember the big picture. Set up a System. Practice the Processes. Manage and Maintain. Is your sales force using a similar equation for success? Copyright 2002. Cynthia Kyriazis. All rights reserved. Cynthia Kyriazis is an organizing and time management consultant, trainer, speaker, coach and author with over 20 years management experience in multi-unit corporations. Organize it, a division of Productivity Partners, Inc. is an organizational training firm she founded in 1995 and has been serving Fortune 500 clients ever since. Cynthia works with business and their employees to help improve performance and realize productivity gains. Cynthia has appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kansas City Star and the Legal Intelligencer. She currently serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), member of the National Speakers Association (NSA), member of the Kansas City of the International Society for Performance Improvement ? (ISPI-KC) and consultant to the American Coaching Association.
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Picture this scenario and see if it seems familiar to you.
"Dave, I need you to give me the goals and objectives for your group for the new year".
"Sure boss. What would you like them to look like?"
"You know. The usual. Increase productivity by 10%. Reduce your headcount by 15%. Implement some new controls. Oh, and I need them in two days."
Frankly, I've had this discussion about 25 times in my career and it always made me just a little bit crazy. Without any real look at what is going to happen this year, or any idea what the top executives are shooting for, I'm going to lay out my department's goals for the next year. Then I'm going to drive my people to meet these goals so that I get a good review and an increase in salary.
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Let's cut right to the chase here. When you create your departmental objectives based on the above conversation, the only thing you are really thinking about is getting the task complete so that you can check it off your list. You're not thinking about customer satisfaction, or how you are going to improve quality, or even major initiatives that you know (or don't know) are coming your way. You're thinking about getting the boss off your back.
And why not? The exercise above is just that, an exercise.
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Nothing can do more damage to a company and its customers' then major functional areas with conflicting or unrelated goals and objectives.
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So, how should you act on this?
Start now. And start by asking your boss for the goals and objectives of your senior executives so that you can stay in synch. Plant the seed that you would like to see them to make sure you are marching down the right path and then share what you have developed with your customers. If nothing else it will highlight where you and your customers are going.
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